Rebuilding seller trust at Fleap
New sellers at Fleap listed their first item in under an hour but churned within weeks. This is the story of rebuilding onboarding and the seller dashboard around the moments that decide whether a seller stays.
My role
Lead product designer
Team
2 engineers, 1 PM, 1 researcher
Shipped
New onboarding, seller dashboard, dispute flow
Outcomes
38%
Fewer new sellers churning in week one
Measured 90 days after release against the previous onboarding.
12 min
Median time to first listing
Down from 40 minutes on the old flow.
4.8/5
Seller satisfaction with onboarding
In-product survey, n=1,240.
Process
Interview the churned, not just the loyal
ResearchWe called 18 sellers who listed once and never returned. The pattern: they finished onboarding without ever seeing a buyer.
Map the first-fortnight journey
SynthesisA day-by-day map of the seller's first two weeks showed trust collapsing on day three, not day one.
Prototype the listing preview
DesignThree rounds of prototypes with 12 sellers. The preview filled in live; that single detail carried the concept.
Ship in slices behind a flag
DeliveryOnboarding, dashboard and disputes shipped as separate slices, each with its own success metric.
Decisions
Decision 01
Show the marketplace before the checklist
The old onboarding opened with an eleven-step checklist. We replaced it with a live preview of how the seller's listing would appear to buyers, filling in as they progressed. Sellers stopped asking what the work was for.
Trade-offA live preview costs engineering effort on every template change. The team accepted that maintenance to keep motivation visible.
Decision 02
Ask for bank details at the moment of earning
We moved payout setup from step two to the moment the first sale was pending. Sellers who had already earned something completed verification at nearly double the rate.
Trade-offSome sellers hit the payout wall mid-sale and need support. We built an in-context help panel rather than moving the step back.
Decision 03
Make the dashboard honest about slowness
Instead of hiding slow weeks, the dashboard explains them: views, saves and the market median, side by side. Sellers churn less when the system explains itself.
Trade-offShowing market medians risks discouraging small sellers. We tested the copy with them and set the tone to coaching, not grading.