CASE STUDY
Juniper @Market App
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Context
For wholesale buyers, attending seasonal markets is undoubtedly one of the most exciting aspects of their job. It offers a chance to connect with new vendors, strengthen existing relationships, network with buyers from all corners of the world, and discover new products and trends.
However, despite the excitement, the experience can also be overwhelming. Buyers must plan in advance and have a clear idea of which showrooms they want to visit. During market, they must keep track of a large amount of information, including products, sales reps, and market specials.
The most daunting part of the process comes after the market, when buyers spend days or weeks sifting through hundreds or even thousands of photos and notes to make informed purchasing decisions and plan their inventory. Our goal was to transform the wholesale buying experience by designing a mobile app that streamlines the process, making it more efficient, organized, and enjoyable.
However, despite the excitement, the experience can also be overwhelming. Buyers must plan in advance and have a clear idea of which showrooms they want to visit. During market, they must keep track of a large amount of information, including products, sales reps, and market specials.
The most daunting part of the process comes after the market, when buyers spend days or weeks sifting through hundreds or even thousands of photos and notes to make informed purchasing decisions and plan their inventory. Our goal was to transform the wholesale buying experience by designing a mobile app that streamlines the process, making it more efficient, organized, and enjoyable.
My role
- Lead UX Designer and Researcher.
- Helped ship the first beta release of the app to a group of buyers in the January 2023 market season.
- Designed concepts beyond the beta release and for the future vision of the app.
- Helped ship the first beta release of the app to a group of buyers in the January 2023 market season.
- Designed concepts beyond the beta release and for the future vision of the app.
Duration
April - November 2022
Project kick-off
As the product strategy was still being developed at the leadership level, I utilized the available time to start the project by diving into existing research for the Junipermarket project and conducting exploratory research to determine where we could make a significant impact. Our project's goal was to replace the current market app tools and integrate the app with Junipermarket, with the overarching business objective of leveraging IMC's extensive network of buyers to facilitate transactions on Junipermarket instead of manually or through email.
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Planning, attending & Buying
Exploratory research
The aim of our research was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the whole buyer journey at market. Our focus was on identifying the different stages involved in the process, including registration, vendor discovery, planning, attendance, gathering vendor and product information, synthesizing information, and placing orders. By conducting this research, we aimed to uncover pain points to address and identify opportunities to serve as a foundation for solution design.
Some of the questions that guided our exploration
🔎 How do buyers currently plan and attend the market?
🔎 How do buyers collect vendor and product information?
🔎 What challenges do buyers face during the market experience?
🔎 What do buyers do after market?
🔎 How do buyers make purchasing decisions?
To achieve our research objectives, we employed a multi-method approach that included 24 in-depth interviews, 7 buyer shadowing sessions, and synthesis of secondary sources.
Some of the questions that guided our exploration
🔎 How do buyers currently plan and attend the market?
🔎 How do buyers collect vendor and product information?
🔎 What challenges do buyers face during the market experience?
🔎 What do buyers do after market?
🔎 How do buyers make purchasing decisions?
To achieve our research objectives, we employed a multi-method approach that included 24 in-depth interviews, 7 buyer shadowing sessions, and synthesis of secondary sources.
Insight #1: Planning for market
1) Many buyers plan for market by setting up appointments with vendors.
2) The market exhibitor list makes it difficult to discover relevant vendors.
3) Mapping out appointments and showroom visits by location.
4) Buyers add vendors to their market list to visit without an appointment, and also leave free time on their calendar to discover new vendor.
2) The market exhibitor list makes it difficult to discover relevant vendors.
3) Mapping out appointments and showroom visits by location.
4) Buyers add vendors to their market list to visit without an appointment, and also leave free time on their calendar to discover new vendor.
A buyer's market plan made on Excel
Insight #2: keeping track of products seen in showroom
At showrooms, buyers capture photos of products they like and then organize these photos later, but feel that the process is tedious.
“Four and a half months from now when I need something, I have to look through my phone photos and I say, what showroom was this at? So ideally you have a photo that shows the piece with the price tag with a logo. A lot of them [showrooms] don’t have it. So then we try to take a picture of every showroom before we walk in. But it's very hard.”
