Akindon: B2B & B2C eCommerce Site
Overview
Living with color is a successful B2B ecommerce socks seller and they are expanding their business with 4 more fashion/goods categories besides socks. Akindon.com will be their B2B marketplace by ABM (Account based marketing) bringing unique and high standard merchandise from Japan to be introduced and sold in the US market.
ROLL
UX/UI/interaction design
The Challenge
It was simply a B2B ecom site for established resellers. It now needs to consider to open the gate for more diverse user base.
Considerations are:
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All products which are unique in the U.S. market will be carefully selected to sell and rebranded. The detailed product information is mandatory as for B2C site.
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With influencer marketing, the influencer will also be another a group use this site and have their space to post and share their information to their followers. As a resolve of information mkteting, it is injecting new customers back into this site.
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In summary: The channels are wholesale buyers, influencers and consumer groups. All play factor in affecting each individual groups.
Website
The Approach
Developing the "One business, one site" B2B and B2C ecom experience for the 3 user types, finding an overlap strategy was key. We gather keywords for resellers and another set for general consumers and compare the keywords to find which ones overlap or are similar. Figuring out where the 3 type of user mindsets merge and focus marketing strategies and website content on those elements.
Some key points for UX strategy:
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Overlap or similar features
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Considered more flexibility to segment the audiences to different landing page, but Akindon's case, all 3 user types gear similar and we took an approach to make site simple. As pilot, we use one same landing page for all user types.
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For new products, all user types require more specific information. Each product detail page is necessary to explain each brand and features as for B2B site. (aim both emotional and strategic purchases)
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For all user types need to access an easy search to the past purchases and reorder.
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Different features
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Not showing wholesale prices to the general public is a must. Bulk discounts or promo info should be shown differently for each gear towards to anyone who wants to order a certain number of items at a time.
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Different customer support system is considered.
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The Solution
The site needs to be created as a role-based access control with a wide range of authorized tasks by dynamically regulating their actions. The purpose is to create an interaction in an interesting way to show the gated system before blocking all images on the homepage.
There are 5 categories of merchandise- Socks, Accessories, Bags, Home Goods and stationaries, which are all well selected by Akindon prior to being placed on the list. UX/UI on homepage, clearly delineates the 5 categories which is important in the gallery section, as well as emphasizing each listed brands is also a challenge to be able set.