Shopupp | Head of Content

head of content

Shopupp was a fashion shopping app with AI and universal checkout, offering a novel approach to mobile apparel shopping: hundreds of brands in one app with a personalised, relevant experience for each user.

I joined as Digital Content Manager but my role rapidly expanded as I proved I could solve problems across product, design, marketing, and user acquisition. By the time the company ran out of funding in 2020, I was functioning as head of content, product manager, UX designer, growth marketer, and creative lead - essentially everything except engineering.

With zero budget for influencer partnerships or photography, I had to create every single piece of visual content myself. I became exceptionally skilled at creating legally-compliant collages and eventually taught myself illustration techniques.

Product Strategy & Investor Relations

I successfully pitched to angel investors in the 2019 fundraising round, creating multiple pitch decks that communicated Shopupp's vision and market opportunity. This helped secure the funding that launched our redesigned app.

Product Management & UX Design

The original MVP was a quick, cheap build to get to market. I worked closely with our graphic designer for the rebuild, to ensure the UX would actually work for our users, then liaised with the development team to ensure accurate implementation.

I designed the entire content management system myself, from information architecture to workflows, teaching myself the principles of CMS design and translating user needs into technical requirements.

I also single-handedly designed the Shopupp website.

Working with our dev team in India on complex features like "Find Similar" required me to explain Boolean logic and SEO principles. This experience taught me how to bridge the gap between technical teams and user needs - and deepened my understanding of how search algorithms work.

The SEO Awakening

Shopupp is where I fell in love with SEO. Having hundreds of brands in one app meant dealing with massive variation in how retailers describe the same product. I became fascinated by how people look for products, the language they use, and how small differences in wording dramatically affect discoverability.
The "Find Similar" feature required deep understanding of semantic relationships, product attributes, and user intent—essentially technical SEO applied to app search.

Data-Driven Content Strategy

Because we could track user events, I had unprecedented visibility into what people were actually searching for and engaging with on the app. I used this data to adapt my editorial strategy, creating practical styling content around products I could see were popular.
I discovered that fashion app users want both inspiration (aspirational styling, trends, aesthetic content) and practical solutions (how to style specific items, where to find things). I had to balance both in the editorial calendar.

Creative Production and Growth Marketing

Shopupp's Editorial.

Shopupp's Editorial was the app's most successful sales funnel. I created the content strategy and single-handedly created all content for the editorial arm.

I published three articles per week covering catwalk-led and influencer-led trends, styling advice, seasonal styling, and affiliate brand promotions.

I created all imagery, wrote all copy, and merchandised every edit to drive engagement and conversions.

The result: The content arm drove consistent engagement and proved that editorial content could function as effective performance marketing when tied to product discovery.

I also discovered that fashion influencers would share illustrations I created of them — they were flattered rather than annoyed! This gave us organic reach we couldn't have afforded to buy.

For paid acquisition, I taught myself Instagram ads from scratch, including how to create video using Photoshop (before I had After Effects). These videos performed exceptionally well, driving thousands of app downloads.

I eventually took a 2-day Adobe After Effects course and got proficient at creating engaging social video that influencers engaged positively with while showcasing our app features.

Icon design.

I created icons for the app's UI to add to Shopupp's visual identity that could be used across communications.

Social creative + ads

I created imagery and video to communicate with Shopupp's audience:

App USP
App How-to's
Styling ideas
Trends
Ambassadors
Sales & Exclusives.

My video ads had high conversion rates, with low cost per install.

Email Marketing and Retention

I used Mailchimp extensively, developing frameworks for re-engaging dormant users and creating automated flows that brought people back to the app. This included:

Personalised product recommendations based on browsing behaviour
Abandoned cart recovery sequences
Trend alerts based on user style preferences
Seasonal styling content tied to inventory

What I learned

Shopupp taught me to be resourceful, data-driven, and versatile. I learned to:

Bridge the gap between technical teams and user needs
Use data to inform creative decisions
Create high-performing marketing content with zero budget
Understand search behaviour and semantic relationships
Manage product development without formal PM training
Pitch to investors and communicate vision clearly

Most importantly, I discovered my passion for SEO and how people search for things; a fascination that's driven every role since.
Shopupp folded in 2020 when the pandemic disrupted our next funding round, but the skills and insights I gained there have been invaluable throughout my career.