Concept
Learning about shoes
There is a subculture that exists right under our noses. People who buy and resell sneakers for a profit. Unfortunately, they spend hours a day and $1,000s of dollars on tools just to get the opportunity to buy the shoes they want. I want to help their process by taking all those tools and combining them into one. I hope to increase their revenue by upping their odds in buying shoes.
Target Market
Resellers are people that buy limited release shoes at retail then sell them at a marked up price.
They use many tools to accomplish this goal; Resellers learn about shoes from Cook Groups (Group of resellers), buy shoes with Shoe bots, and sell shoes on sites like Stockx (a website built to sell marked up shoes).
Interview with Resellers
The Tools
Find
Locating where when and how to buy shoes could be a job all in itself. With Twitter and some patients, one can get a good jump on drops (shoe releases). Most professionals do not rely on Twitter notifications alone. They join what is called a cook group to get an edge. Cook groups are long-established groups of resellers; they sell limited seats in the group typically on Twitter, slack, or discord.
Buy
Ordering shoes that have a limited release of 5000 worldwide can be hard enough but resellers have an added advantage. They buy bots which is a software that allows them to buy multiple shoes at once. It tricks the online stores into thinking one person is actually many. It also processes the order within seconds allowing one person to break one per person rule. Bots are not illegal but also not liked by most retailers.
Sale
After interviewing a few resellers I also notice a trend of not knowing how much they’ve made or how many shoes they’ve purchased. The bots don’t keep track of this information if you use stockx.com you can track your sales, but its another tool they have to use.
Persona's
After interviews and reviews found online I determined there are two types of users.
Lives in the city
Nurse
Age 18 - 36
Chris Collector
Nurse/ Shoe Collector
Ricky Resaller
Professional reseller
Lives in the city
Full time reseller
Age 22 - 40
Step 1:
I log on to my private resellers group (cook group) or hype website to see what shoes are trending so I know what to buy.
Step 2:
I switch to a tool known as a shoe bot, this program gives me backdoor access into shoe websites, allowing me to buy more shoes faster than an average shopper.
Step 3:
I then add these shoes to a auction site called StockX and sell them to a consumers that are interested in buying shoes.
Step 4:
I then track my costs, sales and see my profit margins.
This process takes about 1-2 hours, requires multiple tools/websites and resellers find this process to be drawn out and painful.
With
Step 1:
Log on to Aftermarket click on the feed page find shoes that are trending and have a high resale value.
Step 2:
Add shoes to my task’s and go to the task page to check progress. Once the shoes are purchased view them in My shoes page.
Step 3:
In the My shoes page I can check my inventory. I find the new shoe and Sync shoes to stockx and wait for customers to buy them.
Step 4:
I then track my costs, sales and see my profit margins with the sync data from stockx.
Steps 1-4 are now all in one place making this easier for the resellers...
Step 1
Once shoes are added to task wait for shoes to be processed (or cooked). If the shoes are purchased click shoe to view details or go to My shoes page.
Step 2
Once shoes are added to task wait for shoes to be processed (or cooked). If the shoes are purchased click shoe to view details or go to My shoes page.
Step 3
Sync shoes to stockx and wait for customers to buy them.
Sketches to Design
Final Screens
Take a look at the final screens
Development
Going from sketch to wireframe to final design is a long process. With testing the designs evolve into an easy to use strong user experience and clean design. The name and logo also went through a long discovery process. Testing Names like Amplify, Display 3 and Aftermarket Platform.
User Testing
Joey was one of the first users I interviewed when I started researching. Getting insight from joey was important because of his high success with using bots. Recently he told me he had a big-time copped success with Playstation 5 from best buy. Some of his feedback shined a light on what could be next for the Aftermarket.
Workflow: Chris Collector
Follow the path of Chirs Collector as a first time or a returning user.
The Future of buying
Bots don’t work while on mobile, but if...
What would the worlds most powerful buying platform look like on mobile? Wonder no longer as Aftermarket has been design to fit in the palm of your hand.
Prototype
Learn more
Detailed Book
Download the thesis book here for a more detailed on this project.
Download
Prototype
Checkout the coded prototype
Coding a working bot would take a level of coding and a team of 10 I simply don’t have. So what I wanted to do is create a website that dives into the look of a working bot. I used Firebase for user authentication and database storage. Materialize for the front end design and framework in HTML.
Try
Journal
Follow along
From conception to the final prototype this journal describes in detail my process. Follow my weekly journal to see how Aftermarket took shape.
More Info
Style Guide
Deep dive into the creation of the logo
This style guide was created for users with style. Hip, cutting edge, user-friendly, and designed to help create a new buying experience centered around the world of resale.
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