Pinkoi Shipping Estimate System
One-click calculation of shipping fees from multiple logistics providers, simplifying the complex setup process.
Actual Operating Screen
About the project
Summary
The complex shipping cost setup has always been a threshold for sellers when listing their products, given the multitude of logistics options and intricate international shipping cost estimations. This not only raises the barrier to setting up but also diminishes sellers' willingness to export products to overseas countries.
Reducing the sellers' operational processes and swiftly estimating shipping costs for various logistics providers and destinations worldwide is the primary goal of this project. Simultaneously, this information should be displayed to consumers on the frontend, providing clear visibility of shipping costs and delivery times. This will expedite product assessment and purchase intentions, ultimately leading to an improved buyer purchasing experience and seller setup process in cross-border transactions.
My Role
Product Designer
User research, Interaction, UXUI Design,
UX Writing, Prototyping & Testing,
Plat Form
Web, Mobile Web
Collaborative Partner
PM, Engineer, Customer Relationship, L10n, CS Team
Project Time
2019.08-2019.11 ( 2.5 months) Agile+Scrum
User Insight
In an e-commerce platform, listing products in the backend is one of the essential steps for sellers before selling their items. Pinkoi is not only domestic but also international on-line markets. It serves a diverse range of international brands and sellers, making the setup of shipping costs an important part of the process.
Whether it's for domestic or international sales, the shipping cost setup process involves several difficult steps, including searching for suitable logistics providers, measuring package weight and dimensions, and estimating and configuring shipping fees. In the past, sellers with limited experience in shipping cross-border packages might encounter situations where they incorrectly estimated shipping costs, leading to potential financial losses. These complex processes also significantly impact a seller's ability to expand into the international market.
User flow
Project Goals
After conducting initial user interviews, aligning the development team's technical focus, and considering the company's operational objectives, we have formulated project goals. Additionally, we set the hypothesis for the three main personas and defined key performance metrics.
For Seller
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Reduce the time it takes for sellers to set up shop and get their first order.
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Increase sellers successfully expanding their cross-border orders.
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Decrease the time designers spend setting up shipping fees.
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Reduce customer complaints related to shipping and logistics, as well as order losses.
For Customer
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Reduce friction of shipping fees, especially for the cross-border orders.
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Speed up the decision-making process for purchasing products.
For Pinkoi
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Increase revenue and revenue share from cross-border transactions.
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Increase the number of orders in cross-border transactions.
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Reduce customer complaints related to shipping and logistics, as well as order losses.
The Progress
This project is led by the Seller Squad Team, for which I serve as the Product Designer. My responsibilities encompass all aspects of the project, including UI design, UX processes, defining functional logic, interaction design, user interviews, and testing, among others. The team is comprised of a Product Manager (PM), a Backend Engineer (BE), and a Frontend Engineer (FE).
This project involves both revise existing features and introducing new ones. In the initial phase, significant time is allocated to collaborate with engineers to assess system architecture, configure logistics providers, understand how various logistics providers calculate shipping costs, and take stock of the scope of impact on both the frontend and backend resulting from changes in shipping cost settings.
Once the feasibility of the system has been evaluated, the next steps involve creating process flowcharts in line with project objectives, proposing solutions, conducting user testing interviews, and finally executing Hi-fi design, development, testing, and monitoring post-launch.
Wireframe, Prototype & Test
Once the product roadmap and objectives are finalized, the design ideation process begins. Before moving to use computer to design, it's often effective to start with the simplest method – sketching by hand – and discuss and collect initial feedback with the team. Hand-drawn wireframes can be a highly efficient way to brainstorm ideas. Hand sketches can be taken around for discussions and easily modified on the spot. This is particularly valuable when considering multiple solution paths, as hand-drawing is my preferred method for initiating discussions.
For highly executable solutions, I create prototypes. When dealing with multiple versions or alternatives, I gather relevant team members from different departments to try out and experience the prototypes. Ultimately, this process helps in selecting the most suitable version.
wireframe
Once a particular version is determined, it's possible to further extend it into additional versions based on specific screens. At this point, I would create screens that are closer to the final product, and then present them to the team for discussion. When each version has its supporters, we can proceed to develop a prototype for experience. Allowing everyone to go through the process and interact with the prototype often brings out the best version. It also provides the opportunity to observe user behaviors and reactions, resulting in multiple benefits from a single effort.
(From left to right in the image) Three different versions of the design extended from the same page.
Flow chart
Final Design
In the past, when sellers added shipping rules, they had to manually input information for multiple logistics providers. This process was time-consuming, especially when shipping to multiple countries. This project integrates information from various logistics providers, allowing users to apply it with ease. Additionally, also have the preview mode function, enabling users to assess shipping fees and delivery times for unfamiliar logistics providers, reducing evaluation and input time, and lowering the setup threshold.
Web version
Mobile web version
Step 1. Package Weight and Dimensions
Step 2. Automatically Display Available Logistics Providers, Shipping Days, and Costs.
Step 3. Preview Results for Shipping to All Countries
Step 4. Application is complete, and you can also edit and fine-tune it again if needed.
Takeaways & Learning
1. Focus on User Needs and Frequent Discussion of Workflow :
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This project involved a revamp of the existing system, necessitating frequent discussions with engineers to identify processes that were unattainable and should be avoided during design. On the user side, extensive communication and testing were conducted with sellers and the business department, including remote user testing in the early stages to ensure that sellers from various countries could understand the operations. This helped avoid cultural differences and gather sufficient user information, increasing the win-win outcome.
2. Project Outcomes and Ongoing Optimization:
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After we launched this function, the project successfully increased the number of cross-border transaction orders. Although the proportion of shipping rules set using the 'Estimate Shipping' feature did not reach the target within the first month after launch, the proportion of saved package weights and dimensions exceeded 50%. This indicates that sellers are willing to try this feature whether or not they intend to sell products overseas. The feature can be continuously monitored to see if the proportion of cross-border shipping fees increases and if the fee settings become more reasonable. One of the challenges of this project was the ever-changing rules of logistics providers, requiring constant adjustments to the system calculations in response to rule changes. Future integration with logistics providers or using faster integration systems could reduce the ongoing manual maintenance costs.
3. Divergent and Convergent Ideation:
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Conceptualizing design ideas has always been one of my strengths. Consequently, generating multiple versions of solutions within a short period is not an issue. The key is being able to flexibly narrow down and converge on solutions based on requirements and constraints. In this project, frequent discussions with the team in the early stages facilitated a balance between creative thinking and efficient decision-making when refining solutions.
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