Redesign Twitter for eCommerce.

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Redesign Twitter for eCommerce.

Twitter diversifying into ecommerce since it turned profitable due to revenue from ads. It could be loosely based on FB Marketplaces or Instagram enabling SMB.

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PM Team · Answer 1 · 2019-05-23T10:37:30+0000

Clarifying questions

1. What type of eCommerce? What type of customer? Or I choose?

2. Any product surface? mobile, desktop, etc? Any specific geo?

3. Specific goal in mind? Or I choose?

4. Digital or physical good?

Assumptions: I choose all

Business

Mission: Give everyone in the world ability to share ideas and information instantly without barriers

Key company Metrics: DAU, ARPDAU

A note on business models: Twitter has a B2C / display ads business model that has some similarities / differences from eCommerce. A healthy amount of deliberation with execs would be wise.

eCommerce is a broker/marketplace. Two sided:

Seller and buyer. Business model is a chicken a egg problem. You want enough buyers to attract sellers. You want enough products for buyers to access (flywheel and inertia problem). Selecting a group with enough data and size is important.

Customers

We need to choose segment. Twitter has global audience and need to niche down for any new products. Building for everyone is destined for failure. Keep in mind we have two user groups: 1) sellers and 2) buyers

Will focus on buyer side. I’ll segment on lifestyle.

Users:

1. Travel (Guessing 5% DAU)

2. Health & fitness (5% DAU)

3. News junkie (20% DAU)

Estimating TAM for each will give us idea on opportunity and allow us to prioritize size relative to the flywheel/inertia problem above. Estimate news junkie is largest (Twitter began marketing itself as a news product few years back)

20% of 150M DAU is 30M potentially interested users. If we can convert 1 in 10 with our feature, that’s 3M users. If the average revenue per user is $10, that’s a $30M opportunity.

Choose: News junkie

Goal / metric

Sellers

# active sellers

# repeat buyers

% news products sold vs listed

# income

Buyers

# gross revenue

# active buyers (% DAU)

# repeat buyers

% conversion

Choose: # active buyer (since it’s new, can be indicative of product market fit). % DAU (segmented by news reader DAU would be even better)

Use cases for buyer side for news

- I want well thought-out content

- I want it timely

- I want it reputable (not false)

- I want it easy to read

- I want it easy to purchase

Choose: Long-form journalism product. We'll go after a digital marketplace (no physical goods) which can have some strategic benefits (less hit to user satisfaction around lost products, long shipment time, etc)

Narrow use cases down

- I want to know amazing authors

- I want to know background information

- I want to know they’re reputable

Choose: List sellers (assuming we can sign them up) offering long form journalism. The conversation could stay at a high level instead and go through all the large features needed for this but will continue to refine into a single feature for simplicity.

Narrow user cases down for listing of sellers

- I want accurate info score

- I want a beautiful bio of the author

- I want info on their following (social proof)

We can summarize our OKR

OKR: Drive buyer adoption

Result 1: % DAU / % news reader DAU

Result 2: D7 retention (how many come back)

Result 3: Conversions

To summarize

Twitter’s mission is to spread info without barriers (DAU, ARPDAU)

Interest in opening ecommerce (seller buyer flywheel challenge)

Choosed news junkies with long form journalism (digital product)

Goal is to increase # of active buyers / % DAU

First feature is to focus on listing of sellers

Metrics: %DAU, D7 retention, conversions

gauri · Answer 2 · 2019-02-24T01:57:36+0000

Clarifying questions:

What is the goal of the redesign? Let's says, the goal is to increase revenue. Twitter revenue could come from two sources

- ads

- rev share with business aka take a cut for every sale

What is the problem with the current design? Let's say users are not buying the products.

Do we need the redesign for the web app or mobile app? I would assume mobile app as the majority of the users are on mobile.

Our goal is to redesign the twitter e-commerce mobile app to increase revenue via a revenue share model

Users

- Business owners

- Consumes on the app

Report user needs

- As a business owner, I would want my product to be easily searchable and show on top of the search list so that I get more conversion

- As a business owner, I would like to target users who are interested in buying the products I am selling

- As a business owner, I want the payment transaction to be an easy one-step process

- As a user, I would like to compare the ratings, prices of the products I am looking for

- As a user, I want my PII information to be hidden from the business owner.

