Sounds like they can and should rally the backend SCRUM teams or Agile Release Trains and make this post their sprint roadmap! RTR, I will happily sign up for UAT! I never ever thought my software development vocabulary would make its way to Substack. Wonders never cease. Excellent use case for: ALWAYS ASK
It would be like...really cool...if we could get to a point where you could see and surface item reviews in the way you describe on Indyx. What if any item you could dream up had 1. real, unbiased crowdsourced reviews and photos and 2. a metric buttload of outfits styled by real people with that item to draw inspiration from? A girl can dream.
You guys are truly killing it with all of the intel you are bringing direct to the UI/UX though! The updates you make are intuitive and based on user data from day 1 - which as Tina mentioned in her comment, RTR seems to lack a foundation for and is feeling the consequences of now.
Thank you for reading <3 I am such an Indyx stan!!!
I have purchased 1 stock and therefore have an invite to the stock holder meeting. I would love to share this. Separately, I work in a role training associates newly out of college and starting their corporate career. I feel like when speaking to dressing appropriately for their day I would like to refer them to a place like RTR but this post makes me hesitant.
Well articulated and laid out especially in how this could be a game changer for the app!
I think newly out of college, there are a lot of great options on RTR. However, I also think investing in some quality pieces right out of the gate may benefit them even more? Especially for women, places like Banana Republic and Aritzia and Abercrombie have great basics that can mix and match for an office environment - giving them way more options than when I was getting started in 2017. At ~$160 a month, buying vs. renting for the office might just be money better spent.
Agree, agree, agree Meighan! I was a RTR power user for a few years before the pandemic and it felt like a second job trying to sift through their website to find things to rent. I cancelled my subscription during the pandemic and came back a few years later when the courier service was new - instead of delivering my shipment, the courier sent it back to RTR the day before my vacation, so I cancelled again :/ I haven't been back since, but occasionally check in to see if I'm missing anything and the assortment mix just isn't there for me.
I've worked on several website backend systems and agree their search should be so much more robust, especially if it's AI-enabled. The issue you're talking about with the pdp descriptions is probably built up from years of different team members uploading data from different vendors sharing different levels of product information. It sounds like the bulk of their search hinges off only pdp and they're not incorporating reviews or tech packs (which granted could get messy and pull in incorrect items, but a properly trained AI system should eventually correct this). It's an enormous time investment to update the pdp issue, but one RTR should be making since it would dramatically increase searchability and streamline the browsing process, creating a substantially better UX, in addition to your filtering suggestions.
I have many thoughts about RTR :) It's still a brilliant idea and I've found their customer service to be incredible and want them to succeed, but the uninspiring assortment and heavy lift of actually finding items I want to rent gets me every time.
Tina, thank you so much for this thoughtful comment! So interesting to have your direct experience for insight on the pdp descriptions and what the overhaul would look like!!!
I agree my experiences with their customer service have always been lovely and the way they try to make things right for the customer is impressive - but I just sadly do not have the time every month to commit to the process
Perfect timing, I am just about to cancel my subscription after two month as well! I agree with all your points, and it's like now that I have actually spent the time and gone through pages and pages and saved a bunch of things I would want to rent - they are usually not available in my size. I've also found a lot of the sizing is very inconsistent and doesn't work for big chests like I have, so I ended up with a lot of duds. I will say the 50% of sale they just did this past week on items you are renting but want to buy/keep was very clutch, scored a brand new Staud dress for half off, but even that isn't enough to keep me around.
new staud dress at 50% off is a huge win!!! agree on the sizing inconsistency, it's such a struggle and makes it feel like i'm wasting the value of my subscription when something comes and doesn't fit. maybe that's why the selection process feels so high stakes!?
right! was shocked the code could be applied to brand new arrivals. totally agree on the sizing making it feel high stakes, and also like this should be fun not make me feel bad about my body!
do you find too that it makes you ignore your own closet more too? i force myself to bring the RTR pieces into rotation and end up not wearing the clothes i actually bought and love and know work for me! another consequence that deserves it's own bullet point.
kind of the opposite tbh, the pieces in my closet I know and love and they fit so I'm more apt to grab those vs one of the RTR pieces that maybe isn't exactly right (but maybe that's a me problem haha)
I’ve been tempted to use RTR for maternity, but I truly don’t have the patience for all filtering what I need from it for exactly the reasons you outlined! I hope this post makes its way to the powers that be!
Meighan RTR doesn’t deserve all this good user intel from you!! Or they should be paying you for it 😉 I’ve never been a user but a lack of filters is truly insane to me! And nothing gets my goat faster than a search that doesn’t pull accurate results. Between you and Devon, RTR is sitting on a goldmine of info!
Excellent advice, Meighan! Do you use Nuuly as well? I did when I was pregnant but had a lot of the same call-outs you do. But I hear they’ve gotten super popular so wonder if they’ve improved functionality!
One of my best friends uses nuuly and is such a big fan of it! But my problem is that 4/7 days of the week I need to work clothes and sorting through nuuly for office appropriate clothes feels too daunting for me!
