Design a mobile app that allows users to easily buy and sell used books

Before starting any design process, I always ask myself some questions as any product can be designed taking into account many perspectives. But it is always better to have the scope of a product more focused and concise.

1. Should a specific market be targeted?
2. Is this app applicable for a specific segment or a cohort of users?
3. Any particular types of books that should be traded on the site?

I will make some assumptions for these questions as I go along further.

I will divide the design process in the following steps

1. Competitor analysis
2. User research
3. Personas based on user research
4. Analysis of business models based on all above steps
5. MVP and its features
6. User journey map for different types of users
7. Sketches, Wireframes or mockups

Competitor Analysis

For this landscape, I looked into 3 competitors; Bookflow, Bookchor and Bookwise

Bookflow

Core propositions and Business model

• C2C Model
• Just a facilitator between the buyer and seller
• The deal happens purely in the discretion of buyer and seller

Strengths

• Doesn’t limits to only study books; can sell each and every type of book
• No infrastructure costs to be borne

Weaknesses

• App crashing all the time, hence low ratings on Google play store
• Website UX design not hierarchical
• App description on Google play store not self explanatory

Bookchor

Core propositions and Business model

• Books can either be bought, sold or donated
• If making a donation, the books are sold to bookchor.com
• If sold, the deal happens solely in the discretion of the buyer and the seller
• Have a range of types of books for the same book. Like old, readable or new.
• Books that are donated go through a guaranteed quality check

Strengths

• Competitive pricing. Especially for old and readable books.
• Focus on quality.
• Pick up service available for donated books in selected cities. If not available in some regions, the seller has to post the books while bookchor.com will refund the delivery charges back to the seller.
• Handwritten bookmarks given to the buyers. Focused on user experience.

Weaknesses

• On update of application, all account information is lost leading to bad user experience. This results into loss of wishlist, loyalty points etc.

Bookwise

Core Propositions

• Only focused on school and college books
• Lists ads on their website/app posted by sellers.
• Facilitates the delivery of books from sellers to buyers.

Strengths

• Resources spent only on logistics/deliveries/refunds and maintenance of website

Weaknesses

• Quality check is seldom done beforehand. Once the buyer gets to know the condition of the book, the buyer always has to raise a request for a refund and it becomes a cumbersome process.
• Orders get cancelled all the time and refund is not provided on time leading to bad user experience
• Very low ratings on Google play store

User research

Who is my customer? For whom am I building this app? What are the current customers’ perspectives and trends? What kind of different users can I serve? What will be my target audience?

I conducted a short interview with a few of my friends, colleagues. Some of the questions were

1. Are you an avid reader?
2. What kind of books do you read?
3. What kind of books do you currently have with you?
4. Have you bought these books or any other alternative?
5. Do you like to buy and read books?
6. How often do you buy books?
7. Do you prefer buying new books or old(used) books?
8. Where do you look for while buying the books?
9. What factors play a role when you buy a book?
10. What do you do about the books that you have already read?
11. Would you prefer selling the read books? Would you donate extra books? Would you prefer renting your books?
12. How much money would you like to spend on books in a year?
13. What would you like or hate about buying and selling books online?

Some of the responses were

Do you prefer buying new books or old(used) books?

Where do you look for while buying the books?

What factors play a role when you buy a book?

What do you do about the books that you have already read?

Would you prefer selling the read books? Would you donate extra books? Would you prefer renting your books?

What would you like or hate about buying and selling books online?

Personas

Based on the user research I have come up with the following primary personas

There can be more secondary personas but I have restricted it to only the primary personas.

Defining the application

Target Customer base

According to different needs of users and their demographics and considering the fact that we need to build a mobile application, I have listed down some of our target customer bases

1. Students who are studying in school/college : Age group — ( 14–24)

• Those who are willing to sell their past years school/college books

2. People preparing for competitive exams. : Age group — ( 18–26)

• People who might want to buy second hand competitive books or sell them once they are done with their exams

3. People who love reading books. : Age group — ( 15–50) Keeping in mind constraint of using technology

User actions

1. List books to sell
2. Search for a book or genres of books
3. Apply filters to the search
4. Connect with the seller based on a book ad
5. Negotiate the deal on the platform using chat option
6. Make payment with integrated payment options.
7. Opting for pickup or drop
8. Ask for help from the application.
9. Contact support team.
10. Optional:- Donate books to the company(Depends on the model we choose)

Note:- I haven’t included renting the books as a user action. This is a feature that should be staggered and not included in the MVP. Hence we won’t be considering renting the books feature in our design process.

