Problem

At the risk of dating myself here 😅, Glyde got its start as a marketplace focused on media - books, video games, CDs, DVDs - at a time when those were still a big thing! The problem was that growing Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) and turning a profit was quite a challenge with such a low value product category. And, both volume of marketplace activity and value of items continued to decrease as usage of such media gradually phased out as it all moved online. Thus, we had to make a serious change if we wanted to stay in business.

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We saw 2 opportunities: First, the usage of smartphones and tablets were growing rapidly. We knew this could be interesting because it would take us to a whole new level in terms of average transaction size, GMV, and profit margin. We saw signals from eBay, Craigslist, and a few others that there was already a lot of activity and demand in the secondhand marketplace, but we weren't impressed by the solutions we found. Second, software products were going mobile, and we wanted to be ahead of the curve. We wanted to be accessible when people were on the go, whenever and wherever.

Solution

We built a dedicated mobile website to introduce our buy & sell marketplace for consumer electronics, which included smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The mobile site did not include our legacy products. Thus, we had to reimagine and create all new user flows that were appropriate for these new product categories. We believed going mobile first was well-aligned with the fact that we were primarily focused on mobile devices in the marketplace! And, it was an opportunity to start from a clean slate with a mobile-first design approach.

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With our big SF citywide marketing push - billboards and ads plastered all over BART, bus stops, buildings, and even pedicabs, we banked on the idea that people during their commute would find sweet deals for the next big thing, and then list on the marketplace the very phone they were using.