◉ PROBLEM HYPOTHESIS
More of us could be buying and selling pre-owned clothing and in turn benefit the environment
I suspect many people have clothes in their closet that they aren’t wearing. If this is true, there is an opportunity for these unused clothes to be more appreciated by somebody else and for those with the clothing clutter to get something in return, while simultaneously lessening fashion’s environmental footprint. The apparel industry uses loads of natural resources and generates significant pollution and waste, see key stats below:
>> Key action
One important way we can reduce clothing’s environmental impact is to extend the average number of times an item is worn.
◉ SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS
Pitched a clothing-matching exchange app
My first idea was a clothing exchange mobile app that would enable users to trade their under utilized clothing for clothing they would rather have instead by way of matching users by size to generate a personalized feed.
Early testing returned negative feedback
From initial feedback it quickly became apparent that my initial idea, being based on trading, was flawed:
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Just because people had clothes they would sell, didn’t necessarily mean they wanted clothes in exchange; they could say be moving or merely decluttering.
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What if they didn’t want something from the person that wanted to trade with them?
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Without a currency, how were users meant to value the items? And would this not make the exchange process overly onerous on the user?
Pivot to an online clothing marketplace
I pivoted to exploring the idea of a clothing marketplace mobile app that would make it more enticing for users to buy and sell pre-owned clothing. At this point, a key differentiator would be the app's sole focus on fashion, relative to competitors, with other features of the app to be determined post user research.