SearchForNear. Souvenir-Seeking App. Ti-Cheng Lin. Fall 2018

Transcription

1 SearchForNear Souvenir-Seeking App A platform for young tourists to look for affordable and aesthetically pleasing souvenirs. Ti-Cheng Lin Fall 2018

2 Customer Problem Hypothesis Young tourists in LA find it difficult to find affordable and aesthetically pleasing souvenirs for friends.

3 Provisional Persona Description: Aged 18 to 35 ( college students or new graduates ) Lives out of state Has a tight budget Behaviors: Loves making lots of friends Enjoys traveling around the world Comfortable with using technology Needs & Goals: Wants to buy an eye-catching gift for friends Wants to save money on buying souvenirs Wants an app that recommends and compares souvenir stores Billy Cruz, a young tourist in LA

4 Customer Discovery Findings 80% (8 out of 10) of interviewees found it difficult to look for affordable and aesthetically pleasing souvenirs for friends. Interviewees response to Hypothesis: Additional Findings: If there was an app that recommended and compared souvenir stores in LA, 10 out of 10 of interviewees would use it.

5 Direct Competitors LA County Store Pros The UI of LA County Store is clean with many images. The souvenirs are well organized so that it is easy to search for a specific souvenir. Cons The top left navigation menu is overlapped. Check out section should have a better alignment. The button is not consistent and the UX is ugly The sub-navigation menu overlapped the main menu

6 Direct Competitors Happy Mall Pros Happy mall has categorized the souvenirs so it is easy to search for a specific souvenir. It has souvenirs from all over the world and online services. Cons The UI of Happy Mall is old. Check out is not centered. Product listing page UX is poorly designed. The check out section should be centered for better UX. The listing is not easy for users to browse through all the products.

7 Direct Competitors - Etsy Pros Etsy s UI is modern and stylish. Etsy products listing page is clear easy to look up. It has a map to provide local store information. Cons Etsy doesn't have a suggestion system. Etsy doesn t have a profile page for additional information on the seller. Map is good for UX and easier for users to look up a specific local store

8 Current Marketplace Souvenirs look up web-based applications are likely to be competing under Purple Ocean. A number of websites are already selling LA s souvenirs. One common problem is that the UI of these websites is not user-friendly. Opportunities SearchForNear mobile app will focus on providing a user-friendly and consistent interface with recommender system and buy now & pick up later feature by cooperating with local souvenir stores and local artists to help tourists to find souvenirs easier. Recommendations Competitive Analysis Findings Some of the competitors already have a lot of users and funding, therefore SearchForNear requires a good marketing strategy to attract more users and gain more transactions.

9 Prototype Screens Home Page Categories Page Listing Page

10 Prototype Screens Detail Page Check Out Page Receipt Page

11 Prototype Screens Map Page Favorites Page

12 Execution Conducted interviews at Starbucks with 5 people that I recruited through Facebook and referrals of friends. 100% (5 out of 5) interviewees said that they will use this app to find souvenirs for friends in LA. 80% (4 out of 5) interviewees are willing to see advertising and pay 5% service fee for the buy now and pick up later feature.

13 User Research Interview Findings Customer Segment and their Problem Validated 5 out of 5 (100%) young tourists said that they have a hard time to find the souvenirs for friends. Value Proposition Validated 5 out of 5 (100%) young tourists said that they will use this app to find souvenirs for friends in LA. Business Model Validated 4 out of 5 (80%) young tourists are willing to see advertising and pay 5% service fee for the buy now and pick up later feature. Based on my learnings, the plan is to persevere.

14 Facebook Advertising Campaign Ad1 focused on the problem Ad2 focused on the solution

15 Landing Page - Top

16 Landing Page - Bottom

17 Unbounce & Facebook Ad Campaign Results

18 Advertising Campaign Findings The conversion rate for the landing page is 11.11% which is high. However, the results might not be precise due to the small pool of visitors. The ad campaign CTR is 0.38% which is not as good as expected on the Ad campaigns due to the fact that my target is the tourists. Tourists do not check mobile phones intensely during their trip. People aged 18 to 24 tend to click on the link in the evenings.

19 Next Steps IF AN INVESTOR WERE TO GIVE ME $100,000 TO MOVE FORWARD Hire ios and Android developers to build the APP and launch the MVP on the App Store and Google Play. Run online advertising campaigns with a killer landing page and place offline advertisements in local hotels and souvenir stores to get more attention from my target customers. Analyze the collected user research data and update the APP.

20 Thank you for listening!