- As a user, the payment transaction should be a one-click process

- As a user, I should be able to return the product if it is defective.

There could be more scenarios, but let us target our user as Business owner (The more people buy the products, the more the revenue share)

Cut through prioritization

We will focus on use-case 2, re-design the way the campaigns are set up and provide better targeting capability. The better the targeting, the more probability for a user to buy the product.

List solutions SolutionImpact to BusinessCost to TwitterComplexity

Provide business owner market trend for the product they are selling. Market trend in terms of age group of people buying a similar product, demography, location etc and allow them to target the users based on the trend.	High	High	High: Twitter would have to do market study for every business owner and every product
Provide business owner the ability to target based on keyword search	High	Low	Low: Show products when the user is using 'keywords' in the search query
Provide business owner the ability to show their product ads on the feed using hashtag of the product	High	Low	The technology already exists
Provide business owner the ability to search for an influencer best suited for spreading their product/campaign	High	High	Medium: Twitter already has data on influencer, it just needs to create a tool which could cost with respect to engineers, hardware etc
Provide business owner the ability to retarget the users (people who have already bought a product, might need accessories or similar genre prodcuts)	High	Low	The technology already exists

Summarize

The revenue could be increased by allowing business owner to target the relevant users. This could be achieved by implementing

2, 3 & 4 as MVP.

syadav2 · Answer 3 · 2018-11-27T04:46:09+0000

I would ask a few clarifying questions:

Twitter eCommerce means a twitter store like facebook store there people would sell their products through a twitter account. The owner could make and edit their listing with high definition pictures and product description.

The goal of a twitter eCommerce: To expand its customer base by allowing the businesses to list their catalog and users to buy and use their data to give more personalized services and experience. In long run, they could also ask a cut from businesses on per transaction basis.

Is this design for web or app?

Since 80 percent twitter users are from Mobile. I would go for an app.

Approach:

I would like to discuss about users and their personas then I would go through their interaction with the product i.e use cases. After that, I would prioritize use cases by offering alternative solutions and finally, I would evaluate these solutions tradeoff in terms of impact vs effort.

Users

Small and medium scale businesses
Twitter user between the age of 18-29 according to Twitter statistics 40 percent of users fall in this age group.

Based on the business goal to increase its user base I would prefer designing platform for twitter users. Businesses are also important but it won't impact much in an expansion of its customer base.

Use Cases

As a user, I would like to get a search option to put an item name
As a user, I should be able to navigate to product detailed page
As a user, I should be able to add a product in the cart
As a user, I should be able to put my address and confirm my order.
As a user, I should get an order confirmation.

Number 2,3,4 are important because I would be more interested in looking product details and order confirmation.

Solution

Raunak Shrivastava · Answer 4 · 2020-04-25T16:00:53+0000

Redesign Twitter for Ecommerce

Assumptions :

By redesigning, I assume that we do not have to build a separate domain on Twitter for E-commerce. The goal here is to redesign the existing Twitter platform itself to increase revenue which can be increased by taking commission on sale of each product.

It has to be built for users who are registered with Twitter across the globe so that they can buy products online.

Twitter has primarily four user personas:

i. Brand/Company pages : They promote their brand and also provide customer support

ii. Celebrities : They post text, images and videos to interact with their fans.

iii. Followers : They follow their preferred celebrities and brands and interact with them.

iv. Passive users : They come to Twitter just to read specific posts.

E-commerce market place has two sides :

i. Seller

ii. Buyer

Both these sides have to be designed in parallel in order to design an e-commerce platform. I am assuming that the goal is to enable Brands and Celebrities to sell products and followers to buy products. I have taken this assumption because it aligns with the core strategy of Twitter where followers keep a tap on their favourite celebrities and brands.

Seller needs:

User Story 1. As a seller, I should be able to list products with details on my page so that buyers can find them.

User Story 2. As a seller, I should be able to notify my followers whenever I list a new product so that I can increase the sales.

User Story 3. As a seller, I should be able to get sales reports and insights to do better sales.

Prioritising seller needs :

User Story	Customer Satisfaction with existing solution (1 - 5)	Importance of story for the user (1-5)	Story Size (1 - 10)	Priority
User Story 1	NA	5	8	1
User Story 2	NA	2	2	2
User Story 3	NA	3	5	3

I will be designing solutions for User story 1 for sellers.

