Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
June 2022 - Septmeber 2022
Skills
Ideation · Wireframing · Prototyping
Tools
Adobe Creative Suite · Figma · Canva
Overview
Vestiaire Collective is an online fashion market platform for buying and selling new and second-hand luxury fashion and goods. Although offering a wide range of products for users accompanied with a plethora of search functions, a redesign of Vestiaire Collective’s website interface to better address users’ pain points will allow for a smoother and more enjoyable online interactive shopping experience and will increase conversion rates.
Problem
New and frequent shoppers and fashion enthusiasts seek a seamless and enjoyable online experience. The website's current interface and search options appear too crowded and overwhelming for users.
Identifying Areas of Improvement
I conducted user research through interviews to gain a better understanding of what features and design aspects allow for the optimal user navigation and searching experience. From my study, I was able to identify some key insights and trends:
1 - Simplifying the design
Excessive navigation buttons and intense contrasting color palettes distract the user from accomplishing their desired tasks. In addition, a streamlined user navigation directory will allow for users to focus on the most popular categories. The current interface design fails to provide the best user experience as:
- The home screen search navigation tools overlap in their functions
- An excessive offering of shopping topic selections is visually overbearing
- Intense contrasting colors visually distract user and is visually overwhelming to users
- Search buttons offered fail to meet a common theme (ex: “Designers” and “Inside Vestiaire” on the same navigation panel)
2 - Implementing a community engagement aspect
Users seek an online shopping experience that aids towards finding desired pieces and development of a specific personal style. Promotion of community interaction allows for users to attain heightened levels of engagement with other fashion enthusiasts/shoppers, prompting users to utilize the website services more frequently.
3 - Enhancing filtering options
Avid fashion enthusiasts seek an online fashion marketplace that provides a seamless and easy-to-use service that aids towards their goal of finding their dream wardrobe. As most luxury brands’ methods of releasing clothing collections heavily depend on their brand identity, removal of less used search functions in replacement for search functions better tailored to the needs of the targeted consumer base will allow for users to easily find their dream pieces.
4 - Simplifying the checkout process
Reducing the number of steps to check out would reduce cart abandonment rates. In addition, implementation of a guest checkout option for users without a Vestiaire Collective account considers the wants and needs for shoppers who do not want to spend the extra time to create an official account, further reducing cart abandonment rates.
Competitive Analysis
Analyzing competitor fashion marketplace companies, I discovered that none of them held an aspect that highlighted their efforts towards community development and engagement, both ever-increasing trends that are paramount to any company's success, especially in the fashion industry.
Areas of Analysis
When comparing to other online fashion retailers and market platforms, I gained a better understanding of what qualities determine the success of a fashion shopping platform. From the results, key insights and trends include:
1 - Users tend to navigate to their gender first
First and foremost, Vestiaire Collective is a shopping platform, thus it entices shoppers to begin here. A streamlined homepage design that features fewer product categories makes it easier for users to shop starting from broader categories.
2 - Users tend to use these sites to find specific garments
In addition to searching based on designer or brand, type of garment, and size of garment, additional search options include searching based on season of release (or year of release for designers and brands who do not hold seasonal releases) makes it easier for users to find specific garments.
3 - Design of interfaces reflect the styles of garments they sell
Competitor platforms all incorporate minimalistic or extravagant design elements to reflect the styles of the designers and brands they offer and specialize in selling.
4 - Emphasis on community feature efforts promotes engagement
As a second-hand fashion market platform, Vestiaire Collective's appeal are to buyers who wish to purchase garments at an affordable price while discovering new styles and trends either by shopping on their own or inspiration from others. Offering community engagement services adds an additional source user interaction/engagement.
User Interviews
With community interaction function implementations for fashion enthusiasts in mind, I sought to discover what features are most appealing to your average consumer.
I derived a group of 10 students on campus at Cornell University with varying fashion choices and tastes and interviewed them with following questions:
- What appeals to you most when shopping online?
- What features or search tools do you most use?
- How does a fashion marketplace interface affect your shopping experience?
- Does the interface influence your decision to make a purchase?
Major Insights
From the interviews, I drew out three major appeals.
| Theme 1: Accessibility | |
| The average user seeks an interface that meets their various shopping needs. | Minimalistic yet usable interface will allow users to easily navigate a site that holds thousands of brands/designers. |
| Theme 2: Design | |
| Drawing a balance between functionality and being fashionable. | An equitable design that is visually appealing will promote engagement and improve user experience. |
| Theme 3: Community | |
| Users frequently use second-hand shopping platforms to discover new styles and trends from other users. | Posts and editorials from staff, shoppers, or fashion influencers aid towards cultivating a community. |
Redesigning
Through competitive analysis of other online fashion retailers and second-hand stores and user testing, the interface of Vestiaire Collective's website and app design is better optimized to facilitate and increase community engagement and promote increased sales. Simplified navigation tools with additional search criteria and a minimalistic design allows for improved user experience.
