Question

Tell us of a problem with a product which bothers you.

How would you use technology to solve this problem?

How would you measure whether the solution is working?

What might be the reason for this solution to fail?

Flipkart Product Management PPT round question.

Answer 1

`Hey,

Note: Brother if you have any queries related the answer please do comment. I would be very happy to resolve all your queries.

Sellers on EBAY opting auction for selling their product have been facing problem because of the buyers who participate in the auction but are not serious.

Problem Explained in Brief

• New sellers often choose the auction to sell their product but, there are some buyers who are actually not serious in buying that product but bid for that product.

• Fake bidding most of the time results in sellers to discontinue selling their products by auction and also feel a lot of difficulties for the seller to sell their products.

• Even though eBay has set of rules for the buyers not to bid if not interested but, if some buyer actually does this then EBAY couldn’t do anything against buyer and sellers has to face difficulty in selling their products as well as a lot of time wastage.

Desired Solution

• EBAY could open some premium account only these accounts could be allowed to participate in auction.

• These premium accounts should have a minimum of account balance in order to participate in the auction.

• If a buyer has participated in any auction then he/she should not be allowed to transfer the minimum account in their account.

• If a buyer fails to pay after bidding for the item then the money kept by him/her in the premium account would be given to the seller as a compensation of loss of time.

• The money to be kept in account should be a minimum of 20 percent of the selling price of the item.

Flag to judge if the solution is working or not

• The only way to judge if it is working or not is by implementing it.

• EBAY should first give this option to platinum sellers as these sellers have a kind of trust on EBAY, even though if they would face any problem they would not just stop using eBay.

• EBAY should take feedback in a range of 1 to 5 after every successful bid of the customer whether the possible solution helps the buyer, feedback should be limited to 1 per person per product.

• If the customers are complaining more for this system then this system either would not be efficient or have some loophole which could be adjusted.

• If the customers are giving the average feedback of greater than or equal to 3 in a span of 3 months then it would be considered as a working solution.

Reason for this solution to fail

• This solution would probably fail in a situation when a customer will opt for a fake return instead of getting a right product.

• But, as EBAY follows a strict policy for return, it would bee difficult for buyer if he wants to cheat and did a fake bidding and chooses for return at a later stage to get the money back.

• This solution could be implemented in order to improve the number of sellers opting for auction and preventing them from getting cheated. But, if we see from buyer’s perspective, a buyer who is not interested to transact digitally will not choose this option.

• So, COD(i.e. cash on delivery) would not be available for auction.

Kindly revert for any queries

Thanks.