Peeba is an online B2B wholesale platform that sources from brands worldwide and targets to sell to retailers within Asia-Pacific. With the business model well-developed on the web-based marketplace, the breakthrough is to develop one of the first wholesale platforms with a mobile experience available in the asia region, with that we aim to increase user retention and grow our user-base with a mobile app as it is becoming more essential component within the e-commerce world.
This is a product that I worked on during my time at Peeba as a UX designer on the Product Team of three. The entire project, from ideation to launch, lasted for a duration of three months. My role involves UX Design, User Research, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Development and Maintenance with software engineers.
From a growing e-commerce platform, it is equally important to bring in new customers and to also retain existing customers. The reason to develop an app at this time is to do something that is non-common for the B2B community yet essential for growth and user retention, as people are getting more inclined to use their phones for most of their business instead of a website. This is a way for Peeba to secure existing users for ease of use and also to increase orders through the mobility of the mobile device.
With the user base being mostly small businesses such as physical shops and online stores, we aim to find out what makes the mobile experience essential and unique in improving the user experience. We conducted multiple user interviews and market research among the retailers using our platform, we found out most of them were very excited about the idea of a marketplace app and would really prefer the convenience and mobility of an app. Some retailers even prefer using the mobile web instead of the desktop website for their current use.
To help retailers find the ideal curation of products for their store, we try to match their needs with our recommendation engine based on browsing history and user preference. The key category pages are also displayed across the home page for quick access.
For the navigation of the app, the primary functionality are displayed through the bottom navigation, including explore, category menu, shopping cart, messages, and account information. These tabs are meant to be quickly switched between with the last action saved for user to get right back to. The top navigation includes the search bar and the secondary functions of favourite items and notifications.
As the most critical process within the app, as this is what generates orders in the marketplace. The design accounts for all the possible actions with different variants of product and adjustment during purchase.
This is the final step towards completing an order, the priority is to make the user feel safe and secure, and the way to do that is to ensure they have room for mistakes and error. Each module allows for a simple process to apply all the necessary information, from shipment info to payment methods.
After the order is placed, the user can view their status update and parcel tracking. The complication is to provide all the information required in a clear structure and to anticipate for all possible scenarios, including cancelling, reordering, and edited orders.
From data after launching the app, we can be certain that a majority of the users does prefer using the mobile app rather than our website, from the number of traffic per devices and browsing events on certain pages. The mobile device does naturally bring in more users over time, as the majority of the user base convert to the app even with minimal push.
Team
Product Design Team: Brian Lee, Keithan Lee, Jason Lao
