Are We Cannibalizing Ourselves?

Where styling your friends fits into our big picture

We released a pretty big update this week: now you can style your friends (and get them to style you!) right in the app. Pretty exciting, right!?

This completes the ‘trifecta’ of styling options we’ve always envisioned for Indyx: where you can style yourself, get styled by your friends, and get styled by an expert. All from your real closet, all in one place.

As soon as we released this feature into beta about a month ago, one of the first questions that popped up in our Insider Slack channel¹ was:

But…what does this mean for expert styling? By enabling free social styling, are you not cannibalizing your own paid product?

It’s a great question, and one we’ve thought about a lot—so, we figured it was worth answering for everybody as a behind-the-scenes peek at how we look at our business.

We aren’t walking away from our expert stylists. If anything, our hope is that social styling only makes expert styling even more popular. Or at the very least, that it won't take away from expert styling.

And, here's why:

The majority of people on Indyx have never been styled by someone else before. And when you’ve never experienced something firsthand, it can be hard to imagine its value.

But what we do know is that when someone gets a second set of eyes on their closet for the very first time, their immediate reaction is:

“Oh wow, I would have never ever thought to pair [these pants] with [this top] but I LOVE it!”

Does every outfit you get on Indyx (whether through social styling or expert styling) need to be something you’d walk out the door wearing exactly as-is to be valuable? We don’t think so.

It’s so much more about opening your eyes to new ideas in your closet and feeling that same excitement that you usually get from buying new clothes…but instead, getting that sense of novelty using the things you already have.

Our instinct is that social styling will make that ‘ah-ha’ moment accessible to many more people. There are plenty of users who might not be ready to drop $150 on a Lookbook when they’re not entirely sure what they’ll get out of it, but who would happily ask a friend to style them a few looks. We’re so excited for this launch to enable more people to experience the thrill of seeing their wardrobe through fresh eyes.

Asking your friends to style you is casual, fun, and collaborative but it also comes with natural limitations. You’d need some pretty amazing friends to style you a full 10-outfit Lookbook for free, exactly when you need it.²

And while we don’t doubt that your best friend, Katie from Pre-K, is wonderful and lovely, sometimes you don’t just want your friend’s advice…you want an expert’s advice. An expert with a specific style perspective that you resonate with, like

Alberta Rose

’s or

Jamie Lee

’s, for example. An expert who is willing to dive deep into whatever you’re struggling with to offer super-customized solutions that take into account your specific requests and considerations.

That’s where expert styling still comes in.

We hope that social styling opens up more users’ eyes to the value of a fresh perspective on their wardrobe, and expert styling enables them to get that perspective exactly when they want it and, well…from an expert!

So, no, we’re not cannibalizing expert styling. We’re enabling more people to understand its value. This update isn’t about replacing one thing with another. It’s about building a fuller, more dynamic experience for every Indyx user.

But of course, we don’t know all this for sure yet! That’s the challenge and also the fun of building something new. But we believe these two things can co-exist beautifully alongside each other—and, we hope you do, too!

We’re super excited to see how you all use this new feature and how it’ll spark fresh connections and maybe even some of those ‘ah-ha’ moments.

---

---

For those of you who have already gotten styled by a friend through Indyx…you tell us! Do you feel like it’s made you any more (or, less) likely to spring for styling from an expert on Indyx? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

1. And yes, Insiders always get the inside scoop about what’s coming next in our closed Slack channel!

2. I can’t help but mention that some of our Insiders ARE pretty amazing friends to each other! There’s a whole new channel in our Insider community called #styling-requests where folks looking for help via social styling are requesting it from other members. It’s incredible!