“The Yes” — Product Analysis/Review

Previously, I wrote an article on how consumers need a “Spotify for Fashion”; today, we see this vision sprouting into a reality with the latest shopping App on the market: “The Yes” The Yes app partners with small and large brands to provide access to a variety of clothing options on their interface, and, more importantly, curates shoppers’ feeds given their past decisions in selecting “Yes” or “No” based on recommended clothing options and assortments. In essence, “The Yes” strives to be a digital personal shopper helping consumers navigate “online shopping,” an experience that now, more than ever, is bound to give shoppers’ a serious case of choice paradox. Brands featured on the app do not need to pay-to-play but will pay a commission fee for any purchases made through the app.

I’ve always thought that shopping should be a stress-free, fun experience; after all, it’s no coincidence that indulgent shopping trips are commonly excused as “shopping therapy.” Ironically, with more options to customize your wardrobe and personal style to your liking comes more of “choice paradox” in the form of a headache. In addition, I’ve often found that hours of scrolling through sites looking for the perfect item have resulted in nothing, and the initially energized pursuit becomes a fruitless attempt; this results in an overall negative experience, as I then feel that I’ve wasted time with zero gain. Having desired a technology-driven solution to combat these woes for years, I jumped on the app as one of the first users. Here’s a quick evaluation of what I’m seeing —

Strengths:

• Low Competition: “The Yes!” is currently the premier option for curated shopping / digital personal shopper on the app market, with previous apps like “Hit or Miss” with similar functions no longer being active
• Fulfillment of customer need: “The Yes!” addresses several customer needs / pain points: 1)Customers spend a lot of time online looking for the item they want, but they can’t find it — When you search for a specific type of item on “The Yes,” you are able to search through multiple brands at once. Once you click on a particular style you like, similar styles from other brands will also appear as “same but different”; this feature is rather effective from the few times I tried, and I can see this feature saving me a ton of time when I’m looking for a particular item! 2) Customers have too many options to sift through when browsing for a new purchase — When you log into the app, your home screen is curated from your past “Yes” or “No” choices, making it more likely you’ll find something you like and find it quickly. In addition, you can shop “picks for you by category” which curates your exploration further, giving you as the customer the ability to double click into a curated feed within the category of interest.

Weaknesses:

• Isolation of certain customer segmentations: “The Yes” primarily partners with mid-high price point brands, with lowest price point brands being “Zara” and “Mango”; while this curated selection will appeal to the trendy millennial audience with low price sensitivity, for those who normally purchase during sales and are looking for deals “The Yes” might be a nice reference point but may not convert users who want to make sure they’re getting the most bang out of their buck. What if they can find the zebra midi-length skirt at another retailer for a lower price?
• Transparency of assortment: “The Yes” does not completely remove the “FOMO” customers might feel from browsing a curated selection and needs to gain consumer trust to replace traditional online shopping methods — does this assortment take into account all products offered by the brands featured? How often does “The Yes” refresh its assortment? Are there certain items customers might be missing out on by exclusively browsing on “The Yes”?

Opportunities:

• Pricing Transparency: Similar to Amazon, “The Yes” can use a diagram to show the historical price of each product on site; in addition, “The Yes” can offer the comparison shopping component “Modesens” offers to assure consumers they are getting the best deal. For example, consumers may hesitate to convert on the $400 Vince coat they find on “The Yes,” but a historical price diagram offers consumers transparency on the sale history of the coat (was it discounted over the holidays? Is it then more likely to discount in the future?) and comparison shopping allows consumers to snag the same coat from a retailer like Neiman Marcus that might carry it.
• Onboarding more brands / businesses: As “The Yes” scales, it has the opportunity to onboard brands of varying price points to cater to the mass consumer. Onboarding businesses that carry a selection of brands will also enable “The Yes” to implement comparison shopping.
• Including filters by type of brand/business: In the current environment, some shoppers will only shop at eco-friendly brands; for these shoppers, creating a filter that only allows eco-friendly clothing to appear on their feeds will allow this app to both expand their usual selection and only see options that apply to them.
• Creating a community: As “The Yes” scales, a presence of community within users can be valuable. Community can help users stick (customer retention) and users can create content that feeds into the review system (below), helping increase information transparency about the products.
• Creating a review system: “The Yes” can further strive to solve customer pain points by including reviews within its items, making it much easier for users to decide on the product, the sizing/fit of the product, and reducing returns for the retailer.
• Additional features around personal shopping: “The Yes” has many opportunities to expand its features as a digital personal shopper; these include 1) “shop by image” — having users upload a photo of an item they’re looking for and offering a set of similar styles and 2) personal shopper chat — including a personal shopper service for users who are looking for an opinion / shopping buddy

Overall, I think it’s exciting that a new app is on the market to help make shopping a more enjoyable, relaxing experience for everyone and help drive sales for brands at this crucial time. I will be keeping an eye on how it develops!