JOOR, Order Review Senior Product Manager

📌  Summary

• Led the rebuild of JOOR’s decade-old checkout flow (serving 375K+ brands/retailers) resulting in a +98% surge in retail order submissions, +50% faster page load times, and -22% lower (order-related) support cases.
• Embedded payment monetization directly into the checkout workflow, driving +87% retailer engagement and 112% marketing traffic to JOOR Pay sign ups. Learn more about JOOR Pay in my other case study.
• Executed zero-downtime rollout for 350K+ retailers via phased betas, retiring 12 legacy services and 3 of the highest traffic pages on the platform, while balancing peak seasonal demands.

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⚠️  Problem

• In 2022, JOOR, a platform supporting +375K brands/retailers and processing $5.7B annually, faced a critical challenge: its decade old core technology was directly causing widespread churn across customers and severely blocking prospective business opportunities. User frustration steadily grew, primarily due to lagging platform performance, especially within the most actively used products, the Order Review and Checkout flows.
• A prior attempt to modernize this in 2019 (by another team) was ultimately scrapped, with a 60% user opt-out rate due to a lack of user research and feature parity. Recognizing the urgency, I stepped in to spearhead a complete rebuild of the checkout experience, aiming to revitalize user satisfaction, boost key platform metrics, and establish a modernized tech foundation well suited for rapid development.
• Note: This case study focuses on the Retailer experience, though I concurrently developing the Brand experience .

🎯  Business Objectives

• Reduce Customer Churn & Improve Retention
• Significantly decrease annual subscription churn by directly addressing user pain points in the Order Review and Checkout experience, aiming to demonstrably improve customer retention rates year-over-year
• Drive Revenue Growth Through Platform Monetization
• Increase overall revenue by optimizing the checkout process to accelerate retailer adoption of on-platform payments (JOOR Pay), directly contributing to measurable growth in transaction volume and associated platform revenue streams.
• Enhance Operational Efficiency & Lower Support Costs
• Streamline platform operations to substantially reduce product support inquiries related to checkout issues and successfully migrate away from costly legacy infrastructure, leading to quantifiable improvements in platform performance and a reduction in operational overhead.

☝️  Product Objectives

• Boost Retailer Order Submission Rate
• Improve the Order Review and Checkout experience to significantly increase the rate of completed order submissions from retailers, with a specific focus on SMB segments to drive higher platform engagement and transaction frequency.
• Elevate Retailer Satisfaction with Order Workflow
• Achieve a marked improvement in retailer satisfaction scores and positive user sentiment related to order review workflows through a more intuitive, efficient, and reliable user experience, particularly for complex, large-volume orders.
• Accelerate Order Completion Cycle Time
• Reduce the average time for retailers to finalize and submit orders by implementing product enhancements that streamline each step of the order review process, directly contributing to increased retailer productivity and platform efficiency.

🔍  Research Goals

• Confirm whether poor platform/page performance was the primary friction point affecting user workflows.
• Identify key factors driving churn, order abandonment, and user drop-off.
• Pinpoint specific areas of friction and user frustration within the Retailer ordering workflow.
• Quantify existing page performance and measure corresponding product-support burdens.
• Map critical user journeys, leveraging data to visualize "happy paths" and identify persistent pain points.

😣  User Paint Points & Opportunity Areas

• Poor Performance & Unclear System Errors
• Retailers experience frequent page freezes and unclear error messaging, significantly hindering successful order submissions and triggering excessive product-support intervention.
• “My screen freezes anytime I try to view a large order.”
• “I don’t know why I can’t submit my order sometimes.”
• Inability to Edit Submitted Orders Causes Abandonment
• Retailers avoid directly submitting orders due to inability to make edits or retract submissions. Lacking in-platform revision capabilities forces inefficient off-platform communication, shifting order workload back onto Brands.
• “I can’t revise or retract my orders after submission when I made a mistake.”
• “It’s hard to communicate to the brand that I want to revise my order after submission.”

