AJIO BUSINESS - Designing for India’s Retailers at Scale
The Context
THE problem
Clear demand, unclear discovery: Retailers can’t easily find the right packs for them, despite knowing what are fast-moving items for their store
Pack names were confusing, representations were unclear and inconsistent across categories - leading to endless back-and-forth with no match
Customisation was limited or misunderstood
Why it matters
Retailers waste time searching for the right size-colour mix with packs, find it hard to text new products and have don’t feel they get the same level of trust and flexibility as they do in offline wholesale marketplaces
Redesign to boost metrics
Design for clarity
Pack discovery suffers when naming lacks clarity and visuals don’t support comparison
“I ordered an assorted pack but it came with all the same colours only so I had to return it. I expected 3 colours but it came with almost all white, only one pink and no black shoes.”
- P3: Footwear Retailer, Delhi
“Newly born sold more. Boys: In a pack of 22, 24, 26 - 26 sells more, depletes faster whereas 22, 24 often left with us. We want only 26 pack sometimes, which we don't get”
- P3: Apparel Retailer, Delhi
Clearer labels and layouts
Standardised Pack Types and Visual Scannability to Aid Decision-Making
Design for FLEXIBle Customisation
THE problem with MOQ
MOQ: the feature that promised customisability, but failed in execution
MOQ allows retailers to mix sizes and styles from a brand, as long as a minimum quantity is met
But lack of clarity on what qualifies led to confusion
Unmet MOQ = Checkout failure → Loss of trust
Retailers avoided it altogether, missing out on flexible buying
Making it work
Rebuilding Trust in MOQ, making “Pick & Choose” value real and usable
Rebrand MOQ as “Make Your Own Pack” to highlight flexibility
Show real-time progress toward MOQ goal in-cart
Clearly indicate all eligible items from the brand
Allow retailers to easily track and fulfil MOQ with guided cues
Design for Frictionless interaction
THE Impact
Laying the groundwork for seamless buying
Established a clear, scalable framework for pack naming and representation -eliminating jargon, aligning with retailer behaviour, and creating a shared language across teams to drive consistency & smoother collaboration across the buying journey.
Presented research and design insights to senior leadership, driving alignment on buying pain points and unlocking buy-in for roadmap shifts.
Generated high adoption and positive qualitative feedback from internal stakeholders, including category heads and sellers.
Learnings
Building for Complexity, Grounded in Reality
Designing for one isn’t enough
Serving retailers alone didn’t work, solutions had to balance the needs of sellers, manufacturers, and business teams tooTest early, pivot often
User feedback helped catch flawed assumptions and guided design toward what actually workedYou can’t design local from afar
Understanding retailers’ real-world buying behaviour meant immersing in their daily context, not just app flows.Work in progress is powerful
Sharing early and in-progress design work for feedback helped gain buy-inDeveloping generalist chops
Leading the rollout in close collaboration with domain specific experts strengthened my grasp of the end-to-end process
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Call
+1 2065369593
Write
kashvigoel38@gmail.com
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