The Yes, founded by retail veteran Julie Bornstein, offers a novel approach to online fashion retail through its personalized shopping experience. By leveraging user preferences with 'Yes' or 'No' selections, the platform curates individual product feeds. This episode explores the platform's development amidst a pandemic, its unique differentiation in the crowded e-commerce space, and the strategic importance of customer loyalty programs for fostering retention and lifetime value.
Key takeaways
The 'Yes' or 'No' voting mechanism is a powerful tool for explicit personalization, allowing users to actively shape their shopping feed and improving product discovery for individual tastes.
Launching with an iterative 'beta' mindset, even unintentionally, can be beneficial for gathering user feedback and continuously improving the platform experience before a full rollout.
Loyalty programs like 'Yes Funds', inspired by successes like Sephora's Beauty Insider, are crucial for rewarding loyal customers and significantly boosting customer retention and lifetime value.
Differentiating in crowded e-commerce markets requires a unique value proposition; for The Yes, it's deep personalization that goes beyond typical curated recommendations.
Strategic decisions like launching both a web platform and a mobile app from the outset can maximize reach and user engagement across different access points.
If you count its unintentional year in beta, The Yes is just eight months old.
Retail veteran Julie Bornstein planned to launch the fashion e-commerce platform, which she describes as "a new way to shop," in March 2020 -- but then Covid-19 hit. So, she waited two months and introduced the company in May, just before George Floyd was killed and "the world got even more complicated." As with companies across categories, the plan- and priority-shifting news The Yes faced in the year, and the following year, didn't stop there.
"We operated in what felt like a beta timeframe," Bornstein said on the latest Glossy Podcast. "We ended up using that year to just improve the experience, onboard more brands, learn [what] our users liked and improve so many things. We decided we needed to launch web, [in addition to an app], which we did."
The Yes's big differentiator among fashion marketplaces is the personalized experience it provides shoppers, largely based on individual products they like or dislike via a voluntary click of "Yes" or "No." Bornstein realized the potential for such a platform while holding C-suite positions at Stitch Fix (COO) and Sephora (CMO and chief digital officer). It's worth noting that The Yes rolled out a rewards program dubbed "Yes Funds" on Tuesday, which Bornstein teased during the mid-December podcast recording: "I helped launch Beauty Insider at Sephora, so I'm a big fan of interesting programs that reward your best customer," she said.
The 'Yes' or 'No' voting mechanism is a powerful tool for explicit personalization, allowing users to actively shape their shopping feed and improving product discovery for individual tastes.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Launching with an iterative 'beta' mindset, even unintentionally, can be beneficial for gathering user feedback and continuously improving the platform experience before a full rollout.
What does this episode say about customer retention?
Loyalty programs like 'Yes Funds', inspired by successes like Sephora's Beauty Insider, are crucial for rewarding loyal customers and significantly boosting customer retention and lifetime value.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Differentiating in crowded e-commerce markets requires a unique value proposition; for The Yes, it's deep personalization that goes beyond typical curated recommendations.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Strategic decisions like launching both a web platform and a mobile app from the outset can maximize reach and user engagement across different access points.
