URBN
URBN and Mercury give the mobile shopping experience a makeover for Anthropologie, Free People, Nuuly, and Urban Outfitters.
URBN is a portfolio of global consumer brands comprised of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, BHLDN, Terrain and the Vetri Family. They initially came to us in 2014 for help launching their flagship Urban Outfitters app for Android. While URBN has a strong tech team, they did not have Android developers on staff at the time, and did not have plans to staff up for the Urban Outfitters Android launch initiative.
Mercury assigned a team of developers, designers, and a project manager to work with the URBN product and technical teams on the original UO Android engagement. This team followed an Agile development methodology for the duration of the project, as well as ensuing update cycles. On the iOS side, Mercury provided staff augmentation services to their existing iOS team, placing anywhere between one to three developers full-time directly (and remotely) on the URBN team. When URBN needs additional application design or development services in a hurry, they call Mercury.
- iOS Development
- Android Development
- UX Design
- UI Design
- QA & Testing
- User Research
- Project Management
OUR ROLE
- 1-4 People
TEAM
- By request since 2014
DURATION
Impact
For the URBN Android product, Mercury created all of the UX/UI design in collaboration with the URBN branding team, and also did all Android development, PM, and QA. On the iOS side, Mercury helped develop several core components for Anthropologie - and then later, Free People and Urban Outfitters, including a fully native checkout solution. Our design team has also helped URBN with iPad app explorations and early app concepts for a chain of restaurants they acquired.
Challenges
Merging the old and the new
Retail systems are notoriously difficult to work with. Because of URBN’s lengthy history, their customer base was spread across a legacy CRM and a more updated system. This added challenges to the account sign-in process.
Being adaptable to stops‑and‑starts
URBN’s tech team is responsible for servicing multiple brands. Because of this, priorities can change frequently, sometimes resulting in pauses and delays in the project cycle.
