WizCommerce

WizCommerce

WizCommerce

Design Leadership | Global B2B Commerce SaaS

PIM & Transaction Documents

PIM & Transaction Documents

PIM & Transaction Documents

PIM & Transaction Documents

The PIM & Transaction Documents Tool is at the heart of WizCommerce, enabling operations of our users, who are sales personnel, of large to mid scale wholesalers & manufacturers. It plays a crucial role in managing their inventory, sample designs and other guidelines, ensuring seamless sales operations.

The PIM & Transaction Documents Tool is at the heart of WizCommerce, enabling operations of our users, who are sales personnel, of large to mid scale wholesalers & manufacturers. It plays a crucial role in managing their inventory, sample designs and other guidelines, ensuring seamless sales operations.

From helping users in product discovery to creating all the necessary transaction documents, like catalogs, quotations & invoices, WizCommerce enables the sales team to speed up their sales cycle, increasing their annual turnover.

From helping users in product discovery to creating all the necessary transaction documents, like catalogs, quotations & invoices, WizCommerce enables the sales team to speed up their sales cycle, increasing their annual turnover.

The PIM & Transaction Documents Tool is at the heart of WizCommerce, enabling operations of our users, who are sales personnel, of large to mid scale wholesalers & manufacturers. It plays a crucial role in managing their inventory, sample designs and other guidelines, ensuring seamless sales operations.

From helping users in product discovery to creating all the necessary transaction documents, like catalogs, quotations & invoices, WizCommerce enables the sales team to speed up their sales cycle, increasing their annual turnover.

UNDERSTANDING

Context, Users & Goals

Field Research

Trip across India - Panipat, Moradabad, Chennai & Jaipur

Visited multiple manufacturing companies, who export home & lifestyle products worldwide; Panipat - Largest Manufacturers of Rugs & Carpets in India, Moradabad - The Brass Capital & Jaipur - Fashion & Apparel.

Engaged in explorative conversations with the merchants and sales teams who are our primary users, to understand what their day-to-day is like. On average, each member handles 20 clients with top global brands like Walmart, Target, Pottery Barn & others, on a daily basis. This involves a lot of repetitive actions, and incoherent data management, relying on excel sheets & legacy ERP systems, leading to inefficiencies in their workflow, that were directly effecting the annual revenue of these manufacturing companies. Therefore, reinforcing efficiency in their work processes was a key focus.

User Journey

B2B commerce is complex, with multiple stages of interaction between the seller and buyer. The deal size can be from $10k - $ 250k. By observing the users work flow and gaining insights into how the team works, I took the lead in defining the scope of the design the project, carefully balancing the challenges of a tight two-month timeline. By strategically prioritizing tasks, I ensured that our efforts were focused where they mattered most. To align the team and set a clear direction, I created a journey map that visually emphasized the key areas requiring immediate attention.

The research insights that came from conducting diary studies on the MVP version, also helped in defining the user personas and journey with empathetic nuances.

Project Goal & Scope

Create a SaaS Platform that increases efficiency and helps users close deals faster, while making the tool scalable, secure and user-friendly

Problem

Key Insights

Strategy

Lack of user friendly tools that enable users to record and manage massive inventories, that were priorly documented only in Excel Sheets or legacy ERPs.

The platform was seen as useful by the users, if most or latest of the inventory is present on the system.

Users should be able to import existing data, easily. They can also perform CRUD actions on the data in bulk.

Users should be able to import existing data, easily. They can also perform CRUD actions on the data in bulk.

It's not easy to search through inventory consisting of 1000's of products, scattered in multiple files & folders - which is leading to delay in document creation, directly effecting the sales cycle.

Users don't necessarily remember the name of the product. Their search pattern is guided by categorization, which could be by collection, year of production or clients.

More than often clients also provide moodboards, or similar products they would want to get manufactured

Users should be able to search, filter and maintain categories of their products. To maintain familiarity with their existing workflow, they should also be able to replicate their category trees to the platform. They should also be able to search using a reference image to find similar products in their inventory

Users should be able to search, filter and maintain categories of their products. To maintain familiarity with their existing workflow, they should also be able to replicate their category trees to the platform. They should also be able to search using a reference image to find similar products in their inventory

Document templates, are not readily available, and different clients of users, need different formats.

Due to lack of standardization, different clients enforce their own templates to be consumed on their order managing systems.

Users can create and save document templates, which can also be customized, as per their client's request.

Users can create and save document templates, which can also be customized, as per their client's request.

Catalogs were created in multiple designs, and not every user were equipped with design knowledge to make good presentations

Sub-standard catalogs didn't always perform well with high paying clients, which led to loss of opportunities.

Empower users with designer templates, that can enhance the overall look of the catalog presentations.

Empower users with designer templates, that can enhance the overall look of the catalog presentations.

Document creation is a tedious process, where the user needs to locate required products, and enter data manually. The average turn around time is 5-7 days.

Manual entry can be highly erroneous, and also one of the most time taking process. Users also need to revise the documents over 4-5 times, based on client's suggestions, before finalizing.

