Resurfacing after a long hiatus
A fun update! Relaunching Curious Commerce & what I'm curious about these days
It’s been awhile since I wrote here. I’m excited to be back.
One major life update since I last published - I had my first baby (a boy) this summer! In between changing diapers and wiping up spit up, I've been spending too long scrolling on my phone, price-comparing diapers and buying tiny clothes that Baby J will wear for all of one month. In all this scrolling, I have so many thoughts about cool ecommerce site experiences - and I’ve been inspired to start sharing here again.
On the professional side, I’m still at Estée Lauder, though I’ve transitioned to a new role as Head of Growth Product Marketing. I love the intersection of marketing, strategy, and ecommerce operations and this role lets me dive deep into all of it. I’m on maternity leave through December, so getting back into blogging here to exercise my adult brain.
Curious Commerce is a notepad for me to share cool things I’m seeing in the ecommerce world right now. In the past, I did a lot of deep dives - like a primer on Retail KPIs and strategies to drive ecommerce profitability. My goal is to continue writing deep dives, but to mix in more bite-size write ups, like this one, that curate some interesting commerce tidbits. If you stay tuned, you’ll also be hearing about my extracurricular interests a lot - resale/thrifting (particularly my obsession with The RealReal), hiking, birding, and running.
3 Things I’m Curious About Right Now
#1 Fashion Rental App Pickle’s “Looking For” Feature
I’ve been following Pickle for awhile. It is a peer-to-peer clothing rental app. I think the concept is really intriguing - it lets renters monetize their closet and get some passive-ish income, while making designer fashion more accessible. I like the hyper-local aspect. Living in NYC, I can hop on the subway and pick up a dress for a wedding weekend from a renter just as easily as I could run to Bloomingdale’s.
In contrast, with OG competitor Rent the Runway, longer lead times are required and higher costs are incurred operationally (quality checks, restocking, etc) due to its centralized nature. One challenge I’ve always had with Rent the Runway is that many of the pieces feel basic. I imagine a key consideration with inventory is maximizing utilization of the item - they don’t want lots of unrented inventory sitting in the warehouse, costing them money. So you rarely see really kooky, off-the-wall styles that I am seeking for one-time use (gala, black tie wedding, etc.). Pickle avoids this challenge. While the platform is currently very influencer-heavy and seems to skew heavily Gen Z, I think it’s tapping into a need that could appeal to a broad base of consumers - both renters and buyers. There is also a clear path to monetizing resale of the items, which Rent the Runway has already embraced.
Pickle has a “Looking For” tab on the app that is really smart. As a user, you can post a message on the forum describing the item you’re seeking. For example - “I’m a size S and looking for a red cocktail dress for a summer wedding in Italy.” Other users can then recommend items either from their own rental closets, or from other closets. It’s common to see 50-100+ recommendations on a thread, giving users plenty of inspiration to choose from.
Adding an AI layer to automatically sort the recommendations by relevance or a thumbs up/down to upvote the “best” options could make this feature even more relevant for the user.
The “Looking For” feature is cool because it 1. drives engagement on the app in a way that isn’t overly transactional and 2. drives conversion by facilitating product discovery. There are opportunities for more traditional ecommerce brands to tap into this dynamic. Typically, a brand ecommerce site is a fairly static “push” of information from the Brand to the consumer - “hey guys - we’re selling X, Y, Z…do you want to buy anything?” Editorial content similarly is pushed out from the brand, instead of driving interaction - “here’s 10 ways to style our fall collection.” Take it or leave it. The “Looking For” feature inspires me to think how we can bring our consumers into the process of curation and discovery on our own sites. A few fun ideas:
Brands can tap into real consumer styling questions, answering them on a dedicated landing page on .com and on a social channel like Tiktok. This would also be a valuable source of insight into how customers are thinking about the products.
In the reviews section of the Product Detail Page for an apparel brand, buyers could share other products from the same brand/retailer that they styled with the product. This would serve a function similar to a cross-sell module, but have a human touch.
