INTERACTIVE ECOM
How Tech can Alter the Access to Luxury
How Tech can Alter the Access to Luxury
I was drawn into this project for a couple of reasons, I was actually very fond of the model way before the partners approached me to lead their project for its inception phase. I had worked in luxury fashion earlier for a good chunk of my career and it's a field I am very passionate about. I find it is so intricate, inspirational and loaded with narratives. Yet in even working in the field didn't give me access to luxury. This had always got me to rethink and challenge the existing buying and retail models, hence when a penny auction site came across my path I really was happy to make a product I would actually love to use myself & know so many people around me from variable social bubbles & walks of life who would be as excited to use it as well.
Penny auction model Unlike traditional auction models, a penny auction requires users to invest a preset amount into "bidding tickets" or what can be called "bids", then these bids can be used by users to bid on items that start at zero dollar or another predefined minimum price but almost negligible price compared to value of the actual product on auction. Many bidders would have to be involved in the bidding, with each click (or bid placed) raising the minimum price of the item by one cent. Long story short I like to look at it as crowdsourcing your new macbook pro or your dream Birkin bag via an interactive shopping experience.
This notion of democratizing luxury and fashion got me into the project, I was brought in after a series of challenges faced by my clients, and with conjoined efforts, cross continent collaborations we were able to get the product to life, onboard users & hopefully offer luxury to users that wouldn't have had access to it otherwise.
proposed logo, however project went in a different direction this remains my favourite & also carries the visuaql language of the slides to follow.
We operate in complex adaptive systems and reverse engineering your goals is the best way to retain project alignment and consolidate team efforts. More so when you work with several (siloed - cross continent) suppliers. Also retaining a handful of goals vs. a long list of best practices would higher the chances of retention and mind share thus below where the goal guidelines of this project which acted as true north for all teams and partners during the entire process.
It is always important to learn from the failures of others, in your field or adjacent to it.
At the time of inception there were already several competitors and players in the same area, it is easy to get tunnel vision and compare to competitors alone, try to become a "me too" or leverage on traditional competitive tricks like price and so on. However it was important for me that we take on a bird eye view of what this product is bringing to the user and from that perspective one should compare it in terms of value and experience it provides and not the definition it takes on.
Naturally vision needs to be shared and illustrated, I also aim to both empower and educate my clients during our collaboration process so I provide comprehensive teardowns and projections.
By mapping players that are heightening experience and marrying it well with substantial value new ideas, visions and narratives emerge that can guide one's product into success. Ecom will not remain static and interactive experiences as well as new business models that are more focused on consumer demand will become the new frontier of luxury ecom.
If you build a narrative that is anchored in emotion that amps experience and is supported by logic that guides decision making while making it accessible to both your users, team and suppliers you have a winning strategy.
