Wayfair · Supplier experience · 2020–2024

Supplier onboarding

Onboarding cut from 60+ days to 15 by fixing the order of the steps, not the screens.

Partner Home service hub · final design

Role: Sole product designer, end to end
Timeline: Oct 2020 – Apr 2024
Partners: Suppliers, acquisition & enablement, engineering
Scale: 8,000+ suppliers a year

75%: faster onboarding, 60+ days to 15
+20%: supplier conversion
+30%: supplier engagement

The problem

A supplier waited two months before selling a single product.

Every supplier passes business and identity verification. The workflow was regulated, high-trust, and slow.

The previous supplier onboarding experience: a landing page followed by long forms — Before · a landing page, then long forms with no sense of progress

The reframe

The bottleneck wasn’t on the screen.

A usability study with suppliers and funnel data pointed to the same cause: backend steps ran one after another, so suppliers waited on work they couldn’t see.

Research method: moderated usability testing with eight potential partners in the US and EU — Moderated usability testing with 8 potential partners

Research summary pairing six key learnings with six recommendations — What we learned, and what we recommended

The decision

Keep every check. Change the order they run in.

The faster-looking fix was cutting verification. In a regulated workflow, speed couldn’t cost trust.

I chose: Reordering backend steps so work ran without making suppliers wait
I gave up: The quick win of removing checks
Why: Compliance relied on every check

Exploration

Four ways to show progress, tested before we picked one.

I facilitated ideation workshops with the cross-functional team, then explored predefined verticals, a vertical stepper, fixed footer navigation and a horizontal stepper.

Cross-functional ideation workshop with sticky notes on the wall — Ideation workshop with the cross-functional team

Concept: predefined verticals explaining what it takes to become a Wayfair partner — Predefined verticals

Concept: vertical progress stepper with the onboarding steps in a sidebar — Vertical progress stepper

Concept: fixed footer navigation with a welcome screen — Fixed footer navigation

Concept: horizontal progress stepper across the top of each form — Horizontal progress stepper

What shipped

One service hub: every task, its status and how long it takes.

Suppliers see what’s left at a glance and launch the moment they reach 100%.

Partner Home at 100% with every onboarding task complete and a Ready to launch button — Ready to launch · final design

Key feature: clear progress indicators on the service hub — Clear progress indicators

Key feature: step-by-step in-line guidance for complex tasks — Step-by-step guidance

Key feature: real-time feedback when a supplier completes or misses a field — Real-time feedback

Key feature: centralized resources and help in one place — Centralized resources

Reflection

A hard experience can be a symptom of a system problem.

What outlasted it: I documented shared components and flagged pattern gaps to Standards and Patterns, so teams stopped designing in silos.

What I’d do differently: explain the why behind each recommendation sooner, and track it with leadership.