Shopify x BrainStation

UX/UI Design

My team and I created an integrated chat support assistant that harnessed the power of Shopify’s community ecosystem, partners, and customer service team to help business owners move into the digital marketplace and lower the barrier to digital entrepreneurship.

Project Type

Cross-discipline 24-hr hackathon

My Role

UX Researcher, Design Strategy, UX Designer, Sketching

Timeline

24-Hr

Programs

Figma, Invision, Canva

My Team

UX Designers: Chantal Varon, Maya Skarzenski
Web Dev: Fahd Munir, Yik Tung Yeung, Natanael Javier,
Data Scientist: Ben Katz, Shaneel Appadu

As part of the Shopify x BrainStation Hackathon, our multidisciplinary team of web developers, data scientists and UX designers collaborated to enhance the online e-commerce experience by better leveraging the existing ecosystem of the platform itself.

Problem Statement

What problem are we solving?

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms on the planet with a 23% market share in the U.S. They have more than 2.1 million daily active users and more than 1.75 million merchants.

Their merchants have access to the robust Shopify Ecosystem, a network of partners that includes:

● Developers who create apps for the Shopify app store
● Designers who create themes for the Shopify theme store
● Entrepreneurs, educators, influencers, and content creators who inspire and teach their audience about entrepreneurship with Shopify via the Shopify Affiliate Program.
● Designers, developers and consultants available for hire to help with marketing, store setup,
   custom development, content, and more via the Shopify Experts marketplace.

So they asked...

How can you imagine Shopify using its Ecosystem to help lower the barrier to digital entrepreneurship in entirely new regions, demographics, and business sectors?

How might Shopify better leverage its Ecosystem so that they can make entrepreneurship more accessible than ever before?

Secondary Research

Craft a digital solution using the design thinking process

As we began our secondary research we really wanted to consider misrepresented demographics, or first-time digital merchants, and consider some common barriers they would face while entering the digital sector. We found that …

57%

of small business owners were over the age of 50

70%

of ventures created by older entrepreneurs were still operating compared to 28 percent of their younger counterparts.

1.8x

The typical 50-year-old founder is 1.8 times more likely to achieve high growth

So, what are we to gain with this knowledge?

How might we help older entrepreneurs navigate the digital era so that they feel supported while growing their business?

Proto Persona

Envisioning Our Users

Through our research we began envisioning who our users might be. We found a demographic of users that are typically misrepresented in the digital era. Considering Shopify’s desire to help lower the barrier to new demographics, we found this to be a great group to focus our attention.

In the current landscape, older entrepreneurs feel lost, unsure of where to start, and find the process overwhelming when attempting to integrate into the digital space.

Proto Persona Profile: Tina Caligan
Current Experience

Unveiling opportunities

On your current site we found an opportunity to harness your community ecosystem, partners, and customer service team to help older business owners move into the digital marketplace.

Though you had a forum for community members to connect in, there wasn't much activity when you consider your network of more than 1.75
million merchants.

Our Solution

Craft a digital solution using the design thinking process

We believe that harnessing the power and knowledge within your community can be utilized to assist and support new business owners.

Imagine Uber, meets chatbots meets mentoring.

We developed an integrated chat support assistant that harnessed the power within Shopify's community ecosystem, partners, and customer service team to help older business owners move into the digital marketplace and help lower the barrier to digital entrepreneurship.

Chat Support Assistant

Tina can easily find a chat support that allows her access to Shopify’s entire ecosystem for immediate support on a variety of business needs.

Instant Community
or Mentor Support

She can access Shopify’s community, mentor or customer service support team member to chat now or set up a meeting to get help for any of her questions.

Wait Time Notifications

With Shopify’s network of more than 1.75 located all over, Tina can select a source of help and get paired with a member in her network of entrepreneurs.

Video Chat / screen share

Tina can then have a video chat with screen share capabilities so that she can easily get the support she needs to avoid feeling overwhelmed and siloed.