Designing Superseller: Automation That Asks First

"Hi, I'd like to buy -1 beers."

Have you ever answered "is it in stock?" so many times that you started hearing it in your sleep? Online sellers have. Well, here comes Superseller. It answers those messages based on the seller's own listings, documents and rules.

I'm in charge of everything sellers actually see, from the product design to the last line of frontend code. So if a button is in the wrong place, text me. This post is about the app, the landing page has its own story.

The brief

Superseller means control. The seller decides what Superseller knows. So the app has to look like a place where nothing happens behind your back.

The tone fits in one line: practical, calm, trustworthy. A focused operations workspace. Then came the list of things it must never look like. No heavy floating shadows, no neon signs, no redundant decorations. If it clutters the view, it goes.

Sellers spend whole days in here. It has to show a lot without feeling crowded. And everything ships in Polish and English. Polish words are long, so every button has to survive a Polish label. It's a stress test I'd recommend to any design engineer.

Three floating panels

Every screen is the same frame: a soft gray background holding three white panels. Navigation on the left. The work in the middle. Help on the right. Same places on every page, so nobody has to look for anything.

Two small patterns carry most of the views. The first is a switch at the top center. It's for views that hold two kinds of the same thing, like Custom and Learned rules. It works like a segmented control on an iPhone. You already know how to use it.

The second is a little tray in the bottom right corner. (Google calls it a FAB - Floating Action Button - it sounds dumb, though). It holds the tools for that view: search, add, settings, paging. It sits in the same spot on every page, so your hand knows where search lives before your eyes do.

Row actions only appear when you hover a row. A list of rules with a pencil and a trash can on every line starts to look like a hardware store. The only icons that stay put are spinners, because something is actually happening there.

Offers is a dense table. Click a row and its parameters open in the side panel. No extra column of eye icons, and the list stays where it was. Allegro IDs are blue, because they leave the app. Orange would promise something inside it.

Nobody gets lost

This is the part I care about most. Every page answers two questions before anyone asks: what is this, and why would I want it? The right panel opens with a short explanation of the feature. Then come a few FAQ items, written for a seller who has never heard the words "knowledge base".

Rules shows how to write a good rule, with an example. Superseller Memory explains the difference between shop and offer knowledge. Even the Simulator answers the very reasonable worry "Do test messages reach Allegro?" (they don't). It's like a colleague sitting next to you on your first day. Except this one never sighs. Nobody should feel lost in their own store.

Settings and help are two separate cards. Each one folds away once you know the page by heart. For everything else, there's a full Help center with guides.

Superseller Text

Features carry product names, like Superseller Memory and Superseller Text. Superseller Text is everything Superseller writes to buyers. Inbox for replies and Follow-up for messages after a purchase sit right under it.

The inbox puts the conversation in the middle, because that's what you read. The lists live on the right. Conversations that need you go on top. Each one says why, like "Draft to review" or "Complaint", so you know what to open first.

Color, type and the dark

Orange for a commerce tool is hardly a bold move, I know. But it's warm and it reads as "do something". And the burnt version doesn't look like a discount sticker.

So orange marks actions and where you are. Nothing else. Everything else stays neutral, so status colors only show up when something needs you. If a card is orange only because it looked empty, it goes.

There's one typeface, Inter. Yes, Inter again. It's still beautiful, despite being overused. It's easy to load on every platform we ship to, so Superseller reads the same on a laptop and a phone.

Dark mode goes into a warm charcoal, so it still feels like Superseller after sunset. The dashboard is made for glancing. How many messages wait for you, three numbers, one chart of plain bars. Anything you'd actually work on is one click away.

Setting up

Setup works like a first date. Superseller learns about your shop, you decide how it replies, and then it shows you what it can do.

"Suggestions only" is the recommended start. The seller sees every reply before a buyer does and gets to know how Superseller writes. Switching to full automation is a single setting, whenever they like.

My favorite step is the test drive. Ask a real question about one of your products and watch it answer. Then ask something meant for a person and watch it pass the conversation to you.

On a phone

On a phone there's no room for a right panel. Help and settings become their own screens instead. A "How do rules work?" link sits above the list, and a settings icon lives in the tray. Hover doesn't exist on glass, so rows get an edit button that shows their actions.

How it's built

The app is one Expo codebase for the web and phones. Every design decision has to work on both. Cross-platform has a reputation, and some of it is earned. But for a small team, one app beats two half-apps.

Writing the rules down kept the look consistent while the app grew. The same character shows up in emails and on the landing page too.

Next, I want to hear from the sellers who use it every day. Hopefully none of them want -1 beers.