Enhancing Cars24 Partner App Auction Experience

In this case study, I will explain my approach to solving problems related to auction exploration and the auto-bid feature, as provided by Cars24.

Context

I am part of 10K Designers (a product design cohort). This is my capstone project in collaboration with Cars24 to gain experience in a real-life project.

About Cars24

Cars24 is India’s leading car reselling online marketplace. They have 2 products
1. Consumer App:- It caters to two distinct target audiences.
a) Car owners who want to sell their car.
b) People who want to buy a used car.

2. Partner App: — The users of this app are registered car dealers interested in purchasing used cars via the auction method.

This project is about the Partner App & my target users are Pan India registered car dealers.

When and how is an auction conducted at Cars24?

Given Problem Statements

1. Drop off at the auction exploration stage

2. Low adoption rate of the Auto Bid feature

I felt a little overwhelmed after reading the brief, but I was also excited to see how & what possible outcome I could come up with. So I accepted the challenge and took baby steps.

Before we start let me give you a quick look at the existing design, provided by Cars24 (since the app is only accessible for the registered car dealers).

Getting familiar with the app

I downloaded the app to understand the product and onboarding process better.
A new user can browse the Explore screen by signing up with their phone number.
To become a channel partner and gain access to the rest of the app, they must submit the required documents for registration.
After completing the registration, the user has to maintain a wallet balance of Rs 10,000/- to place a bid.

The screen aims to persuade dealers to register as partners by displaying a wide range of cars available for auctions. However, it fails to communicate the convenience and benefits of partnering with Cars24 for their business.

These may not be the exact queries that users will have. However, new users often have numerous concerns regarding the submission of their confidential documents for registration and the deposit of Rs 10,000/-, these concerns still need to be answered.

I wanted to learn about the user onboarding process of different partner apps, so I explored Flipkart Seller and Swiggy Restaurant Partners.

Understanding Dealer’s Perspective

The fact that Indian dealers are competing to buy used cars in just 24 minutes and even taking membership by depositing Rs 10,000/- is very new to me.
I feel the need to understand a dealer’s perspective. But Cars24 is not physically present in my locality, so I do not have access to any Cars24 partner users. Hence I conducted a 1:1 interview with a local car dealer to understand his perspective of car auction dealerships.

My objectives for conducting this interview are as follows -
a) Understanding the pre-owned car auction business
b) Motivations of users to participate in the auction
c) Figure out the deciding factors to place a bid.

After conducting the interview I got clarity about Dealers. If you want to check out the full Q&A here.

To further understand Cars24 partner’s pain points related to the app I go through Play Store reviews.

Pain points of users

1. Unawareness of features and important information, such as cancellation policies, due to the app's lack of upfront information.
2. Dealers are missing out on auctions due to late notification.
3. They are getting annoyed by repetitive auctions.
4. Dealers are missing out on important details about the car and placing bids in a hurry. Which resulted in the cancellation and dislike to pay the charges for it.

Competitor research

Insights

1. Auctions run for days to a week on other platforms.
2. Some of them allow a limited number of bids per day.
3. Indus Easywheel & Spinny also publishes upcoming auctions.
4. The car reselling marketplace platforms have an individual explore and car listing screen.

I was able to connect the dots with my research and think about solutions, so that is enough research for me. After a lot of brainstorming with rough sketches, I finalized the solutions for each problem case.

Let me take you through the solutions one by one.

Case 1:— Solutions for Auction Exploration

1️⃣ Providing necessary info without interrupting the auction flow.

This helps users to access the necessary information and brand to communicate better with users.

However regular users will land on the live car screen whenever they open the app.

Let me give you the full view of the explore screen.

Explore Screen Overview (for Unregistered Users)

1. Document upload to complete registration
2. Banner to make users aware of key features and benefits
3. Entry point for upcoming auction (will talk about this in detail later)
4. Key benefits for users — This further navigates to the detailed explanation of each parameter.
5. Another entry point to set smart requirement — Used the same icon to help users recognize the feature
6. Featured live auction
7. Procedure breakdown in simple steps & video explanation
8. Testimonials to gain user trust
9. Help & Support

That's all for the Explore screen, moving to the next solution.