Choosing the Best Model

The 3 types of models that can be implemented for this use case are

1. Inventory based model
2. Marketplace model
3. Hybrid model

Inventory based model

In the Inventory based model,

• Our platform would have its own inventory where pools of books would be held. We will list all the books that are available in our inventory and the buyer has the option to buy it at our set price.
• The seller (individual or old book stores) can sell the books on the app by uploading all relevant details like book name, publisher name, image, condition, etc. A questionnaire needs to be filled compulsory by the seller to state all the damages that exist in the book the seller wants to sell. The seller can request a pickup or submit the book at one of the pickup locations or our warehouse. A quality check will be done during the pickup and only then will the deal be finalized.

Pros

• There will be a quality check and seamless delivery system.
• This model will be useful to the category of people who do not want to include in trading delivery or talking with buyers/sellers.

Cons

• The cost margin increases as the cost of warehouse, logistics and maintaining the resources will be included.
• Also resources will be required for checking the quality of the books.

Marketplace model

In the marketplace model

• The seller has to pay some fee for listing the book on our platform. The first listing can be kept free to attract more sellers.
• The buyers and sellers will trade directly with each other and us as a company just being the facilitator.
• We won’t be part of any transaction that will be held between the buyer and seller. Hence that exempts us for any breach of contract between the buyer and the seller.
• Once the buyer and seller negotiate the deal they can manage their own pickup drop.

Pros

• No inventory holding cost

Cons

• If the seller and the buyer trade amongst themselves and arrange their own delivery method, the seller must remove the listing from the app manually.
• There are some customers who wouldn’t want to get into or invest their time in arranging means of delivery.

The last model is the Hybrid model which will be best suited for this use case.

Hybrid Model

While in the marketplace model, the concept of self fulfillment exists where sellers have to arrange for all the delivery, in the hybrid model we give an option to our users of marketplace fulfillment which means that we will provide delivery services for the sellers who wish to opt for it. In that case, the transaction will be done through our platform only using any of the online payment methods. While, if the seller and buyer arrange their own delivery and pickup services, the transaction won’t be done through our platform but purely between the buyer and seller. Also, we won’t be liable for any quality issue and will be purely dependent on the deal between the buyer and the seller.

This will give a user, options to choose from, hence enhancing the user experience.

To achieve this, we will partner with a logistic firm.

How will the hybrid model work? What are the terms and conditions? Which are the different flows?

Signup/Login flows

1. The users, be it the sellers or the buyers, will be allowed to look through the app without signing up on the app.
2. Only when it comes to selling or buying, the user should be registered/signed up on our application to move forward.

Seller

1. Seller has to list an ad about the book/books. The first listing is free, but the later listings will be charged a fee.
2. The seller will have to answer a questionnaire about the condition of the book. Only if the conditions match our standards, the book will be allowed to be listed on our platform. If the seller lies about the condition, we will be doing a quality check anyway when we pick up the book in case our logistic services were adopted.
3. In case our logistic services are not adopted, we won’t be responsible or liable for any quality issue
4. The seller can list only 3 ads at a time. The ads will be deactivated if there is no demand after 3 months. The seller can also manually delete the ad.

Buyer

1. The buyer clicks on a book ad and reviews the book’s description, location, condition, images.
2. If the buyer proceeds to request a deal, a chat window is available for the seller and the buyer to negotiate a deal.
3. Once the final price is negotiated, there can be 2 options.

Case 1: Opting for our logistic services

1. In this case, the buyer can choose amongst the saved addresses or input a new address for the book to be delivered.
2. The buyer will be informed if this address is deliverable or not.
3. The payment in this case will be done through our platform using any means of online payment.
4. The delivery charge will be charged from the buyer.
5. The book will be picked up from the seller and upon quality inspection, if it matches the standards, it will be allowed to be delivered to the buyer. Otherwise it will be returned to the seller.
6. Once the delivery is done to the buyer, the funds will be transferred to the seller’s wallet.

Case 2: Opting for their own pickup and delivery services

1. In this case, no transaction will be taking place through our platform. Hence we won’t be a party to any deal between the buyer and seller. Also we won’t be liable for any breach of contract between the buyer and seller.
2. Along with arranging for their own delivery and pickup services, they would have to arrange for their own means of payment between the 2 parties.
3. We won’t be responsible for any quality checks either.
4. Once the buyer chooses to arrange for their “own delivery” mode, the buyer will be automatically taken to the cart page where the items will be listed as part of the deal between the buyer and seller.
5. We will keep an option to know if the deal is done and the transaction is completed.
6. We will keep a reminder 7 days after the deal is finalized and send a notification as part of this reminder to let us know if the transaction is completed.

Pros

• Inventory costs go down considerably
• The sellers and buyers who will opt for our provided delivery system will experience a seamless delivery and packaging system.
• In case of the adoption of our logistic services, we will provide stringent quality checks thus ensuring reduction of users’ pain points.

