Retail 2.0

About a year ago I joined two of my closest friends in building a direct-to-consumer fashion-tech startup called Combatant Gentlemen. I knew nothing about fashion, retail, or suiting. My background was in SaaS, web infrastructure, and databases. Your typical web nerd dressed in hoodies and sandals.

Fresh from being rejected by YC twice, I did have some understanding on what to look for in my next startup. However, I was confused how I would provide any meaningful value and attempt to solve challenging problems with technology. For once in my life I was setting out to build something where the product wasn’t technology.

Today, I have a much greater understanding of fashion-tech and how technology plays a pivotal role in selling physical goods to consumers. For the first time in history, young brands are able to connect to their consumers, skip the middleman, and produce a quality product without the need of massive overheads.

But how does the independent brand stand out from the 1000’s of brands that exist online today. This is probably the biggest question that’s been on my mind.

I get why so may of the latest direct-to-consumer brands get so much attention from investors, sporting fantastic margins, perfect market opportunities, and the ability to scale a brand online with as little money as possible. But why should the consumer care?

Is it merely a matter of building a cool brand and connecting it with consumers online? Do brands need an element of social responsibility like Tom’s, Warby Paker, and Everlane? Or perhaps its some sort of killer feature like True&Co which allows women to find the perfect fitting bra online?

I’m not sure what the answer is, but one thing I’ve seen as a new brand is that they need to provide value that goes above and beyond the products your selling. You can’t provide just a little bit of value, but an absurd amount of value that makes your consumers path to purchase . Whether that’s through an unbelievable next-gen user’s experience or giving consumers a no brainer path to purchase. Thevalue of purchasing from your brand needs to be so absurd that your consumers fall in love with not just your products, but your company.

The best part of this value proposition is that it does not have to include throwing a ton of cash toward marketing avenues, unlike traditional brands of today. Brands like Warby Parker are able to provide value by syncing with your Rx provider to create your glasses at light-speed. Companies like Bauble Bar are able to sell ladies accessories (a realm which was once non-starter by so many investors) by the truck load through their unique offline/online experience. Bow and Drape, a new custom women’s clothing startup, is now able to provide women with unique and one of a kind styles at a quarter of the cost by using their form of supply chain/outfit builder, essentially tapping into a market which was once non-existent. All of these examples offer absurd value to the consumer.

These examples have led me to do some investigating on fashion/tech as a whole. What I have found is that fashion/tech is not that different from any other form of tech… In fact, there is more fashion in tech than I have ever realized. Trends and the update of standards have always been the norm to any engineer. The notion of having to stay on the upper cusp is something that I have always thrived off of, and it has made my transition into this space essentially effortless.

Spotting trends is something that is essential in this space and I’ve seen two major ones hit this space today. The first being fit-tech for clothiers. Fit-tech is not necessarily new in this space, but it’s seen a surge of importance as more and more brands hit the inter webs. I’ve taken a liking to this trend, but only when it’s not over-engineered. The problem with fit-tech is the unfortunate relationship between the clothier and the engineer is almost non-existent. There are a number of young startups that are working feverishly to be the first to crack the code, but there is still a lot to be learnt. Fit is subjective, so even if you were able to scan the entire body, the person wearing the clothes may not always agree with your recommendation.

The next trend that I noticed is the merging of offline/online. Again, this trend isn’t new in the game, but it has been evolving for a few years to something beyond the typical norm of a “pop-up shop”. Pop-up venues and short-term leases are great for young startups, but there is a lot more value that can be provided as a young than that of larger brands. For example, Warby’s traveling school bus, or Poshmark’s “Posh Parties”. Both of these examples go beyond the norm of a brick and mortar “guide-shop” style feel. These are unique ways of giving the consumer a fully encompassed feel of the brand and what the founders views are. The story can be told in a unique way in which a regular store just couldn’t. Having the ability to provide a high-pont-of-touch with an absurd amount of value is the key take away.

Know your customers. Know what they eat, what they drink, what they do for fun. Then bring the online experience to them, offline. Be apart of their social experience both online/offline and you’ll gain a customer for life. Retail “2.0” is about getting consumers to fall in love with your story, company, and of course your product. Forever delivering absurds amount of value.