betashop

Fab moves beyond email. Direct traffic - especially mobile - on the rise ... and Pinterest

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:04:00 +0100

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a dramatic shift in how people get to Fab.

Just 2 months ago — as recent as November 2011 — nearly 50% of Fab’s traffic came via our daily emails to our members.

Fab Visits November

In January 2012 we saw direct visits overtake email-driven visits for the first time.

We believe that the rise in direct traffic is because of 3 reasons:

Mobile visits now account for nearly 1/3 of all visits.
More and more people are just typing in www.fab.com into their browser at 11am ET / 8am PT each day instead of waiting to click on our emails.
With 2 million members now, growing by 450,000 in January 2012 alone, we’ve reached a bit of a tipping point in general awareness of Fab.

Also notable is the rise of Pinterest as a traffic source for Fab. While still relatively small and accounting for .68% of all visits, Pinterest doubled as a percentage of visits in January and remarkably overtook Twitter links to claim the #7 spot.

@devfab, always rmbr 7am 2-2-12, locked out office, uploading Fab iPhone 2.0 to itunes from my...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:56:16 +0100

@devfab, always rmbr 7am 2-2-12, locked out office, uploading Fab iPhone 2.0 to itunes from my laptop in hallway - ur 1st Fab ship it!

Keeping it Real, Fab Wins Best Shopping App 2011 at The Crunchies

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:19:00 +0100

Back in December when Fab was nominated for a Crunchie in the Best Shopping App category, I said to Bradford:

“Wow, that’s cool. But we’re not going to win. We’re not really part of that whole Silicon Valley tech scene.”

Bradford retorted:

“Of course we’re going to win. We’ll win because we really did deliver the best, freshest, most exciting, and most innovative shopping experience in 2011. We’ll win because people know it. They’ve experienced it. It’s real.”

Duh. As usual, Bradford was right.

Congrats team Fab and thanks to all 2 million of Fab’s members. Last night Fab took home the Best Shopping App 2011 at the Crunchies, the premier annual tech awards.

We won by focusing on customers, delivering fun, and making people smile.

Hard to believe we’ve only just finished our 7 month of existence.

As we say at Fab, it’s just the beginning. We’re going to keep keeping it real and delivering value to users every day. And, as we do, expect a rapid pace of new features, benefits, products, and innovations from Fab over the next weeks and months.

Smile, you’re designed to.

Hiring: Chief Merchandising Officer Fab Europe

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:23:16 +0100

Fab.com — the world’s leading design website — is actively recruiting for Chief Merchandising Officer for Fab Europe for our upcoming European launch.

Based in Berlin, the Chief Merchandising Officer for Fab Europe will be responsible for setting the design aesthetic and direction for Fab Europe. He/she will work closely with Fab’s Worldwide Chief Creative Officer to cultivate and develop relationships with design partners throughout Europe and around the globe to bring an exciting mix of design products to Fab’s members in Europe.

You will be responsible for injecting soul and spirit into Fab’s offerings. That means you will be our top scout, aggressively seeking fun and interesting “wow” products that will excite and inspire our membership. You will need to be as comfortable working with small independent designers and global brand name partners. You will need to jump right in ready to manage a team of merchandisers who will serve as your scouts and business development partners, signing designers to sell on Fab Europe.
You must fully understand and appreciate the history of design, while also living in color - willing to take risks and inject fun into the mix. You must fully understand Fab. We’re not about precious things; we’re about making design affordable and accessible for everyone. That means finding products at all price points low and high, and across all categories. You should have studied Fab’s offerings in the U.S. and be ready to bring the same Fab eclectic fun mix to Fab Europe.

Get ready to hit the ground running. Fab launches in Europe real soon and we’re going to be running hard. You must be driven, ambitious, eager, and ready to lead.

We’re looking for someone who is already a brilliant creative design visionary. Yet, someone who is grounded in reality as to what people want and what really sells.
Ideally you will have a unique mixture of retail design experience, management, sales experience, and passion for bringing color into people’s lives.
You need to be willing and able to pick up the phone and convince anyone and everyone to sell on Fab Europe.
You must be able to lead and motivate a team.

