CARSALES
Project
Product Design across strategic partnerships and the digitisation of traditionally offline retail experiences.
My Role
Product Design Lead
At Carsales I led a team of designers across the Strategic 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 working with internal teams, dealers, manufacturers and customers to balance customer needs with operational and commercial constraints.
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.
Manufacturer requirements varied significantly: features considered essential by one brand could be restricted or prohibited by another. Supporting every variation would have required increasingly bespoke experiences and reduced Carsales’ control over the structure and consistency of showroom content.
We therefore simplified the original concept and reduced the level of customisation, focusing on a smaller set of configurable elements that could accommodate brand expression within a consistent Carsales framework. The resulting showroom experience launched as a standardised, maintainable model that could be reused across OEM partners.
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 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.
