{"id":655319,"date":"2013-04-30T14:01:38","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T18:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=640952"},"modified":"2013-04-30T14:01:38","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T18:01:38","slug":"fab-decides-theres-more-to-its-business-than-flash-sales-plans-major-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/655319","title":{"rendered":"Fab decides there\u2019s more to its business than flash sales, plans major expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last May, Fab CEO’s Jason Goldberg\u00a0gave\u00a0entrepreneurs\u00a0a piece of advice<\/a>: don’t be afraid to break with a bad idea. And Goldberg would know, since he previously tried to launch a social network before focusing instead on building a design-centric e-commerce site<\/a>. So when Goldberg says the company is pivoting again, you might imagine a totally new business model.<\/p>\n

But in reality? With this pivot, Fab isn’t completely changing its product as much as it is changing what the Fab brand means. Instead of selling merchandise from other retailers on its site through flash sales (sales of limited\u00a0quantities\u00a0of items for limited time periods),\u00a0Fab is expanding to include<\/a> products designed by Fab, products designed by others, and ventures like custom furniture and a brick and mortar store in Europe. The company wants to be one of the “next great iconic shopping brands,” it wrote Tuesday, and that shopping experience will maintain the design focus that the company was founded on.<\/p>\n

\"Fab<\/a>Goldberg explained the idea behind the re-launch, which he announced in a blog post Tuesday<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

“People called it a \u201cpivot.\u201d We called it a complete restart.\u00a0We threw out the old and started anew.\u00a0And 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.\u00a0We were on to something big. We knew it.\u00a0So, in January 2012 we did what came naturally to us: We planned to Pivot. Again.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Focusing on the general concept of a design-based e-commerce brand will allow Fab to both produce its own products and work with others, expanding the items it sells on its site and expanding the concept of what it means to be a physical retailer, the company wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

“We believe that part of disrupting design is disrupting it across multiple channels. We\u2019re working on Fab store concepts that reimagine and reinvent how people buy design products by merging offline & online experiences in entirely new ways. We\u2019ve always said that Fab wants to be where its customers are \u2014 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\u2019s 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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As part of the expansion, Fab is also acquiring\u00a0MassivKonzept, a custom furniture company, which will give Fab a head-start on this business and the addition of a physical store, with plans to add more of these stores in the future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:<\/strong>
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n