AMERICAN APPAREL E-COMMERCE AND MARKETING DESIGN

American Apparel made its name by taking an edgy and innovative approach to making and selling fashion basics. AA’s online presence resulted in a number of firsts in the industry. From being one of the first fashion retailers to take online advertising seriously, and the first to sell “virtual clothing” in Secondlife.

I led the e-commerce design team which handled both the design of the website as well as email and online marketing campaigns. Revenue during my tenure was doubled year over year for the 5 years I worked there.

SITE RE-DESIGN 2009

This re-design focused on making it easier to scan and filter through AA's growing color spectrum as well as pushing the user reviews front and center. Color offering was a huge reason for American Apparel's surge in popularity, so it was obvious we needed to emphasize this in the site.

User reviews actually became a forum for people to discuss fit and fabrics. Before the ubiquity of social media platforms, this became the place for devotees of the brand to share their thoughts, so we accentuated the ratings in both the product grid pages as well as in the product descriptions.

Moving the primary nav from the top to the side made room to display the growing variety of categories.

SITE RE-DESIGN 2008

Streamlining the homepage aesthetic and more importantly, implementing a robust filtering system for the garments were goals for this re-design.

GARMENT BUILDER WIREFRAMES

Although American Apparel's breadth of product offering was second to none, consumers continued to request unorthodox color combinations. Since AA created all of their products in one facility it made this idea feasible to custom build shirts for the customer. I built wireframes as proof of concept and to think through the essential UI to make this project a reality.

MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

AA produced a phenominal amount of marketing, through email blasts and banner ads. We were the largest online marketing presence of any apparel company for several years. I worked to convey AA's unique narrative within a digital space. We even had our own marketplace in Second Life, the first online game of its kind to sell digital product.