– Alice K, Buyer from Ohio
“Four and a half months from now when I need something, I have to look through my phone photos and I say, what showroom was this at? So ideally you have a photo that shows the piece with the price tag with a logo. A lot of them [showrooms] don’t have it. So then we try to take a picture of every showroom before we walk in. But it's very hard.”
– Alice K, Buyer from Ohio
Taking photos to keep track of products
Insight #3: navigating market
Navigating market can be challenging for buyers as they try to arrive on time for their appointments and visit all the showrooms they planned to. This is made even more difficult due to the sheer number of showrooms present at the market, making it hard to navigate smoothly.
Navigating at market
Insight #4: organizing after market
When buyers return from market, they spend days and sometimes weeks organizing all the photos captured, notes and sales reps’ contact info collected to begin making buying decisions with their team.
Mary (buyer from CA) organizes her images into a deck by vendor/product category. She then shares the deck with her colleagues back home to collectively make buying decisions.
Mapping out the market buyer journey
After completing our user interviews and observation sessions with buyers, I mapped out the market buyer journey sequence to help identify patterns, pain-points and opportunities for improvement. This helped guide our conversations and aligned us as a team on what the major painpoints were and where our opportunities lie.
Created an integrated journey
After conducting a thorough analysis of the buyer journey, we were able to create a comprehensive map of the various steps, touchpoints, and main actions that buyers take. As we delved into this process, it became clear that in the past, these steps were often fragmented and disconnected, making it challenging to provide a seamless experience for customers.
However, by understanding the buyer journey and identifying these gaps, we were able to uncover clear opportunities for integration. This allowed us to create a more cohesive and satisfying experience for our customers.
However, by understanding the buyer journey and identifying these gaps, we were able to uncover clear opportunities for integration. This allowed us to create a more cohesive and satisfying experience for our customers.
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Integrating a fragmented process
User Flow
Through extensive collaboration with each team member, we were able to create a detailed user flow that captures the journey a buyer might take through our app. The process involved each team member creating their own version of the user flow, which we then combined to create a comprehensive view. As we continued to refine the user flow, it evolved and changed over time to ensure that the final product would be feasible for our MVP release. With this user flow as our guide, we were able to start shaping design.
Assessing feasibility & prioritizing
I partnered with engineering and product to prioritize MVP features. We held regular meetings, generated ideas, and scored solutions on feasibility, impact, and goal alignment. The highest-scoring solutions were included in the MVP design, ensuring maximum user value.
Examples of constraints:
❌ Not all brands exhibiting at market are available on Junipermarket.
❌ Storing images directly on the app at the time would cause memory crashes and loading problems.
❌Significant effort was needed to match vendor showroom products with uploaded scans.
❌ Manual switching between showrooms was required for correct image filing,
❌ Storing images directly on the app at the time would cause memory crashes and loading problems.
❌Significant effort was needed to match vendor showroom products with uploaded scans.
❌ Manual switching between showrooms was required for correct image filing,
Feature prioritization
Design and production hand-off
As the lead researcher and designer for this project, I played a critical role in shaping the overall design strategy. I created low-to-mid fidelity designs in Sketch, informed by the user flows, buyer journey, and prioritized features. Once the general flows were designed, I handed them off to my production designer colleagues for them to rework the frames to production quality, taking into consideration the design system, UI elements, spacing, typography, and interaction design.
Although I did not directly design the production mocks, I was involved in regular design reviews and validated the frames throughout the process. We underwent several cycles of testing, which informed several rounds of rework. From there, the PMs worked to break down the epics into stories, each accompanied by production flows that outlined happy paths, edge cases, and error states.
The project was then developed and eventually released to the app store, where it was widely used and very well received in the market.
Although I did not directly design the production mocks, I was involved in regular design reviews and validated the frames throughout the process. We underwent several cycles of testing, which informed several rounds of rework. From there, the PMs worked to break down the epics into stories, each accompanied by production flows that outlined happy paths, edge cases, and error states.
The project was then developed and eventually released to the app store, where it was widely used and very well received in the market.
Low Fidelity: Shaping initial flows, identifying gaps, and generating discussions
Mid Fidelity: Shaping flows, identifying gaps, and generating discussions
Production: Supporting production stories.
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Creating JuniperMarket Admin portal to help sellers manage their accounts, upload product sets, and track orders seamlessly.