Poshmark CEO: Great mobile design is simplicity

Manish Chandra understands how to design immersive mobile apps. His latest mobile startup, Poshmark, launched in December, and its primarily female user-base is already doubling every month — so much so that it’s creating “Poshmark widows.”

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Poshmark is a shopping party app for iPhone. You can sell unwanted items from their closet by taking a picture and uploading it via smartphone. Chandra, its chief executive and founder, suggests that mobile is so prevalent that it’s no longer necessary for apps to function on the web. Instagram, for example, only recently developed a web experience.

In an onstage interview today at MobileBeat, Chandra said users are spending an average of 24 minutes on the app. In large part due to the app’s addictive quality, he joked that one user’s husband has virtually lost touch with his wife and considers himself a “Poshmark widow.”

The secret to great mobile app design? Keep the design simple by removing any unnecessary steps, even if it costs vital time and resources. It’s a lesson he learned when integrating in-app payment; he made the executive decision not to incorporate Paypal, as it would alienate non-Paypal users. Instead, the developers spent two months creating a new system for Poshmark to ensure that payments could be made in just two clicks.

Chandra also recommends expanding your social elements beyond integrations with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, to build loyalty. Poshmark’s users hold themed Posh Parties, where they can swap clothing in realtime. Recently, Poshmark began throwing these parties offline to celebrate its most loyal users.

Poshmark is free on the Appstore, and it’s come a long way since VentureBeat reported that the company raised $3.5 million last year to turn your closet into an e-commerce store.

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