Hagerty
bringing online auctions to market
Timeline
Feb 2022 - Oct 2022
Designers
Nicholas Swardt
Nick Boes
Joshua Martens
Contributions
Research
Product Design
Design Systems
High touch -
time based -
online auctions
In the spirit of their customer-first approach, Hagerty Insurance launched their Marketplace in 2022 to offer car enthusiasts a way to buy, sell, bid, and win rare and desirable vehicles on a platform built by a trusted brand. While Bring a Trailer already had a strong reputation within the industry, they did not provide buyers or sellers the kind of support and security that Hagerty can. To this end, Auctions launched in October 2022 with the goal of offering high-touch, time-based auctions with title-transfer and escrow - something no other platform had previously been willing to take on.
Researchcomparative analysis
creating feature parity
“Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.”
A lot of our subject matter experts and the good folks at Hagerty had already experienced the joys and pitfalls of using the various platforms, which was already well documented within initial business plans and user journeys. What I did was mostly keep checking back on these platforms with each feature design or update we were working on to ensure we were designing something familiar along with an improvement on the existing designs and experiences.
where we looked
Competitor Auction CardsBuilding on the familiar
Card updates we came up with for the auctionsResearchwho are we designing for?
Because nothing of this exact nature had been done before, we worked with the product managers to create interview scripts and then interview both buyers and sellers. By talking to the different prospective buyers and sellers as well as our auctioneer and consignor on the Hagerty side, we were able to get robust requirements for what to build to make the process go smoothly on launch.
01 Sellers
Sellers all have different reasons for thinking of selling their car with different levels of comfort and attitudes towards online selling.
❤️ That an online auction would take care of the escrow and title-transfer
👍 Trusts the Hagerty brand to resolve issues for them and help with transportation
😡 When a buyer backs out or is difficult to deal with
02 hagerty team members
Hagerty team members varied greatly in role, functionality, and level of administration rights within the auction system.
✅ Receive all the information necessary to decide on an auction submission promptly
☎️ Communicate with the seller and auction winner
👍 A system that is intuitive and works within their normal workflow
03 buyers
Buyers want to be able to get that rare find that you only read about in articles. They’re enthusiasts and have a community.
❤️ That an online auction would take care of the escrow and title-transfer
👍 That Hagerty is there all the way to the end, not just a hand-off to the seller
✅ Trust that they’re bidding on quality vehicles against real buyers
Designsellers
01
Sellers reported that they would be happy to pay a small premium because they trusted Hagerty to provide escrow and title transfer.
Sellers of the caliber of vehicle wanted on this platform expect white-glove service and an auction submission flow that works. We created a platform that gives them the best chance to get the best value for their vehicle.
“What if I sold that one I love but hardly ever drive anymore?”
We heard a lot of complaints in the industry about how a beloved vehicle was turned down when submitted for auction on different platforms. Car enthusiasts don’t like to hear their pride and joy aren’t deserving of being listed on auction and we knew that our vetting process wouldn’t be any more lenient if we were going to offer the kinds of quality vehicles buyers would appreciate.
To that end, we made sure to make the forms as well-designed and easy to fill out as possible so that the Hagerty team members would have what they needed to make initial evaluations and make decisions and next steps as efficiently and painlessly as possible for everyone involved.
form design
from making that first decision
Part of the decision page starting the sell your vehicle flowthrough Ensuring every scenario and state is designed for
Tell us about your vehicle main form parts
Form states - Uploading an image of your vehicle when submitting your vehicle for Auction
to listed.
Designteam members
02
Hagerty already had a well-designed customer management interface and had auction specialists to leverage for feedback as we planned out features. Designing and plugging in new functionality that met the needs of auction management team members was made easy through clear and concise requirements that made sense and had the confidence of those already doing the job.
Designbuyers
03
“If you build it, they will come” just isn’t enough when dealing with buyers and bidders. Your platform has to have inventory. Not only do you have to have inventory, but it needs to be constantly fresh and consist of quality vehicles. It should also be a place where buyers feel safe and have a way to engage with each other. Hagerty Marketplace Auctions worked to create all this and more.
Introducing auctions to marketplace
auction cards
Vehicle cards are a key element and used within Marketplace in different places, at different times and on different devices. They needed to be designed for all cases, states, and contexts.
Card Variants within Figma.creating a registration and bidding flow for all types
To create the online auction space we wanted, we had to provide a little extra security and use existing marketplace verification methods. While this made the registration to bid process slightly more lengthy and laborious than other competitors, the added peace of mind would be worth the extra steps.
Customer Journey map I created to communicate potential pain-points during the registration and bidding flow.bidding and the bidding engine
Bidding and the ability to place a bid needed to work perfectly on launch. We strove to ensure that it worked flawlessly and to account for the functionality of all components. The 2-minute anti-snipe reset on new high-bids wasn’t groundbreaking by any means, but having the ability to make it interesting through micro-interactions and collaborating with our stakeholders about when to enter into “countdown” (red) mode for vehicles ending soon, was important and something we spent a lot of time on.
Resultson time launch and Exceeding our own expectations
2,665
Listings by October vs goal of 1,000 by End of Year
300+
Hagerty Drivers Club (HDC) standalone signups
Reach Out.
nicholas.swardt@gmail.com
(714) 472-6252