• Critical Need for Efficient, Clear Order Management
• Retailers managing numerous simultaneous orders require robust searching, filtering, and bulk actions for quicker identification and simplified review processes, which currently prevent self-sufficient order completion.
• “JOOR is difficult to use so I rely on my Brand to make changes and finalize the order for me.”
• “Since I have hundreds of orders simultaneously in progress, I need to easily identify orders and confirm information before submitting.”
• Low Awareness of Integrated Payments Solutions (JOOR Pay)
• Low on-platform payment initiation (<15%) indicates unclear communication and visibility gaps, reducing utilization of integrated payment solutions.
• “JOOR has the option for online payments?”
• “How do I get my Brands to sign up for JOOR Pay?”

🔑  Solutions

1. Order Review Page
• Opportunity: As a JOOR Retailer, I avoid finalizing orders on the platform due to poor performance, confusing errors, and difficulty quickly reviewing and editing order details.
• Desired Outcome: Faster page performance, increased core-feature usage, lower support volume, and extended retailer engagement.
• Solutions: (SOW - 3 quarters)
• ⚡️ Boosted Performance 54% with modernized React-based design, providing lasting speed, stability, and an agile, modular UI architecture.
• 💡 Optimized Experience: Implemented intuitive 3-tab navigation, 20+ clear error states, and 50+ unique messages, prioritizing critical order information for quick visibility and smoother validations.
• 🤝 Enabled Collaboration & Flexibility: Developed easy order-sharing tools, customizable order names, shared comments, and streamlined post-submission editing to facilitate efficient order processing.
• ✅ Validated with User Feedback: Conducted 9 focused usability tests, confirming intuitive design, promoting navigation ease, and quickly iterating based on retailer insights.
2. Cart Page
• Opportunity: As a JOOR Retailer, I avoid submitting orders due to the inability to revise my orders post-submission and the inadequacy of on-platform communication.
• Desired Outcome: Increased retailer-submitted orders, longer platform sessions, and substantially reduced order submission barriers.
• Solutions: (SOW - 2 sprints)
• 🔄 Post-Submission Edits: Enabled retailers to modify order details and product selections post-submission.
• 🛠 Brand-Controlled Access: Allowed brands flexibility, with permissions toggling retailer editing capabilities to fit their operational preference.

3. Order List Page
• Opportunity: As a JOOR Retailer, I struggle to quickly find relevant orders and lack efficient bulk order management capabilities.
• Desired Outcome: Increased retailer-initiated orders, improved productivity, easier navigation, and higher retail engagement.
• Solutions: (SOW - 4 sprints)
• ✨ Modernized UI & Flexibility: Deployed a rapid, React-based Order List redesign to align seamlessly with our updated user experience and to set foundations for future agile enhancements.
• 🚀 Rapid Order Location: Added advanced search, intuitive filters, and adjustable viewing options to swiftly pinpoint orders.
• 🛠 Bulk Actions & Efficiency: Highlighted bulk capabilities—multi-order status changes, "Copy Order" to easily replicate orders, and quick removal of incomplete product allocations—accelerating retailer workflows significantly.
4. Order Review Page - Pay Tab
• Opportunity: As a JOOR Retailer, I either don't know about, or find it difficult to utilize, integrated payment options on-platform—limiting my adoption of JOOR Pay.
• Desired Outcome: Greater retailer engagement with JOOR Pay, increased retailer advocacy pushing their brands toward platform-monetization conversion.
• Solutions: (SOW - 3 sprints)
• 💸 Integrated, Simple Payments: Embedded payment functionality directly into the order workflow via a dedicated Pay tab, allowing streamlined payment submission and transactions tracking.
• 📢 Built-In JOOR Pay Awareness Funnel: Explicitly highlighted JOOR Pay availability, enabling retailers to easily request their brands adopt JOOR Pay.
• 🚀 Enhanced Adoption: Facilitated frictionless retailer experience and increased visibility to motivate both retailers and brands towards JOOR Pay utilization.

