Case Study Analysis
I was asked to improve a very specific app problem which was currently being faced by a classified ads company.
Key points from the discussions
•Power Users abusing the system with over 15 listings per month.
•Power Users consume significant share of listings (Up to 70% in furniture and home appliances).
•Standard User listings buried due to misuse of power users.
Power user tactics
•Duplicate listings
•Listing services in items for sale sections
•Selling multiple items in a single listing
•Pretending to be private to position themselves as cheap
Consequences of behaviour
•Power Users affect number of leads for standard users, causing unhappiness in the community.
•Power Users make low ball offers, causing unhappiness in the community. (4% of complaints).
•80% of deleted listings are from services, power users and professional sellers.
Misuse
Misuse is a common problem with full access data entry systems. Users will naturally take every “available” opportunity to exploit a system for personal gain. The key here is to control user behaviour without taking away the freedoms provided by the system and alienating various user types. This leaves us with two viable options:
•Identify and block hustlers.
OR
•Provide the Power users with a non-financial incentive to behave. This is the option I will go with for this case study.
Business Objectives
•Provide both buyers and all types of sellers with a safe, fair and prosperous eco system.
How do we achieve this?
•Control user behaviour.
•Block duplicate listings and misuse of the system.
•Create 2 independent eco systems (Power users and standard) Within the 1 system.
Usability Test
As I was inspecting the system I came across the following key points:
•The site can be difficult to navigate on mobile, the display of various ads, duplicate listings, text on images and misleading titles (i.e. Mover spelt M 0 v e R to avoid spam detection)
•Categories are too big. Looking for a sofa for example yields 46,031 results. After 3 pages of featured ads, the first 20 natural listings contain 8 spam posts.
Users are putting no effort into titles or descriptions. For example I came across a post for a Sofa, which contained very vague and misleading information:
•Title:Furniture sell move
•Description:1 year, whatsapp me
•Condition:Flawless (The sofa in the picture looked old and contained a bed and a cupboard)
This will not lead to a good user experience for buyers & sellers items won’t be found in the listings if they list in this way.
Psychology and empathy
As stated previously Users will naturally take every “available” opportunity to exploit a free throwaway account for personal gain, so how do we change this mindset? By making them care about their account. Negative behaviour will cause a loss of privileges and positive behaviour will be incentivised.
So, in terms of power users, we need to make them care about their account. We can do this by adding new functionality and setting a clear rule system.
Users need to be aware that negative behaviour “can cause loss”. How do global corporations like eBay or Twitter handle this situation?
•First violation: 1 day ban
•Second violation: 1 week ban
•Third violation: Indefinite IP ban (Re-registering with a different email will notwork)
However,good use of language, good communication and customer service are rewarded with Power user status, increased visibility or verified status.
Now lets get into fixing the problem!
To summarise there are 6 core problems.
•Power Users consume a significant share of listings.
•Standard listings are being buried.
•Several duplicate, poor quality and scam listings.
•Listings in incorrect categories.
•Low balling behaviour.
•Hustlers being hustlers.
1) Make search the default navigation choice and category navigation secondary, this will improve the following:
•Searching will filter out listings in incorrect categories (I.e. Movers in Home furniture)
•Advanced searches will allow users to drill down to an accurate and small set of results
•Users can choose to view Power users
2) Modify UI Listings:
•Display power user widget in the listings
•Poor performers are automatically pushed to the end of the listing
In addition I would also:
•Allow users to store items in a wish list (Useful for expats)
•Implement effective use of drop shadows which will help take display ads out of the natural reading flow.
3) New onboarding journey:
Standard Account – Less than 5 listings pm
Power user Account – More than 5 listings pm
If the user selects a power user account, then good behaviour is rewarded by increased visibility
Performance is ranked 0-5 stars and can be judged by the following:
•Duplicate posts
•Text on images
•Complaints/Reported
•Listings in wrong category
•Misleading listings
4) New Ads page functionality
To stop the technique used by power users of displaying a phone number in their images, adding multiple items in one photo or just genuinely poor quality photos
•Add a new “How you should take a picture” Guide just below the add photos button,with a clear brief of what images are acceptable.
Use image validation techniques such as OCR, to screen an image and check eligibility
•Show the user validation on whether their image is acceptable or not.
What can we validate?
•Text over images
•Multiple items in an image
•Check if the image already exists in their active listings (Block duplicate listings)
To stop low ballers, I recommended we separate the price into two fields. The selling price (Which is displayed in listing) & the minimum acceptable price (Which is hidden). Buyers attempting to offer prices lower than the minimum price will be asked to increase their offer. Sellers will not see these offers. If the minimum is left blank by the seller, then all offers will be accepted.
5) Add "Performance level to seller profile
This will be a constant reminder of the users account status AND how to fix it if their level drops.
7) Modify listing page to incorporate the following.
•Consider adding usernames for power user accounts which will give buyers recognition.
•Add a visible performance level
•Add a safety section to the bottom of each listing, here you can guide users to the help section to teach them how to remain safe and report unethical users.
•Provide users with a “report” option, the business will be able to differentiate problematic listings and act accordingly.
8) Implement strong validation protocols
As this is a free entry system users any standard of ad as long as it abides by basic validation rules. Applying strong validation to ALL listings will automatically discover and remove offending posts. So what kind of elements can be validated?
Duplicate posts
Upon upload of a new listing, validate the title and description tag for duplication. If another of that sellers active listings contains the same content, it will be marked as spam. Repeat offenders will be caught by the “performance levels” function and their listing will automatically be pushed down behind standard sellers.
Images
Improve listing quality by using OCR(either API or created) To scan images for text, duplication or poor quality.
Prohibited words
Upon upload of a new listing, check image, title and description tag for prohibited words. Then either block the listing, move it or require an in house review for approval.
And finally unusual characters
Block use of these characters, I am assuming people are using them to avoid spam detection.
Conclusion
Considering this is a free service and users are not tied in financially or contractually. How will these changes add sustainable business value? By creating a fair and prosperous eco system for our users to thrive in. This can be achieved this by using various techniques to promote good behaviour and contain bad behaviour. These include, usability, psychology, empathy and incentivisation, all guided by a strict rule book. If the number of scam listings and complaints reduce. But User satisfaction,number of accurate listings and bottom line goes up, we will know this proposal to be the footsteps to success.