2️⃣Helping users to see more cars at the same time

Reorganize the auction cards

The original design focused heavily on showcasing the car through multiple pictures from various angles. The choice of card size was aiming to capture the user's attention on one car at a time while leaving a teaser for the next car to prick their interest.

However, dealers typically only browse pictures of cars that pique their interest. They are unable to zoom in on the images, limiting their ability to examine specific details such as scratches or imperfections.

Why did I redesign the auction cards in this particular manner?

As per the research, the key decision-making factor is the dealer's requirement & interest based on the car’s make & model, color & cost. And the main reason to participate in the auction is the wide range of variety.

The card provides essential information in a well-structured manner and the image is sufficient to describe the color and body type of the car. The card size allows the users to access 4 car details per fold, which helps users explore 4x more cars at the same time.

3️⃣Retaining users to see more cars based on their interest

If a dealer invests time to review the specifications of a car, it indicates their interest in that particular model. There are 2 possibilities after going through the report either the dealer is convinced to place the bid or he finds any deal-breaking factor and exists.

Suggesting a similar product at the end of the car details encourages the user to explore more cars of the same kind. This is a widely adopted practice in the field of e-commerce.

4️⃣Encouraging users to place bids with confidence

The Live auction runs for only 24 mins at Cars24. It is significantly less time compared to other competitors.

Here are the following consequences of this duration
1. Users are placing bids in a hurry without paying attention to important details, which can lead to the cancellation of their winning bids.
2. When cars don’t get enough attention in this short duration, it forces Cars24 to run repetitive auctions. Users find it very annoying.

By providing a timely release of the list of upcoming auctions for the day, dealers have the opportunity to thoroughly review the car details and place their bids with utmost confidence. Also, this increases the exposure of the cars and dealers can shortlist the interested cars for the day in one go.

By joining the waitlist, dealers can ensure that they will receive a reminder call for the specific car they are interested in. Even if the notification is delayed, they can still find the waitlisted car on the "My Cars" page, along with any cars they have shortlisted or placed bids on.

That’s all I have for auction exploration it's time to move on to Problem 2 Auto-Bid adoption.

Case 2: — Solutions for Auto Bid Adoption

Before jumping to the solutions it is important to understand why dealers are not comfortable in using auto-bid.

I evaluated the features from a dealer's perspective, as I did not have access to Cars24 partners. This process helped me to identify the gaps and find ways to enhance the feature.

Let's explore these enhancements one by one.

1️⃣ Creating awareness about the feature

To nudge users to try Auto Bid it is important to explain to the users how the feature is helpful for them. So I used banners to catch their attention and it can further navigate them to a detailed explanation page to make them understand the functionality of the feature along with FAQs to solve queries upfront.

2️⃣Simplified Auto Bid explanation

Users tend to scan content rather than read it, particularly when there is a countdown in progress. Instead of paragraphs, I used simplified points and also mentioned the formula for the raised offer to avoid confusion.

3️⃣Building user's trust in the process

Auto bid is a feature that helps users save time and effort by automatically placing bids on their behalf throughout the auction. However, the low adoption rate and resistance to setting honest cap values suggest that dealers may have concerns about whether their bids are only raised after being outbid.

With the Bid record users can monitor the process and eventually build trust in it.

However, I aimed to enhance the transparency of this bid record by displaying the user/enterprise name and photo, which they are required to upload during registration. Nevertheless, upon consulting with the contact person from Cars24 regarding this matter, I was informed that such action would violate their privacy policy.

The current bid record design adequately ensures the dealers that raised offers are placed only after being outbid.

That’s all, folks!

The project presented several challenges, such as limited access to the app and users. However, I found great satisfaction in working on it.

Throughout the project, I experienced personal growth. Instead of jumping to solutions, I invested a significant amount of time in understanding the product and the industry. This deeper understanding ultimately allowed me to articulate effective solutions.

I am looking for product design opportunities To know more about me check my portfolio.

If you are part of a super design team and have space for me connect with me on LinkedIn.

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