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Fab invites you to Love What You Love. #lovewhatyoulove @Fab

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:35:58 +0200

Fab invites you to Love What You Love. #lovewhatyoulove @Fab

IDEA FOR INPUT: My New Email Scheme @fab

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:16:00 +0200

Over the past 2.5 months I’ve been to parts of Asia 5 times for work. That’s a lot of travel. More on why later.

All this travel has forced me to manage a lot more by email than I would normally prefer.

It has also led me to develop a new system for inbound and outbound email communication with the Fab team.

Here it is. I’m curious your thoughts.

On all emails that are sent to me, I now ask that Fab’s team members put one of the following in ALL CAPS in the subject line:

UPDATE: (subject xyz). This signifies that the email is just an update, informational, no action required.
DISCUSSION: (subject xyz). This signifies that the email is requesting input and debate but is not yet ready for a decision.
DECISION: (subject xyz). This signifies that the email is requesting a decision.
URGENT: (subject xyz). This signifies that the email requires an immediate response.

I have then setup filters in my gmail such that I first review all URGENTS, then all DECISIONS, then all DISCUSSIONS, then all UPDATES.

On emails that I send, I’ve also started creating a standard structure for what I put in the subject line:

FEEDBACK. Means I am providing my feedback and input on a topic.
ACTION ITEMS. Means I am requesting someone(s) to take a specific action, usually with a specific deadline.
IDEA FOR INPUT. Means I am throwing out an idea that I’d like input on.

And, my favorite of all, is a simple 2 words that I use most frequently in response to emails from members of our management team:

GO!

Go = 2 letters that = the ultimate empowerment.

GO! means run with it.

GO! means take that idea of yours and make it happen.

GO! means take risks, invent things, make mistakes.

GO! means get shit done.

YOUR FEEDBACK?

Bringing The iPad Experience to The Web - The New @Fab Header

Fri, 03 May 2013 17:30:00 +0200

Behind the scenes on the Fab redesign was a purposeful effort to bring the best of Fab’s iPad app experience to the web. We had found for a long time that our iPad customers have the highest engagement and conversion rates to purchase. So, we redesigned Fab with the iPad experience in mind.

Today we’re launching a quick follow-up to our big redesign by rolling out a new header for the Fab website that is 100% iPad inspired.

The Fab design style is all about getting out of the way. Clean. Simple. Purposeful.

Here is the new Fab header in normal state.

Then, clicking on the top left icon reveals the navigation elements — just like on an iPad.

What do you think?

We’ll continue tweaking it as we go.

Smile, you’re designed to.

Scenes from official opening of the @fab showroom in Hamburg,...

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:22:00 +0200

Scenes from official opening of the @fab showroom in Hamburg, Germany. @fabeurope

5 Major @Fab Announcements - April 30, 2013. A Long-Planned Pivot. New Products. A New Market. An Acquisition. And A Retail Channel.

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:07:00 +0200

Fab was first designed over a dinner in February 2011.

There, Bradford Shellhammer and I drank some wine and drew on a napkin and decided to throw out our year-old social network and restart as a new business focused on the one thing we’re both mutually passionate about: Design.

My passion is user experience design.

Bradford’s passion is to design the stuff people live with.

Nishith, Deepa, and Sunil — our co-founders in India whom I’ve now had the pleasure of working with and starting companies with for nearly 7 years — are passionate about designing scalable technology.

Collectively, our one thing is Design.

I’ve known Bradford now for 14 years. As the story goes, we randomly met in a nightclub in 1999. The story is true. We remained friends over the years. I was always inspired by him. Everyone I know has always wanted Bradford to help them design the stuff in their lives — their homes, their interiors, their accessories, their apparel, their art, their style. Bradford just has that unusual and uncanny knack for finding greatness and beauty in everyday things. He helps people embrace color. He’s fun.

I looked across the table at Bradford that night and I said: “Let’s design a beautiful website and app that brings your taste to the world.”

So we did.

People called it a “pivot.” We called it a complete restart. We threw out the old and started anew.

And it took off fast. Really fast. We re-launched Fab on June 9, 2011 and before we knew it we were tracking to $100M in sales and working with tens of thousands of designers and connecting with millions of consumers.

We were on to something big. We knew it.

So, in January 2012 we did what came naturally to us: We planned to Pivot. Again.

This time, we would do it gradually — over 16 months it turns out, and with 600 amazing teamates alongside us — but methodically, from our start as this interesting flash sales website for design to The World’s #1 Design Store.