Most of all, you need to have a point of view that is similar to that of Fab. We’re fun. We’re colorful. You be too.

Interested? Know someone?

"The world is serious enough. Why does e-commerce have to be so serious? Fab is rambunctious,..."

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:15:52 +0100

“The world is serious enough. Why does e-commerce have to be so serious? Fab is rambunctious, provocative, and we’re gonna keep pushing and making e-commerce more colorful and fun.”

- Bradford

@shervin just raised the bar on VC term sheets - shaved @fab and...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:03:00 +0100

@shervin just raised the bar on VC term sheets - shaved @fab and other investments on his head.

Bloomberg Video: Fab Reaching 2 Million Members

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:36:24 +0100

Bloomberg Video: Fab Reaching 2 Million Members

Inc Magazine Video From fabulis to Fab

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:35:42 +0100

Inc Magazine Video From fabulis to Fab

"The more successful Fab gets, the more humbling it gets. This company and this journey really is..."

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:59:40 +0100

“The more successful Fab gets, the more humbling it gets. This company and this journey really is just about doing what we love and trying to make people smile. It’s a thrill. We’re just lucky to be able to do it.”

- betashop

Fab Celebrates 2 Million Members With Major New Browsing Innovations, Open Membership, & International Expansion Plans

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:38:20 +0100

Any day now Fab will surpass 2 million members. We’ve added more than 400,000 new members in the past 30 days and doubled our membership since November.

We’re so excited about it that we’ve decided to celebrate today with a series of new features and announcements designed to make great design discoverable and attainable by even more people.

1. Introducing Fab Shops.

One of the most interesting user experience challenges of running a flash sales website is layering on more products and sales without diminishing the browsing experience. We have ambitions to grow from 3500 products live on Fab at a time to tens of thousands, but without losing the excitement and discovery that Fab has become known for.

Today we are launching Fab Shops, a unique new browsing innovation that enables Fab members to visually browse Fab products by “shops” organized around product categories.

At the top of the Fab main sales page users will now find a new section, Featured Shops. Here, users can visually browse all of the products currently live on Fab by shop categories. The items in the shops change daily as new sales go live or expire.

We’re launching today with more than 20 shops:

In addition, users can now browse all the products on Fab by shop, color, and price.

And then, also sort within a shop by price, best selling, and most faved.

This is just the start. We’ll be expanding to 10,000+ SKU’s on Fab immediately and introducing even more innovative ways to browse and discover them. iPhone, iPad, and Android version of Fab Shops will launch in the next few days as well.

2. As of today, Fab.com is now open for anyone to join. No more waiting list. No more invitation only. Come one, come all. We believe that design should be approachable and affordable for everyone.

3. International Design Lovers, Here We Come!

One of the loudest requests we’ve heard from our users is for Fab to start selling and delivering our design inspirations outside the U.S.

-We’ll be launching in Canada in days, not weeks.

-We’ll be in Europe very soon. Bradford and I were in Berlin, Brussels, and Paris last week laying the plans and putting the teams together. Expect more news on this very soon.

Smile, you’re designed to.

Knock-Offs Are Bad Design

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:50:14 +0100

Here at Fab.com we’re all about good design.

Authenticity is part of our soul.

We guarantee that every product we sell is authentic and that we are authorized to sell it.

We offer our own unique graphic designs on website.

Everything is home grown and original.

That’s what good design is all about.

Being true to designers, creators, and customers.

That’s why I take it as a personal offense when I see would-be competitors just blatantly and openly rip us off.

In the last month we’ve seen no less than 7 Fab copycats.

3 of them have gone as far as to copy almost exactly key elements of our website design.

We’ve come across screenshots from these copycats that include our own design elements and even our own Fab employees.

