Introduction

You are the Marketplace Ops Associate of a platform that globally has buyers and sellers for
preloved and vintage clothing. The platform has multiple seller profiles that range from
sellers operating out of small shops to sellers operating at scale out of warehouses and
import/export zones. As Marketplace Ops Associate your main task is to ensure that all
product uploads meet the quality standards and benchmarks and maintain integrity of the
platform to gain the trust of all buyers. Each week our supply team shares a list of products
that they have received demand for or expect to get demand through campaigns from the
1,000+ active buyers on the platform. Suppliers on Fleek have strong and established supply
chains and are in the business because they have mastered the art of sourcing vintage
clothing.

Task 1
ABC Vintage was onboarded on the platform a few weeks ago and has been in the business
of vintage clothing for the past 10 years. While there is no guaranteed timeline of when a
newly onboarded supplier will get their first order, a few suppliers onboarded after ABC
Vintage have successfully fulfilled their first (few) orders. ABC Vintage is a veteran in this
industry and can source vintage clothing very effectively.

As a Marketplace Ops Associate you are tasked with investigating why ABC Vintage has not
been able gain any traction with buyers and as a result has not been able to make a sale.
Given ABC vintage has already uploaded a handful of products, what aspects of these active
products will you investigate to share feedback with ABC Vintage and how can you scale this
feedback to all new suppliers struggling to make a sale. To what extent does platform
visibility play a role in getting sales?

Answer:

I will investigate following aspects:

 Is product picture of good quality and compare it with those vendors whose sale is on
higher side and if any anomaly is found, will try to fix that since pictures are the first
impression for customers.
 Proper product description: if the supplier lacks proper product description regarding
the brand, material, pockets if any of which season one should wear it, then we will
try to get this fixed as well since lack of info demotivates customers from ordering.
 Shipping policy as well as exchange and return policy along with delivery fees is an
important element.
 Clothes are of poor quality or worn out. People do order pre loved clothes but if these
clothes are worn out or have poor quality then customers might not order them.

Platform visibility does play and important element. As a famous idiom: what is seen is sold.
If there is lack of visibility or these items are shown in last pages, then obviously the supplier
will lack sale. Fleek should charge their suppliers with premium listing which will increase
their reveunes and brands will spend on these features to get better visibility on their app
since the brand itself is having good eyeballs and other suppliers are enjoying good sale so
these features will help fleek in extra revenue and brands will get better sales after going for
these marketing expenditures.

Task 2

In the current product upload flow, suppliers are required to generate shipping estimates
based on two inputs; Fixed box dimensions and how many pieces fit in a box of this size
(screenshot attached). The current process of generating shipping estimates is cumbersome
and frustrating for suppliers due to multiple back and forth with the Marketplace Ops teams
that are responsible for getting the right shipping estimates.

Suppliers either underestimate shipping and bear the cost or overestimate shipping and as a
result overcharge buyers (prices on Fleek are shipping inclusive and the buyers bear the
cost of shipping). You are tasked with the following.
a. Prepare a single page infographic that can be circulated and shared with suppliers
who are confused about how shipping works.
b. What alternative approach or method would you recommend improving accuracy and
efficiency of shipping estimates
c. What vendors would you prioritise and why?

a) And b) Answer
Here we will be sharing a prototype like this with suppliers where we will let them know the
exact dimensions of the boxes and suggest them the height and width of the box and ask
them to add products in it accordingly. If the order is of let’s say single shirts then we can
use plastic flyers which will avoid wastage of delivery material and reduce delivery cost for
customers. Similarly, we can give customers choice of shipping for boxes and flyers and if
they choose certain delivery package, we can charge them accordingly. Usually, customers
are more satisfied with certain type of delivery packaging so this choice will motivate them to
order from us.

b) Answer

These are the following vendors to whom I will prioritise:

Sum of vendor base Sum of shipping Shipping Cost in Comparison to Base

Brands
price cost Price
hsvintageltd 7 96 1283%
infinity-vintage 959 2,125 222%
vibe-vintage 948 939 99%
vintage-clouds 801 680 85%
azaad-rags 570 370 65%
rehan-vintage 2,267 1,312 58%
am-z-vintage 847 489 58%
786-vintage-rags 1,013 512 51%
sherry-vintage-
765 371 48%
store
old-school 368 169 46%
reloved 1,052 457 43%
s-r-enterprises 2,900 1,252 43%
hh-vintage 180 77 43%
mh-vintage-2 628 268 43%
anees-ulhaq 6,058 2,556 42%
arif-enterprises-2 5,275 2,097 40%

The rational behind this is that their shipping cost in comparison with their base price is way
high and this hike usually demotivates customers from ordering where they are paying
higher shipping cost then the product price itself. Doing this will motivate customers for
ordering and this will bring back lost customers and help us gain new customers.

Task 3

Feedback from the growth team has pointed out that in recent months the trust level on the
platform has taken a hit but the percentage of repeat customers has remained constant.
Customers have complained that they can’t find relevant products and usually only come
across attractive bundles by luck. Some of our new buyers have gone through
underwhelming experiences and posted about these online.

The Fleek platform has limited prime real estate on the website/app and needs to be very
cautious about when, who and why a supplier or category gets featured on the ‘Featured
Vendor List’ and ‘Top Categories’ section of the homepage. You are tasked with proposing a
framework to identify what suppliers should go up on the featured vendor list and
recommend new categories for the homepage section.

Data file is also attached to the email. Please use data to back up your analysis and
recommendations while solving the case

These following vendor must be highlighted at Featured vendor list:

The reason behind this decision is that these brands are the one which have highest
orders on fleek. Out of 25.45 million orders, these brands only had 14.16 million orders
which is 55.66% of total business on our platform. These 17 suppliers out of total 194
suppliers are main contributors to our business and putting them on featured list will
contribute in more orders. Also, out of these many orders for vintage-silver, there were only
14 complaints which means that customers are satisfied with their product.

Along with that, Product Clicks for the following brands are also high which means adding
them in the premium featured list will enhance the conversion and yield with better sales.

We need to add new categories on front page which highlight new product range for different
seasons like those suppliers who are selling winters outfits and have higher conversion in
those items shall be highlighted on top in months where the demand for winter products are
higher. Categories should be season or outfit based and those brands which have SKUs in
that clothing line shall be highlighted on top.