CARSALES
Project
Carsales is Australia’s leading platform connecting car buyers and sellers. I worked with designers across two areas:
Strategic Partnerships and Digital Retailing.
My Role
Product Design Lead (Strategic Partnerships & Digital Retailing)
In my role at Carsales I led a team of designers across the Strategist Partnerships and Digital Retailing business units.
I worked across two strategic initiatives focused on expanding the value of the Carsales marketplace for both consumers and industry partners.
The first explored new partnership opportunities with automotive manufacturers (OEMs), while the second focused on reducing friction in the vehicle purchasing journey through online retail experiences.
Both projects involved discovery, stakeholder engagement, prototyping and concept validation, working closely with internal teams, dealers, manufacturers and end users to understand customer needs, operational constraints and commercial opportunities.
I also liased with Product Design Leads in other areas of the business, and was the primary Product Design contact for Carsales Head of Strategic Design to ensure that ongoing projects aligned with the greater business vision.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS:
OEM SHOWROOM
Automotive manufacturers were increasingly looking for richer brand representation within the Carsales ecosystem. The challenge was to create a more engaging showroom experience while maintaining consistency across the platform and avoiding the cost and complexity of bespoke solutions for every manufacturer.
Working with internal stakeholders and OEM partners, I explored a configurable showroom model that would allow manufacturers to manage imagery, messaging, promotional content and key vehicle features within a structured framework.
Through workshops, requirements gathering and concept testing, it became clear that manufacturer requirements varied significantly. Features considered essential by one brand were often restricted or prohibited by another, making it difficult to create a flexible solution that remained simple to manage and scalable across the platform.
These insights helped shape the final direction of the project. The resulting showroom experience launched as a standardised framework that preserved consistency, maintainability and a cohesive customer experience across the Carsales platform.
DIGITAL RETAILING:
TEST DRIVE BOOKING
The second initiative explored online test drive bookings for Carsales Select, a marketplace specialising in near-new vehicles including dealer demonstrators, cancelled orders and ex-rental stock.
The objective was to reduce friction between vehicle discovery and dealership visits by allowing customers to book test drives online. For buyers, this offered confidence that a vehicle would be available and ready to inspect. For dealers, it provided a stronger signal of purchase intent and an opportunity to better prepare for customer visits.
I worked with a UX designer on journey mapping, interaction design and prototype validation, helping define a booking experience that integrated customer needs with dealership operational processes.
The feature successfully launched and provided a streamlined booking workflow for both customers and dealers. However, research and early adoption data highlighted several behavioural challenges that influenced long-term engagement.
Some customers were reluctant to formally book appointments due to concerns about increased sales pressure, while dealers expressed concerns about no-shows and the operational effort required to prepare vehicles for appointments. While the feature solved a genuine logistical problem, adoption was influenced as much by trust and incentives as by usability.
The project provided valuable insight into the complexities of digital retail experiences, demonstrating that successful marketplace features depend not only on functional efficiency but also on the motivations and behaviours of all participants in the transaction.
