ModCloth Credits Social Strategy for Driving 40 Percent Year Over Year Growth
San Francisco, California (PRWEB) July 23, 2013 -- Founded in 2002, ModCloth has grown into a premier online shopping destination for all things vintage-inspired. From women’s clothing and accessories to retro home décor, the site offers unique items sourced from designers around the world. ModCloth recently revealed that the company delivered more than $100 million in revenue in 2012, and is growing at a rate of 40 percent year over year. This is the first time ModCloth is disclosing revenue numbers since 2009, and it’s crediting much of its success to its focus on customers and active steps to involve the community.
"Shopping has always been a social experience. What's changed is that, when online, customers are able to come together as a community and heavily influence each other and brands,” says Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Eric Koger. "ModCloth is different because we've embraced this change. We lead conversations directly with our customers to figure out what they love, and then quickly bring those products to market. In the process, we're building strong, genuine relationships, and the passionate community that has emerged is what's driving our growth."
Engaging Experiences:
As part of its mission to democratize fashion, ModCloth has built an array of interactive site features to give an active voice to its community. One third of site visits are from customers who return within 24 hours of their last visit. They return to the site often and consistently to browse the 30-50 items launched per day on the site’s New Arrivals page, and they also visit to interact:
•The ‘virtual buyer’ program, Be the Buyer ®, invites ModCloth’s community to vote samples into production and offer constructive comments on garment details. These engaged members buy more than twice as much as non-Be the Buyer ® members.
•The crowdsourced design program, Make the Cut ®, invites community members to submit and vote on winning designs, which are then produced and sold on the site. Since the program’s initial call for designs in early 2012, over four thousand designs have been submitted.
•Style Gallery, a social outfit-sharing feature, invites members to upload their outfit photos and browse shoppable looks. Since its launch in 2012, more than six thousand outfit photos have been shared and those photos have been “loved” more than 350 thousand times.
•Community members can also interact with products in different ways across the site by clicking on “love” buttons for items they covet or clicking on “I need it” buttons to receive restock notifications for out-of-stock items.
•Product reviews offer another constructive avenue for community sharing. Of all products carried on ModCloth, 83 percent have customer reviews, and 55 percent of those include body measurements to help inform other customers.
Mobile First Development:
The company’s mobile-first strategy has allowed for new on-the-go shopping experiences. It launched iOS apps earlier this year and has seen an increase in mobile traffic since — in fact, mobile traffic is growing at more than 40 percent and rising.
The iOS apps, developed in house, were created to further the company’s social strategies — and the community’s high level of engagement with the app features is proving their popularity. Some trends include:
•Product reviews per day have increased by 30 percent and the total number of product reviews with photos has increased by 50 percent, just during the month of May, 2013.
•The number of Style Gallery photo uploads per day have increased over 60 percent during the first week after the launch (without planned marketing efforts).
•Four times as many app users, compared to desktop users, share content to social networks.
•The number of “loves” for products increased by over 200 percent since the apps’ launch.
More Apparel and Décor for More Women:
This year, ModCloth unrolled a plan to satisfy the needs of the underserved plus clothing market by carrying more items in a full range of sizes. The site’s creative stylebooks and product page images include models of different body shapes and sizes to represent all community members.
ModCloth will also launch its private label brands, which will be designed and produced in a full range of sizes (0-30), this fall. ModCloth is expanding the site’s inventory of apartment and décor items by designing private label bedding, too.
With over 450 employees, two-thirds of whom are women, and office locations in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles, ModCloth continues to hire for roles on its expanding teams. The company is expecting to hire 100 individuals in 2013 alone.
About ModCloth:
ModCloth is an innovative e-tailer and social shopping community for indie and vintage-inspired style enthusiasts. ModCloth’s mission is to change the way fashion is discovered, developed, and delivered around the world. The company was founded in 2002 by husband and wife Eric Koger and Susan Gregg Koger, and is backed by Accel Partners, First Round Capital, Floodgate, Harrison Metal, StubHub founder Jeff Fluhr, and Norwest Venture Partners.
Rebecca Silliman, ModCloth, http://www.modcloth.com, 415-794-2178, [email protected]
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