Alternew: circular fashion as a service

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Alternew's purpose is to make it possible for you to customize and repair your clothes at your convenience. To do this, it sought to facilitate the connection between customers and trusted tailors who can repair and customize their garments. This fosters a circular fashion economy that also has benefits for customers and tailors. To scale its business, Alternew needs to offer its service digitally and reach investors aligned with its model.

Connecting tailors and clients to facilitate circular fashion

The MVP was designed for a digital service that easily connects tailors and customers. At the same time it offers the Alternew team the possibility to collect relevant data and have control of the process.

A rigorous user research process

To design a digital service that will have a positive impact on the planet and all the people involved, a thorough research process was carried out. The research involved different users of the future service: both customers and tailors. Experts in fashion, technology and sustainability were also involved. And, of course, the internal users: Alternew team itself.

Thanks to this research process, we learned the following lessons:

· What implications it has for a tailor to use Alternew's service and travel to the customer's home or office.

· What communication challenges exist between tailors, clients and Alternew.

· What concerns do customers have about having tailors come to their home.

· What do customers and tailors value in a service like Alternew. What benefits they can get from using it.

· What technical challenges exist to materialize the service.

· How to make the digital experience and interfaces accessible and inclusive.

A digital application for customers, tailors and the internal team themselves

The digital service takes the form of an app for tailors and customers, and an administrator panel for the Alternew team. This streamlines the connection between tailors and customers and facilitates communication between them. Different users can quickly learn information about each other and thus gain confidence about the person they are connecting with. On the other hand, Alternew can collect data that allows it to measure the positive impact it is making: for example, the number of repaired garments that have been prevented from becoming scrap. Alternew can then strategize how it can continue to contribute to its purpose.