Learn to shop at Vestiaire Collective from their Senior Software Engineer
LEBLUE had the pleasure of meeting Oliver Iyer, a fashion enthusiast and senior front-end developer at Vestaire Collective at the Berlin office. Discover Oliver's tips and tricks for navigating Vestaire Collective's vast collection and learn about his role in creating a seamless and user-friendly interface for fashion enthusiasts.
Paola: What sparked your interest in working for a fashion company?
Oliver: Despite not having a formal background in fashion, my passion for the industry has been a constant in my life for many years. After pursuing my studies in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge University, I was in various tech-related jobs, and did some modeling gigs on the side which gave me an insight into the industry. It was then that I realized I could combine my two passions—technology and fashion—especially in the realm of vintage fashion. Vestaire Collective presented the perfect opportunity to merge these interests.
Paola: Can you briefly describe your role as a senior software engineer - frontend at Vestaire?
Oliver: I work in the so-called “Discovery Collective”, which is responsible for helping our buyers discover new pieces to shop. As the only frontend engineer in this team, my responsibility is primarily all the product-feeds and recommendation blocks.
Oliver: In the user journey, we contribute to everything between landing on the website and completing a purchase. We want to make sure that shoppers find the item that they are looking for, and that they find it fast. And if they’re not sure what they’re looking for, we want to serve them interesting items that fit their profile. On the frontend side of things, this means providing relevant information that entices users to click on products, serving personalized recommendations, fine-tuning filters for seamless navigation, and ensuring fast page loading times.
Paola: As a Senior Software Engineer, how do you personally approach shopping on Vestiaire? Do you have any strategies or preferences when browsing for items?
Oliver: I usually have a rotation of brands that I search for on a weekly basis - I’m too lazy to set-up alerts. I usually sort from least expensive, you can really find some steals like that - I’ve purchased acne studios t-shirts from 15 euros. Also visiting the live website a few times a week in the eyes of a shopper helps me spot bugs and potential improvements. I think it’s really important to constantly put yourself in the position of the user if you’re working on product design, so shopping like a “regular” user helps me do this!
“I usually sort from least expensive, you can really find some steals like that - I’ve purchased acne studios t-shirts for 15 euros”
Paola: How does Vestiaire's recommendation system assist you in finding the items you're interested in? What factors influence the recommendations you receive?
Oliver: Our team recently introduced the “new ins for you” feature on the homepage, which is basically the new-ins feed personalized to your behavior on the site - we factor in things like clicks, favourites etc, and find similar items to those you’ve interacted with. In my opinion it’s an awesome first step in making the VC experience more personalized, and thus far it’s been working well!
Paola: What are some unique features or functionalities within Vestiaire's platform that have helped you discover new items or brands?
Oliver: Checking out the favorites of certain users can really help you discover new cool items. For example, the Creative Director at VC always has a bunch of cool stuff on his profile.
Oliver: In general the industry is evolving at a crazy rate when it comes to product discovery and personalization - on some platforms you can find products based on an image or an insta post or use chatgpt-based style assistants to help you refine your searches and build an entire outfit. In my opinion VC has some catching up to do on this front, but definitely watch this space!
Paola: Do you have any tips for users on how to optimize their shopping experience and make the most of the recommendation system on Vestiaire?
Oliver: I recommend you to start clicking & favoriting things you like and checking back on new items for you on a regular basis. The change isn’t immediate but after a day you should start seeing changes, as your feed becomes more refined.
Paola: How does Vestiaire balance between providing personalized recommendations and introducing users to new and diverse items or styles?
Oliver: This is a really good question, and a problem we haven’t fully tackled yet. But I expect that in a year’s time, the shopping experience will be much improved.
Paola: How does Vestiaire continuously improve its recommendation system based on user feedback and data analysis?
Oliver: For new-ins-for-you we use machine learning algorithms based on your engagement on the site, to find similar items and brands that you might like. The “You may also like” block on the product page works on a similar principle. But this is still very much early-days and there is a lot more to come!
Paola: In your role as a software engineer at Vestiare Collective, how do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in the industry?
Oliver: Business of Fashion and Vogue Business tech are definitely go-to resources for keeping up to date with the industry. I subscribe to the “Blackbird Splyplane” newsletter, which has a often comes with a fun and tongue-and-check look at the industry - a bit like @dietprada but more focused on menswear. Dansplaining is a cool pod which interviews people with different roles within the fashion industry, from founders to journalists and content-creators.
Paola: Fashion trends change rapidly. How do you stay up-to-date with the latest fashion trends and incorporate them into the front-end development process at Vestire?
Oliver: I think the great thing about VC is that our catalog is so big that regardless of what is trendy right now, we are likely to have it in our stock. As a developer I don’t really care if it’s Adidas Sambas or Nike Dunks that are trending, because our recommendation systems will react to user engagement - if the users click more on Sambas, we will push them more. Some blogs etc might say that Dunks are the shit but numbers don’t lie, and at the volume of visits our site is getting we have so much data on user behavior that we don’t necessarily need to do external research on what is trending! Of course we also have a team of experts which do hand-picked editorials, but given the size of our catalog there is only a limited type of shoppers they can cater to.
Paola: Are there any particular resources or communities you rely on to discover cool new pieces of technology or programming languages?
OLiver: Hckrnews is my go-to source for new cool pieces of tech. Sort by top 20 and you will never miss anything important in the tech/development world!
Paola: As a senior software engineer, you likely have insights into some useful hacks or resources that can help frontend developers discover cool new fashion pieces or stay updated on fashion industry trends. Could you share any recommendations or tools you find particularly helpful?
Oliver: I think working for VC has taught me that there is such a thing as timeless fashion pieces, and that it’s better worth investing in those than buying into trends. I feel like instagram is very good at getting you hooked on the various “CORE” trends (I definitely lost myself in gorpcore for a while…), but those will change every 1-2 years, and the pieces will lose value very quickly. Personally I love listening to the guys over at Throwing Fits, I think they have a very good approach between mixing timeless menswear pieces and adding a splash of trend to it. I also get my inspo from a lot of youtubers like Ken Ijima, Kyron Warrick, Drew Joiner, Jacob Wallace, Ray Miah and Themba.
Paola: 3 career advice to your younger self?
Oliver: First I would say, be proud of what you do. Before I used to feel jealous of people who had cool fashion industry jobs, and would feel ashamed about admitting that I was a computer nerd - now I’m learning to embrace it. My next advice would be, don’t rush, take your time. We are all on a different schedule through life, so there is no need to compare your career to others. Lastly, be more confident in giving negative feedback to your superiors - if they don’t know what’s wrong, they can’t give you the change you deserve.