Their inventory must be retrievable, while creating documents, along with the product data. Users can also maintain versions of each document, to be retrieved.

Their inventory must be retrievable, while creating documents, along with the product data. Users can also maintain versions of each document, to be retrieved.

Created documents-mainly catalogs are highly confidential, hence users worry about the security, while sharing them.

Catalogs mainly consist of unique and confidential designs. Security is important, as they don't want any of their competitors to get those details.

Enable complete transparency on the created documents, by tracking activity, add password protection and auto expiry options.

Enable complete transparency on the created documents, by tracking activity, add password protection and auto expiry options.

Module 1

PIM Tool with Bulk Import

Key Features

Product Search and Filtering : Enable users to efficiently search and filter their products to find specific items quickly, also enable image search to help users identify product details & other similar products.

Product Search and Filtering : Enable users to efficiently search and filter their products to find specific items quickly, also enable image search to help users identify product details & other similar products.

Category Management: Provide tools for users to create, edit, and organize product categories and allow users to replicate their existing category structures on the platform to maintain familiarity with their workflow.

Category Management: Provide tools for users to create, edit, and organize product categories and allow users to replicate their existing category structures on the platform to maintain familiarity with their workflow.

Data Import Functionality: Facilitate seamless importing of existing product and category data into the platform.

Data Import Functionality: Facilitate seamless importing of existing product and category data into the platform.

Bulk Data Operations: Support bulk creation, reading, updating, and deletion (CRUD) actions on products and categories for efficient data management.

Bulk Data Operations: Support bulk creation, reading, updating, and deletion (CRUD) actions on products and categories for efficient data management.

Task 1 : Designing Product Listing Page

Home & lifestyle industries, were our key user segments, which were heavily design oriented. Users would store their products mainly by product category and collections. Hence, they needed the information hierarchy on the platform to match their mental mapping.

Objective

Design products module with categorical exploration of user's inventory, where products can be distributed among multi-level category tree. Along with keyword, image & moodboard search, helping users quickly find relevant products that their clients are looking for.

Product Exploration

Product Exploration

The Main Filters section included a hierarchical category-to-subcategory navigation, enabling users to seamlessly traverse the category tree. Additionally, advanced filtering options based on product attributes such as size, material, and color were implemented, along with sorting functionalities to organize results based on criteria like relevance or recency.

Smart Search & Filtering

Smart Search & Filtering

One of the unique features I designed for the filters was the category tree filter, which provided users with a hierarchical view of their entire category structure. This enabled users to quickly navigate and identify specific products by visually exploring the category tree, streamlining the search and selection process.

The Smart Search feature was designed to allow users to upload reference images or mood boards provided by their clients. Leveraging image recognition technology, the system analyzed the uploaded visuals to identify and match similar products within the inventory. This functionality facilitated rapid product discovery, even in scenarios where insufficient metadata or product information was recorded in the inventory.

Task 2 : Designing Bulk Edit & Import Flows

Users are currently using Excel Sheets to maintain product data, with the ability to perform edits and actions in bulk. Having similar functionality on the platform was crucial, to ensure that their productivity isn't hindered and also to reduce the friction while adapting the software.

Users are currently using Excel Sheets to maintain product data, with the ability to perform edits and actions in bulk. Having similar functionality on the platform was crucial, to ensure that their productivity isn't hindered and also to reduce the friction while adapting the software.

Designing & developing a custom solution that offers robust editing functionality, wasn't feasible given the timeline, hence we chose to implement AG-Grid, a feature rich and fully customisable data grid. My role was to design the UI components, that was in line with the interface design of the overall platfrom.

Designing & developing a custom solution that offers robust editing functionality, wasn't feasible given the timeline, hence we chose to implement AG-Grid, a feature rich and fully customisable data grid. My role was to design the UI components, that was in line with the interface design of the overall platfrom.

Objective

Create reusable, interactive data table component, that would be incorporated into the design system. Define the UI for every data type component, along with multiple states of interaction.

Create reusable, interactive data table component, that would be incorporated into the design system. Define the UI for every data type component, along with multiple states of interaction.

The data table component was designed as a universal solution for displaying information across various modules, particularly in scenarios requiring bulk data visualization and updates. Illustrated below is the UI for one such implementation, where products are presented in a tabular format for efficient review and management.

The data table component was designed as a universal solution for displaying information across various modules, particularly in scenarios requiring bulk data visualization and updates. Illustrated below is the UI for one such implementation, where products are presented in a tabular format for efficient review and management.

Objective

Create reusable, interactive data table component, that would be incorporated into the design system. Define the UI for every data type component, along with multiple states of interaction.

Task 2 : Designing Bulk Edit UI

Users are currently using Excel Sheets to maintain product data, with the ability to perform edits and actions in bulk. Having similar functionality on the platform was crucial, to ensure that their productivity isn't hindered and also to reduce the friction while adapting the software.

Designing & developing a custom solution that offers robust editing functionality, wasn't feasible given the timeline, hence we chose to implement AG-Grid, a feature rich and fully customisable data grid. My role was to design the UI components, that was in line with the interface design of the overall platfrom.

