SMALL BUSINESS DESIGN
THREADS TO TALES
cliental
A PASSION PROJECT
Co-founder, an online thrift and consignment store rooted in the principles of circular fashion. Procurement, curation, and resale of pre-loved clothes at affordable prices, with the final goal of sponsoring the education of an underprivileged child at our partner NGO.
Check out our website and Instagram page! →
SKILLS
Strategy Design, Business Model Design, User Research, Interaction & Experience Design, Branding & Visual Design, Marketing, Content Creation, Photography, Accounting, Customer Support
Founded - DEC'20
Established - JUN'21
CO-FOUNDED
with Aditi Rathi
ONCE UPON A TIME...
The Tale Begins
It all started Dec 2020, when a classmate of mine and I were stuck at our homes because of the pandemic. We were talking on call about how we were making do with the 5 pairs of clothes we had brought back home with us from college. This made us realise that a lot of us have a lot of clothes that go unused/barely used. This gave us an idea - why not start a thrift store where we could find a new home for these clothes that we didn’t use/need anymore? Thus was sown the seed for this project.
STEP ONE
THE START
literature review. user survey. target audience. business model.
Learning From Literature
To validate our assumptions about the need for a thrift store and its acceptance - we did secondary research in the form of a literature review.
After analysing the insights, we narrowed down our target audience to
environmentally conscious young individuals shopping on a budget.
Understanding the Indian Context
The insights from the Secondary Research helped structure and plan the Primary Research. It consisted of an online survey mainly directed towards Indian teens & young adults.
KEY OBJECTIVES OF THE SURVEY
-
To validate and check the awareness and acceptance of the concept of thrifting in India.
-
To find out what people look for in a piece of clothing, and their frequency of shopping.
-
To find out how the online thrifting experience could be made better.
-
To understand if people would be open to donating their clothes for resale.
The Target Audience
Further categorization into females and males helped us distinguish between two potential user groups. It revealed that 18-24 year old females are a lot more receptive to the concept of thrifting and have an inclination towards buying from online thrift stores, when compared to the males of the same age group. Females also showed greater interest in donating their unneeded clothes for resale.
Hence, the final target audience was decided to be
environmentally conscious college-going Indian females shopping on a budget.
STEP TWO
THE TEST
campus clothes collection drive.
The Experiment
Location: IIT Guwahati
Sample: IITG Female Students
Aim: To test their willingness to donate their unneeded clothes for resale.
We conducted a clothes collection drive in the IITG campus in March (26th-28th). We designed 3 posters that each targeted a different persona. The posters were put up all throughout the campus and mails were sent out to all students (with an attached form).
The Success
By 25th March, we had received 50+ responses to the form floated. We then planned the pick-up route and went about collecting clothes for the next 3 days.
We recieved 400+ clothes (including around 150 clothes that will be directly donated).
With the resellable pieces of clothing, 22 exciting collections consisting of 180+ clothes in all were made. With 4 collection launches scheduled per month, this inventory would last us for over 5 months. The collections are based on fictional characters, occasions, product type, colours and themes, etc.
UPDATE:
Uptil September'21, we've launched 8 collections. Take a look at them! →
P.S. We gave discount coupons to everyone who had donated to us and supported us :)
STEP THREE
THE IDENTITY
(OMG, IT'S REALLY HAPPENING)
name. visual language. logo. collaterals. website.
Threads to Tales finds a home for pre-loved clothes and hopes that these threads help you make your own tales. The profits aim to support underprivileged children in creating their own unique stories.
Defining the Design Language
mood boarding. colours. typography. illustration style.
Moodboarding
The first phase of ideation started as we defined the types of visuals our store would need (colors, logo, packaging, illustrations, typography). Following that, we created mood boards and inspiration boards for each of them.
Colour Palette
Mood boarding gave us a direction to think and explore in, which then helped us set a design language for our brand. The aesthetic we wished to identify with was soft, with a scope to be bold. So, we decided to go with pastels as the base, with saturated variants for each. A vast colour palette was chosen in order to accommodate all perceived requirements, ranging from website design to Instagram marketing.
WHY VIOLET? The energy of red, combined with the calm of blue. Colour of the sensitive, compassionate intuitive soul. It encourages creativity, along with giving a sense of quality.
Typography
A variety of typefaces, for all required purposes.
Illustration Style
The nature of our store comes with a lot of model and product shoots. This provided a base for our illustration style: one that could accompany and enhance the pictures, by bringing attention to the product. The base pictures would vary based on each collection, and so would the aesthetic. Hence, we decided on a few rough ideas and inspirations to help us with easy implementation as we move forward.
ideation. final logo.
Final
A thread-like font helps weave in the concept of fluidity and fashion. The two arms embracing each other depict love, warmth, and care. The circular shape symbolically depicts ‘circular fashion’.
packaging collaterals
stickers. freebies. feedback note. personal note.
See us packag our first ever order! →
The Logo
Ideation
The Website
information architecture. major screen. live website.
Information Architecture
Major Screens
sign up. home. sell. shop. product page. cart. checkout.
Homepage →
All major pages can be accessed easily from the homepage.
Before we launched our first clothes collection, we asked the audience to guess to what it would be, and people gave some really cool replies!