Brands could allow consumers to co-create landing pages for specific events or occasions, and be rewarded for sales driven. This is a flavor of affiliate marketing, but brings the content those affiliates create to the .com site, adding relevance, increasing engagement, and boosting search.
Multi-brand retailers - Saks, REI, MyTheresa to name a few - would be best-positioned to capitalize on this type of curation approach as they have a huge range of products that is difficult to wade through. I could also see brands like J.Crew or Gap that offer a wide assortment finding success with this approach.
Implementing ideas like this would require a massive rethink to how ecommerce sites are managed at many brands/retailers. There are technical reasons why .com sites all look pretty similar - templates and modules that are designed with certain, limited functions. Diving deeper into ideas like this will be the subject of longer future posts. But for now, I enjoyed seeing how Pickle is innovating with discovery.
#2 Image Recognition Tech & the shopping journey
These days I start many of my shopping searches with Google Lens. I’ll screenshot an outfit I see on social media or snap a picture of a cute bag I see in a store window. Within seconds, I can comparison shop across every retailer that is stocking that product, and I can look at similar more affordable alternatives.
As an example, I loved this vintage Vivienne Tam dress I saw on Poshmark for $750 so I screenshotted it. Via Google, I saw an ebay listing for much less, which led me down a rabbit hole of many related listings. This approach works great for vintage items where the price disparity across sellers may be hundreds of dollars.
Increased use of Google Lens and similar tools has a couple immediate impacts on the shopping journey:
Reduced pricing power for sellers: While in-season items often have an MSRP that is consistent across retailers, any time an item is marked down at one retailer, the others are at a major disadvantage unless they match. Consumers were always savvy about comparison shopping across major retailers (especially with increased popularity of Google Shopping), but now they can look across eBay and other resale sites too.
More brands in consideration set: If I see that an unfamiliar brand makes something nearly identical to what I’m searching for, I’m likely open to try it - especially if there are reviews and other forms of social proof that I can reference. Before Google Lens, I might check around on my favorite brand sites to see what was out there, but the consideration set would be more limited.
Reduced brand loyalty: Driven by the above factors, consumers’ loyalty to a given brand is challenged by increased visibility of relevant options. What reasons are you giving customers to shop with you in this environment?
Many marketplaces and large retailers are adding the “shop by image” feature as a native site feature to seize the “top of funnel” opportunity. This tech has gotten better in the short time that I’ve been using it.
#3 “Underconsumption Core”
I noticed that the concept of underconsumption - buying fewer things and sticking to long-lasting essentials - was trending on TikTok recently.
This is a clear reaction to the proliferation of cheap, poorly made goods that are constantly being marketed to us.
Coach is one brand that pops up a lot in the “underconsumption” discourse. In this video, a creator shows how she rehabs a thrifted Coach bag to its former glory using leather treatment products. This feels like an opening for Coach to tap into a valuable brand marketing moment - consumers are saying that their leather goods are fantastic quality and are durable - why not offer a pop up experience where customers can get their older bags rehabbed? Coach is leaning into their classic designs with their new collection, so it feels of-the-moment to emphasize their quality chops and timelessness.
Regardless of what you sell, brands can do more to extend the longevity of their products. Especially for high price tag items, customers expect quality. A long-lasting product engenders brand love and loyalty. Simply educating customers on care and maintenance can go a long way.
Add educational content on how to clean and care for products on .com and social channels
Offer free cleaning and repairs in stores and/or via concierge service
Send reminders to customers about any cleaning/maintenance required - for example, for an appliance like Dyson - this is a valuable touchpoint to stay top-of-mind with customers
A bit unrelated…I’ve always thought there was a business opportunity in helping people take care of their things better. I would pay for a service to help me get my belts and shoes repaired appropriately, to get jewelry cleaned and fixed, get zippers repaired, etc. Of course these services all exist, but if I’m honest with myself it’s usually too much admin to take on the research, scheduling drop off, pick up…so it never happens. I’ll file that idea away for later.
Stay Curious,
Melina
I would pay a premium for a more convenient "repair & restore" solution!!!