Spree

Creating One Centralized Hub for Online Shoppers

ROLE

Co-Founder, Head of Product

Jan 2020 - May 2021

Figma, Principle, Illustrator, Blender, After Effects

Shub Gaur (PM), Tyler Fong (Dev), Matt Evenson (Dev)

DATE

TEAM

TOOLS

After pitching Spree at the Google x Techstars Startup Weekend Event, I wanted to build a functional product with a team, so I decided to join LavaLab, a student incubator at USC.

In 10 weeks, we developed a browser extension that enables users to find the best prices and checkout from multiple stores in one-click. We initially planned to launch our product in Jan 2021.

In May 2021, Spree was acquired by Lolli.Inc.

Checkout Friction

While shopping online, I usually visit multiple online stores to compare prices and browse for products I want to purchase. During this process, I find myself spending hours viewing countless tabs, creating accounts, and managing carts. Fuming and still not having bought a single piece of clothing, I realized that this problem needs a solution.

QUESTION

How can we reduce checkout friction and help people compare prices more easily?

Main Features

Spree is a browser extension that enables users to find the best deal and checkout from multiple stores in one-click, decluttering the shopping experience.

Users can instantly compare prices from multiple online stores in one place for the product they’ve selected.

Spree displays the best price for users, and it can replace the current item with a better deal—helping users save time and money.

A consolidated cart where users can expand and collapse each section to view items by store. This allows users to easily customize and organize items in their shopping cart.

Users can checkout from multiple stores in one-click with Spree.

This removes the hassle of constantly filling out personal information and creating multiple accounts.

for Consumers & Retailers

Since the e-commerce space is a two-sided marketplace where consumers and sellers interact, both groups face problems that influence one another.

80%

of shoppers have a poor checkout experience

34%

face the need to compare prices

77%

of shoppers abandon their carts

15sec

to convert a visitor to a sale

People face the need to compare prices, but they have a cluttered shopping experience, increasing checkout friction.

More checkout friction increases cart abandonment rates, causing retailers to face a huge loss of almost 4.6 trillion dollars.

INSIGHT

Checkout friction and price comparison are painpoints for both consumers and retailers.

Identifying Painpoints

To have a deeper understanding of problems that consumers face while shopping online, I conducted user interviews with 10 people and identified key painpoints:

When shopping online, consumers constantly have to fill out their personal information and create multiple accounts, repeating the same process.

Comparing prices and products is difficult because multiple retailers sell similar products, causing consumers to feel fatigued from information overload.

KEY GOALS

Enable users to organize items by introducing a consolidated cart

Make price comparison easy and simple

Reduce checkout friction by removing repetitive steps

Embedding Goals into the Flow

To achieve the user goals I’ve set, I explored two user flows: finding the best price and checking out in one-click.

Designing for Accessibility

I was initially inspired by Honey’s designs, but I realized that a list view caused the product information to be cluttered. I went through a total of three iterations to find an optimal layout that will improve readability & accessibility.

Experimenting with 3D Design

For Spree’s website and rebrand, I explored 3D Design by watching a ton of YouTube tutorials to learn Blender. I designed Spree’s bunny mascot from scratch, modeled various objects in 3D, and created animations.

Building toward launch

So far, we’ve made Spree compatible with 3 major online retailers: Amazon, Walmart, and Target. We also have over 1,000 sign ups for our beta launch! We’ve gathered interest from Antler & Plug and Play.

This is my all time favorite phrase from Paul Graham, and it was the first time I got to apply it! Building from scratch, being scrappy, and getting involved in every process allowed me to have a deeper understanding of the problem & product.

When working with non-designers, I realized that adopting an agile mindset, constantly communicating, and iterating are really key to expediting the design process—and creating a better product overall!

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Let's chat!
nsteph17@gmail.com

Here's my☞ Resume