We planned this pivot and mapped out how to do it over the course of these 16 months because we realized that we were on to something much bigger and more long-term sustainable than flash sales. You see, it turns out that Fab was always different from those other flash sale websites. We had created a marketplace for design, bringing together more then ten thousand designers who previously never had a rich platform on which to reach consumers. We were selling first-run merchandise at everyday good prices, not inventory liquidation at a discount. We had seen a groundswell around Fab on both the supplier and consumer side of Fab that is seldom seen around commerce. We were becoming a lifestyle brand. A horizontal play. We were more mobile, more social, and more addictive.

We planned to pivot towards creating one of the next great iconic shopping brands. (We hope). We told ourselves and our team: Think big. Plan to be big. Focus every day on what will wow our customers most in the long term. We’re in the wow business. If we make lots of wow, plenty of sales and revenue will happen over time. But first, focus on making wow.

Over the course of 2012 and into the first few months of 2013 we dramatically moved and transformed our business, while still growing sales by more than 500%.

We went from 2000 products on Fab to 15,000. Every day.

We took on inventory.

We built permanent collections.

We invested in search.

And browse.

And warehouses.

And logistics.

And Fab exclusive collaborations and design originals.

The result of which was profound. Before we even make today’s 5 big announcements, less than 40% of Fab’s revenue today is from flash sales. Most of our sales is from search and browse of products that live on Fab.

So today, we move forward. Towards a new Fab.

A new Fab that helps people find what they love, buy what they love, and love what they love, easier than every before.

This presentation and video spells out our evolution and strategic direction.

The announcements are:

A major pivot, redesign, relaunch of Fab as the World’s #1 Design Store. The New Fab - redesigned from the ground up — is now live on Fab.com in the U.S. and it will be live in Europe as well in the coming weeks.
The introduction of 3 types of Exclusively Fab products: Products Designed by Fab, Designer Collaborations, and Products Found by Fab.
The launch of Fab in France, now giving us coverage into 99% of the European Union.
The acquisition of MassivKonzept, the leading startup in online customized furniture, which is now being relaunched as Fab Designed By You.
The launch of Fab’s first physical retail concept.

5 Big Fab Announcements | April 30, 2013 from Jason Goldberg

As always, we’re not done.

We’re always reinventing and reimagining what Fab can be. We won’t rest until we’ve created the global brand that is synonymous with design for years and years to come.

We want to extend a special thank you to the now 600+ amazing people who work each day tirelessly and passionately for Fab. You are incredible. You are making WOW every day.

Smile, you’re designed to.

—

Screenshots of the New Fab, The new Fab Retail Experience, and details around the Fab acquisition of MASSIVKONZEPT follow.

—

Additional details about our acquisition of MassivKonzept follow.

Beginning in the middle of 2012 Fab began exploring and putting resources towards ways for us to develop Fab-exclusive products, particularly in the home and furniture categories.

Furniture is a space we are particularly interested in disrupting over the next few years. Broken supply chains. The model of consumers going to physical retail showrooms and having to have a professional designer work with them to customize their furniture — in terms of size and material and color — is ripe for disruption.

So, about 6 months ago we started to think really hard about how to disrupt the market for custom furniture. We think this can be brought online efficiently over time.

We looked at a couple of companies innovating in the online custom furniture space and we were most impressed with MassivKonzept.

The MK team is super impressive. They’ve been at it for a couple of years now and have already bootstrapped themselves to a $10M revenue profitable business. They have built impressive technology and supplier relations with high quality craftspeople in Europe. They’ve created a seamless and fun way for people to go online, customize their ideal table, bookshelf, or sofa, and then have it hand-crafted to their specifications from high quality craftspeople in Europe.

The products they develop — that their customers customize — are of the highest quality, entirely user-customizable, and because of Internet efficiency, ship to customers at a fraction of prices similar products would sell in physical retail stores like Bo Concept, Crate and Barrel, and Habitat.

Today, Fab is announcing the acquisition of MassivKonzept in an all-stock transaction.

Massivkonzept by the numbers:

7000 customers
$1000 average shopping cart, with largest customization orders reaching up to $100,000
Over 10% sales are B2B: office owners, architects and carpenters buy from us
900,000 people have used the configuration tools online.
10% of sales in 2 years are from repeat buyers

We’re excited to now relaunch MassivKonzept as Fab, Designed By You, also known as Fab DBY.

Fab DBY will be available immediately to Fab’s customers in Europe. Fab DBY will be prominently featured on the Fab Europe website.

In addition, customers can access Fab DBY directly at dby.fab.com.

