COMPANY: BLUEBOTTLE DIGITAL
NUMBER OF STAFF: 30
INDUSTRY: MARKETPLACE / APPS
ROLE: DIGITAL PRODUCER
PROJECT LENGTH : 13 MONTHS
EMPLOYMENT DATE: JAN 2021 - FEB 2022
SKILLS:
ecommerce / marketplace startegy
Project Management
Teamwork
communication
Training
TESTING & ANALYSIS
DOCUMENTATION AND FLOWCHARTS
STRATEGY, VISUALISATION & PLANNING
Challenges
➨ Olsen Collective’s business owners have no experience with Ecommerce operation
➨ First time ecommerce owner
➨ No experience with Magento / Omnyfy
➨ Little understanding of user workflow between business owners with vendors / or customers
However they have professional experience in furnishing and interior styling. The business owners have experiences getting potential businesses onto their marketplace as vendors.
My Approach
I have professional experience with 20 years working in ecommerce as an employee for Grays Ecommerce Group, Catch Group and other online businesses as well as an ecommerce owner for 3.5 from creative, content, marketing strategy, customer service and digital asset management. I also have a great understanding of products and compliances, therefore having this knowledge can help new business owners to have an awareness when working with vendors, something that can often be overlooked.
Make sure business owners are comfortable using the ecommerce platform backend for
Onboarding
User Adoption
Payout
Assisting vendors with listing products online
Processing refunds
Working with the payment gateway
Get to know Magento and Omnyfy in depth
Creating an easy to follow Troubleshooting guide
Learn the software along with testing and trails
How to run and understand reports
Bluebottle Digital is an agency that develops digital marketplace products.
As a consultant I looked after Olsen Collective a new marketplace that focuses on home decor and design ideal for homemakers. As a new platform it requires extensive solid groundwork with system infrastructure, support to ensure it builds trust and increases efficiency between vendors and the marketplace. On the other hand, the foundation built can help with growth for the marketplace in the future.
In this case study, I will touch on a few key aspects of my work for Olsen Collective.
Software used / tested to fulfil the workflow:
➨ Magento / Omnyfy
➨ Paypal payment gateway integration
➨ Paypal for end users
➨ Stripe for business owners processing payout and refunds
A marketplace website uses Omnyfy, an out of the box marketplace application that works with open source CMS Magento. The developers can configure the template to change the css and html in order to refine the functionalities and UI according to the marketplace’s needs. Furthermore, when Magento is integrated with third party applications with the use of API the software becomes a more powerful tool to create an enhanced shopping experience.
Before my commencement as a consultant for Olsen Collective, the followings have been established:
➨ Magento / Omnyfy set up for developers to carry out further development
➨ Template for the website layout and aesthetic
➨ Mock products for category, product page and product listing page
After brief assessment the followings were some of the key aspects that required my attention
➨ Non-functioning shopping cart
➨ No integration with third party software for payment gateway or shipping
➨ Non-functioning forms and pop ups for subscribers
➨ Too many steps for new vendor registration
➨ Undefined roles and responsibilities for business owners and how they work with other user groups
➨ Issues with categorisation and layout of the main menu
and so on..
In this case study I will focus on a few processes I undertook for Olsen Collective, including flowcharts and documentation
Following is a breakdown of a few use cases and processes.
Understanding each user types in the marketplace ecosystem to define their user experience, touchpoint, workflow and relationships
➨ Marketplace Business Owners
➨ Marketplace Vendors
➨ Shipping carrier
➨ Marketplace Suppliers
➨ Customers
➨ Product Owner [Bluebottle Digital]
Understand each user types and their workflow, then strategise the relationships and processes between
➨ Marketplace Vendors < > Business Owners
➨ Marketplace Vendors < > Customers
➨ Marketplace Vendors < > Shipping carrier
➨ Product Owner <> Business Owners
MAGENTO / OMNYFY
My role also included having advanced working knowledge of the complex software Magento / Omnyfy thoroughly to have an in-depth of each component's functionalities, then train the business owners to support the marketplace vendors. I explored:
➨ Dashboard
➨ Sales
➨ Catalogue
➨ Customers
➨ Marketing
➨ Content
➨ Omnyfy integration
➨ Reports
Omnyfy is a Platform as a Service that allows the product owner to develop and manage a multi-vendor platform for marketplace service and products. Bluebottle Digital used Omnyfy to integrate with Magento CMS.
Throughout the year I attended several meetings with Omnyfy to discuss troubleshooting and findings from the testing process. Also I invested time on understand the functionalities of each component with the software before training different user groups.
Tested various processes including
➨ Vendor Sign up
➨ Vendor Onboarding
➨ Product Listing by Marketplace Vendors
➪➪ Listing per product on CMS interface
➪➪➪ Ideal for vendors with small quantity of products
➪➪ Created product listing using spreadsheet
➪➪➪ Ideal for vendors with over 10 products to upload at the same time
➨ Created product listing catalog guide for parameters of each data field
➨ All operation for vendors, including different options they may select by mistake so we know how to fix during troubleshooting
➪➪ Include screengrabs of interface for that section
➨ All the setup for Dashboard for Admin setup and maintenance
➨ Extensive investigation and use case for Vendor Sign up with flow charts
➨ Payment gateway using Paypal / Stripe and Afterpay, then document processes for each gateway for customers to follow during onboarding
VENDOR SIGN UP WORKFLOW
After a series of testing with vendor sign up, I flowcharted the processes to give the MP owners and developers a better understand on how few steps could be eliminated for more efficient workflow. If vendors faces multiple challenges when signing up to the Marketplace, they may abandon the process and invest their businesses on another marketplace.
I put together the screen shot and flowchart of every touch point of the vendor sign up
Flow chart of the entire Vendor Sign up process
VENDOR MANAGEMENT
Below is a table I produced to identify type of vendors, emerging and experienced then define the required support.
