Helping retailers quickly locate their distributor accounts so they can submit orders
Role and Team
Jr. product designer (me), partnering with senior designer, product managers and engineering team
Project Duration
2 months
Provi is a B2B online marketplace that serves the entire three-tier system of alcohol distribution. Restaurants, bars, and retailers can order for their beverage program all in one place, distributors can manage their customers and orders, and suppliers can increase their brand presence.
In order for retailers to place orders with certain distributors on Provi, their account data must match with distributor data. Retailer account information created by a user can differ from the account data provided by distributors so accurate connections are not always successful.
Historically, Provi can automatically match the retailer account with distributor provided account information, or the Customer Support teams can manually search for the information to make the correct connection between a retailer’s Provi and distributor account. The automation methods can be inaccurate, resulting in retailer accounts being blocked from ordering because the correct account number has yet to be identified. Furthermore, there has been an increase in retailers on the platform and the manual process is simply not sustainable. Inaccurate account numbers resulted in orders getting delivered to the wrong address and causes problems for every individual involved. Missing account numbers made up about 10% of abandoned cart errors week over week. In addition, the number of “link account” tickets that the Customer Support triages increased more than 2.5x since the acquisition of Sevenfifty, meaning users have put together items in an order but were unable to submit due to a missing account number. Therefore, by allowing retailers themselves to enter in their own information, we alleviated the manual work the Support team needed to do and sped up error resolution.
Following the requirement for account numbers to place orders, customer support tickets increased more than 2.5x.
Missing account numbers made up about 10% of abandoned cart errors WoW.
Provi has unique partnerships with specific distributors who also utilize the platform and the integration with these selected distributors are different from the others. To place an order with a distributor that is uniquely integrated with the platform, a retailer must be set up with an account number with said distributor. Provi receives account data from the distributors in order to match the retailer account and ensure an active relationship that allows order submission. Prior to this project, internal teams were manually adding in retailer account numbers. This was time consuming and took time away from doing other important tasks. Instead of relying on Customer Support teams, we created a way for a retailer to enter in their own information so they can submit their orders.
Problem areas
Goal
Allows users to input their own account number for a distributor so they can unblock themselves and immediately place orders
Since internal teams manually entering in account numbers is unscalable, we wanted to give users a way to enter in their own information so they can order sooner. Due to the time constraints of this project, we had to come up with a solution that fit in with the existing UI. There were already plans to reassess and redesign the existing page(s) where users manage distributors but for the sake of getting this out as soon as possible, we had to work with the existing design for the first release.
Regardless of the distributor, retailers on the platform added their accounts through finding the distributor and entering their sales rep information. Sales rep information, however, is not always reliable or up to date so for the sake of better accuracy in the new design, retailers are prompted to add their account numbers instead of a sales rep (for selected distributors). The main purpose of adding an account number is to ensure there is an active relationship between a retailer and distributor so that orders can be placed. Based on observations, we noticed that users tend to not make any set up actions until it’s absolutely necessary, like when they need to submit an order, for example, so we had to ensure it was on pages where users would be completing that task. Sign up, the My Distributors settings page, and various error alerts were revised to include a field for retailers to enter in their account number. While we were confident that this would be easy for users, we were also making a big assumption. We assumed retailers know, or have access to, their distributor account numbers and can enter the information on their own to make the connection on Provi. We shortly learned that it is not a guarantee that retailers know their own account numbers so we also included a "tip box" to help inform users of how to find the relevant information.
Since launching, there have been 1,960 account numbers that were added. 68% of the retailers who added their own account numbers also placed at least one order. Apart from the retailers being able to resolve account errors on their own, this change decreased the amount of Customer Support tickets coming in inquiring about adding account numbers. 11% of the requests used to be for getting account numbers added, after release, it dropped down to <2%.
After launch, support tickets for adding account numbers successfully decreased and went from 11% to less than 2%.