Buyer needs :

User Story 1. As a buyer, I should be able to view products offered by someone so that I can buy them.

User Story 2. As a buyer, I should be able to add products to cart and checkout so that I can place order.

User Story 3. As a buyer, I should be able to search for a product across Twitter so that I can view the list of brands offering the product.

Prioritising buyer needs :

User Story	Customer Satisfaction with existing solution (1 - 5)	Importance of story for the user (1-5)	Story Size (1 - 10)	Priority
User Story 1	NA	5	8	1
User Story 2	NA	4	7	2
User Story 3	NA	3	5	3

I will be designing solutions for User story 1 for buyers.

Solution for sellers :

Feature 1 : Platform for uploading product information

i. Brands can upload product title, photos, details and price.

ii. They can create different product categories and upload products under those categories.

Feature 2 : Real-time stock information

i. Brands can update the real-time stock information of their products.

Feature prioritization

Solution

Satisfaction of user

with existing solution

(1-5)

Importance of solution

for the user

(1-5)

Priority

Platform for uploading product information

NA

5

1

Real-time stock information

NA

2

I suggest to include ‘Platform for uploading product information’ feature in the MVP.

Tracking metrics :

i. Average number of products added per brand

ii. Percentage of products having photo

Solution for buyers :

Feature 1 : Browse products

i. A ‘Buy Products’ CTA will be added to each brand’s page.

ii. Buyers can go to any brand’s page and click on the ‘Buy Products’ CTA.

iii. After clicking in the CTA, buyer will be taken to a new page having the list of all Product titles with thumbnail images offered by the brand.

iv. Buyer can click on any product thumbnail or title to go to product’s page and view all its details.

Feature 2 : Sort and filter products

i. Buyers can sort and filter products based on different parameters like price, colour etc.

Feature 3 : Search product

i. Search product by text within brand’s catalogue.

Feature 3 : Buy a product

i. Every product page will have a ‘Buy’ CTA.

ii. User can click on it to go to payment page and buy the product.

Feature prioritization

Solution	Satisfaction of user with existing solution (1-5)	Importance of solution for the user (1-5)	Priority
Browse products	NA	5	1
Sort and filter products	NA	2	3
Search product	NA	3	4
Buy a product	NA	5	2

I suggest to include ‘Browse products’ and ‘Buy a product’ features in the MVP.

Tracking metrics :

i. Average no of clicks on ‘Buy Products’ CTA per user.

ii. Drop rate on Product List page.

iii. Avg no of products bought per user.

iv. Drop rate on Product page.

I suggest to first build the MVP for e-commerce having core features for Buyer and Seller sides so that brands can upload product details and followers can view and buy the brand’s products. It aligns with the core strategy of Twitter and will help to differentiate its platform from other e-commerce platforms.

KN · Answer 5 · 2020-04-24T00:38:17+0000

I would want to ask few clarifying questions here.

Why does Twitter want to re design for e commerce?

Does it want more Growth or Engagement or Revenue?

Lets focus on Engagement and Revenue.

Next, what is meant by Twitter for e commerce? Is it a place where buyers and sellers actually buy things or one where they tweet about other e commerce sites?

The last part is already happening. So i assume the Use Case is that of Buy and Sell.

Now, who are the Users of such a product?

Predominantly they will be the current users of twitter who are already active and engaged with it.

They are quick to voice their opinions publically and follow others and like to be followed. They may come from a particular country or geography where such a new MVP will be launched.

So, the product will be a marketplace on twitter. There will be Category of products, sub categories and finally product details. Twitter can start with essential products as most countries are in a lockdown and people are also not willing to buy non essential goods now.

Twitter Marketplace will work like other marketplaces. However, due to the power of tweet, this product will be different. Users can tweet about things they have bought, things they want to buy, good deals so that others buy them, complaints so that they are resolved quickly and ratings and reviews.

Sellers will have manual or automated solutions to track these tweets and solve complaints etc.

Metrics i will use to measure is DAU, MAU for Engagement and ARPPU for Monetisation. Also, will measure Number of daily Tweets via this channel and viral coefficients of the tweets/ seller accounts.

