Warby Parker: Taking the lead in Online to Offline

May 13, 2013

by Kate Enright

www.vonbismark.com

Things are looking great for fashion and tech forward startup Warby Parker as they open a new flagship store in SoHo. The store is a design and customer experience masterpiece. From it’s  old-world libraries, to it’s 1950s furniture and vintage looking equipment, they have planned out and splashed out, on every detail.

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The company began as an online store which proved very popular with younger Gen Y (aka hipster…kind of) audiences, and then expanded by opening small stores  within other larger retail locations. These small Warby Parker showrooms were opticians with a difference, where customers could try on glasses in 3D and have a unique experience unlike any other on the high-street. By combining the latest in technology with the latest in fashion and design they simply blew people away. The little stores soon began sprouting up all across the US and their cult popularity grew along with their capital (Warby Parker closed a $41.5 million investment at the end of February this year)! They now have their very own, full-size retail location and we have no doubt about its impending success. They simply understand their target market, they understand Gen Y consumers and they know how to bring them in.

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WP are an example of the latest trend in e-commerce companies moving offline and building their own brick-and-mortar retail outlets. We have discussed this trend inrecent posts and so many of the online giants are now onboard with the idea, that there must be value in it.   Amazon, Google, Ebay PayPal and more have all either expressed interest in moving to offline or already made the move. PayPal for example are now making physical hardware for the high-street and working with retailers globally.

 

“We wanted to create a much different experience here: have a lot of room for people to bring friends, get opinions from other people,” says co-founder Dave Gilboa. “A pair of glasses is one of the only thing you wear on your face, and it says a lot about how you want to express yourself.”  (NY Daily News)

Hear hear Dave! It’s all about getting that personal opinion, that physical data that online just doesn’t offer.

The bright and beautiful showroom is the perfect example of ensuring customer satisfaction through layout and design we spoke about last month. This space is irresistible to passers by and is modelled the New York Public Library, with brass lamps, rolling ladders and old books. Awesome is not the word.

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And WP have big plans for bringing more tech into the offline world. They are leading the charge in collecting data by wiring the stores with sensors to get a better understanding of how people shop with them in terms of flow, store design, gender, age group, preferences and more. Very clever and forward thinking!

We are well and truely on the Warby Parker bandwagon. Here’s hoping a store opens in Dublin!

Founders Neil Blumethal and David Gilboa

Founders Neil Blumethal and David Gilboa… because they’re just the coolest.

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Posted by david ricketts

Probably the Smartest Thread You’ll Read on (Social) E-Commerce…

March 13, 2013

Found this little gem at Social Commerce Today. Some really interesting ideas taken from the comments of 117 thought leaders. Some are listed below:

And for the time-pressed, here’s the speed summary of key insights/takeaways.  Brilliant.

  • The future is e-commerce; offline commerce will serve only two purposes:immediacy (stuff you need right away), and experiences (showroom, fun venues).
  • But immediacy may no longer a promise for offline commerce companies as both Amazon and eBay have announced same day delivery.
  • The role of offline lies in the value of the “showroom” and “entertainment” aspects to places like Williams Sonoma. The future of commerce is a hybrid model with (entertaining) showrooms + online fullfillment
  • The future of e-commerce is combining online and offline experiences in disruptive ways. (Chloe + Isabel, Warby Parker, Everlane, and Stylemint)
  • There is no such a thing as e-commerce any more. There’s just commerce. You can innovate in commerce with technology, but the e-commerce silo is dead/dying (mobile payments are disrupting/removing the online/offline divide).
  • The future of e-commerce is vertical integration in markets where there is significant markup in both wholesale and retail (think Shoedazzle, Bonobos, J Hilburn, Warby Parker, IndoChino).
  • Few successful e-commerce companies were started in the early 2000s, although a slew of recent new entrants appear to be getting traction - flash sales, social commerce, subscription commerce and other new “content + commerce” models
  • The first wave of e-commerce was about commoditization this wave online and offline is about being a “merchant” (point of view, authority, experience etc).
  • The key equation driving e-commerce is: profit = lifetime customer value minus customer acquisition costs
  • “If it has a UPC code, Amazon will beat you.”
  • Before you enter the e-commerce game, visit an Amazon warehouse.
  • E-commerce is good for two things – price and exclusives. Amazon will beat you on price, so you have to beat it on exclusives.
  • The only way to escape commoditization and catalogue commerce dominated by Amazon is to a) sell used stuff, or b) make your own products (or provide a marketplace for those things), or c) (possibly) offer customisation
  • Be wary of e-commerce businesses based on customization – they’ve  existed for a decade (cafePress, Shutterly, Vistaprint) and yet none are thriving. Customers don’t want customization, they want great brands and great design, and they want to be told what they want.
  • The e-commerce opportunity is to contribute to the e-commerce ecosystem rather than sell directly yourself; four opportunities – 1) supply chain innovation, b) marketplaces, c) e-commerce solutions for small businesses, d) mobile payments
  •  There’s room for innovation in the space as long as the ecommerce company creates value for all participants – the retailer, the supplier and the customer
  • To make money in e-commerce, you need to sell in emerging markets where there are no huge incumbents
  • Compete in an industry with a grey market, where consumers are willing to pay higher prices for reducing risk, for authenticity, and warranties
  • The opportunity is to venture into segments where Amazon won’t go (adult, arms… !)
  • The opportunity for e-commerce success is a) sell to iPad owners (iPad owners are 10x more valuable than non iPad owners), b) mobile commerce (nobody owns this yet), and b) target your customers who use social features  (3 to 4 x more valuable)
  • You can’t sell to people who know exactly what they want – Amazon owns that; focus instead either a) ‘discovery‘ (“the best place to discover the stuff you don’t know you need”) or b) deep domain expertise
  • to succeed in e-commerce, you need to sell exclusives. You can’t sell stuff that Amazon sells, Amazon will crush you
  • Amazon is not a store, it’s the world’s best supply chain and logistics company. Amazon is transforming from a retailer to a marketplace+services provider over time.
  • Domain expertise, live assistance, and overall experience are the critical success factors for success in a market where price-competitiveness and scale rule
  • Necessary (but not sufficient conditions) for e-commerce success are a)remarkable,  unique and branded experience and remarkable, unique and branded service; do what Apple, Tiffany & Co., Coach, Lululemon do in bricks and mortar commerce, but online

