Jul 25 - Sep 25
Smooth communication between buyers and sellers is critical.
Before the redesign, buyers had to contact sellers via an outdated feature that relied on external email communication. We designed a native Message Center, which became a space for buyers and sellers to communicate directly within the platform, while reducing dependency on Customer Service.
Full breakdown of the case study available on request
Context
Before designing the Message Center, at Metro, buyers who needed to contact sellers were redirected outside the platform to an Anonymous Emails service: the system generated encrypted addresses so that neither party saw the other’s real email, but the experience was clunky, hard to track, and often led to long back-and-forth exchanges. Messages got lost, attachments were difficult to manage, and Customer Service frequently had to intervene.
Below there is an example of how Anonymous Emails worked.
Goal
Our goal was to design a native communication system that allows buyers and sellers to exchange messages directly within the platform, without relying on these external emails.
We wanted to make communication simple, traceable, and user-friendly, while maintaining the same level of security and data protection as before: by introducing a centralized inbox experience, we aimed to reduce friction, improve response times, and cut down on unnecessary Customer Service intervention.
This new system would give users full visibility of their conversations, support attachments and order context, and ultimately help build trust and transparency across the marketplace.
Impact
Team
Product discovery
As I needed to understand how communication flowed between buyers, sellers, and Customer Service, and why it caused so much friction, I kicked off the Discovery phase with 6 interviews with Customer Support agents and 8 interviews with the Seller Support teams.
I discovered that the process depended on too many disconnected systems:
FreshDesk for tickets, Genesys for email reminders.
Seller Office for replies.
Marketplace for buyer requests.
I mapped the full flow of how a single buyer query was handled, from when they contacted Customer Service to when the agent forwarded the issue to a seller. What I found was a cycle of delays, missed responses, and repeated escalations due to unclear responsibilities and overdue SLAs.
Pain Points
After the interviews, I documented the pain points for each user group:
Buyers couldn’t view sent or received messages, and had no record of previous conversations.
Sellers had to rely on their mailbox, couldn’t see conversation history in Seller Office, and often missed SLAs.
Agents were stuck in loops of back-and-forth messages and couldn’t resolve issues without seller replies.
This gave us a clear picture, shedding a light on the lack of a unified communication space. This was not just a UX problem, but a structural bottleneck affecting service quality across the marketplace.
MVP Scope
Once we validated the concept, we defined the minimum viable product to focus on one goal: enable seamless, traceable communication between buyers and sellers directly within the platform. The MVP included:
A centralized message inbox for both buyer and seller sides.
The ability to send and receive messages linked to specific orders.
Basic message statuses (new, waiting, resolved, over SLA) for visibility and accountability.
Secure data handling that maintained anonymity between both parties.
We intentionally postponed more complex features, such as dashboards for Seller SLAs, AI-driven response suggestions, and deeper integrations with FreshDesk and Back Office, to later iterations.
Low-fidelity wireframes
After mapping the existing flow and identifying all system touchpoints, I started exploring how to bring every interaction back inside the Metro ecosystem. My focus during ideation was on unifying communication and creating clarity. We wanted to design a space where both buyers and sellers could manage all their conversations in one place, with visibility on order details, message history, and response status.
I sketched early versions of the Message Center, defining key structural elements such as:
A central message list with conversation states (waiting, needs reply, resolved, over SLA).
A chat-like message panel that includes timestamps, attachments, and quick reply actions.
A context sidebar displaying order, payment, and contact details to reduce back-and-forth.
I validated these early wireframes with Customer Service and Seller Support teams to ensure the general direction would fit their workflows.
Inbox & filters
The inbox gives users a clear overview of all ongoing conversations: each message is tied to a specific order number and includes the buyer and seller names, a short message preview, and SLA status. Unread messages appear with a light grey background and a subtle side stroke, making it easy to scan and prioritize.
The search bar lets users look up conversations by order number, while filters allow them to refine results so sellers can focus on what’s most urgent.
Conversation threads
This area brings together all messages exchanged for a single order: each conversation follows a clear, chat-like layout with timestamps and status labels for full traceability. Sellers and buyers can attach images or documents directly within the thread: for example, to share photos of damaged products or proof of delivery without leaving the platform.
Once an issue is solved, the conversation can be resolved or archived, helping users keep their inbox organized and focused on active cases.
Order, Seller & Customer context
The right panel starts with Order Details, showing the product image, price, delivery dates, and tracking number, allowing sellers to confirm information instantly without switching tabs.
Below that, Seller and Customer Details give verified contact and performance information, helping both sides assess reliability and build trust.
For internal users, a Private Notes section enables teams to leave context-specific remarks: for example, flagging recurring buyers or prioritizing certain replacements, which remain invisible to customers.
Testing
The Message Center was launched across selected Metro domains in early September 2025, so our first month focused on adoption and early behavioral signals rather than long-term metrics. So far, over 3,000 conversations successfully initiated through the new Message Center in the first rollout phase. We’ve observed:
A noticeable drop in Customer Service escalation rates for “contact seller” requests.
Faster first-response times, with early data showing an average improvement of around 15–20% compared to the previous email-based system.
Higher message visibility, as sellers can now track unread and overdue conversations directly from their dashboard.
Positive qualitative feedback from Customer Service teams, who described the feature as “the first time communication feels truly connected to the marketplace."
Closing notes
This project taught me how deeply product design is tied to operational systems, and how even small interaction improvements can reshape internal workflows at scale. What began as a straightforward UX challenge evolved into a cross-functional effort involving engineering, Customer Service, and marketplace operations.
Leading this initiative helped me grow as a systems thinker: aligning multiple teams under one vision, translating complex service flows into intuitive user experiences, and proving how design can drive measurable efficiency.
The Message Center is now live in its first markets, and the next iterations will focus on expanding to additional countries, deepening integrations with Seller Office and Freshdesk, and in the future ideas of introducing AI-assisted responses and SLA dashboards.