"What We Know We Don't Know"?

Provide product management leaders a point of view on the overall value of the collectibles vertical within the eBay ecosystem during a time of reevaluation.

We had a deep understanding from past research of both the Clothing, Shoes, and Accessories and Consumer Electronics verticals, but there was a gap in understanding with respect to the collector population that uses eBay.

Working directly with data analytics and market research teams, I identified a cohort of customers exhibiting patterns of behavior relevant to the goal of locating potential gaps in knowledge about the eBay and the non eBay collector communities. My depth of expertise in the end to end management of ethnographic field studies made me a strong candidate for this high-profile user research initiative. The fact that I myself was a collector was viewed as an advantage.

Problem

Lack of understanding about collectors, in general (a category for which eBay was originally best known for), with a specific need to serve them better, motivated this study. Enable UXR, UXD, and PM along with key supporting eBay team members, to gain a first hand understanding of how collectors shop within key collectibles meta categories (both on and offline); how they evaluate items; what factors (psycho-social, cultural, economic) drive their collecting activities; and which elements of the collecting experience most influence their purchase decisions.

Solution

Multi-market, semi-structured ethnographic research with 25 individual collectors as well as multiple affinity groups arranged to take place during the National Barbie Doll Convention in St. Louis, Missouri. The approach was successful at providing the team a window into how to more effectively echo the collectors' IRL practices and language on the site while also surfacing collectible ‘gifters’ as an emerging audience. It also helped the business gain valuable perspective into the importance of the category and how collectors contribute to the GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) on the platform.

Tools

• Live video

• Ethnography

• Cognitive mapping

• Card sorting

• Diary study

• Mapping

• Prototype testing

Team

• 1 UX researcher

• 1 UX designer

• 1 Videographer

My Role

• Project owner

• UX researcher

• Affinity group facilitator

Timeline

• Overall: 8+ weeks

• Discovery & Research: 6+ weeks

• Roadshow 2 + weeks

My Research Process

1 Audits

2 Partners

3 Approach

4 Fieldwork(s)

5 Learnings

6 Sharing

Fieldwork(s)

We approached the research in 3 discrete yet overlapping phases. The first phase involved in-depth, semi structured interviews with collectors who met the annual spend criteria established at the onset of the study, annual gross merchandize bought (GMB). Joined by my colleagues in UXD and media support services, I conducted in context research where I explored motivations for collecting, sourcing strategies, and intents to buy in the future. This phase in combination with 2 shop-alongs at SF Bay flea markets including ad hoc conversations with attendees allowed patterns to emerge and themes to form.

During field shop - alongs, we typically use a modified ethnographic approach, combining observation with probing regarding activities such as finding products, comparing, buying, as well as meaningful touch points such as navigational cues, store cohesiveness, in-store communications, service, utility, customer comfort, product assortment, and the overall shopping experience when appropriate.

Our small team then went on to the Annual National Barbie Doll convention held in St Louis, Missouri. Using an opportunistic recruiting approach I organized and facilitated 4 affinity group sessions with members of the Barbie collectors community (eBay and non-eBay users). During these 2-3 hour conversations, I explored the psycho-social aspects of collecting, the power of community, attitudes towards eBay; and how eBay might better serve the community. Time in a new geo allowed me to conduct IDI's with collectors beyond those attending the convention: tin soldiers, coins, madame alexander dolls, and magic props.

Building on the 2 previous phases of research a lead UXD and I returned to the field to conduct participatory design research using the exiting site to explore: 1) "blue sky" thinking and co-design; 2) expectations and missed opportunities; 3) communication design suggestions (i.e. specialist terminology and visuals) and 4) usability: usefulness, utility and satisfaction. For this phase we used sketching and rapid prototyping to capture user feedback. These were further formalized using Figma.

Audit

I begin the research by interviewing key stakeholders across the organization with a vested interest in understanding 1) slow category growth of 2.8% YoY; 2) collectors' on and offline behaviors and motivations; 3) veracity of market research team's customer segmentation and persona studies; 4) competitive landscape and 5) additional patterns and "red flags" gleaned from the data warehouse. This work was enhanced by a week + of intensive 3rd party review of literature on the topic of collectibles and collecting.

Through a series of mapping exercises with market research and data analytics as well as synthesis of previous UXR/UXD buy/sell research we were able to isolate and confirm the best opportunities for further research in this category. After securing buy-in from key stakeholders, we started recruiting subjects for the study who fit our criteria. We did 15 1:1's in the first round followed by attendance at the week long annual Barbie Doll convention with a 3rd stage of participatory design sessions.

A collection of vintage items in the foreground with people in the background

Approach

The research was parsed into several discrete yet overlapping stages

• Cross-functional data synthesis

• IDIs

• Participatory Design

• Affinity Groups

• Shop alongs

• Insights cross functional mapping

Learnings

Our multi-phased, multi-method and cross-disciplinary approach to better understanding the role and value of collectors within the eBay ecosystem yielded a rich trove of insights research. Our research:

• Identified specific categorization and L2 sizing issues based on our newly identified collectible "types" including: recently manufactured, theme-based, and gradable

• Revamped item specifics

• Enhanced image browsing

• Surfaced a need for verification tools, soft productization, completed item refinements and collection curation capabilities

• Produced a first of its kind behavioral segmentation based on collectors motivations and modes of collecting. We identified 3 types of collectors: the passionate, the enthusiast, the nester, and the gifters along with sub-types for each (i.e. . the Amasser, the Completionist, the Educator) These were later mapped against market research segmentation data.

Mapping ethnographic and market research data

Partner

Throughout the process we relied on support from our internal partners in Marketing, Product, UX, Analytics and Finance. As a platform with many "key" categories and a B2C2C operating model it was standard practice to create and manage cross-functional teams. In most instances, this was a successful collaboration with syncing schedules as the most challenging part.

Sharing

Myself and the Lead UXD conducted a serious of presentations to highlight our findings. These were adjusted to meet the audience interests. Based on our research we felt confident to make the claim that improved user experience, cross-selling, up-selling and merchandising to existing collectors would increase spend on core across all categories. Gross merchandize volume (GMV) will increase by converting one-off collectible purchasers (nesters) into consistent purchasers of collectibles (passionate/enthusiast). Maintaining and encouraging the vital passion for collecting that is common among our collectors will fuel higher gross merchandize buying (GMB). These collectors provide invaluable emotional and financial capital to the site. which in turn has the potential to attracts new (offline) collectors to the site.