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A new shopping 'fix' - themed packages of products
A new shopping 'fix' - themed packages of products
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Move over, flash sales. Just as all those limited-time, too-good-to-pass-up deals have become electronic detritus clogging our e-mail inboxes, a new breed of online retailer has arrived. Their lure is not discounts, but the promise of something similarly enticing: shipments of exactly what you didn't know you wanted dispensed at addictively regular intervals.
San Francisco's Stitch Fix offers clients regular "fixes" whenever they request the five-item infusions of on-trend women's apparel and accessories chosen by company stylists. Similarly, San Francisco eco-driven startup Blissmo charges subscribers $19 a month for themed boxes of beauty, food and household products from environmentally friendly, organic and sustainable brands.
"I like the surprise element. I thought it was fun to have no idea what was coming and to get some stuff that I wouldn't necessarily pick out for myself," says Elisabeth Carr of a recent delivery from Stitch Fix. The company was founded in February 2011 by former J.Crew buyer Erin Flynn and Katrina Lake, a product of Lowell High School and, later, Stanford.
Flynn and Lake, who co-founded Stitch Fix before she graduated from Harvard Business School last spring, relocated the business to San Francisco and have since grown to four full-time employees and amassed a client base that Lake says is "in the thousands." There's a waiting list for new signups that can involve a few days or longer, depending on the ebb and flow of demands from existing customers and inventory.
Packages contain on-trend and accessories to complement the client's size and style preferences.
"It feels like a curated and customized experience that's very luxury, but at a price point that is accessible," Lake says.
Brands include BCBGeneration and BB Dakota, as well as independent labels such as Max and Cleo, Charlie Jade and Aryn K. Items average $70 to $80 each, but can range from $50 to $200. Shoppers try on the clothes at home, then keep choice items and return the rest. Buy nothing, and you pay a $20 styling fee per shipment.
As Carr tried on each of the five items in her recent fix, she posted photographs using the iPhone Instagram app to solicit opinions from social media friends and followers. With their input, she chose a chevron-striped Aryn K dress and a BB Dakota jacket, and returned the rest.
"I think it's perfect for someone who doesn't really like to shop, for someone who wants to add a little spice to their wardrobe and doesn't know where to start," Carr says.
A Facebook employee and fashion blogger who pens the site Mission Closet, Carr does like to shop. That and an interest in technology have led her to try a number of sites that Blissmo founder Sundeep Ahuja describes as "new commerce," including JewelMint, StyleMint and JustFabulous. Carr has also partnered with JewelMint on her blog.
Nationally, there's no shortage of companies offering shopping models similar to Stitch Fix and Blissmo. Trunk Club, a Chicago men's shopping service started in 2009, delivers an assortment of clothing chosen by its in-house stylists. Like Stitch Fix, the company allows customers to pay only for what they decide to keep.
Perhaps the best-known examples are subscription-based online retailers such as Los Angeles' ShoeDazzle and Santa Monica's BeachMint's StyleMint, JewelMint, ShoeMint and BeautyMint, which offer shoppers access to personalized "showrooms" of merchandise for flat monthly fees charged whether shoppers decide to buy or not. Celebrity tie-ins are often involved: ShoeDazzle charges $39.95 for monthly access to shoes and handbags endorsed by Kim Kardashian, while StyleMint customers pay $29.99 for a choice of T-shirts vetted by the Olsen twins. New York's Birchbox offers monthly deliveries of sample-size beauty products packaged in a signature pink box.
Carr and others have been quick to embrace these new shopping models, but it's investors who are really the ones driving the trends, according to Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research's principal ebusiness and channel strategy analyst.
"It's venture capitalists that are looking for something new and creative that they can then have an exit strategy for. ... This is entirely driven by the investment space," Mulpuru says.
In January, BeachMint announced a $35 million funding round led by Accel Partners that brought its total reported funding to date to $75 million. Last September, JustFabulous announced $33 million in Series A funding led by Gilt Groupe backers Matrix Partners, while Trunk Club raised a reported $11 million in funding led by U.S. Venture Partners.
"If you can pull it off, it's a fabulous revenue model because it's a reoccurring revenue stream," says Mulpuru of subscription-based sites.
While sites such as StyleMint and Blissmo are bringing their own twists to traditional subscription-based sales, companies such as Trunk Club and Stitch Fix offer a streamlined approach to personal shopping that's tailored for the digital age.
"You can try stuff on in the context of your own closet. So if you're going to try on a dress, you can be like, 'This is what it looks like with flats, this is what it's going to look like with tights, this is what it's going to look like with heels,' and it's not like what it's like in the dressing room," Lake says.
Styling cards included with each shipment offer suggestions on how to wear pieces and pair them with other garments. Along with practical styling ideas, Lake says Stitch Fix also aims to be like that style-savvy boutique saleswoman who casually tosses a few items into your dressing room along with those you've picked out yourself.
Says Lake:
"It's part of the fun. If somebody says, 'I'm mostly neutral and I mostly wear tops,' we definitely throw in some adventure."
Lorraine Sanders is the founder of SF Indie Fashion. E-mail comments to style@sfchronicle.com.
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This article appeared on page L - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle