VAT Services by Amazon
A complicated Necessity to sell in Europe
Our research says that for sellers trying to grow their business to European countries, the two biggest obstacles are the Listing process and VAT (Value Added Tax). Registering for, and filing VAT is different in each country, with different requirements, different timelines, and different legal restrictions. Amazon wants to greatly increase support for sellers who need help with this overly complicated process.
MY ROLE: UX/UI Designer, Research Lead
Information Architecture, UX Flows and Prototyping
User research and stakeholder validation
Cross-team collaboration
Prototyping
Final handoff
UX Resource Manager
MY WORK: Originally, I was loaned to the team to help with Registration UX. The team is located in Luxembourg, and I supported remotely with as-needed trips to Europe. I led the UX process for registration, and served as go-between for the designers working on other aspects of the experience to ensure consistency across the entire workflow. Ultimately, I owned the UX for Registration, Filing, and vendor tools. Prioritizing, managing headcount, and setting expectations are a big part of the role.
Most of my initial work was on the registration piece. Including, but not limited to working on a better solution to this 237+ line Excel sheet that sellers needed to fill out.
When I first joined the team, I was the sole designer on projects based out of our European office in Luxembourg. Though located in Seattle, I split my time between Listing improvements and VAT service. We simplified the above experience to a 5-page web form which was pre-filled whenever possible.
VAT registration is a complicated process, so we designed in-context assistance. 1) information that needs to be known by all is shown with a sub-head in the section. 2) information that MIGHT be good to know is accessed through a help icon, and 3) if more details, or examples will help there is a help pane accessed via links on the page.
I created and organized the research plan to test our new ideas. I personally led interviews, and then taught the business team to do the same.
The output of the research solidified our direction and helped us prioritize next steps.
Over the course of the year, the workload increased so I hired another designer to do the day-to-day UX work, though I was still involved at a leadership level. Working with my team member we continued to design, test, refine and deliver on the registration and third-party tools while work on the filing process was just beginning.
This project is ongoing, there have been numerous user studies and the work presented at the highest levels of Amazon. We ended up presenting our work to Jeff Wilke (CEO Amazon Worldwide Consumer) with VERY positive feedback.
