Zenni - Mobile and Social Optimization Award 2024

I joined Zenni in June 2022 to transform the company into a technology-led organization. We have a fantastic team here, where we value execution, impact, and deep work. Receiving this award on behalf of Zenni from Retail TouchPoints is a true honor and a testament to the team's dedication and countless hours spent perfecting the Zenni experience on a mobile app.

We started at a humble place. When I started, the app contributed less than 2% of revenue, but it now contributes more than 25% of the company's revenue. The review score has gone from an average of 2 stars rating for iOS and Android to a 4.6 (iOS) and 4.7 (Android) rating. The most important stat is that we have climbed the download chart in 2022 as we moved to a mobile-first strategy. It took some convincing to align the company to understand that moving from web pages to a native app is strategically the right bet, and the rest is on good execution. It took a brilliant idea from Mayank Kaushik and a strong focus on crushing the thousands of bugs as we tried to create an experience worthy of the Zenni users.

In two months, we shot up more than 224 places in Shopping and became a top 100 app. We are a clear leader in mobile compared to our two closest competitors, Warby Parker and Zeelool, which still have many great features and innovations that Zenni needs to catch up to in the future.

Here are some of the highlights I have written with the help of our fantastic PR team to apply for this award.

Innovative, successful retail business strategy created, developed, or defined for Mobile

Awarded Similarweb’s 2023 award for fastest growing app. Zenni’s innovative business strategy for their app included a mobile-first approach, establishing a dedicated 20-person team in Shanghai for native application development on iOS and Android, and the successful revamp and launch of the Zenni mobile app in 2022. Within three months of David Ting joining Zenni in 2022, the goal of achieving the #1 ranking was attained and sustained, showcasing the team's commitment to app excellence and market dominance.

Specific innovative retail technology solution implemented:

• Zenni implemented a cutting-edge retail technology solution known as Native Virtual Try-On (VTO). This allows customers to seamlessly try eyewear virtually within the app or website, enhancing the online shopping experience and increasing confidence in purchasing decisions. Stats include a 10% conversion rate improvement and nearly 20% CTR improvement with positive user feedback.?
• Zenni launched 360 AR view, allowing customers to experience eyewear products in augmented reality, enhancing online shopping and product insights. The app had the highest weekly average conversion rate and the 2nd highest revenue week (after Black Friday week).?

Cutting-edge campaign or tactic executed:

• Zenni executed a cutting-edge campaign in Q4 2022, targeting installs with a low $2 CPI goal while prioritizing organic growth and optimizing user experience through a full native approach.
• In 2023, Zenni optimized our velocity by 3x to enhance customer feedback responsiveness and streamline the user journey.

Business results or positive outcomes, or expected results, following a successful implementation of the innovative strategy or solution:

• Following the successful implementation of these strategies, revenue generated from the mobile app increased significantly from 2% annually in the first half of 2022 to now constituting 25% of total revenue. It has also achieved and maintained the #1 position in eyewear app downloads within the Shopping category since August 2022.
• The app is now the #1 eyewear app on the Apple Store.
• Zenni adopted a lean approach, so we can take an idea or a customer issue and deploy the code quickly.? The velocity has increased 3x in 2023 to the point that we are now doing weekly releases for both platforms.? The review score has gone from an average of 2 stars rating for iOS and Android to a 4.6 (iOS) and 4.7 (Android) rating.

This starts a long journey to create the perfect experience for Zenni customers. We have many innovations that are cued up for release this year. We took the long road where we decided to go native and build the experience from the ground up. This is why we built our mobile VTO stack, powered by our custom Customer Data Platform (CDP) and recommendation engine. The aspiration is to become a top 50 Shopping application in 2024-5.

I want to give a shoutout to Mudit Seth, Du Qiang Xingxu, Wu, Errol Pinto, David Lerner, Samantha Kraesig, Justine Issavi, and many more on the talented team for making this magic happen. Let's go!!!

If you have not yet downloaded the Zenni Optical app, please give it a try and post a comment on your experience.