The worst offender is a new company, bamarang, operating out of the UK and Germany from the infamous Rocket Internet - Samwer brothers. Their site is not just a copycat, it’s frankly just stealing our unique Fab design elements.

Fab Design

bamarang rip-off

Fab Design

bamarang rip-off

Let me put bamarang and the other copycats on notice. Ripping someone off is not going to work in this space. Knock-offs are just bad design. Users will see right through it. Such tactics may work in some industries, but not in design.

In design, customers are smart and customers value real authenticity.

Do something original or don’t do anything at all.

Video. On December 8, 2011 I gave a talk at HackFwd Build 0.8...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:45:00 +0100

Video. On December 8, 2011 I gave a talk at HackFwd Build 0.8 re: The Fab Story - from zero to hero in 9 months, 21 things we learned.

Jetlag included.

Fab Launches New Social Shopping App for Facebook Timeline

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:06:00 +0100

With 1.8 million members (more than doubling in the last 3 months), Fab is rapidly emerging as the world’s #1 website for design.

Fab.com is also the leading innovator in converging social and commerce.

Today we are upping the ante with our latest innovation: Social Shopping.

Fab’s new Social Shopping features enable Fab members to more easily share the products they are buying with their friends on their Facebook Timeline and with other Fab members on the Fab.com Live Feed.

Here’s how it works.

First, it’s entirely opt-in. Fab Members can decide for themselves if they want to participate in Social Shopping. If they do, we’ve got a little reward for them as they can earn $10/month in Free Credits just for enabling Social Shopping. That’s our little way of saying thanks for sharing!

Social Shopping can be activated from the Fab Live Feed. There, at the top of the page, members will see the Activate Social Shopping button.

Clicking the Activate Social Shopping button opens a fly-down window that explains the Social Shopping Options: 

There are currently two Social Shopping Options on Fab.com:

1. Add your Fab purchases to your Facebook Timeline. Fab is thrilled to be among the first to launch a timeline app. To get started you can opt-in on Fab to add the app to Facebook Timeline, and your future purchases will be shared on your Timeline, and you’ll be able to discover the items most popular among your friends through the Facebook News Feed and ticker.

Now, we know that Fab members may not want to share every purchase on their Timeline. To start we have created a few simple preferences:     Fab members can choose to opt-in to share “adult” product purchases and gifts for other people. By default both of these options are off.

You can also always edit your settings from your Application Settings Page on Facebook, or can remove specific activity directly from Timeline or from your personal Activity Log on Facebook.

Once the user adds the app to Timeline, their Fab purchases will then appear as activity happens, as shown here.   

2. The second Social Shopping option is to enable other Fab members to see your username when you buy something on Fab.

When a user does not have this feature enabled, their purchases appear anonymously to other Fab users, like this:

Once social shopping is enabled, the user’s name is shared with others, and it looks like this: 

Clicking through on the Fab Member’s username then shows that user’s Fab Profile which displays all of the items the member has purchased, faved, or added to the Fab Inspiration Wall.

Today’s Social Shopping launch is just the start. We’ll be continuing to forge ahead and innovating at the intersection of social and commerce. Expect more and easier ways to share and discover great design products with your friends and the Fab community.

Get Social Shopping on Fab now!

Smile, you’re designed to.

Bradford and I at work. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the NY Times.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:37:34 +0100

Bradford and I at work. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the NY Times.

Germany Flattery

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:06:38 +0100

Greetings from Berlin, where there are no fewer than 5 companies working on Fab-like companies.

Fab Acquires FashionStake

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0100

We’re on a mission here at Fab to be the world’s most valuable design resource.

In June 2011 we opened our doors and took big strides towards achieving that goal. 7 months later 1.65 million people have now joined Fab. 350,000 new design enthusiasts have signed up in the last 30 days alone. They’ve purchased 750,000 products from us so far. And, it’s just the start.

