Wish is the Instagram of online shopping.
Every time you open the app you never know what you’re going to get.
And strangely enough that’s exactly what we want from a product these days.
In the last few years there’s been a massive shift away from desktops to mobile.
But the biggest ecommerce platforms weren’t really ready for it. It opened up an opportunity for a more mobile-friendly way to shop.
And Wish took this opportunity by the balls.
Way back in 2010 they launched their app and website with a mobile-first design, ensuring the best possible experience for mobile users. The competition was nowhere near.
They realised that consumers would be happy to use mobile phones for fun low-cost goods where not much consideration was needed prior to a purchase. In other words - impulse purchases.
That's because mobile users don’t need a whole lot of motivation before buying something. With Apple Pay or Samsung Pay, making a purchase is almost frictionless. The highly-stimulating nature of smartphones in general also makes us more impulsive.
Essentially all they had to do was make the experience fun, convenient and get users to find a tiny spark of motivation - that feeling of “I kind of want this”.
So what specifically did they do?
The most notable features:
1. a personalised feed filled with your favourite products and random fun knickknacks
2. gamified login bonuses to get you coming back
These features effectively replicate the mechanics behind why so many people naturally enjoy in-person shopping. Shopping can be fun because of the feeling of accidentally stumbling across a cool product. This serendipity is actually proven to make users happier. So they're more likely to come back and spend more.
In the last few years there’s been a massive shift away from desktops to mobile.
But the biggest ecommerce platforms weren’t really ready for it. It opened up an opportunity for a more mobile-friendly way to shop.
And Wish took this opportunity by the balls.
Way back in 2010 they launched their app and website with a mobile-first design, ensuring the best possible experience for mobile users. The competition was nowhere near.
They realised that consumers would be happy to use mobile phones for fun low-cost goods where not much consideration was needed prior to a purchase. In other words - impulse purchases.
That's because mobile users don’t need a whole lot of motivation before buying something. With Apple Pay or Samsung Pay, making a purchase is almost frictionless. The highly-stimulating nature of smartphones in general also makes us more impulsive.
Essentially all they had to do was make the experience fun, convenient and get users to find a tiny spark of motivation - that feeling of “I kind of want this”.
So what specifically did they do?
The most notable features:
1. a personalised feed filled with your favourite products and random fun knickknacks
2. gamified login bonuses to get you coming back
These features effectively replicate the mechanics behind why so many people naturally enjoy in-person shopping. Shopping can be fun because of the feeling of accidentally stumbling across a cool product. This serendipity is actually proven to make users happier. So they're more likely to come back and spend more.
Keep an eye out for changing trends relevant to your product. Trends become important when they start to inflect - when a trend passes from a slowly gathering force to something that will soon be disruptively powerful.
The most influential inflection points tend to come from changes in technology, adoption, regulation and beliefs.
If you can target your product to solve a problem caused by this inflection point better than anyone else will, you have the basis of a breakthrough product.
Great foresight to jump on the inflection point when they did and great execution.
PS. don't miss the chance to get a weekly insight in your email (it's free).
Don't miss my next conversion examples! I share a new one every week.
Once a month I share a new conversion example. It’s a cool newsletter. I promise.
