Localizing transactions with Depop Campus Circle
I led the design of Campus Circle, a localized marketplace designed to boost transactions through addressing key user needs and pain points uncovered from user research.
CONTEXT
Make Depop the go-to destination for college students
This was the ultimate goal as our team was tasked to conduct extensive ethnographic research on American college students for Depop.
As a youthful, peer-to-peer fashion marketplace with over 40 million users, it was unexpected that college student engagement remained particularly low.
PROBLEM
College students face unique constraints that limit their engagement on Depop
Through our research, we uncovered that this gap didn't stem from a lack of intent—it was fees, shipping, and fit uncertainty that pushed users away.
Between school, extracurriculars, and work, students are short on time, money, and energy to buy and sell on online platforms.
STRATEGY
Keeping transactions local through Campus Circle
Campus Circle eliminates the hassle and stigma around online secondhand shopping, reducing buyer and seller friction while leaning into the social nature of thrifting.
IMPACT
A win-win solution for college students
Depop Campus Circle moves the needle for Depop by addressing friction students face, while also building community.
Our team presented this solution to 10+ stakeholders, earning high praise for its innovative, user-centric approach. Furthermore, 90% of student testers expressed strong interest in this feature, indicating strong product-market fit.
Addressing safety concerns with verified onboarding
Meetups with strangers can be scary. To alleviate these concerns, I designed an onboarding flow that would require students to verify their student status for their college.
This would both ensure the listings are actually local to their campus, as well as provide a more trustworthy experience for users.
Prioritizing browsing & discovery through local liquidity and a filter
From our research, we discovered that many students use Depop to casually browse for inspiration. I used this behavior to seamlessly integrate Campus Circle, catering to users natural interaction patterns.
Contextual modules to bring a student-life lens to categories for relevance
We also uncovered that purchases are often tied to the rhythm of student life. Campus events such as rush week, game days, and holidays spur shopping for students.
This contextual module makes it easy to shop for moments vs. isolated items.
Defaulting away from shipping specs, removing biggest blocker to selling.
Users can choose to list to either Depop (ship) or Campus Circle, with the shipping specs only appearing if they select to ship.
By removing shipping complexity and requiring minimal input fields, we expect to see higher casual-seller activation and a more fresh inventory tied to campus seasons.
An experience that fixes, and builds
Depop Campus Circle addresses all the major key blockers we uncovered through our research: shipping fees and hassle, fit uncertainty, lag time, and more.
Careful consideration of the implementation led to improvements in safety concerns, and seamless integration, increasing interest amongst users.