To summarise, we understood why twitter wanted to achieve by diversifying into e commerce, what its users and use cases were, what were the options and how the product will be designed and measured.

Tanu Mehrotra · Answer 6 · 2020-04-23T22:34:23+0000

Clarifying questions:

What’s the purpose of redesign?

Increasing the userbase so that more and more people buy and sell products via twitter ecommerce.

What is twitter for e-commerce?

It means a page where people can sell their old products through a twitter account. The seller can make a contact with the person who is selling.

Does the mobile app need to be redesigned or the web app? Mobile

Does it need to be redesigned for specific geography? No

Users:

1) Young people going to school (age 18-30) as they use twitter like a social networking and have more friends.

2) Professionals who are going to work who mostly use twitter for getting an updates on the news or knowing about new technology or following there competitor company.

3) People like Hollywood stars, sports stars who use twitter for letting the world know about their new movie release or the any tournament they won. They mostly use it for keeping their fans updated about their recent launches.

Prioritize: I will prioritize the young professionals as they mostly sell stuff on twitter because they might be moving places and mostly people in this age group are single.

Use cases

1) As a user, I want to sell my old books on twitter so that I can help other students who are in need of books for their school semester.

2) As a user, I want to sell my old bicycle so that I can buy new bicycle by using the money which I will get from selling old bicycle and putting some more money from my savings.

3) As a user, I want to sell the stuff from my hostel which I am not using so that I have less hassle in shifting to the new apartment and I can get some money.

4) As a user, I want to list the prices of the stuff I am selling so that only legitimate customers approach me.

5) As a user, I want to post the picture of the stuff I am selling, so that people can see the condition of the item.

6) As a user, I want to add the description of the production, so that buyers know about the specifics of the product.

7) As a user, I want to send notifications to the people who are interested in buying so that message is reached to the right set of people.

I will prioritize, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 in the order.

Solutions :

1) I will send notifications to the people who are interested in buying based on the tweets which reflects that they are interested in purchasing the old stuff. Probably ML/AI can be used for keyword spotting from there tweets.

Impact High and Effort High

2) I will create a dashboard which will reflect the items based on the different categories so that it is easy for consumers to locate an item and buyers can choose from those items based on their budget and the need.

Impact: High Effort: Low

3) Whenever a new item gets added for selling, I will be sending notifications to the people. This can be tied to solution#1 above.

Impact: high Effort: Low

4) I will create a search criterion where users can search for a specific item based on the keywords. This will be an ease for buyers to look for specific product.

Impact: High Effort: Medium

5) I will create a filtering criterion while searching for products so that users can search on the basis of price, location, item, company name.

I will prioritize #2,#4,#5

Metrics:

DAU: %of users buying products via ecommerce on the daily basis.

MAU: % of users buying products via ecommerce app on the monthly basis.

Retention : %tage of people who returned back to make a purchase or post an item for sale on a monthly basis.

Acquisition : %tage of users who used the twitter e commerce for the first time on the montly basis. It could be either for selling an item or for purchasing an item.

Awareness : %tage of people who signed up for the twitter e commerce on a monthly basis but did not make a purchase.

I will prioritize DAU and MAU

praveeny2k · Answer 7 · 2019-01-03T10:45:05+0000

Product vision: Connect the buyers and suppliers throughout the world with similar interest.

There could be numerous ways for redesigning twitter for e-commerce. We can choose some of the following features depending on user requirement and platform-support:

User story: Similar to instagram

Advertisements: Advertisements in between the content as regular news feed.

News feed: A scrollable bar for relevant items for sale.(Similar to facebook news feed)

Social proofing:

Promote users to share their purchase stories with hashtags (just after they made a purchase).
It will enable other users to trust twitter as a shopping platform.
And, show it as a small icon on the bottom-left of the page.

Status messages: This feature will be in the mobile app (majorly)

Similar to whatsapp status messages/videos.
It will enable users to see what their friends (people they followed) are selling.
It will also enable the suppliers to showcase their best items.

Some other important features could be:

Suggesting the sellers the hashtags for items,
join images as videos to create a lasting impact on buyers,
showcasing the best-sellers (to give an idea of what the best products look like)
Pre-booking festive sale page territory: The items would show on the top to each user on www.twitter.com/marketplace) as sliding banner images.