StreamStyle: A Shoppable Video Content Creation Tool for Direct Sellers
Social Commerce
Mobile App
2023
How might we help consultants in direct sales increase conversions through engaging, shoppable content?
Background
The direct selling industry relies heavily on consultants selling to those in their personal network, often using social media or messaging apps to promote products. Many consultants host live streams to showcase their offerings, but these can be time-consuming, difficult to set up, and often result in low retention rates and fewer sales—particularly for those with smaller audiences.
Given the rise of short-form content across social media, we saw an opportunity to empower consultants by providing them with a tool to create web-hosted, shoppable videos. With very few platforms offering seamless integration with external shop management systems or direct access to product databases, we built StreamStyle —a tool for consultants to create, personalize, and share short-form, shoppable content with their networks, without needing to set up a separate website.
Defining Goals
For the MVP version, we established clear objectives to ensure success:
Goals
Understanding Who We Were Building For
We had 2 key personas:
Consultants: Direct sales agents who would use the app to create content.
About Consultants
Customers: The individuals engaging with the shoppable videos shared from the app.
About Customers
Feature Prioritization
To ensure the MVP aligned with both user needs and business goals, we focused on these essential flows:
Onboarding: A simpleprocess to help consultants set up their profiles and begin creating content using their Flight/IDSTC registered mobile no.
PopStream Creation: The core feature that allowed consultants to create, preview, and share shoppable videos.
Customer Experience: A seamless and intuitive way for viewers to shop directly from the videos.
User Profiles: Basic profile settings to manage accounts and switch between brands.
Branding & Design Sprint
Since we were building the app from scratch, we needed to define the brand identity. We collaborated with LEAP, a design agency, to establish a fun and inviting voice, pastel color palette, and overall user experience that reflected the needs of our consultant users.
We also ran a design sprint to rapidly test ideas and features beyond the MVP. Through user interviews and testing with consultants, we gathered key insights that shaped the future of the platform, focusing on features like product database integration and video personalization.
Design Sprint with LEAP
Solution
After iterating on low-fidelity wireframes, we refined the key user flows:
MVP Launch Results
The MVP was launched to a select group of Tocara consultants, and after 3 months, we saw promising results:
Partnership with Tocara
Consultants trust and willingness to be involved in Tocara’s partner program improved.
Increased Engagement
To help consultants track the performance of their videos and identify trends.
Improved Conversions
Consultants experienced an increase in sales conversions by using shoppable video content.
Future Opportunities: Insights & Improvements
Based on feedback and insights gathered post-launch, we identified several areas for future development:
Integrated Analytics: To help consultants track the performance of their videos and identify trends.
Customer Follow-up Features: A built-in system to help consultants re-engage customers who had interacted with their content.
Product Card Customization: More options for customizing product information displayed on the videos.
….and more!
Additionally, we addressed bugs and implemented continuous improvements to enhance the overall user experience.
Learnings
The post-launch period offered valuable lessons:
Thumbnails played a crucial role in improving click-through rates.
Supplemental materials such as user guides, demo videos, and best practices significantly boosted consultant satisfaction and platform adoption.