Tokopedia: Revamping the Merchant Onboarding Journey

Increased consistent monthly sales by 1%, saved $2,000 in monthly costs, reduced registration errors by 90%, and increased subscriptions by 2%

The How

We revamped the registration experience, where users with the intent of opening a store would undergo a separate and tailored onboarding. We would engage and educate them on how to create sustained success for their online store

My Contributions

Discovery: Identified drop in the merchant funnel

Research: Personally gathered and analysed qualitative and quantitative data

Delivery: Defined user stories and product requirements and oversaw the entirely of the product life cycle

CONTEXT:

Tokopedia, in its quest to elevate revenue streams, shifted from a subscription-based model to a commission framework. Under this new model, merchants contribute 1% of their sales to maintain their premium membership status, which provides them with exclusive features and benefits. The platform's growth was intrinsically tied to the success of its merchants, with an increasing number registering on Tokopedia.

PROBLEM:

A comprehensive analysis revealed that although 60% of the new merchants were listing products, only 10% managed to garner views, a mere 1% saw their items added to carts (ATC), and even fewer progressed to a transaction. Furthermore, very few of these merchants opted for the premium membership, and those who did made negligible sales, thus providing minimal revenue benefit to Tokopedia or chose to opt out soon after.

OPPORTUNITIES:

Field interviews with users, coupled with marketing and sales insights for qualitative data and collaboration with data analysts for quantitative metrics, led to the development of a product strategy roadmap. It became evident that new merchants, many of whom were novices in online selling, were inadequately educated and engaged on how to successfully operate in the marketplace. 

Therefore, there was an opportunity to educate and engage these sellers about effective sales techniques and the tools available on Tokopedia. Additionally, the ease of creating a seller account was identified as a flaw, as it contributed to an inflated count of non-committal sellers, which inflated vanity metrics.

ACTION:

The product strategy roadmap prioritized features with the most substantial impact and urgency. 

• We implemented a policy requiring new sellers to list a product within 30 days or risk account deactivation, thereby refining our database to retain only committed sellers. 

• Seller registration was decoupled from user registration, resulting in less One-Time Passwords (OTPs) needed to be sent. 

• We introduced a survey to classify sellers based on their journey stage, enabling a customized onboarding experience. 

• Collaboration with logistics improved geolocation services for easier delivery address setup, and marketing efforts produced tailored onboarding pathways for different seller types. 

• These pathways utilized emails, in-app notifications, walkthroughs, release notes, checklists, and modals, all designed to enhance merchant engagement and feature adoption.

RESULTS:

This approach successfully bridged the gap between user registration and product listing. It maintained the $2,000 monthly savings on OTPs, increased premium membership subscriptions by 2%, and boosted the sustained monthly sales of new merchants by 1%.