What was the highlight of the IRCE show? It may well have been Tom Ryan’s presentation about how international fans of his community-based design company Threadless have collectively awoken the crowdsourcing pioneer to the global Ecommerce opportunity.
The Threadless model is unique in that it taps the “joy of creation” among its huge artisan community to produce one-of-a-kind tee shirts and hoodies.
Today Threadless sells millions of custom, community-designed tee shirts in over 150 countries. Design pour in from around the world and the community carefully selects the best and brightest. In fact, Threadless prints less than 1% of all the designs submitted by its global artisan community.
Tom spoke about how this community has helped Threadless move from a Chicago-based company that “passively” served a fast-growing international consumer base to a popular Ecommerce force that now actively participates in global Ecommerce.
He also shared insights about how Threadless’ next strategic thrust, “Atrium,” will soon imprint Threadless on the global stage as the leading crowdsourcing design brand.
An Accidental World Traveler
The cool thing about the crowdsourcing model is that it is inherently viral – and in today’s world that means it is also inherently global. As word-of-mouth spreads globally about the latest hip design (e.g. artist=>participant=>customer), some too do the Ecommerce orders.
Tom explained that during the first decade of its existence Threadless operated in what Jim Okamura of Okamura Consulting (check out Jim’s session opener) calls the “Passive” stage of international expansion. Essentially that meant that Threadless made no real investment in serving customers outside the U.S. beyond simply accepting & fulfilling international orders.
Still, like many other U.S. Ecommerce companies that haven’t spent much time or effort selling outside the U.S. – or making it easy for international shoppers to buy online from their U.S. sites -Threadless still found plenty of international shoppers willing to jump over hurdles to buy from its site.
However, unlike lots of other U.S. Ecommerce firms in the Passive stage, Threadless was extraordinarily successful internationally.
In fact by Q2 of 2010, 50% of Threadless’ revenues came from international buyers, and by year’s end, Threadless was shipping to 150 countries. Check out Threadless Everywhere for a cool app that auto-maps in real-time orders from around the world.
“Crowd-Solving” International Ecommerce Challenges
Ryan explained how his company’s explosive international growth was spurred on in large part by the “global virality” of customers’ emails and sharing on social sites. The global embrace of the Threadless brand also made his team realize that they needed to do something about the less-than-adequate state of the company’s international online shopping experience.
Threadless had found that in exchange for unique & universally appealing products, international customers would compromise on the experience. “But we didn’t want them to have to jump through hoops,” commented Ryan.
Threadless was able to learn a lot from its global fan base, which in recent years had rallied to help each other improve the onsite shopping experience at Threadless.
The international community had built “how to check out” sites in multiple languages so their fellow countrymen/ women could more easily navigate the Threadless site and check-out.
To lower cross-border hurdles (and perhaps shipping costs), the global community also organized collective buying sprees.
Members of the community also helped each other understand the costs of customs, duties and other fees and explained the ins and outs of possible delays in crossing borders and local delivery.
Wake-up Calls Heeded
Threadless’ move from the Passive stage to Okamura’s Participatory stage started in mid-2010.
Step One was to invest in international growth via language localization. “We started the old-fashoned way,” explained Ryan, referring to often-manual translation. Today the company uses Smartling.
France, Germany and Spanish (6/10) came first with Portuguese and Italian (2/11) next. Six more langauges will come online this year.
Next came investments in marketing localization featuring the launch of a community “ambassadors” program and the embrace of language/country-oriented marketing consultants. Together these investments helped the company connect more directly with its league of international customers.
The final investment of 2010 was towards “commerce enhancements (e.g. Paypal)” which was driven in part by the need to provide German fans with a preferred means of payment. “Still,” noted Tom, “we continue to serve the world from Chicago”
Results & Next Steps
As expected, English-speaking countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, UK) continue to dominate Threadless’ revenue base. Yet Ryan pointed out that Singapore, Brazil and Russia are top 10 markets, which has come as quite a surprise for Threadless.
Also of note is the fact that non-English speaking countries are growing faster since the company’s localization enhancements have come online
Other top-line results:
- Conversion up 131% in France and 55% in Germany.
- Revs up 4x in Italy in 4 months.
- Nearly 60% of revenues international now (as of Q2 2011)
- Social investment is enhancing the program’s success. Twitter is very popular in Brazil and is helping spur sales in a big way.
Next steps:
Threadless plans to continue its current progress on established fronts (e.g. language/marketing/commerce)
In part to speed up delivery, the company will also add regional “on demand” manufacturing and fulfillment as well as localized customer service.
Ryan’s team is also exploring specialized approaches to unique markets (e.g. China, Japan, South Korea, India). For instance in China, Threadless is exploring the launch of a Taobao shop.
Observations and Take-aways
As illustrated on the cheatsheet to the left, there are many lessons learned that are contributing to Threadless’ impressive international growth.
“Nothing beats evangelists and word-of-mouth for building awareness and sales,” stressed Ryan, “it is absolutely critical to tap into these people.”
Ryan added that people will jump through hoops for unique & universally appealing products. “And from an international selling (and shipping perspective), it helps that they are reasonably priced, lightweight & unbreakable like t-shirts.
Ryan also spoke to the need for companies to invest proactively and to do their best to keep up with the members of its community, “they move faster than we can but it really helps that we can take their cues.”
What else? Of course, the weak dollar and relatively cheaper U.S. products are a big big driver of international demand – Ryan pointed to Australia as a great example. Social media also adds fuel to the fire, so “be highly active on social platforms and be ready to benefit when they take off in international markets” as Threadless has seen happen in Brazil via Twitter.
Shooting for the Stars
Threadless fans will be thrilled to know that the crowd-sourcing model Ryan’s company pioneered as only just begun to strut its stuff.
In fact, in his opening remarks Ryan explained how Threadless’ future vision, “Atrium,” will play out before a global stage.
Ryan showed several examples of how Atrium partners will breathe incredible creativity into some of the world’s most popular brands, ranging from Disney to edgy cartoons to … well, wherever the stars – and the Threadless community – may shine next.
If you think Threadless is a runaway international Ecommerce success today, wait until Atrium starts bringing a new generation of art and design to your corner of the world.
Until then,
Cheers
Topic: Building Your Global Ecommerce Plan, Global ECommerce Blog, Global ECommerce Market Stats, Uncategorized