Sounds like they can and should rally the backend SCRUM teams or Agile Release Trains and make this post their sprint roadmap! RTR, I will happily sign up for UAT! I never ever thought my software development vocabulary would make its way to Substack. Wonders never cease. Excellent use case for: ALWAYS ASK
I just love this comment SO much
I hope they HIRE you asap - brilliant
It would be like...really cool...if we could get to a point where you could see and surface item reviews in the way you describe on Indyx. What if any item you could dream up had 1. real, unbiased crowdsourced reviews and photos and 2. a metric buttload of outfits styled by real people with that item to draw inspiration from? A girl can dream.
You guys are truly killing it with all of the intel you are bringing direct to the UI/UX though! The updates you make are intuitive and based on user data from day 1 - which as Tina mentioned in her comment, RTR seems to lack a foundation for and is feeling the consequences of now.
Thank you for reading <3 I am such an Indyx stan!!!
I have purchased 1 stock and therefore have an invite to the stock holder meeting. I would love to share this. Separately, I work in a role training associates newly out of college and starting their corporate career. I feel like when speaking to dressing appropriately for their day I would like to refer them to a place like RTR but this post makes me hesitant.
Well articulated and laid out especially in how this could be a game changer for the app!
Karen please feel free to share!
I think newly out of college, there are a lot of great options on RTR. However, I also think investing in some quality pieces right out of the gate may benefit them even more? Especially for women, places like Banana Republic and Aritzia and Abercrombie have great basics that can mix and match for an office environment - giving them way more options than when I was getting started in 2017. At ~$160 a month, buying vs. renting for the office might just be money better spent.
Great suggestions, thank you Meighan.
Agree, agree, agree Meighan! I was a RTR power user for a few years before the pandemic and it felt like a second job trying to sift through their website to find things to rent. I cancelled my subscription during the pandemic and came back a few years later when the courier service was new - instead of delivering my shipment, the courier sent it back to RTR the day before my vacation, so I cancelled again :/ I haven't been back since, but occasionally check in to see if I'm missing anything and the assortment mix just isn't there for me.
I've worked on several website backend systems and agree their search should be so much more robust, especially if it's AI-enabled. The issue you're talking about with the pdp descriptions is probably built up from years of different team members uploading data from different vendors sharing different levels of product information. It sounds like the bulk of their search hinges off only pdp and they're not incorporating reviews or tech packs (which granted could get messy and pull in incorrect items, but a properly trained AI system should eventually correct this). It's an enormous time investment to update the pdp issue, but one RTR should be making since it would dramatically increase searchability and streamline the browsing process, creating a substantially better UX, in addition to your filtering suggestions.
I have many thoughts about RTR :) It's still a brilliant idea and I've found their customer service to be incredible and want them to succeed, but the uninspiring assortment and heavy lift of actually finding items I want to rent gets me every time.
Tina, thank you so much for this thoughtful comment! So interesting to have your direct experience for insight on the pdp descriptions and what the overhaul would look like!!!
I agree my experiences with their customer service have always been lovely and the way they try to make things right for the customer is impressive - but I just sadly do not have the time every month to commit to the process
Perfect timing, I am just about to cancel my subscription after two month as well! I agree with all your points, and it's like now that I have actually spent the time and gone through pages and pages and saved a bunch of things I would want to rent - they are usually not available in my size. I've also found a lot of the sizing is very inconsistent and doesn't work for big chests like I have, so I ended up with a lot of duds. I will say the 50% of sale they just did this past week on items you are renting but want to buy/keep was very clutch, scored a brand new Staud dress for half off, but even that isn't enough to keep me around.
new staud dress at 50% off is a huge win!!! agree on the sizing inconsistency, it's such a struggle and makes it feel like i'm wasting the value of my subscription when something comes and doesn't fit. maybe that's why the selection process feels so high stakes!?
right! was shocked the code could be applied to brand new arrivals. totally agree on the sizing making it feel high stakes, and also like this should be fun not make me feel bad about my body!
do you find too that it makes you ignore your own closet more too? i force myself to bring the RTR pieces into rotation and end up not wearing the clothes i actually bought and love and know work for me! another consequence that deserves it's own bullet point.
kind of the opposite tbh, the pieces in my closet I know and love and they fit so I'm more apt to grab those vs one of the RTR pieces that maybe isn't exactly right (but maybe that's a me problem haha)
i love that for you though!!!
I’ve been tempted to use RTR for maternity, but I truly don’t have the patience for all filtering what I need from it for exactly the reasons you outlined! I hope this post makes its way to the powers that be!
Exactly!! We are already running on low energy, sorting through pages of options is just not in the cards sadly
Meighan RTR doesn’t deserve all this good user intel from you!! Or they should be paying you for it 😉 I’ve never been a user but a lack of filters is truly insane to me! And nothing gets my goat faster than a search that doesn’t pull accurate results. Between you and Devon, RTR is sitting on a goldmine of info!
Seriously!! So thoughtful!!
Excellent advice, Meighan! Do you use Nuuly as well? I did when I was pregnant but had a lot of the same call-outs you do. But I hear they’ve gotten super popular so wonder if they’ve improved functionality!
One of my best friends uses nuuly and is such a big fan of it! But my problem is that 4/7 days of the week I need to work clothes and sorting through nuuly for office appropriate clothes feels too daunting for me!
Nuuly has tons of options for work/office clothes.
I have SO MUCH to say here, but I have to leave for my road trip (I’m driving)…. I’ll be back!!!!