eBay: Creating a Robust Design System for Emails

eBay, established in 1995, is a global e-commerce giant. It started as a platform for buying and selling collectibles but has expanded to offer a wide range of products and services. With millions of users in over 190 countries, eBay remains a leader in online marketplace innovation.

I collaborated with a cross-functional global team to build and optimize the Global Email Template, a complete library of pre-designed, developed, and tested modules that allows creatives worldwide to efficiently create error-free emails tailored for any market or message.

Industry

E-commerce

Categories

User Experience Design, User Interface Design, CRM, Brand Identity, Visual Design, Advertising

Timeline

2020-2022

The Problem

eBay encountered a major challenge in their email communication process. With tens of millions of emails being sent globally each day, the involvement of multiple teams and processes led to inconsistent and fragmented designs.

This lack of cohesion blurred eBay's branding, as different types of emails displayed varying visual identities, resulting in an uneven messaging experience.

The Goal

We focused on streamlining and scaling processes, with four key objectives in mind.

Align email designs with the current eBay design system

Make an adaptable template that increases flexibility & frees creative potential

Rollout a uniformed email structure for eBay global communications

Build efficiency and ease with development

The introduction of our latest Global Email Design System has resulted in significant cost and resource savings for eBay by enhancing efficiency. The library was crafted using CSS and HTML modular templates, integrating pre-QA'd code to expedite the creation of all email campaigns across all regions.

These foundational components and "plug-and-play" modules adhere to the best design standards, ensuring accessibility standards are met in both light and dark mode. They are compatible with over 70 clients across various devices, desktops, and webmail platforms.

Personalization at scale

From meticulous color palette selection to retina-optimized image rendering, we dynamically tailored experiences to each customer's unique preferences. The design is easily localized for different regions, while maintaining mobile responsiveness and fluidity.

The QA process and documentation have been enhanced, ensuring improved quality assurance. Additionally, these emails can be easily modified to adapt to evolving business requirements.

-30%

Reduced development time

-50%

Reduced time for QA

This facilitated profound connections between eBay and its users, driving significant engagement and elevating conversion rates.

Refreshing eBay's Multichannel Campaigns

With the new design system in effect, eBay’s campaigns have been rolled out with the fresh new look.

Thank you

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to Sierra Clar, Ephraim Joseph, Adriana Tudela, Nicole Clarizio, Thomas Foster, Junaid Ansar, Laverna Ellis, Michelle Brown, Antonio Misfud, Aisha Ghanzafar, Conrad Davis, Ross Moore, and the esteemed eBay regional teams who played integral roles in the successful execution of this project.