Custom Quotes
Freightos is an online marketplace, where any person can submit their shipment details online and receive quotes based on search/input. After clicking on the search button, they are redirected to the search results page, where they can select a quote and make a payment. This entire process can take around 5 minutes and buyers who receives an immediate quote it will convert into a shipment 40.9% of searches .
Sometimes however, buyers may search for a shipping quote, and receive no results. In this case, the user is required to fill a custom quote form. This form is sent to the operations team and they attempt to create a shipment offline; correspond with different freight forwarders directly, receive price offers, communicate with buyers etc. This process might take at least 3 days... :( with a very low conversion rate as can be expected.
Here's a quick view of the online flow:
[ Receiving a custom quote form after searching ]
The other reason to fill out a custom quote form, is when a user wants to book a shipment not via the website, when it's off line, if the user calls the Freightos support and receives a link to fill out the for.m directly
The matrix
I learned and found out that in one year there were more than 6k Custom Quotes and that 66.8% of the custom quotes where valid and there for could become shipmments while 33.2% where rejected.
6463 submitted custom quotes
19
100
137
282
254
340
286
384
297
380
447
352
443
400
495
533
373
431
548
520
08.17
09.17
10.17
11.17
12.17
01.18
02.18
03.18
04.18
05.18
06.18
07.18
08.18
09.18
10.18
11.18
12.18
01.19
02.19
03.19
532
04.19
[ Monthly number of custom quotes ]
The Matrix
I learned and found out that in one year there were more than 6k Custom Quotes and that 66.8% of the custom quotes where valid and there for could become shipmments while 33.2% where rejected.
6463 submitted custom quotes
19
100
137
282
254
340
286
384
297
380
447
352
443
400
495
533
373
431
548
520
08.17
09.17
10.17
11.17
12.17
01.18
02.18
03.18
04.18
05.18
06.18
07.18
08.18
09.18
10.18
11.18
12.18
01.19
02.19
03.19
532
04.19
[ Monthly number of custom quotes ]
I compared between the overall number of shipments and the ones that are custom quotes related and the outcome from each group and realized the it's more than 20% worth!
Number of shipments
$GB by quote type
9.55% Custom quotes
91.5% Non custom quotes
20.3% Custom quotes
79.7% Non custom quotes
[ Custom quotes vs. regular shipments ]
SEARCH ERRORS
Users entered wrong address,
and wrong weight or size
13%
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
When trying to ship batteries or forbidden materials
20%
MULTIPLE ADDRESSESS
Users who would like to ship to multiple destinations/origins
14%
The Triggers
I mapped all the reasons of the online search>custom quotes flow and marked the reasons why a buyer will receive a no results and will be requested to fill out a custom quote form. Here are the triggers for this situation:
OUT OF SCOPE COUNTRIES
Users enter countries where there are no logistics providers
20%
MODE COMPARISON
When buyer would like to compare air and ocean
7%
PREMIUM RATES
When frequent buyers get special price offers
6.5%
The Flow
After mapping the triggers to the custom quotes flow, I went through the entire flow of the customs quotes, speaking to all the stakeholders, operations teams, customer service, freight team, R&D and business. Understanding how it works from all angles and scenarios.
[ Custom quotes flow ]
UX & UI
After the research I described above, i had the full picture of the triggers to custom quotes I was able to select "low hanging fruit" opportunities that will also make the a difference. I will show quick two examples:
01. Size matters
One of the main reasons for getting custom quotes flow is that users entered wrong dimensions and weight (13.3%). In the past there was no title above the input field and users used to place overall size/weight of the entire shipment in some cases. I added titles that stay there, and don't disappear while entering the shipment details, as it used to be before, to avoid confusion.
Old
New
[ Before and after: with or without title ]
02. Hazardous
One of the reasons to get custom quotes form is due to shipping batteries. Currently the logistics providers due to regulations are not able to ship batteries. Now we added a warning alerts that highlights the the fact that shipping batteries isn't possible, so we save the time and effort for the shipper and for the teams all together.
Clicking on the check box
The hazardous alert guide
[ Hazardous flow ]
After addressing the issues I mentioned custom quotes reduced from 9.55% to 6.3%! and GB from non custom quotes increased as well.
Want to see the entire UX flow? Rates page full UX process.pdf