Design a Digital shop? [Product Management Interview]

Image sources: Photo by Mike Petrucci on Unsplash

TechnoManagers is the complete guide for Product Management and Quant Interview preparation.

Interviewer: Design a Digital Shop

Shailesh: okay, let me clarify some questions to get the scope of the problem. What is the objective of designing this digital shop? I am asking this question because the requirements of the different businesses can be different, and they can vary from big enterprise businesses to small and medium-sized businesses also, depending on the nature of the business.
Interviewer: We want to design the digital shop to empower those who don’t have their websites. During the covid era, small and medium-size businesses have taken a hit, so we want to empower them to achieve more.

Shailesh: Great, So we are designing this digital shop for SMEs. Are we going to provide our independent delivery fleet, or does the seller manage it, or does the buyer have to take care of delivery?
Interviewer: For now, you can assume that there is an option of delivery with the help of the existing workforce.

Shailesh: Is this a desktop application or mobile application. Also, is this a single application facilitating both buyers and sellers, or do we have two different apps for both of them?
Interviewer: This is a single application which is facilitating both sides.

Shailesh: Okay, Is this digital shop for a particular segment like clothes, necessary items, perishable or non-perishable? Or can I decide as I approach the problem?
Interviewer: You can decide as you go

Shailesh: One more question; Is there any resource or time constraint I should be aware of? I am asking this because this may help prioritise the product’s features and form a product roadmap.
Interviewer: You can assume we have to deliver this in the next six months.

Shailesh: Okay, let me reiterate the goal so that we are on the same page, “We have to build a digital shop for empowering the small and medium-size businesses.”

The way I would like to approach this problem is first we will see the goal of the product, we will see our customer segment, then will see their user journey after prioritizing them. We can think of the potential pain point of the particular segment and then list some of the solutions. After prioritizing the solutions/features, we can think of their success metrics to see how our product is performing. At last, we can think of some of the future features to be aware of to have a clear vision of the product.
Interviewer: Sounds good, please go ahead.

Shailesh: Let me set the product goal; this product will facilitate both buyers and sellers for a seamless sales experience. With that, let me define the customer segment.

Customer segment

1. Buyers/shoppers
2. Sellers/shopkeeper
3. Delivery executives (If we are facilitating delivery)
4. Suppliers (secondary) I am adding suppliers if we have a vision of an end to end digital supply chain.

I would like to target the shopkeeper because he is the owner of the shop

Image source: Photo by Beth Macdonald on Unsplash

Shopkeeper’s Journey

1. Either they decide to open a new shop or extend branches of their shop.
2. Communicate about their shop to others via templates or hoardings etc.
3. Open the shop daily at a particular time.
4. Clean the shop and arrange all the products at their stipulated place.
5. When a customer comes, show them a different product type in a product category.
6. Bargain with the customer
7. Get the money after a bargain, do all the settlements
8. Check all the inventories that he needs to order from the supplier.

Shopkeepers pain points

1. It is painful to hustle every morning to open the shop.
2. Sometimes shoppers see a lot of items and then don’t buy them. It feels frustrated and time wasted to organise all those products back to their place.
3. It feels helpless to extend the product line because of the limited space in the shop.
4. Bargaining takes a lot of time in a day; it feels even more frustrating when the other shoppers want your attention.
5. There is always mental instability if we have given products on credit. Sometimes it takes a lot of callbacks.
6. Forgetting the things which need to be ordered leads to calling the wholesaler again for the items.
7. Worried about the growth of the shop

Solutions/features

We will have a mobile application that will have the following features

1. We would be able to create as many shops as we want; there would be a description of the shop where the shopkeeper can tell what this shop is all about.
2. In the digital shop, he should be able to organise the different product catalogues for different categories. He should be able to insert any new product, its image price/other details, and which category it belongs.
3. There is one tap sharing feature by which he should be able to share the product catalogue or the complete shop link to their buyer via WhatsApp or any other social media channel.
4. The shopkeeper should get alert whenever something has become out of stock so that he can plan accordingly. After the product is stocked out, it will displace stockout for customers.
5. The shopkeeper should be able to list all the offers and discounts if he wants to give them to the shoppers.
6. If a shopper has opted for delivery, then the shopkeeper should be notified, and by one tap, he should navigate to the delivery place.
7. There should be the provision of digital payment so that shopkeepers can pay online hassle-free. Also, COD option should be available to foster trust.
8. We can also have a chat support feature where shoppers can ask their doubts about the product listings.
9. We can have digital shopping rooms with AR/VR technology for premium customers. In this room, the shopper will get the real shopping experience assisted by the shopkeeper. In this digital shopping room, you can invite a limited number of people with whom you can shop. We have missed social shopping in this pandemic era, so this digital shopping room will be of great help. [Moonshot]
10. We can have an integrated digital supply chain, so every time a product count gets lower than a threshold, automatically, the supplier gets notified for the product to stock up. It will reduce the lead time to get the product, and the sales will not be lost. [Moonshot]

Prioritisation:

Must-Have — #1, #2, #3, #5, #7

Should Have — #4 #6 #8

Nice to Have — #9 #10

• Currently I would like to focus on feature #1, #2, #3, #5 and #7 as these features are the most basic features required by any shopkeeper to start their online business.
• We can keep features #9 and #10 for future scope as they can be deployed once the business is successfully running on the digital platform.

Key metrics

1. Ratio of Number of shopkeepers onboarded and the total number of signups for a particular time.
2. The average number of sales per shopkeeper per day.
3. The ratio of orders place and number of product catalogue shared for a particular amount of time.
4. Daily active shops.
5. The average number of discounts/offers codes availed per day per shop.

Interviewer: Thankyou

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