Sign Up/Log In →
The footer houses all important sections and also includes the store's Instagram, FAQs, order tracking, store and privacy policies, feedback, and relevant contact information.
Sell Page →
All information regarding how & why users should sell their clothes to us is given on this page.
Shop Page →
Users can view and shop collections on this page. Every time a new collection is launched, a banner appears above the product catalogue. Filters have been set according to insights generated while understanding the shopping preferences and priorities of our target audience. User can 'quickly view' any product in the form of a pop-up, and can click anywhere on the product picture and description to go to the product page.
Product Page →
Our research helped us understand that users prioritized and were most concerned about the fitting of the clothes. Such details, in addition with condition, brand, materials, multiple model + product images have been included on this page.
In the event of slight defects in the item of clothing, that is mentioned here as well.
Cart and Checkout →
STEP FOUR
COLLECTIONS AND MARKETING
curating collections. photography. website banners. instagram marketing
Curating Collections
With the resellable pieces of clothing we received from the clothes campus collection drive, 22 collections (consisting of a total of 180+ clothes) were curated. With 4 collection launches scheduled per month, this inventory would last us for over 5 months.
The Collections are based on fictional characters, occasions, product type, colours and themes, etc.
UPDATE: In 2 months (July-August), we launched 8 collections; one collection per week. 4 were based on fictional characters, and the remaining 4 were based on product type.
TV SHOW CHARACTERS
1. Rachel Green (F.R.I.E.N.D.S)
2. Veronica Lodge (Riverdale)
3. Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)
4. Casey Gardner (Atypical)
PRODUCT TYPE
1. All Things Denim
2. Life is Short (Pun Intended)
3. Shirts to Die For
4. Spillin' the Tee
Photographing Collections
Each collection has 6-12 clothing items. Model and product photography for each product is done before the collection launch, and each collection has a different theme. Making moodboards, clicking photos and experimenting with the shots has been fun :)
Check out our products and their photography here ->
On the Website
Here is a glimpse of how each collection drop looked like on the website. Updates are made to the homepage and shop page weekly, during each collection launch.
Instagram Marketing
We decided to use Instagram as our marketing platform given the fact that are target audience uses this platform extensively. All content and creatives that we create aims at audience engagement and spreading awareness. We follow a 3-part content plan which includes posts of 3 kinds:
1
Weekly collections and related hype
2
Posts targeted at raising awareness about thrifting and circular fashion
3
Behind the scenes, sharing struggles, failures and successes
We try to keep our content as appealing to the target audience - this often comes in the form of trending reels and posts to engage our audience. We try to maximize our usage of Instagram features and collaborate with other stores for giveaways, etc.
#TheLoveWe'veReceived
We have received support in so many ways -- and by that we do not mean just the purchases, but also the love, the appreciation, the feedback, the motivation. We have a long way to go and this keeps us going on the hard days :)
#SharingTheLove
We have partnered with the NeoFusion Creative Foundation NGO. They do an amazing job at educating and supporting underprivileged children by acting as a catalyst in their overall development and skill-building. They use innovative and engaging methods to do the same, with a strong focus on creative arts.
The profits Threads to Tales receives from sales help sponsor the education of one child at the NGO, and we feel extremely happy to be able to do our small part :)
STEP FIVE
#THELOVE
the love we've recieved. sharing the love.
A 24/7 JOB
STEP SIX
how it's going. monthly and weekly checklists. metrics.
How It's Going
It's been a few months, and the experience has been like no other. With tasks ranging from website upkeep to handling finances, inventory creation to packaging, and photography to content creation, it is indeed a 24/7 job. We meet up a minimum of 3 times every week to discuss, ideate, and execute. Here's a glimpse of our monthly and weekly to-do lists.
Metrics
As of August 30, 2021
02
MONTHS
16/51
CLOTHES SOLD
363
INSTA FOLLOWERS
2246
SITE SESSIONS
1402
UNIQUE VISITORS
37m 58s
AVERAGE SESSION
THE NEXT STEP
STEP SIX
struggles, challenges & moving forward
1. Work Management
From photoshoots to website maintenance, marketing to customer support, and logistics to handling finances -- the 2 of us have been doing it all and we know it is not a sustainable way to continue.
To tackle this, we need to bring more people on board, which would require us to identify what relevant skills and growth opportunities we can give said people out of this. Moving on this vertical ladder towards a more managerial role is a daunting challenge that we hope to solve in the near future
2. Prioritizing Right
A lot of our time goes into the pre-launch stage of the collection, and we realized that we have been focussing less on marketing and customer conversion - factors crucial to making sales. Our journey so far has helped us identify such areas that need more attention.
3. Increasing Our Reach
One big thing that was missing from our current model was collaborating with other creators, influencers or thrift stores, to increase our audience base. We recently collaborated for a giveaway with 7 other small businesses and the outcome was pretty great, however, it could've been better. Our insights on Instagram also tell us that our graph became saturated very fast. This calls for further experimentation and engagement by making better use of the chosen platform.
4. Working Remotely
With the second wave of the pandemic at its peak when we launched the store, we were forced to work remotely at our homes, 600 km away from one another. This made quite a few things difficult to execute - decision making, new collection curations, photoshoots, Instagram engagement, etc. Although now, after 4 months, we're back to college and are able to work together, we need to be prepared if such a scenario were to happen again, especially once we expand our team.