It is hard to believe that this is already my last blog post for COMM 101. I have really enjoyed writing these blogs, because they have provided me with great insight into different aspects of the business world surrounding a variety of interesting topics.
For my final blog I have chosen to write about the actor, Kate Hudson’s company Fabletics. Fabletics is an online athletic wear subscription service that offers lower-priced quality active wear for women of all sizes. The company launched in 2013 and earned upwards of 250 million dollars in revenue during the first three years of operations. I wanted to research and learn more what made Kate’s start-up a success.
We learned during our entrepreneurship lecture that fixing a problem or providing something that is missing is a great way to start a business. This is exactly what Kate and her team did. Kate saw an opportunity in the market for “cute more fashion forward athletic wear”. Kate was also aware that this was a growing market segment. “Sales of active wear jumped 12% last year in the U.S. to nearly $40 billion”.
We have also learned in class that points of difference (PoDs) are very important in making a business stand out from its competitors. One successful and unique aspect of Fabletics is their membership option. Becoming a member allows a Fabletic’s customer to have a very personalized fashion experience by answering personal questions so the website can recommend pieces of clothing tailored to their preferences.
Membership is also beneficial to the company because it allows the company to collect data about what their customers like and dislike. Using this data has also helped Fabletics to have a successful introduction into the physical retail world. The data gave the company insight into where they should place their 22 retail locations related to where their most loyal customers are.
The company has been able to gain large amounts of revenue thanks again to their online platform. Kate explained during an interview at the ‘Fortune’s MPW Summit’ that Fabletics has “sophisticated algorithms so they can see what customers do and don’t like so the company doesn’t have to waste product like others do.”
Today Fabletics has over 400 employees and over 1.2 million active VIP members. Personally, I really enjoy working out and Lululemon has always been my favourite workout brand. The problem is it can be very expensive. Fabletics may be a great alternative, as they offer valuable qualities like personalization and lower prices. Overall, Fabletics has shown a business can gain valuable data about their customer through an online platform and it can be used to help make important business decisions.
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