Fab’s U.S. customers will be able to purchase a collection of DBY best-sellers immediately on Fab.com. We’ll be working on integrating the full suite of Fab DBY customization tools into Fab.com in the future for both our U.S. and European customers.

As part of this acquisition Fab is also acquiring its first retail presence, as MassivKonzept has maintained a showroom in the Stilwerk design center in Hamburg. At that showroom potential customers are able to explore the MK range of products but all customization and purchases are still done entirely online. The slogan for MassivKonzept has always been “designed by you” and that will stay the same under Fab.

Today the MassivKonzept showroom is being transformed into a Fab showroom. There, people will be able to discover and explore Fab Designed By You as well as the broader range of Fab everyday design products.

Fab will be opening up additional retail showrooms in the near future. Our next target market for a Fab retail presence is in Berlin, near our European headquarters.

We believe that part of disrupting design is disrupting it across multiple channels. We’re working on Fab store concepts that reimagine and reinvent how people buy design products by merging offline & online experiences in entirely new ways. We’ve always said that Fab wants to be where its customers are — be it smartphone, tablets, web browsers, or even physical retail stores. And, with less than 5% of home products purchased online today, we think that physical retail has an important role to play in the customer’s decision process. But, we plan to reinvent retail and help guide home product purchased online to 10%, then 20%, then 30% online as part of our disrupting the industry.

The entire MassivKonzept team is joining Fab as part of the acquisition. The two founders of MassivKonzept, Christoph Jung and Daniel Kollman will lead Fab Designed By You. Chris will head up the producer side of the business while Daniel will lead sales and marketing and service. Both of them will report to Matt Baer, Fab’s Senior Vice President of Merchandising Operations.

—

#lovewhatyoulove

Tego Audio makes the most amazing speakers. @TegoAudio grew...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:53:28 +0200

Tego Audio makes the most amazing speakers. @TegoAudio grew sales 230% last year because of @Fab. #lovewhatyoulove

Pivots. Financing. News. @Fab.

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:24:58 +0200

Let me take just a moment to clear up a couple of things about @Fab, as there seems to be a lot of chatter about us today in the Interwebs.

First, let’s talk Pivots.

We think that given our history (remember when Fab was a gay social network? we do!) we have earned some rights to use the word “pivot” a bit liberally here at Fab.

Yes, we are announcing some big new developments at Fab on Monday April 29. We’ve invited reporters. We’ve got 5 major new developments to reveal. And while pivot traditionalists might scoff at or speculate about our throwing the P-word around to describe our big upcoming announcements, the truth is that Monday marks a significant milestone in the evolution of Fab, a “reimagination” let’s call it, that began more than 14 months ago. And, as we do, we’ll keep on reinventing and reimagining Fab for as long as we’re at this. It’s what we do. We’re never content.

You see, it was only back in June 2011 that we launched Fab. We sold $65k worth of product that day. Seriously. Less than 4 months later we had 1 million registered users. For a shopping website. Seriously. We quickly became the place for everyday design. We reimagined online shopping — as something that could be exciting and fun. We tried to bring a little WOW to the world. To help everyone, everywhere benefit from design.

22 months later, tens of millions of people in 28 countries turn to Fab for modern, colorful, fun products that make them stop and smile.

 And someone buys something they love on Fab every 7 seconds.

Next week we’ll do some pivoting. In a good way. To help Fab’s customers better discover what they love. Shop what they love. And love what they love.

Oh, and we don’t have anything to say today about any new financing for Fab. Despite any rumors. We’re too busy today focusing on making people smile.

Smile, you’re designed to.

More to follow on Monday April 29, 2013.

I cooked with the amazing salts from The Beautiful Briny Sea...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:16:39 +0200

I cooked with the amazing salts from The Beautiful Briny Sea last night (on top of a piece of sushi-grade Hamachi). Fab uncovered this unique small business and enabled them to deliver smiles nationwide. Here’s their story.

Smile, you’re designed to.

Fab began 2 years ago with the mother of all pivots. Now,...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:48:48 +0200

Fab began 2 years ago with the mother of all pivots. Now, we’re at it again. Come learn more on April 29, 2013. @fab #reinvent #reimagine

2 years ago Fab looked like this. Today, we sell 1 product every...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 10:39:51 +0200

2 years ago Fab looked like this. Today, we sell 1 product every 7 seconds. You can do a lot in 20 months. Thanks @chrismessina for reminding me of this.

This week in Milan the Fab team has been working hard on their...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:04:00 +0200

This week in Milan the Fab team has been working hard on their feet all day at the biggest design event of the year — but at least they look fresh.

Fab’s three exhibition areas at MOST Salone are currently staffed by members of the Berlin and New York teams. But before people even ask us about Fab, they have been asking us about our shoes!