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Posted by david ricketts

Number of phishing websites reach record high in 2012 while many phishing attacks go unreported

July 25, 2012

The number of phishing websites detected reached an all-time high earlier this year, a sign that the business of creating fake websites to spoof real ones is still lucrative for cybercriminals. In its recent report the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) said 56,859 phishing sites were detected in February, this beat the previous record from August 2009 by nearly 1 percent.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) is a non-profit global pan-industrial and law enforcement association focused on eliminating the fraud, crime and identity theft that result from phishing, malware and email spoofing of all types. In its report the APWG noted that the increase in the number of phishing websites was partly due to new technology it employed earlier this year to detect fraudulent sites.

Cybercriminals create thousands of phishing sites each week

Phishing sites are websites that look nearly identical to the legitimate ones, Cybercriminals are pushing out fake web sites branded as well known company’s like eBay, Amazon, banks, and other financial companies to the tune of tens of thousands every week. Oftentimes these sites mimic the well known brands very well and therefore leverage the trust users have in the legitimate companies. The new report showed the US hosted the most fake sites. With almost 50% of the phishing sites for the first quarter of 2012 using a know brand name in their URL, this is a well know trick often used by phishers.

On the bright side, though, phishing sites are being taken down faster than ever, one of the reasons is the ever increasing sophistication of email and web security solutions. In a SpamTitan survey from earlier this year 70% of companies reported incurring financial losses through not reporting spear phishing incidents to their IT department. The results showed that 70% of companies that believe their organisation have been a victim of a spear phishing attack are unsure that such attacks are reported to I.T. and dealt with appropriately. The lack of proactive measures to deal with the attacks can cost companies financially through the loss of data and system downtime. Spear phishing is a growing issue where a targeted false email that appears to be legitimate is sent to individuals or a company in order to access data.

Lack of proactive security measures can cost companies financially through the loss of data & system downtime

These findings highlight the importance of a company security policy and the importance of communicating this policy effectively so that all employees know how to deal with the myriad of security issues they are regularly faced with. This includes what actions to take if they receive a suspicious and unsolicited email, what to do if they receive an email requesting information but the sender is not known to them, what internet activity can they reasonably pursue within company policy, if their role requires them to access a site that is blocked company wide how do they request access?

Most people are now aware of various prevalent banking phishing scams or similar, spear phishing is another advanced attempt at a breach of security that appears legitimate and should therefore be highlighted even more as it is a much more sophisticated form of phishing. Educating employees around a range of security issues is an important step but crucially the most important step a company can take is to put in place robust and powerful security solutions. This doesn’t mean that companies can afford to ignore the ‘softer’ behavioural issues associated with security, it only takes one employee to open the wrong email to give access to sensitive company data bring a whole company’s IT systems to a halt.

Related articles

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Posted by david ricketts

How Etsy Turns Artists Into Entrepreneurs [INFOGRAPHIC]

July 10, 2012

Etsy isn’t just about coffee koozies and repurposed doilies. The ecommerce site may host online storefronts for handmade, vintage and repurposed items, but it also fosters a future for many an aspiring entrepreneur — a pursuit far more priceless than the items it sells.

In fact, Etsy’s user friendly interface and robust marketing tools have rendered it comparable to eBay, especially in terms of the companies’ sales trajectories. Between 2010 and 2011, Etsy’s sales increased by 71% — its 875,000 shop owners now sell an average of 2.9 million items per month

For all you aspiring product developers this is a great site:

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Posted by david ricketts

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