HOME
BEFORE
AFTER
A user’s experience begins where their navigation starts. As first impressions define a large portion of user experience, a simplified home screen with a more cohesive color palette is less distracting and makes it easier for users to find a starting point in finding their desired luxury goods and navigating the website interface.
DESIGNER-SPECIFIC PAGES
BEFORE
AFTER
A minimalistic designer page with an added description of the designer allows users to gain a better understanding of the designer, their design philosophies, and brand history. Visually acknowledging the brand’s aesthetics improves user experience by narrowing down their desired fashion searches.
GENERAL-FEED LISTINGS
BEFORE
AFTER
A streamlined general feed page creates a better user experience due to less clutter from unnecessary or unused search functions (ex: having “Watch Mechanism” as a search function in a feed where shoes are shown). In addition, using fonts and borders with greater contrast from the background to showcase items makes it easier for the user to see exactly what they are looking at and trying to purchase.
ITEM LISTING DESCRIPTIONS
BEFORE
AFTER
An intuitively-designed item listing page to incorporate key information for buyers, such as measurements, general information, and a new commenting section improves user experience by making it easier for users to see just exactly what they are looking at (dimensions of clothing, season of release, material, etc). Implementing a commenting section will allow users to comment directly on item listings to promote user engagement and foster a cohesive and inclusive online community.
New Community Engagement Services
Implementation of additional community engagement features aids towards the goal of cultivating a diverse and active community. Adding this service would be greatly beneficial as it has high feasibility (simple to implement) and high impact on user experience.
Replacing Underused Social Media Platform Features
Vestiaire Collective holds the potential to become a hub of fashion and arts, a piazza for all things related to luxury goods and fashion and everything in between. Features include allowing users to share posts about:
- Unwanted goods they are looking to trade to find new pieces
- What specific pieces they are looking for to expand their wardrobe
- Their outfits of the day to share their style
What was once a market platform could completely replace the underused features of Facebook marketplace, Instagram explore page, and similar mediums. Features that could be implemented under a Community section of the website include:
1 - General Community Page
This area would consist of all postings in the Community section. All posts in the Community area, similar to the market section, could be sorted based on popularity, trending, or date of posting. Moderators would monitor all posts under this area and pin posts regarding important notices, rules, and more. All posts also include features that allow users to share with friends on social media platforms, save the post for later viewing, or report inappropriate posts.
2 - Where to Buy (WTB)
A Where to Buy section where users may share desired pieces that may not be listed in the market section allows users to directly communicate with an extensive community about specific items that they are seeking that other users may be in possession of but have not listed or if other users know a place in which they may source the piece.
3 - Where to Trade (WTT)
A Where to Trade section allows users to share pieces that they own that they are willing to get rid of in exchange for other pieces. In these postings, users may describe what piece they are willing to part with and what piece(s) they are looking to trade it for.
4 - What I Wore Today (WIWT)
Addition of a section that allows users to share their outfits is a great way for the community users to share their style and gain inspiration from others. As the ever-shifting trends of the fashion and luxury goods industry dictate the tastes of consumers, learning about new styles and designs from others also benefits the market aspect of Vestiaire Collective, further promoting sales and conversion rates. As the only other services similar to the What I Wore Today section are through social media apps, incorporating it directly alongside the market platform improves user experience by facilitating ease of use.
Flowchart
While developing the flowchart to depict the order and formatting of search functions, I postulated which specific search functions were most popular and also which search functions should be implemented to improve user navigation and create for a better overall online shopping experience.
Additional search functions added include season and material under the “Designer” bracket to allow avid fashion enthusiasts to directly view listings from specific designers during specific seasonal releases. In addition, allowing users to search based on material aids towards users’ goals of finding specific garments based on their material makeup in putting together their dream outfit.
Conclusion
Vestiaire Collective is the world’s leading global marketplace for new and pre-owned designer and luxury goods. With over 20,000 products added daily shown to its 23 million members worldwide in 78 countries, Vestiaire Collective is the premier destination for all things related to buying and selling fashion and luxury goods.
But as Vestiaire Collective’s competition grows in popularity due to their innovative features and sleek and minimalistic design interfaces, remaining the most popular market platform requires the platform to consider aspects/efforts that allow for the strongest growth in companies in today’s day and age.
Through competitive analysis of other online fashion retailers and second-hand stores and user testing, the interface of Vestiaire Collective's website and app design is better optimized to facilitate and increase community engagement and promote increased sales. Simplified navigation tools with additional search criteria and a minimalistic design allows for improved user experience by making it easier for fashion enthusiasts or casual shoppers to easily find their desired dream piece. In addition, the implementation of a community forum component on the website/app allows for promotion of increased user engagement, further improving user experience.