Topsort helps marketplaces, retailers, delivery apps, travel platforms, and commerce networks launch and scale retail media — with ad server APIs, real-time auctions, sponsored listings, display, offsite, in-store, and AI optimization.
Project
Topsort
Year
2022
OVERHAUL
AD-TECH
SAAS
OVERVIEW
Project
Platform
Company
Topsort
Year
2022
What we were building
Topsort helps marketplaces, retailers, delivery apps, travel platforms, and commerce networks launch and scale retail media — with ad server APIs, real-time auctions, sponsored listings, display, offsite, in-store, and AI optimization.
Advertisers, from Pampers to DoorDash, were navigating a fragmented ecosystem. Campaigns couldn't be tracked. ROI was opaque. The technology existed; the experience didn't.
THE PROBLEM
Billions in media spend, and zero visibility for the brands behind it.
Advertisers, from Pampers to DoorDash, were navigating a fragmented ecosystem. Campaigns couldn't be tracked. ROI was opaque. The technology existed; the experience didn't.
Advertisers had no single
source of truth
Campaign spend, impressions, ROAS, and attributed sales lived in separate exports. Brand managers were stitching spreadsheets to understand if their budget was working.
DATA FRAGMENTATION
Campaign creation was
high-friction and opaque
Launching a sponsored listing required engineering support or a manual onboarding call. Self-serve wasn't real,
it was a form that opened a support ticket.
ACTIVATION FRICTION
No visibility into why
performance changed
When ROAS dropped, advertisers had no way to diagnose it. Was it budget? Bid? Catalog?
The platform gave numbers but no explanation.
INSIGHT GAP
MY CONTRIBUTION
What I owned, end to end.
I joined Topsort on a three-month contract as Senior Product Designer, covering the full advertiser-facing product from first login to campaign reporting. Four surfaces, zero to shipped.
Advertiser Dashboard, Zero to One
I designed the full campaign management dashboard from scratch: trends chart, KPI tiles, campaign table, and the sponsored listings/banner ads surface. The interface brands like Pampers us daily.
DASHBOARD ANALYTICS
Self-Serve Campaign Creation Flow
I eliminated the manual onboarding process by designing a step-by- step campaign builder, taking advertisers from zero to live campaign in under 10 minutes, no engineering support required.
SELF SERVE ONBOARDING
Analytics & Reporting Surface
I designed the performance reporting layer: spend vs. click trends, ROAS breakdowns, attribution windows, and product-level insights, making the AI's intelligence legible to non-technical brand managers.
REPORTING ATTRIBUTION
Design System, Topsort UI Kit
I built the component library and token architecture used across all advertiser-facing surfaces, navy/blue-primary system, fully responsive, dark mode ready.
DESIGN SYSTEM
Key Surfaces
Everything advertisers need to launch, optimize, and grow
From campaign creation to performance insights, every workflow is designed to help brands move faster and achieve better results.
Bid Suggestion
Remove the guesswork from campaign setup with AI-powered bid recommendations designed to maximize visibility, clicks, and conversions.
Real-time Reporting
Monitor clicks, spend, sales, and campaign performance in real time so advertisers can make confident decisions faster.
Auto-Bidding & Return
Set your goals and budget once. Our bidding engine continuously adjusts bids to help maximize performance while reducing manual effort.
Auto Pacing
Automatically distribute spend throughout the day to capture demand when shoppers are most active.
Sponsored Listings
Own the most valuable shelf space
Promote products in premium placements across search results and product pages to increase visibility, traffic, and conversions.
Target by search term, location, first-party data, and more
Sellers and users love the opportunity to drive more listing visibility
Create with ease, control CPC, and track your success
Lift your products to new heights
Banner ads
Get discovered. Get clicks. Get sales.
Turn everyday searches into opportunities. Promote your listings across high-visibility placements and connect with shoppers already browsing your category.
