Building Traction for SilkRoll

Improving engagement for a growing fashion exchange

OVERVIEW

Onboarding qualified shoppers

Two dynamic women, Janet Wu and Erin Wold, co-founded SilkRoll, an online clothing exchange website that promotes circular fashion to minimize waste and pollution on our planet resulting from clothes manufacturing. SilkRoll differentiates itself from other fashion exchange businesses in that clothing purchases are made solely via a points system called Q’s that are either earned from trading in high-end fashion items or purchasing Q’s directly on the site. SilkRoll’s business goal is to engage more qualified shoppers who would frequently trade in high-end clothing online.

TOOLS

• User interviews

• Affinity mapping

• Journey mapping

• Persona

• Comparative analysis

THE BUSINESS GOAL

Narrow the project scope to just onboarding

By redesigning SilkRoll’s onboarding, the goal was to attain more qualified shoppers who would frequently trade in high-end clothes. It helped to have a focused business goal, so we could define the problem and frame a proper hypothesis to then develop possible solutions.

GAINING DEEPER KNOWLEDGE

What are the motivations of secondhand shoppers?

Resell versus donate

From our user interviews of shoppers who consider exchanging clothes online, we discovered that they love to resell clothes in short, frequent cycles to ensure the fashion items are in high demand and will earn a good value. If the item is not sought-after or has been sitting in the closet too long, shoppers prefer to simply donate to avoid the hassle of reselling.

Key insights:

• Save time: I need the shopping site to be fast and easy because I have other things to do.

• Customization: I want the site to know me and my clothing preferences.

• Good value: I want to feel like I am getting something of equal value to what I am giving.

• Upfront qualification: I want to know if it is qualified.

• Eco-conscious: I want to reduce waste in the environment.

For more details, here is the link to SilkRoll’s affinity map.

Persona:

From our key insights, we developed our persona, Fashionista Felicia, for whom we would make our design decisions moving forward.



THE PROBLEM

Attracting the wrong shoppers and the wrong clothes

SilkRoll’s current onboarding involves a survey, but it does not gather enough info to adequately qualify the shopper.

Current survey:

Also, SilkRoll currently does not inform the shopper how much s/he might earn from trading in a fashion item on the website. The shopper only finds out whether or not s/he’s earned any Q’s once s/he physically mails in trade-in items which can take up to several weeks.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

Give shoppers the info they need from the start

In order to meet our persona’s needs, the solution must satisfy two criteria:

1. Qualify the shopper with a more comprehensive onboarding survey.

   • This satisfies the business goal to engage more qualified users.

   • This satisfies the user needs by offering shopping customization.

2. Qualify the exchange item by showing value earned with a calculator.

   • This satisfies the business goal of getting more trade-ins of high-end fashion items.

   • This satisfies the user needs by giving them info they need from the start.

Competitive analysis:

DESIGN DELIVERABLES + OVERVIEW OF DELIVERED SOLUTION

Add more qualifying questions but keep it simple

SilkRoll’s current onboarding flow is too brief and does not capture enough user data to qualify the right type of shopper, so people would sign up but be inactive on the site. In our solution, we added a value calculator to the start of the onboarding flow. We also added a comprehensive brand list in the onboarding survey (at the end of the flow) to help qualify the shopper.

Clickable prototype:

Here’s the link to clickable prototype.

RESULTS & REFLECTIONS

Build it out in phases

Since SilkRoll is still in its inception phase and needs to build its user base in order to have meaningful trade-in activity and clothing inventory, we recommended launching the value calculator in two phases. In the initial phase, build a simple calculator with a static value range of Q’s (points) for clothing exchange items, so shoppers can see what they might potentially earn from their resale. When the site eventually gains more traction, the next phase would involve building an actual value calculator based on real-time supply and demand of popular trade-in items.