Considerations for MVP

1. Under this model, we can also infuse inventory-led in a marketplace by having operational control over seller entities like local chain bookstores(the same concept is used by ecommerce companies, for e.g. Cloudtail(Amazon) or WS Retail(Flipkart)). But this is something that must be pondered when we are an established company. It is not feasible yet for our MVP.
2. Taking donations of books from the sellers will probably require us to have our own inventory-led model. Hence we won’t be considering it in our MVP.
3. It is assumed that the logistics will be available only in selected cities.

MVP

After doing competitive analysis, user research, personas, affinity mapping and selecting the best business model, I have decided on the following user expectations and features that the MVP will possess

Buyers

1. Buyer will be able to buy used books easily.
2. Buyer will be able to find Cover photo and all relevant details about the used books like condition, publisher, edition, etc before buying.
3. Buyer can communicate with the seller on the platform itself.
4. Buyer will be able to trade off deals with sellers.
5. Buyer will be able to get the book delivered to their footsteps.
6. Buyer can pay with the integrated payment system.
7. Buyer can give ratings to the sellers.
8. Buyer will be able to see how far is the seller.
9. Buyer will be able to create a wishlist on the platform.

Sellers

1. Sellers will be able to list the books hassle-free with a charge to be paid except the first listing which will be free of cost.
2. Sellers will be able to negotiate with the buyer on his/her terms.
3. Sellers can talk to buyers and decide if they want to trade deals internally or opt for logistic service.

User Journey Map

Buyer’s user flow

Seller’s user flow

Note:-

1. The above are in fact user flows(instead of the conventional user journey map where motivations, needs, pain points of the user is also listed down at each stage).
2. I haven’t included the refund flows in the above user flows.

Sketches/ Wireframes

Note:-

• I have not shown all features in the wireframes but mentioned it in each screen.
• I have not shown all wireframes(such as signin/signup pages).

Home Screen

• Menu
• Chat icon to see all chats of sellers/buyers
• Notification icon
• Customer support icon
• Search bar where buyers can search books according to book title, author, genre
• Filter options while searching(Not shown in the wireframe)
• Sell option for the sellers to post an ad
• Listings of books in horizontal scrolling format for each category

Menu

• Avatar and name
• My Ads
• My Sales
• My Orders
• Wishlist to store a user’s favorite books
• FAQs
• Contact Us
• Logout

For buyers

Buying Process

• Once the buyer taps on any of the book listings, it is taken to another screen where the details of the book are shown.
• If the buyer is satisfied with the condition of the book after seeing the images and the price of the book, the buyer can request a deal with the seller
• The buyer is then taken to a chat window where the conversation starts
• Once the deal is negotiated, the buyer will proceed to checkout
• Buyer and seller now have 2 options
  * Either manage their own means of delivery
  * Opt for our logistics and delivery services(available in selected cities only)
  ** If opting for our logistic services, then a request is sent to the seller.
  ** Once the seller approves the request, only then the buyer would able to proceed to pay.
• Buyer can then proceed to pay online.

Case 1 :- Parties using their own means of delivery

• Since no transaction will take place through the platform, the buyer checks out and a notification is sent to the seller to approve the deal and the negotiated price inputted by the buyer
• The buyer is taken to the My Orders page where the recent book is added.
• The buyer needs to check off the “Book received” to let us know whether the book has been received or not. A reminder will be sent too as part of the notification.

Case 2:- Parties using our means of delivery services

• If our delivery services are chosen, the saved addresses appear as an option to be selected.
• Also the buyer can add a new address and set it as default address too.
• The buyer needs to check the eligibility of the region being serviceable or not to add a new address.
• The buyer is then taken to the payments page, and can choose any one of the payment methods available

For sellers

Posting an ad

• Once the seller clicks on the sell button, he/she is taken to another screen.
• The seller is asked to write various details of the book
• The seller is made to fill a short questionnaire about the condition of the book.(Not shown)
• The seller has to also compulsorily upload some images of the book or he won’t be able to submit the ad

My Sales page

• A seller can approve/unapprove a deal, if any incorrect information is displayed with the order like the negotiated price.
• Once the deal is approved, if the parties have chosen our delivery services, the seller will be contacted to check the best suitable time to collect the book.

Metrics

• New signups per day/month/quarterly.
• How many users are buying the books?
• How many users are selling the books?
• How many deals are getting completed?
• How many users are requesting logistic service?
• How many users are not returning back after signup is done.
• Churn rate

Future Scope

• Add more user actions like renting and donation
• Partner with local bookstores to infuse inventory led model