The data table component was designed as a universal solution for displaying information across various modules, particularly in scenarios requiring bulk data visualization and updates. Illustrated below is the UI for one such implementation, where products are presented in a tabular format for efficient review and management.

Module 2

Catalog Creation Studio

Key Features

Customizable Catalogs : Allow users to create, save, and customize catalogs, that are required at initial stages of the sales cycle, tailored to their clients' needs.

Customizable Catalogs : Allow users to create, save, and customize catalogs, that are required at initial stages of the sales cycle, tailored to their clients' needs.

Designer Templates : Provide professional templates to enhance the visual appeal of catalog presentations, that the users can edit and update as required

Designer Templates : Provide professional templates to enhance the visual appeal of catalog presentations, that the users can edit and update as required

Inventory Integration: Enable seamless retrieval of inventory and product data while creating documents.

Inventory Integration: Enable seamless retrieval of inventory and product data while creating documents.

Activity Tracking and Transparency: Ensure full transparency with document activity tracking, providing insights into changes and interactions.

Activity Tracking and Transparency: Ensure full transparency with document activity tracking, providing insights into changes and interactions.

Security: Enhance security with password protection and auto-expiry options.

Security: Enhance security with password protection and auto-expiry options.

Task 1 : Designing Product Selection Flow

The first step in the catalog creation process involved selecting products that were meticulously curated to align with the users' requirements. In the previous module, we explored how users could streamline the product identification process. This module focuses on the catalog creation workflow, which enables users to compile and present the required product data in a professionally designed template

Objective

Design the user experience (UX) for an efficient product selection process that allows users to easily browse, filter, and select products based on their requirements. Incorporate functionality to enable users to update their selection dynamically, ensuring flexibility and adaptability throughout the process. The UX should prioritize intuitive navigation, seamless filtering, and real-time updates to the selection, enhancing overall user efficiency and satisfaction.

The selected products are utilized to create professional catalogs, allowing users to choose from pre-designed templates. Users can further customize these templates by editing details, adding additional products, and generating a secure, shareable output in multiple formats.

Product Selection

The selection Ui is triggered when the user clicks on 'Create button'. Each product tile includes a checkbox for selection. Users can select individual products or use the "Select all" option to choose all the results.

A floating selection summary card is visible at the bottom-right corner, displaying the count of selected products (e.g., "1 Selected") and a thumbnail preview is shown, of the selected products with actions to Cancel & clear the selection & Generate to proceed with the catalog creation.

Templates

After completing the product selection, users were provided with professionally designed templates to streamline the catalog generation process. Additionally, they were given the option to create custom templates, allowing for greater flexibility and personalization to meet specific requirements.

This required designing an interface that allowed users to browse and explore template pages with a clear categorical segregation between system-provided templates and user-created custom templates.

Catalog Studio

This interface allows user to either design catalogs from scratch, or edit templates based on their selection in their previous state. Since the users are accustomed to creating them in presentations or Google slides, the interface is kept similar, to invoke familiarity.

The familiar interface now coupled with superior features, users have the necessary tools for adjusting backgrounds, layouts, and templates from the toolbar, along with options for zoom, undo/redo, and slide management.

What makes this module even more powerful, is the ability for users to edit or update the product selection along with the attributes they wish to add to the catalog.

What makes this module even more powerful, is the ability for users to edit or update the product selection along with the attributes they wish to add to the catalog.

Module 3

Quotations, Sales Orders & Invoices

Key Features

Multi-Document Creation : Allow users to create various documents such as quotations, sales orders, and invoices at different stages of the sales cycle, that facilitates the closing of the sales deal efficiently.

Templates : Provide professional templates, that the users can edit and update as required.

Inventory & Client Data Integration: Enable seamless retrieval of inventory product and client data while creating documents.

Document Versioning: Support version control, allowing users to maintain and retrieve different versions of each document.

Objective

Integrate document creation option, for invoices, quotations & others, similar to catalog creation flow, with the ability to chose from pre-designed templates, and edit base details about clients, and products that are added to these documents.

To maintain consistency and familiar design patterns within the platform, the steps are recreated for every document creation, including invoices, quotations or purchase orders. The forward flows, once the product and template selection are made, were dependent on the type of document.

Results & Impact

Results & Impact

Results & Impact

83%

83%

83%

Faster Deal Closures

Reduced the overall time taken for users to find relevant products

Supporting users at multiple stages of a deal.

30 mins

30 mins

30 mins

Document creation

Before using the platform it would take users upto 5-7 days to create the same.

This led to a remarkable reduction in user's efforts

6.5

6.5

6.5

Hours Saved Daily

The owners of the company were extremely satisfied with the overall output

It was essentially cost and time saving

83%

Faster Deal Closures

Reduced the overall time taken for users to find relevant products

Supporting users at multiple stages of a deal.

30 min

Document creation

Before using the platform it would take users upto 5-7 days to create the same.

This led to a remarkable reduction in user's efforts

~6.5

Hours Saved Daily

The owners of the company were extremely satisfied with the overall output

It was essentially cost and time saving

Marvelous Ms Designer