My ShopBack Internship Experience
About Myself
Hello, nice to meet you. I’m Ha Min Kim from South Korea, and am currently working as a UX Research intern at ShopBack Korea. I’m in the midst of pursuing a linguistics course with an International Studies major at Korea University and I decided to take a gap year to gain some real-life working experience and got an internship at ShopBack! The only work experience that I’ve had before becoming a ShopBacker was teaching at English Academies, which is a typical route for the majority of English-speaking Koreans.
Growing Up In Indonesia
I learned to speak English back when I was in an international school in Indonesia. I was born in Korea but lived much longer in Indonesia. While my parents still live and work in Indonesia, I’ve settled in Korea for now.
I still prefer Indonesian food, compared to Korean cuisine. It’s unfortunate that Indonesian food in Korea is so expensive. When I get married one day, I want to go back to Indonesia and live there so that my family will be able experience the beauty of this country like I did.
How I became a ShopBacker
Before graduating, many university students in Korea look for jobs to gain some professional work experience. Apart from strengthening their resumes, this also puts them in a favourable position when they apply for full-time jobs in the future. Personally, I think that it is important to get some working experience before graduation. This can prepare you for the working world and also help you to make better choices on what career to pursue. It was a process of exploring what job opportunities were out there and learning more about the work environment within and outside of South Korea.
I applied to a couple of companies at that time. One day, I got an email from ShopBack, asking if I’ll be up to interview for their UX Research internship role. I gave it a shot and although I was very nervous during the interviews, it seemed to go smoothly. When I was informed that I got the job, I decided to go for it! There were several reasons why I decided to take the job offer. First, I was tired of just going to college and listening to classes. I wanted to experience something new and explore a completely new environment. Next, I wanted to start getting ready to find a job in Korea or even abroad, so I thought that this internship would give me some experience to be ready for the future. Lastly, I wanted to meet new people with various backgrounds and experiences, and learn from them.
My Funny First Day Experience
Something funny happened on my first day of work. The calendar invite I received on my first day of work was in Singapore time, which meant it’s 1 hour ahead of Korea. I didn’t realised that and arrived at an empty office. Confused, I checked my schedule again and realised that it was actually in Singapore time. I was an hour earlier and dressed in a smart-looking suit with a tie. After everyone arrived in the office, I realised they were all dressed casually, except for me. Honestly, I didn’t know how to dress for my first day of work so I went for the suit-and-tie look. I ended up being drenched in sweat the whole day as the heaters were on in the office. One thing I learnt was the mood, atmosphere and culture differ for start-ups and corporates. Start-ups have a more casual mood.
Research team in ShopBack
Let me introduce you to my Research Team.
Working as a UX Researcher at ShopBack allowed me to gain various insights and grow my knowledge on the e-commerce world and its users. The opportunity to collaborate with skilled professional colleagues helped me to learn how to initiate tasks and projects effectively and efficiently.
User interviews: Collecting user data from ShopBack users in South Korea
Conducting research questions and selecting appropriate methods of data collection are crucial for the development of the e-commerce industry in this digital world that is changing daily; data gives direction.
One key example of this was a project I took part in during my first few months. Our team had the goal of collecting and analysing data on the thoughts and ideas of ShopBack new and existing customers in South Korea. We conducted user interviews and collected data from Korean ShopBack users based on how they use ShopBack and their online shopping behaviours. One of our goals was to explore how to enhance the experience of South Korean users on ShopBack by understanding their current personal experiences, getting feedback on their app usage and feedback on what they would like to see in ShopBack. I conducted the interviews with users virtually through Google Meet and interviewed them based on the questions that my team and I prepared in advance. Notes were also taken to compare and contrast the different users, and understand their overall journey.
This project was a precious experience to me because it was my first professional experience with ‘User Experience Research.’ Throughout the interviews, I encountered many interesting users with different backgrounds and different ShopBack experiences. There were users that were open to sharing their personal feedback, but there were also users that were difficult to handle. Thankfully with patience, I still managed to get feedback from this group of users too. There were even existing users that had never used the ShopBack app before, which surprised me. Through this project I learned that collecting data can be difficult, but when collected effectively and efficiently, it can be used as a strong foundation for future product development.
Desk research: Build #ShopBackpedia to help ShopBackers be familiar with different cultures
When I first joined ShopBack, I was nervous and scared because I had no knowledge on the e-commerce field. At the start, I felt overwhelmed when I saw terms like e-commerce, affiliate marketing, affiliate programs, affiliate network. I didn’t know the definitions of these terms and the differences between them.
Understanding demographics and culture of our users
ShopBackers work on features that will be used in various markets across Asia Pacific. Throughout my time here, one of my main tasks was researching, gathering data and creating market pages (Desk Research: What I personally thought as “market bibliographies”) on digital markets of the various markets ShopBack is in — such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, Hongkong, and others — for ShopBackers to use as reference points for further research.
These pages were also created to help ShopBackers to immerse themselves in the cultural contexts and perspectives of various markets. During the process of conducting this research, I had to filter out data from various online sources and highlight which data I thought would be helpful and important for ShopBackers. Being multilingual, it was easier for me to do research because a lot of the data that I had to go through were in English and some in Indonesian, which is basically my third language. Also, creating the pages (which were all in English) was of no challenge to me and I felt confident working on them. My desk research also covered various competitive analyses in other markets. This helps to save the time of other ShopBackers because they can use the research I’ve worked on and won’t have to conduct their own desk research.
Understanding business domain
In addition to these wiki pages on culture and market demographics, I also created pages defining the different terms mentioned earlier to help ShopBackers understand our business model by defining what these e-commerce related terms are, how they can be used, differences and similarities in their characteristics.
Interestingly, while conducting research on all these markets, I started to learn and understand these various marketing terms and strategies — ideas that were all new to me at one point. With the knowledge that I was able to accumulate through my research, I was able to share with my colleagues my various findings and insights to help them grasp a firmer understanding of various market concepts, terms, ideas, and its diverse consumers.
Parting words and gratitude to ShopBack
Research does not solely revolve around collecting and organising data. I believe it also includes synthesising the insights and data. This data that has been collected, organised and thoroughly learned can be used to help others to conduct further research and making informed decisions. Data gives direction.
Depending on how you view it, my time as a ShopBacker for 6 months may sound long or short. However, throughout this journey of 6 months, I have enjoyed my time here, gained greater knowledge and a wider outlook on the world of e-commerce and market data. I would like to thank my colleagues for offering me the opportunity to experience what I would not have been able to experience anywhere else. Though working from a different country located over 4,000 kilometers away from my colleagues, I was still able to feel like a part of the team. It was a very memorable experience and hopefully, this internship experience can guide me through the next journey of my career.
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