🚀  GTM Plan

• Opt-in Alpha Group: Conducted an initial Alpha phase by offering users an on-platform option to opt-in via a Pendo survey; 88 retailers participated.
• Feedback & Iteration: Facilitated 5 comprehensive user-feedback sessions with Alpha group
• Staged Beta Launches: After Alpha validation, gradually rolled out via three structured beta cohorts based on high-utilization of key order features:
• Beta Group 1: 500 active retailers across NA
• Beta Group 2: Expanded to additional 1,000 active retailers across NA/EMEA
• Beta Group 3: Additional 5,000 active retailers across NA/EMEA/APAC
• Launched an in-app beta feedback survey (developed in collaboration with Product Support) to continuously gather, analyze, and implement feedback before General Availability.
• After addressing Beta learnings and ensuring product stability, the fully optimized experience was launched to all +360K retailers globally including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Shopbop, Net-a-Porter, and more.

📄  GTM Deliverables

• Internal Enablement & Training:
• GTM Training Video, Internal Documentation, Internal Release Notes, Product Support Team Training, LMS-Hosted Internal Training
• External User Communication & Education:
• Interactive In-Product Onboarding Tutorial (Pendo)
• On-Platform Pendo Announcements ("Coming Soon" and General Availability)
• Dedicated User Marketing Email, External Release Notes, Customer Training Videos, Customer Help Center Articles (with Legacy Documentation deprecated accordingly), Newsletter Beta Invite ("Early Access" Call-to-Action)
• Regional Customer Webinars:
• Delivered targeted webinars in 7 regional markets: Italian, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, US, and APAC locales—ensuring clarity, accessibility, and ease of adoption for global user segments.

📈  Key Results

• Performance Improvements
• Responsiveness: Improved by 70.4% (from 9.77s to 2.89s)
• Page Load Time: Improved by 53.3% (from 15s to 7s)
• Operational & Support Efficiency
• Support Volume: Reduced Order Review-related support cases by 22.2% YoY
• Successful Customer & Technical Migration
• Retailer Account Migration: Completed migration of 100% of 350K+ retailer accounts
• Legacy Service Sunset: Successfully deprecated 100% of 12 legacy order services
• Legacy Page Deprecation: Successfully deprecate and replaced 3/5 of the slowest and error-prone pages on the platform

• Platform Engagement
• Core Feature Utilization: Increased average usage by 58% (e.g., Order Submissions, Invoice Downloads, Searching, and Filters)
• Order Status Updates: Retailer-initiated order submissions increased by 98%
• JOOR Pay Interaction (Pay Tab): Retailer usage increased by 87%
• JOOR Pay Marketing Visitors: Retailer Visitors funneled from Order review increased by 112%
• Session Duration: Increased average session time by 55% (14m 2s average)
• Scroll Depth: Reduced average scroll depth by 93%

🚧  Challenges

Navigating Seasonal Usage Peaks with Strategic Tradeoffs

• A major challenge was balancing our ambitious goal of fully migrating legacy infrastructure with the time-sensitive demands of luxury wholesale's seasonal peaks (in this case Autumn/Winter Fashion weeks).
• Through extensive user research, we uncovered that retailers typically quantified product selections off-platform, meaning our highest-priority action could focus elsewhere. We strategically deferred migrating the highly complex "Edit/Quantify Products" component by modifying this PHP functionality to fit seamlessly into the new React experience.
• This decision allowed us to launch 2.5 months ahead of peak season, giving users vital acclimation time and our team valuable early and actionable feedback.

💡  Learnings

Accessible Feedback Loops and Gradual Migration Mitigates Launch Risk

• Incrementally rolling out major customer-facing changes through staged beta segments and creating well-defined, convenient channels to capture early and frequent user feedback significantly reduced the risk of adoption pushback.
• We were able to actively monitor usage data and adjust based on real-time user feedback to reduce adoption friction before reaching full-scale deployment.