Discovery

I started by reviewing research from recent seller studio visits. Our sellers used the existing printouts in a lot of creative ways and for most, it was a key piece of their fulfillment process. I grouped the usage into two main use cases:

1. Case A: Seller prints out a list of orders to plan their schedule. They mark any notes (ring size, shipping dates, etc) directly on the printout.

2. Case B: Seller prints out the receipt page to be used as a packing slip

These use cases revealed two types of printouts that needed further exploration.

Packing slips

• For the buyer​

• Designed to be included with the order in the package

• Will allow sellers to match up shipping labels to orders before shipping them off

• Will allow for optional branding of some sort

• Can be used as receipts for the buyers

• Will be a great way to promote the shop by allowing sellers to include coupon code

​Order receipts​

• ​For the seller​

• Designed to be used while fulfilling the order

• Will allow sellers to include private notes in addition to buyer notes

• Allows for some branding (in the case that they have multiple shops)

My next step was determining the information required on each printout.

Ideation

After collecting examples of packing slips from every eCommerce website I could think of, I started laying out some initial ideas. To my surprise, there really weren’t many great packing slips out there, so I was inspired to give our sellers the best.

While I explored different directions, a few insights from research stuck with me:

1. Shop branding: Packaging an item was one of the biggest opportunities for a shop to share their brand. Our existing packing slips were so bad that many sellers had designed their own and would manually copy order information on to it.

2. Workflow: Some sellers would print out all of their orders and arrange them on their desk or wall to create a todo list or take notes. Sometimes this print out would move between each until finally making it into the box.

3. Clarity: Sellers were nervous about making sure the shipping label matched the order.

4. Efficiency: It was a lot of paper, often with wasted space.

To help with shop branding, I increased the size of the shop’s icon and moved their note to the top of the packing slip. For the order receipt, I explored two types to complement a seller’s workflow: 1. A combined view of all of their orders and 2. A receipt with a focus on the buyer’s details. Both included a checklist so that sellers could mark their progress. I also explored combining the packing slip and the order receipt onto one page so that sellers could either fold or cut them when the item was complete.

When we showed these to sellers they were so happy we were working on them and gave great feedback.

• There wasn’t an address on the packing slip. I had intentionally removed this thinking the buyer didn’t need to see their own address when they opened the box with their item. However, sellers used this to match shipping labels to the correct order.

• The larger shop icon was great but sellers wanted more of their branding.

• Sellers weren’t interested in the condensed view. For the most part, sellers preferred to have a piece of paper for each order even if they didn’t end up including it and they made me realize that they would have to reprint this every time they got a new order which could be frequently.

• Although they loved the idea of the combined packing slip and order receipt, they said dealing with scissors or a packing slip with a jagged edge would drive them crazy so they probably wouldn’t use it. Instead, they suggested we allow them to print two packing slips side by side to save paper.

At the same time I was exploring the printout designs, I was working on the experience that would allow sellers to print in bulk and customize their packing slips. I started by trying to solve two big problems:

• Gift orders. At the time, there was no way for buyers or sellers to mark an order as a gift so instead, buyers would convo sellers to let them know. When this happened, sellers had the option to print a different packing slip or they would remove prices another way.

• Removing images. We had heard in past research that some sellers wanted packing slips without images. For some sellers, it was to save colored ink and for others, it was because the images took up a lot of vertical space and made relatively small orders print out across multiple pages.

When we usability tested the printouts above, we also tested these overlays. Sellers were really happy to see options and their only feedback was “more options”.

By the time we finished testing the first round of designs, my internship had come to an end. A few months later when I returned full-time, my team had just started working on it again, so they brought me up to speed and I resumed work on the project.

After I had revisited the designs I had done prior and reviewed the feedback from usability testing, I started iterating on the original direction. I started by exploring ways to add more order details to the packing slip by splitting the packing slip body into two columns. I also introduced the shop’s banner to the layout, initially placing it in the right-hand column because I was concerned about the amount of vertical space it took up. However, when testing with the widest shop name, WomenWhoSoldTheWorld, it didn’t end up working. I ended up putting both the banner and the shop name on separate lines so that they both had enough space. Lastly, after receiving guidance from a designer with more print experience than me, I aligned everything to a grid which helped with overall rhythm.

The footer

The last area I focused on was the footer. I wanted to achieve two things: 1. Create a space for Etsy’s brand without competing with the shop’s brand and 2. Allow sellers to offer coupons without having to include it in their note to buyers.

I had explored several areas where coupon codes could be included on packing slips but because I wanted to encouraged buyers to tear or cut off the coupon to save them for later, I chose the footer to make that easier. Allowing buyers to cut off the coupon meant they needed to include enough information to be separate from the rest of the packing slip and because packing slips were translated into other languages, they needed enough space to display “Free shipping” in German.

Lastly, in addition to adding a small Etsy logo to the bottom, I worked with our Sustainability team to come up with creative ways for buyers to reuse the packing slip and the Buyer Experience team to encourage buyers to leave a review of the items they purchased.

Giving sellers more options

After I had finalized the design of the packing slips and order receipts, I revisited the tools that would allow sellers to customize these printouts. After adding more content and hearing in usability testing that sellers wanted more options, I added more options. Now, sellers could bulk print their orders, choosing a packing slip, an order receipt or both while customizing exactly what was shown. I made it easy for sellers to add notes to their packing slips, toggle images on and off and create coupon codes on the fly. Despite requests, I didn’t end up allowing sellers to turn off the Etsy footer.