Case Study

Branded Marketplace

The buyer and seller side of Treet: a white-labeled “Squarespace for resale” where a brand's fans buy, sell, and talk.

Series A+Lead Product Designer

I was Treet's designer from the founding stage on, leading design from pre-seed through seed, Series A, and the supplemental rounds beyond. Across every raise I turned a brand's biggest fans into its resale marketplace, balancing buyers, sellers, and the brands themselves.

Role Lead Product DesignerStage Pre-seed → Series A+Focus 0→1 Product, Marketplace, User Research, Design Systems
32%conversion lift on updated listings
78%seller satisfaction
Context

A brand's very own eBay

Treet is a white-labeled resale platform for brands like Aritzia and Aviator Nation. Think of a Treet site as a brand's own resale marketplace, running on the brand's identity.

It has two halves: custom resale sites where shoppers buy and sell, and an admin engine where brands see performance, upload inventory, and customize resale emails. My work spanned both, always balancing buyers, sellers, and brand partners.

The three stakeholders orbiting a Treet marketplace: buyers, sellers, and brand partners
Every decision balanced buyers, sellers, and brand partners
The Problem

Buyers and sellers had no way to talk

Some user-created listings were low quality. A missing measurement or photo would silently block a purchase, and the buyer had no way to ask for it.

Abandoned-cart surveys pointed at a clear gap in buyer and seller communication. The obvious fix, two-way chat, turned out to be the wrong one.

Kerry, a Treet power seller, holding a bright yellow bag
Research

Meet Kerry

To ground the work, I got close to a real power seller.

  • Super-sellerOver 100 active listings on Portland Leather Goods
  • BusyCollects and resells while working as a VP
  • Hilarious & smartMade user research a genuine joy

After Portland Leather launched resale, I stopped selling on Poshmark and eBay entirely. The constant haggling is a hassle, and I really don't like managing dozens of chat threads at a time.

Kerry, Power Seller
Bad vibes

Chat was not the answer

I read through more than 100 Poshmark comment threads. Most were empty. The few that were not were either unhelpful or outright offensive.

Two-way chat invites spam and haggling and quietly loads work onto sellers. That is the opposite of Treet's promise to make selling effortless.

A typical low-value Poshmark comment thread
Data analysis

1,000 abandoned bags told the story

I built Treet's survey framework and ran an abandoned-bag survey with over 1,000 users.

The responses converged on one thing: buyers had legitimate questions about items, and no constructive way to ask them.

The abandoned-bag survey I built at Treet
The pivot

From chat to listing update requests

Brand partners pushed hard for two-way chat. I explored it honestly, then made the case to pivot away from it.

Instead of open messaging, buyers submit a structured, one-way “listing update request.” It cannot be haggled or spammed, and it nudges buyers toward a real, specific ask.

An early guided-chat concept explored before the pivot
An early guided-chat concept, later abandoned
Constructive by design

Every request is a real ask

Buyers choose from constructive prompts drawn straight from the survey: sizing, extra photos, material, condition. I partnered with Support to build content moderation into the flow.

Sellers stay in control. They can act on a request, ignore it, or turn requests off entirely.

The final constructive listing-update request flow
Implementation

Shipped, and fully brandable

“Request a listing update” lives right on the product page, on by default. I worked with engineering to build an email framework so every notification feels like it came from the brand's own site, not from Treet.

A branded listing-update email built on the framework I designed with engineering
Results

Constructive beat chat

32%conversion boost on updated listings
78%seller satisfaction rate
Retainedpower sellers stayed on Treet

I love the feedback option and the way it's done. Thanks!

Kerry, Power Seller