The unifying element of our outfits is our bright red Center Hi Sneakers provided kindly by PF Flyers. In gray, rainy Milan, our fancy feet have punctuated the gloom with a bit of Fab flourish. The barista in the cafe where we suck down espressos has begged for a pair, people are asking to buy them from our exhibition box, and fairgoers at other events have pointed out that “you must work for Fab” when we’re away from the MOST Salone site.

These shoes have been a great way to communicate Fab. Even the most super-serious design-conscious Milan fairgoers have cracked a smile!

Smile, you’re designed to. In Milano.

Skating Where The Puck Is Going, Not Where It's Been.

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:07:14 +0200

I get asked all the time what I think about copycats.

In particular, I get asked what I think about other people copying our website design or our merchandising design.

My answer: Go for it.

When you copy us today, you are copying our thoughts of several months ago.

Meanwhile we’re constantly reimagining what Fab could be.

So, yes, I take a bit of delight in people spending their time copying our previous thoughts. It just puts them that much behind our future. It also forces us to constantly innovate.

“Skare where the puck is going, not where it’s been.” - Gretsky.

Milan – E-commerce design site Fab hosted an X-Factor-style...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:50:01 +0200

Milan – E-commerce design site Fab hosted an X-Factor-style pitch session at MOST yesterday, where crowds of hopeful designers touted their work in front of a panel who will grant the best three the opportunity to sell their work at Fab.

The up and coming designers were given one-on-one time to hear feedback from design experts including Bradford Shellhammer, co-founder of Fab, Tom Dixon, designer and founder of Tom Dixon, and Birgit Lohmann, editor-in-chief of Designboom.com.

Brooklyn Slate is one of my favorite @fab designers. This is...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:34:44 +0200

Brooklyn Slate is one of my favorite @fab designers. This is their story. @brooklynslate.

At @Fab we love the success of our designers. Here is Isaac...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:01:13 +0200

At @Fab we love the success of our designers. Here is Isaac Krady’s Fab story. @IsaacKrady

Oh, wow. Fab was nominated for Best Mobile Shopping App!

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:05:16 +0200

Oh, wow. Fab was nominated for Best Mobile Shopping App! :

(Vote for us please!)

"Fab.com proves that being brave and doing things differently can pay off."

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:50:58 +0200

“Fab.com proves that being brave and doing things differently can pay off.”

- Why Fab.com proves that social media sells | Media Network | Guardian Professional

Founder and CEO of Fab Jason Goldberg gave the keynote to kick off NYU Startup Week. He was interviewed by Adam Penenberg, Editor at PandoDaily and journalism professor at NYU.

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:49:07 +0200

Founder and CEO of Fab Jason Goldberg gave the keynote to kick off NYU Startup Week. He was interviewed by Adam Penenberg, Editor at PandoDaily and journalism professor at NYU.

The 3rd Wave of E-Commerce Disruption: Emotional Commerce

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:37:00 +0200

I believe that we are now entering a 3rd wave of e-commerce disruption.

The first wave of e-commerce — which was dominated by Amazon — was all about bringing commodity products online. I like to call this wave: Commodity Commerce. The fundamental principles of Commodity Commerce were/are selection, price and speed: The biggest product catalogue, at the best prices, delivered as quickly as possible. It’s Walmart online. It’s Target online. It’s Best Buy online. It’s your drugstore online. It’s the Amazonification of commodity retail. It’s convenience shopping for the products you already know you need. Perfect for buying commodity products where the consumer already knows what they are looking for and what matters most is price and convenience. Examples: Books, music, electronics, shoes (your size doesn’t change), underwear (your size hopefully doesn’t change very often), dry goods, tools & hardware, toys, and office supplies.

Amazon has successfully executed a winner-take-all strategy in Commodity Commerce by investing heavily in the supply chain of massive selection.

The second wave of e-commerce — which is a battle between Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, and others — is the digitization of media. Digital Commerce. Books. Music. Movies. TV. Video.

The third wave of e-commerce is all about bringing emotional purchases online. Non-commodity products. More thoughtful purchase decisions. I like to call this Emotional Commerce. This is categories like furniture, home accessories, home textiles, fashion, art, and jewelry. These are categories where people care about having something special in their lives.

