Global avatar store
Restructuring creator commerce to
drive higher sales conversion.
Overview
We identified a gap between growing creator retention and stagnant sales, then initiated the project within the design team. We drove it end to end, from research and product definition to design, internal playtesting, and production implementation. Following launch, creator sales increased about 30%.
Role
Product Designer
Product Engineer
Team
2 Designers
Impact
+28% Creator Sales
Initiative to the prod
Timeline
2024
Process
Launched the feature from initiative to prod.
The project began with designers identifying an opportunity through product metrics and owning the process end-to-end, from design to production, without engineer’s resources.
Background and Data
Creators were visiting more often,
but monetization wasn't growing with them.
A few months after we launched creator economy, our goal was to increase creator sales to attract and retain more encourage quality creator and UGC, and ultimately grow the platform's revenue.
After creators can monetize via their own store, user retention and the number of creators continued to grow.
But total creator sales remained relatively flat despite the growing creator base.
Problem statement
Creator growth wasn’t translating into economic value.
Growing retention showed creators were finding reasons to stay. Also, the number of creators was also gradually growing. But their opportunity to earn revenue remained limited. We needed to understand what was preventing that engagement from translating into purchases.
User interview
"Creating great items isn’t enough
if users can’t easily discover and buy them."
We spoke with selected creators and common users to understand where they felt friction during their sales.
Despite different types of content and audiences, several concerns surfaced repeatedly across the interviews.
Recurring voice from users
*Paraphrased from user interviews
Breakdown and Research
Understanding where store friction happens
Researching how users discover and purchase
Experience
Product
Discovery
Navigation
Screen
Action
Store-scope
Item-compatibility
Item-type
Avatar-system
Spatial
Home → Select/Discover a space → Find a store area
Moving item to item in a 3D space
Controllable avatars + Interactive space
Shopping + Exploring the space
Local-space store
Only for local-space
Individual item
Unified/Shared
Roblox
Home → Marketplace
Browse items in 2D grid at a glance
Fixed avatar + Flat background
Shopping
Global store
Global
Individual item
Unified/Shared
Fortnite
Home → Item shop
Browse items in 2D grid at a glance
Fixed avatar + Flat background
Shopping
Global store + Local-space
Global + Local-space
Individual item + Bundles
Unified/Shared
Insights to Hypothesis
Two barriers to shopping:
Space-dependent discovery and immersive browsing.
User interviews and research revealed two key barriers. Store visibility and item utility depended on local spaces, while immersive browsing made it difficult for users to focus on discovering and purchasing items.
Design and Development
Turning hypotheses into a connected store experience.
Insights into two design directions: making stores and items accessible beyond local spaces and creating a dedicated experience. We made design and hands-on implementation, making a working build for playtesting.
Why this decision?
Based on our hypothesis, we considered several different design options.
Among these approaches, we made the final design decision based on the following criteria:
Restructured the commerce system and experience
Gray mock-up to wireframing
Starting with the concept, we designed the base experience through modeling, texturing, lighting, and wireframing.
3D gray mock-up in Blender. I designed the space to allow users to focus on shopping at the global store, incorporated Spatial’s brand image into the store design, and then modeled it in Blender.
Texturing and lighting work following the migration to Unity. All Spatial’s experiences work based on Unity. To implement and deploy a build that actually works, we adjusted the store space to fit deployable specs.
Wireframing to focus on the efficient shopping. We designed a store screen that brings together all creators’ items while eliminating movements and elements that interfere with the shopping experience in a 3D space.
Playtest and Improvement
Turning playtest feedback into targeted UX improvements.
We did an internal playtest with selected users and folks using a working build. Their feedback revealed friction in item discovery, navigation, and evaluation, which we addressed through targeted UX refinements before launch.
Implementation to Prod
Bringing creator items together
in one seamless shopping experience.
The platform-wide store brings items from all creators into one accessible spot, making them easier to discover and browse. Users can evaluate items through avatar rotation and emote, creating a more focused shopping experience.
Impact
Expanded creator sales through platform-wide commerce.
What started as a designer-led initiative to address stagnant creator sales became a platform-wide shopping experience. It achieved about +30% creator sales, marking a significant improvement in total store performance.
Reflection and Takeaways
My learning about solving user problems
and designing for growth.
Solving the system, beyond the interface.
Improving creator commerce required more than redesigning the store UI. We needed to rethink how items were discovered, accessed, and used across the platform-level.Validate what drives growth, not just whether growth happens.
The launch combined broader item access, cross-space utility, and a more focused shopping experience. While total creator sales increased, we couldn't isolate which design decisions contributed most to that growth. For next design, I need to instrument the discovery-to-purchase funnel and evaluate each hypothesis more independently to guide future improvements.
Visibility alone doesn't guarantee fair discovery.
The global store attracted 350K+ views and established a new platform-wide sales channel. However, this did not mean that every creator benefited equally. I need to further examine item impressions, creator-level sales distribution, and discovery patterns to understand whether we reduced the original dependence on space popularity or simply shifted where visibility was concentrated.
Please watch it on your PC.
Please watch it on your PC.