Overview
Groupup was a marketplace app designed for working professionals to buy and sell used items in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Problem
Buying and selling used items on Craiglist, Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp was a hit or miss for both buyers and sellers. You might buy an item that was not as advertised, or feel unsure if something was a scam, or worse be a victim of a robbery or crime. I interviewed and surveyed 100+ people in the Bay Area on their experience with existing secondhand marketplace apps and found that a majority of the people felt unsafe or had a bad experience when dealing with buying or selling used items.
90%
of respondents said they felt unsafe or uneasy when using buy & sell apps
60%
of respondents said they got a damaged item or were ghosted when selling an item
Pain points
Safety: buying and selling with people you know and trust
Finding items of value that also fit into their schedules, time, and location
Easy communication method for negotiating prices, meetups, and items
Safety via identity verification
I researched and talked with various professional workers in San Francisco and found that many companies had internal buy and sell groups in the form of outdated email chains, but were still being used by coworkers as a great way to find items that were of high quality and from people you trusted and knew.
From these insights and learnings, I designed Groupup to be the central place for all coworkers to buy and sell used items with each other. To solve the issue of safety and credibility, users could only sign up with their corporate email accounts.
Solving for multiple use cases and behaviors
Posting, listing an item, and creating a group were all designed based on the buying behaviors of our users.
Sellers
Create listing for an item to be sold
Create a group based on category, interests, or location
Buyers
Create a post to fulfill a specific purchase intent for an item
Join groups based on category, interests, or location
Purchase intent led buyers could also create posts if they couldn't find an item listed that met their needs and reach out to the community or groups they were in.
Solving for interests, category, or location based buyers and sellers
Through user interviews, I also found that professional workers tended to buy and sell at certain times and had interesting buying behaviors, so I structured our interfaces and features based on those learnings.
Research findings: Before work, lunch, after work, or weekends are when professional workers have the time to meet up for a transaction. Location and proximity was very important for both buyers and sellers on whether or not they wanted to buy or sell an item.
Buying behaviors of users:
Specific intent-led buyer
Browser/peruser buyer
Category-based buyer
Browsers and interest-based buyers could join multiple groups to get updates on when items were posted in that specific group, or search for a specific item based on a category or interest. Proximity or location conscious sellers and buyers could join groups in their neighborhood, where they lived, or where they went to work.
Safety and ease of use
Having an in-app messaging feature was important to allow users to message sellers, negotiate prices, and provided an easy way to communicate meet-ups or arrangements.
Results
10K MAU
$58K total transactions of goods sold
150 monthly postings