I believe that the following principles will carry the day in Emotional Commerce:

Exciting Merchandise. Winning in Emotional Commerce starts with great products. Stuff that people get excited about. Stuff that’s unique. Stuff that’s Fresh. Stuff that can’t be found elsewhere. Emotional Commerce is all about creating wow!
Amazing Shopping Experiences. Commodity Commerce was/is all about getting in and out as quickly as possible. One-click shopping. Emotional Commerce is all about getting lost in the moment. Emotional Commerce is all about taking the best offline shopping experiences — of being lured in by storefronts, of browsing through assortments and colors, of the joy of the hunt of finding something fabulous, or having fun while shopping — and making them even more amazing online. It’s about discovery via social and mobile and new formats for web and tablets. It’s about making online shopping not just convenient but downright fun. It’s called “retail therapy” for a reason. Shopping can be and must be joyful in order to capture emotional purchases.
Brand Building. Winning in Emotional Commerce will also take building aspirational brands. When people buy their first piece of furniture online, they want to know that there’s a solid and respected brand behind it — and they also want to be inspired by that brand. Consumers want to be excited by brands. People want to be associated with brands that are sharp, modern, colorful, edgy, and aspirational. (See: Apple, Target, Kate Spade). Brands will have to take care to have a consistent point of view and to honor and nurture the trust relationship between them and their customers. I think that brands will also need to have patience and staying power. Your customer likely wont buy furniture during their first purchase with you. But, if you treat them well and wow them at every turn, you can walk them down a path towards them turning to you when they are ready to make a furniture purchase online. At Fab we find that furniture transactions happen most often after the 5th or 6th purchase by a Fab customer. Nurturing the Fab brand is vital to our being there when the customer is ready…and to moving the customer towards being there perhaps faster than they might have otherwise been. 5% of Fab’s customers have now made a furniture purchase from Fab. That’s huge! But it’s just the start of bigger things to come. We know that building the Fab brand is key to enabling more and more people to trust and desire buying furniture from Fab.

I’m often asked just how big the total addressable market (TAM) is for Emotional Commerce.

Here are some ways to answer that question.

First, let’s take the Furniture Market in the United States.

There was about $63 billion worth of furniture sold in the United States in 2012.
Less than 4% of that is sold online today.
Crate & Barrel, which sells furniture and home accessories, has annual revenues around $4B.
Williams-Sonoma, whose brands include William Sonoma Home, West Elm, Rejuvenation, Pottery Barn Bed & Bath and PBteen has annual revenues around $3.5B.
Ikea has about 5% market share, with sales of around $3B in the U.S.
Ashley furniture, who (to be honest) I have never heard of before writing this post, sold $2.6B worth of furniture in 2012.
Rooms to Go, $1.5B.
Ethan Allen, $500M.
West Elm, $400M.

That’s a whole lot of disruption waiting to happen.

And, talk about a broken supply chain. Have you ever had to wait 3 months for a piece of furniture you picked out in a store? That will be disrupted. Ever been able to customize a bookshelf or dining table online? That will happen.

That’s a whole lot of disruption waiting to happen.

Let’s take a related market, home textiles. That’s another $26B market in the U.S.. This includes everything from bed sheets to linens to rugs to bath textiles and window treatments. (Data below is from hometextilestoday.com).

The top 10 in U.S. home textile revenues:

Bed Bath & Beyond, $3.75B in home textiles revenue alone. And almost none of it online.
Wal-Mart, $3.625B home textiles sales.
Target, $2.5B
JCP, $1.85B
Kohl’s, $1.3B
Macy’s, $870M
Kmart, $815M
TJMaxx, $740M
Williams-Sonoma, $700M
Ross Stores, $525M

Where’s Amazon? #18 at $250M.

That’s a whole lot of disruption waiting to happen.

Bedding. $3.4B
Rugs. $4.7B
Kitchen linens (e.g. potholders, dishcloths, kitchen towels). $1.8B
Bath linens, $6,7B
Window treatments, $2.7B

That’s a whole lot of disruption waiting to happen.

At Fab, we’re excited to be innovating at the cutting edge of emotional eCommerce. We like to say that we’re at ground zero of a huge revolution that’s beginning to take place as emotional commerce moves online.

Is it possible to build a multi billion dollar eCommerce business in an Amazon world? In Commodity Commerce, I say probably not, except for in new emerging markets that Amazon does not yet serve (e.g. China). In Digital Commerce, yes, unless it goes to free. In Emotional Commerce, absolutely yes. We’re just getting started disrupting huge markets. Imagine what the world will look like when 10% or 20% of furniture or home textiles are purchased online. It will happen soon.

#disruptdesign.

Smile, you’re designed to.

#disruptdesign @mostsalone @ Museo della Scienza e della...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:28:00 +0200

#disruptdesign @mostsalone @ Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia #mostsalone #milan13 @Fab