Throughout this internship, I conducted research regarding style trends, and consumer data and behavior to create various suggestions on the creation of SYFT. SYFT is a fashion-tech start-up that is designed to deliver clothing options to consumers based on their specific style. In this portfolio, projects regarding my research, and suggestions will be presented.
In the beginning of the internship, I identified 7 major current styles in women's fashion that would impact the style groups that SYFT provides for consumers. I researched the style groups including major characteristics, various names that represent the style, celebrities and influencers who identify with the style, as well as created a mood board displaying the style across four product categories: activewear, casualwear, workwear, and evening wear.
Due to SYFT being a digital fashion company, I focused my research on shopping behaviors of the target market, especially how consumers are shopping online. This included pain points while shopping online, to identify the issues SYFT would need to prevent or fix before being released, as well as the channel of shopping online, such as through a desktop, mobile, apps, or extensions. I also analyzed other companies that utilize the channels and why they were effective. By understanding which channels consumers prefer and use the most frequently, it could be decided which channel SYFT wanted to focus on and utilize.
In order to design an effective platform, I research the consumer base that would be targeted. This included both Gen Z and Millennial women. I discovered major characteristics of the two groups, their demographics, psychographics, and shopping behavior. From this information, I concluded different aspects that could be included in the formation of the start-up to appeal to the overlapping characteristics of the consumer base.
SYFT's purpose is to deliver products that reflect consumer's specific style. Therefore, it is critical for the company to have a clear idea of what that style is. I conducted research on other company's quizzes, as well as the characteristics of quizzes that consumers enjoy taking. From this information, I created an example of a possible style quiz visitors could take upon entering the site to allow the algorithm to accurately generate products based on their style. The quiz contains 10 questions to keep consumers' attention, visuals to be engaging, as well as a section on price and fit, to create an even more personalized result.
During my internship, I was specifically assigned the style group, minimalism, to create a style guide that would include key words that relate to the style group, as well as major characteristics for each product category. After creating this style guide filled with minimalism's attributes, it was much more effective for easily spotting and tagging clothing products that would included in the prototype and shown to consumers who have this specific style.
Since SYFT is a start-up and therefore, on a budget, I researched ways for the brand to connect with consumers in a cost-efficient way. Social media tends to be an effective medium for this, leading to the decision of the creation of a blog. This would allow the company to portray the brand image, and begin a dialogue with consumers by their posts. I researched current interests of the target market, as well as different fashion companies and retail brands that have a blog. From analyzing these blogs, I identified major areas that should be included in SYFT's blog, as well as examples for each category. Additionally, since social responsibility was a specific category that consumers were looking towards during the time of my internship as well as currently, I included brands and products that consumers could shop at to support the initiatives they are passionate about.