ELI LIM
OPen
Client:
PS Dept
Concept
Content Strategy
Art Direction

iOS Commerce Platform for Personal Shopping Services

Client

PS Dept

Year

2015-2017

Involvement

Content Director

Location

NYC

PS Department is a mobile commerce fashion platform with omni-channel global supply, unlimited reach, and transformative services for the future of luxury shopping through the Conversation Design System. PS Department offers high-touch service at scale, powered by technology and integrating automations including chatbots and routing, supported by a network of 1000+ global brands.

Transformative Service Built for the 21st Century Customers

I joined the founding group and oversaw the daily front-end visual content strategy for over 100 projects. During my three years with the company, I created an effective content strategy that accounted for 50% of total sales and achieved an average daily retention rate of 85%, establishing a strong-selling brand with exceptionally high turnover.As a member of the founding group, my mission was to build the company’s content system from scratch with a strong branding capability. I developed the content strategy for the mobile commerce platform, collaborating with over 1000 global fashion brands nationally and internationally, and streamlined their merchandising/content into our centralized “Dashboard” flow. I led a creative team, working on content strategy, ideas, and concepts for marketing and branding. This involved close collaboration with developers, engineers, marketing, operations, and customer service teams under the leadership of CEO Michelle Goad, who currently serves as Global Head of Branded Services at Nike.

Dashboard Ecosystem and Building a Content System

The iOS app and web-based sales dashboard, known as “Dashboard,” integrates a centralized product library, providing access to over 1.3 million products on mobile or web. As a director of the content team, I worked directly with the engineering and operations teams to define the sales pipeline for requests and customer service ticketing. The Dashboard allows our team to manage orders, requests, messages, and content for the main feed and trend campaigns on both the website and mobile platform.

24/7 Conversational Commerce Platform

With the iOS app as the primary platform, conversational commerce is centered around message threads focused on sales and service through secondary channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, Email, and WeChat, as well as the 24/7 operating main content feed. I developed an algorithmic content strategy based on recent requests and activities, which operates within the automated system in the Dashboard.

Content Strategy & Editorial Calendar

I designed and executed over 100 digital luxury/trend content strategies for the main feed. By centralizing merchandise from over 1000 partner brands, I developed 5-10 evergreen content types focusing on high-margin products, on-demand trends, brand networks, most sought-after items, brand content, top-selling products, and seasonal sales pushes. All content was scheduled and managed using the “Editorial Calendar” in Excel and Dashboard and created with Adobe Creative Suite.

Content Type & Automation

I created content types based on each brand’s aesthetic and business goals. The main types consist of ten categories, each integrated into the overall content strategy. Major e-commerce platform partners, such as Net-a-Porter and Moda Operandi, integrated their digital content directly into our Dashboard. This integration automatically updated the main library, ensuring customers always had access to the most current products while searching our database.

1000+ Global Brand Partnerships

We collaborated with over 1000 global brands, including major fashion houses and department stores such as Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan, and Harrods in London.

Superb Retention Rate

The main feed accounts for 50% of total sales and an 85% daily retention rate. The chart below shows client activity over the past 365 days—green indicates orders, and black indicates app visits. This particular client visited our platform almost every day.

Daily Trend Campaigns

Using the main product library in Dashboard, up to five trends are featured in the main feed of the application. I published 3-5 trends weekly, focusing on the most requested products from the Conversational System, brand collaboration campaigns, and priority brand product lists.

Brand, Creative Direction, Responsive Design, and A/B Testing for Email Campaigns

My mission was to establish PS Dept. as a brand renowned for its comprehensive fashion knowledge, enabling customers to source any fashion product from us. This mission became the core DNA of all content, creative, brand, and marketing strategies. It fostered strong customer engagement and brand partnerships through effective branding, creative direction, and email marketing practices.

Build Loyal Relationship

Each stylist had a set of target users based on their specialty. Through the PS Dept. iOS app, we developed direct relationships with customers, fostering friendships where they could ask about fashion products and styling advice. Often, customers also shared their personal life stories.

Visual Graphics & Art Directing

I directed all visual content and art direction for brand collaborations. I curated and produced high-quality visual photography to establish a strong brand identity and expression within the digital ecosystem. The main tools I used were Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, and Keynote.

E-mail Marketing Campaigns

We developed email marketing campaigns 2-3 times per week, guided by trends, partnerships, popularity, sourcing, and business decisions. Each email campaign was integrated and reflected directly in the main feed of the iOS platform to drive feed sales.

Major Global Brand Collaborating & A/B Testing

We collaborated with major fashion brands to create various email campaigns promoting seasonal sales. Additionally, we experimented with A/B testing on the Amazon marketplace. The results informed our next steps for pushing merchandise and iterating the process.

A mysterious home delivery subscription service

We successfully implemented a website design and digital trends for the launch of a subscription service, offering seasonal boxes tailored to clients' lifestyles. The November box included 10-12 pieces from major brand partners and most requested products. Clients shared photos of their unboxing moments on social media, creating a unique and exciting digital shopping experience through this surprise promotion.

Website design for a membership at beta stage

We decided to build a website to officially launch our membership program, which was essential before starting email marketing. We had just two days to complete the entire website and send out the corresponding email, working under tight time constraints. I designed the UX for the page and collaborated with the engineering team to build it. The email campaign achieved a 43% click-through rate and generated 300 follow-up messages through the iOS app on the same day.

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