#branding #design

dechoes resale buys and sells vintage, modern, and designer second-hand clothing and accessories in person and online. when facing the unprecedented loss of a main platform for customer communication, the owners tasked me with finding a way to bounce back - and maybe even make an improvement - with a new way to let customers know about new arrivals, sales, and more.

my role: UI designer
timeline: 3 week project
tools: shopify, tapcart, figjam

A mobile phone in the back pocket of a woman wearing jeans, with a flower in the pocket with the phone

problem

dechoes resale lost access to their main form of communication with their customers - instagram. they need a new way to communicate directly with customers.

goals

- explore solutions to recovering lost communication & sales
- implement and promote the new mobile application
- create and apply updated branding

research

i implemented a number of research methodologies to get to know customers and their needs. this was done via surveys and interviews. it was clear our users wanted a direct line of communication and they wanted a way to be notified of new inventory first.

solution brainstorming

in collaboration with the business owners, we considered many options, including expanding the email newsletter, SMS messaging, and more. from the user research analysis, the best solution would be a dedicated mobile application. one of the main draws of this was access to push notifications.

competitor analysis

once we decided a mobile app was our best option, we had to explore the different kinds of ways to build it. as a small business, building an app from the ground up was to expensive. i completed a competitor analysis comparing different options for turning the Shopify store into a mobile application.

Two clusters of sticky notes with short sentences on each one

tapcart integration

the solution to our small business problem was solved by Tapcart, a partner with Shopify that automatically turns Shopify stores into dedicated mobile applications. we moved into the integration stage, where i was the sole leader of the mobile app project. after this stage, my focus shifted to branding and design.

user persona

meet jada. she is a 30-something nail technician and single mother to one young child. she prefers to shop for trendy second-hand clothes and designer items locally within her community, but doesn't have the time for thrifting anymore. she has been shopping at Dechoes Resale since high school and loves finding unique items at great prices.  

A young woman with blonde hair in a black wide brimmed hat laughing

gains

- finding amazing deals on designer items
- saving time by shopping curated second hand stores instead of digging through thrift stores
- in-person shopping within her community

pains

- losing out on that special item because someone else beat her to it
- finding an item she loves that is not in her size or is out of her budget
- shopping second-hand online and not knowing exactly what she is recieving

information architecture

my goal with this app was to maximize what our users wanted from this app: direct and quick access to new arrivals. the app also needed to host a number of pages that would share information with our users about authentication processes, shipping times, selling their items, etc. below represents the site map that optimized the layout of where all this information would go within the limitations of the Tapcart system.
piece of site map
A flow chart with mutliple points

design elements

i captured the essence of Dechoes Resale's branding and enhance it for this application. while they serve a wide demographic, the target for this app reflects the persona i created, jada. i wanted to capture the trendy, edgy, urban, and unique vibe that Dechoes brings.
final deliverables
A mobile phone screen showing a woman holding a bag and the store's logoA mobile phone screen showing a home screen with a large promotional image and some buttonsA mobile phone screen showing an app's home page with purses and promotional imagesA mobile phone screen showing a column of buttons with images of productsA mobile phone screen showing a product page featuring a bottle of perfume and information about itA mobile phone screen showing a grid of productsA mobile phone screen showing a checkout screen and one product with some information and buttonsA mobile phone screen showing the footer menu with a column of words

in the future...

- let customers sign up for push notifications when specific brands/items become available
- add customer accounts with wishlist features
- expand to a hand-designed custom app

let's work together

reach out!
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