Shelpr: commerce connected to charitable giving

Shelpr explored whether charitable giving could become part of an activity people already did: shopping online. The model sent shoppers to participating retailers, received a referral commission when a purchase was completed, and directed part of that commission to a cause chosen by the shopper.

The product had to create value for shoppers, retailers, and charities at the same time. It also had to earn trust. People needed to understand how the model worked, how a cause was selected, and whether a donation was actually made. Every extra step between arriving, registering, and shopping added friction.

I was one of three co-founders and held the operations role. I developed early use cases and validation questions, helped define personas, documented the experience, and organized feedback into a product backlog. The team launched a working MVP with retailer listings, registration, charity content, a blog, and desktop and mobile layouts. Testing exposed unclear registration, broken or unconfirmed sign-up paths, long retailer lists on mobile, and too many steps before shopping. We designed alternatives around two competing ideas: require registration first, or lead with shopping options and ask users to register when the value was clearer. We also ran a small paid social campaign and compared reach and engagement by day.

The MVP went live and the team continued testing and revising it through 2016. Shelpr did not develop into an ongoing business and is archived.

The usual assumption is that a worthy cause and a working product are enough. They are not. A venture has to prove user behaviour, trust, and the economics of the model early.