You are a product manager for online marketplace for pre-owned bicycles. CEO has identified three goals. 1. Build high trust between buyers and sellers 2. Create a viral marketplace and 3. Present the best portfolio of bicycles. What are the KPIs for each of the three goals?  

Let me clarify a few questions first:

“Online marketplace for pre-owned bicycles” means that there are folks who already own bicycles but want to sell them and act as sellers on the platform and the folks who wish to purchase these bicycles are the buyers on the platform? à Yes

Does the actual transaction happen on the marketplace or outside the platform (similar to FB marketplace)? à outside

I am also assuming that the buyer would like to actually see and test the bicycle before purchasing.

Before I discuss the goals and the corresponding KPIs, lets discuss the user actions and each of their goals.

Sellers come to the platform, create account, and post the photos and details of the bicycles that they own and wish to sell.

Buyers come to the platform, create account, scroll through multiple such bicycle posts, see some in detail and then reach out to the owners either through the marketplace (if there is any such provision) or through any other channel (assuming sellers provide their email address, or phone number for the buyers to reach out).

Sellers want to sell their bicycles at their desired price as quickly as possible.

Buyers want value for money while purchasing the bicycles.

Both parties want to feel that they ahve a got a good deal.

Not considering the monetization part here (can be through advertisements, can be from sellers & buyers while setting up accounts), the high-level business goal is to make sure there are enough buyers and sellers available on the platform, decent quality bicycles are up for sale for the network effect to play out and that the buyers/sellers are satisfied after the transaction.

Now let’s discuss the KPIs for each of the goals keeping in mind the above high-level goals:

Build high trust between buyers and sellers:

1. No. of active buyer and sellers accounts on the marketplace à If people don’t find the platform trustworthy, they will not create accounts and be active on the platform i.e., potential buyers will not visit the marketplace regularly to check out the new items being added. Gradual increase in this metric indicates trust.
2. Word of mouth/Referral being the source for new buyers/sellers creating respective accounts à If people are trusting the platform, they will refer/tell their friends to visit the platform for pre-owned bicycle purchases
3. No. of repeat buyers/sellers on the platform à This KPI might be significant only after the business is in operation for 3-4 years. New bicycles last around 5-7 years and resold ones might have a shorter span of 3 years. Buyers purchasing second-hand bicycles from this platform might return after 3 years to purchase another one or sell the existing one if they trust the platform.
4. Positive/Negative reviews being provided by buyers and sellers on the marketplace itself
5. Types of customer issues being raised àif a huge number of issues are related to trust or satisfaction in a negative way, it is an early indication of the marketplace failing at building high trust

Create a viral marketplace

1. No. of active buyer and sellers accounts on the marketplace à If this metric increases tremendously (trend is higher than the usual trend seen on other marketplace platforms) can imply people are seeing value and the platform is on its path to virality
2. Word of mouth/Referral being the source for new buyers/sellers creating respective accounts à If people are trusting the platform, they will refer/tell their friends to visit the platform for pre-owned bicycle purchases which will lead to the platform being viral
3. Reviews/Discussions of your marketplace on other social media and news platforms à If people are talking positively about your marketplace, it will indicate virality

Present the best portfolio of bicycles

As a company, you will have a team doing market research to know the types of bicycles being used by users of different age groups and their changing preferences as well as competitor research such as the portfolios available on other reselling platforms such as eBay and FB marketplace

1. Constant comparison of the portfolio of the bicycles on your marketplace with the above research results will be a good indicator of whether your marketplace presents the best portfolio of bicycles
2. Customer enquiries/alerts àif there are users or specific user segments enquiring for certain type of bicycles or if there is way for buyers to set up alerts/notifications when certain bicycle types are available - If this metric increases, it will be an indicator that the marketplace is not offering the best of portfolio and is unable to cater to all types

Guardrail metrics or KPIs are equally important to be tracked:

• Bounce rate of people visiting your marketplace but not creating accounts
• Bounce rate of people creating accounts but then never returning to your platform
• Time-period for which bicycle posts are available on the platform à Sellers don’t want to be bothered once they have sold the bicycle so they would delete their posts. From market and competitive research, we will know what’s the average time taken to sell pre-owned bicycles, if the time-period on our platform is much higher, it might be an indication of both sellers and buyers not seeing value in the marketplace