We have some core beliefs here at Fab:

Fab.com is design
Everyone, everywhere can benefit from good design
Exceptional customer experience is our most valuable design
Behind every great design is an even greater story
Our team is designed for success
We’re on a mission to be the world’s most valuable design resource
Smile (you’re designed to)

Very quickly, we’ve established Fab as the world’s leading platform for design. We’ve taken a highly fragmented market with thousands of suppliers and married that with a consumer model that values product more than brand, price more than luxury, exciting more than generic, color more than bland, and where witty and humor and stories to be told bring products to life.

Along the way we’ve learned that our members love independent fashion. Scattered here and there in our sales the past few months, alongside lots of home decor, jewelry, art, gifts, and gadgets, we’ve also sold a lot of fashion. From shirts to skirts to hats to gloves to street wear to shoes to belts and more, we’ve sold them all on Fab and our members have roundly responded with “more please!”

So, today, we’re doubling down on fashion. We’re going to do the exact same thing we’ve done with design products to fashion. Make no mistake, we’re keenly aware that there are plenty of sites that sell high-end fashion for a discount. That’s not Fab. We’re doing fashion the Fab way; designed to make you smile.

To get there we are announcing our first acquisition. Fab has acquired NYC-based FashionStake, the leading online marketplace for independent fashion.

Hundreds of independent designers have sold on FashionStake. We’ll now give them and many more like them a platform to sell on Fab.

FashionStake Cofounders Vivian Weng and Daniel Gulati will be joining our team and focusing on expanding our fashion presence.

We’re thrilled to have Vivian and Daniel join the Fab team. At FashionStake, they built a vibrant community of indie fashion lovers from all around the world.

Welcome former FashionStake members, we’re so happy to have you on Fab!

Stay tuned for much more Fab Fashion in the coming weeks.

Smile, you’re designed to.

Fab Mobile - Even More Data - And, BTW, iOS is Just Creaming Android

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:03:00 +0100

Ryan Kim over at Gigaom just reported on Fab’s mobile usage. He notes:

30% of Fab’s usage is now via Fab’s mobile apps.
Fab’s iPad users spend much more on average per order vs. web, iPhone, and Android users.
Fab’s mobile users convert to purchasers at much higher rates vs. web.

After reading his story I dove in even deeper just now and gleaned the following data:

16% of Fab’s 1.6M members have now downloaded Fab’s mobile apps.
That makes it even more interesting that mobile is 30% of usage. 16% of users = 30% of daily usage.
iOS is just dominating Android.
96% of Fab’s mobile app installs are iOS, 4% Android
96% of Fab’s mobile orders are iOS, 4% Android
And, you guessed it, 96% of Fab’s mobile revenue comes from iOS, 4% from Android.

More than 30% of Fab usage is now via Fab.com Mobile Apps.

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:21:51 +0100

More than 30% of Fab usage is now via Fab.com Mobile Apps.

"What is the #1 thing you learned from your parents?"

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:36:03 +0100

“What is the #1 thing you learned from your parents?”

- One of my recent favorite candidate interview questions.

Vote for Fab (please, you're designed to)

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:40:18 +0100

As we captured in our 2011 Timeline, last year was a remarkable year for Fab. 12 months ago we were a different company entirely, 10 months ago we shut it all down, 7 months ago we had re-launched, and today we’re 1.5 million members strong, growing by 300,000 new members every 30 days of late, and processing hundreds of thousands of orders. Whoa.

To be 1000000% transparent, it has been nothing short of humbling and exhilarating. And, we’re just doing our best to keep up with it all and then (hopefully) get ahead of it. We’ve got ambitious plans for 2012 which I’ll be outlining in my next post.

For now, I’d love to just ask for your vote. You see, Fab was just nominated for 2 categories in the Crunchies, the ultimate annual tech community awards.

So, if you would please, we’d love if you could take just a minute to vote for Fab for Best Shopping Website and Best New Startup of 2011.

But, seriously, only vote for us if you really believe it. As with everything at Fab, we want it to be 100% genuine and authentic. If you think we’re the best shopping site and/or best new startup of 2011, we’d love your vote.

Thanks!

smile, you’re designed to.