Highlight products that matter most
Drive qualified traffic to your listings
Expand your reach across the marketplace
Monitor results and optimize as you grow
video ads
Turn product discovery into a story worth watching
Capture attention across the shopping journey with native video placements that showcase products in motion. Help advertisers engage high-intent shoppers while creating new revenue opportunities for your marketplace.
Reach shoppers where buying decisions happen
Drive engagement with immersive, scroll-stopping content
Launch campaigns quickly with flexible targeting options
Measure performance and optimize with real-time insights
Sponsored Brands
Make every search a branding opportunity
Turn high-intent traffic into meaningful brand engagement with placements that elevate visibility and help advertisers stand out from competitors.
Appear where shoppers are actively exploring
Increase brand recall and product discovery
Launch campaigns with flexible budget controls
Access actionable performance insights
the process
Built around real advertiser behaviour, not assumptions.
Every design decision traced back to a customer call, a usability test, or a metric. Four phases, 14 months.
Phase 01 · Discovery
User Research & Platform Audit
I interviewed 12 brand managers across FMCG, fashion, and electronics — mapping their existing campaign workflows and identifying where trust broke down with retail media platforms.
JOURNEY MAPPING
COMPETITIVE AUDIT
Phase 02 · Definition
Information Architecture & Data Modelling
I worked with data science to map every metric and its relationship, then designed the IA for the dashboard so KPIs, trends, campaigns, and products all had a logical home — and nothing was buried.
IA DESIGN
TAXONOMY
Phase 03 · Design & Test
Iterative Figma Design + Maze Testing
Three rounds of usability testing using Maze. Each round reduced task completion time — dropping from a 22-minute average (with support) to under 10 minutes self-serve.
PROTOTYPING
A/B TESTING
PHASE 04 · LAUNCH
Phased Rollout Across 100+ Networks
The advertiser dashboard rolled out across Topsort's network of 100+ retail media clients. I worked with customer success to gather post-launch feedback and shipped two follow-up iterations within the first quarter.
PHASED LAUNCH
POST ITERATIONS
CORE FEATURES
Every component serving a purpose
Turn everyday searches into opportunities. Promote your listings across high-visibility placements and connect with shoppers already browsing your category.
01 · DASHBOARD
Analytics composite
Clear, easy-to-read performance cards that help users quickly identify key trends, patterns, and actionable insights across campaign and sales data.
Trends and sparks
Easily track advertising spend, total revenue generated, campaign effectiveness and engagement performance indicators through dedicated dashboard cards.
Campaign editor
Empowers users with greater visibility and control over their advertising efforts, enabling data-driven decisions that improve campaign performance and maximize results.
02 · campaign
Creating A Campaign
The design includes a dedicated navigation tab and easy access to campaign creation, which streamlines the user experience by providing a quick and effortless process. The designated tab on the left side allows users to quickly create campaigns and is always available for their convenience.
03 · Review
Review Your Campaigns
View and manage all of your current campaigns and listings, whether they are pending approval or already active. This includes the ability to view the details of each campaign or listing, make changes and edits as needed, and submit them for approval.
04 · updates
Stay Updated
A quick and easy way to track the growth of your marketplace, including monitoring your expenses and progress. This allows you to always stay informed and never miss any important developments.
Client Outcomes
Client results across the network.
The design directly contributed to advertiser retention, platform adoption, and measurable revenue lift across the retail media networks built on Topsort.
topsort.com
Poshmark
43%
Seller sales increase
Fashion resale marketplace built a
custom ad platform via API
Poshmark deployed Topsort's infrastructure and drove a 43% lift in seller sales through sponsored product placements across their resale marketplace.
Atida
35%
Revenue growth
European health marketplace monetized traffic with sponsored listings
Atida launched sponsored product placements across their health and wellness catalogue, driving 35% sustained revenue growth within two quarters of going live.
YouTravel
$35K
Creator sales in first campaign cycle
Travel booking platform launched self-serve ads, empowering creators
YouTravel's travel creators used the self- serve campaign builder to promote their own offerings — generating $35K in attributable sales in their first campaign cycle.
