Product design, user experience
Vend follow feature
Helping users discover relevant items faster and boosting engagement through personalized seller updates
2025
As part of transitioning all Vend brands into a unified platform, we identified an opportunity to improve user engagement. A market gap analysis revealed that the Vend marketplace was the only one lacking a feature that allows users to follow their favorite sellers.
To explore this further, we conducted a quick survey on FINN.no and Tori.fi, which showed strong user interest. These findings were later validated through follow-up interviews.
My role
Working closely with my co-designer, I played an active role in aligning stakeholders around the importance of the feature by clearly presenting both its user value and business impact. We validated the concept through user surveys and interviews. I was also involved in defining the feature in detail and collaborating with multiple internal teams to ensure a seamless experience across the entire user journey.
Providing user value
Introducing a follow feature on Vend marketplaces supports several key goals. It helps maintain competitiveness by aligning with market standards where users can track their favorite sellers. It also ensured a smoother transition for DBA users who were already familiar with this functionality, reducing friction and preserving expected value.
Driving engagement
At the same time, it creates opportunities for personalization by tailoring content and recommendations based on user interests, and ultimately boosts engagement by encouraging users to return to the platform to check relevant updates from sellers they follow.
The impact
One of the key metrics we tracked after launch was the number of meaningful actions users took after visiting an ad via a notification from a seller they follow. These actions included favoriting an ad, messaging the seller, or clicking the transaction button. For example, on Blocket, up to 15% of users who clicked a notification favorited an ad, while up to 5% went on to complete a transaction.
Enabling power users
Introducing this feature required careful consideration, as the goal was not to turn Vend into a social platform, but to help users discover relevant items more quickly through sellers they find interesting. While it may not benefit all user groups, a significant number would gain value from following sellers of their choice.