X Marketplace

Project Type
A social commerce marketplace inside X (formerly Twitter)

Year
01/05/2026

Goal
Design a marketplace experience that enables users to buy and sell creative goods, collectibles, second-hand items, and art commissions while leveraging X’s community-driven trust and real-time engagement.

Research & Insight

To better understand user behaviors and motivations, I conducted:

8 user interviews with artists, resellers, and buyers
Investigation of how users currently buy/sell on social platforms
Competitive analysis of Etsy, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace

The Key Insights Were...

Commerce already happens on X, but discovery is fragmented. People find items through retweets, fandoms, and creative circles, but there’s no structured browsing.

Users prefer buying from people they know or share communities with,

...and creators value engagement and exposure, not just transactions.

Feature Definition

The experience was designed around two distinct but interconnected user journeys: Seller and Buyer.

Seller Journey

1. Creating a Listing

Category and condition tags
Pricing and shipping inputs
Option to post publicly or within a specific community
Promote (retweet) toggle to boost visibility

Goal: The listing flow is optimized to feel familiar while adding structure.

Buyer Journey

1. Discovering Listings

Dedicated Marketplace tab for browsing
- Split into For You and Communities to surface relevant listings
Listings appearing naturally in the main feed via posts and retweets
Filters for price, category, and brand
Suggested listings based on interests and social networks

Goal: Buyers can find products both intentionally and organically without breaking the social experience.

2. Viewing a Product

Clear Buy and Make an Offer actions (via direct message)
Prominent price and condition visibility
Seller identity and trust indicators
Q&A through replies directly in the post thread
Suggested listings to encourage continued browsing within the same niche

Goal: Reduce uncertainty around purchase decisions.

Iterations

Early versions leaned heavily on X’s post format. Testing revealed that while sellers appreciated the familiarity, buyers needed stronger signals around price, condition, and trust.

As the design evolved, the experience grew into a hybrid marketplace that still feels like X, but with structure layered in: smarter tags, clearer actions, and seller credibility signals that make transactions feel safer and more intentional.

Final Prototype

Listing Creation Screen (Seller)

The listing composer mirrors the familiar tweet interface, reducing friction for sellers while adding structured metadata such as category, condition, price, and shipping. Micro-suggestions help guide complete and trustworthy listings.

Marketplace Feed (Buyer)

The marketplace tab combines post-style listings with structured item tags, enabling users to browse by interest or community while maintaining X’s conversational feel.

Product Detail Page (Buyer)

Opening a listing reveals pricing, condition, and purchase actions, while preserving native engagement UI (likes, replies, reposts). Suggested listings encourage continued browsing within the same niche.

Trust & Community (Buyer)

The system reinforces credibility through:

Seller identity
Verified seller status
Rating & reviews by verified users

UX Walkthrough

Reflection

Designing this marketplace was really about shaping something that was already happening on X. People were buying and selling inside communities, but the experience felt scattered and improvised. Through research and iteration, the project shifted from simple “posts with items” to a more intentional hybrid model that adds structure without losing the platform’s energy. Talking with artists, collectors, and resellers highlighted how much trust, identity, and visibility matter, which led to stronger credibility signals.

Going forward, I’d like to push the Marketplace even further into the Communities ecosystem and create synergy between the two features, so buying and selling feels like a natural extension of shared interests.