Cafe Press Goes "Kiosks" On Campus

Cafe Press, dot com company that provides customization services and offers to create storefronts for anyone; its a $127 million dollar business that promotes its self as "...A key differentiator of our business model is our ability to profitably produce customized merchandise in small quantities on a when-ordered basis."  

The reality is while their sales fluctuate from year to year, quarter to quarter, their profitability swings wildly between profitability and staggering losses.

Here is a video where the CEO explains the company much better than I ever could:

CafePress, About Us from CafePress on Vimeo.

Now, this market is filled with a lot of competitors, Zazzle and Spreadshirt, being the most obvious, but the reality is every town has a screen printer who will provide the same services and the internet is chock full of promotional product companies that will fill in whatever else you want besides tee shirts.

At some point you have to differentiate yourself  from your competition in a meaningful way, right now Cafe Press is:

          * A company with over 300 million products (that is designs) a consumer can pick from.
          * These 300 million designs can be ordered on over 600 product SKU's (from apparel and
             drinkware to posters, electronic accessories, and more....
          * They have over 2 million shops and they receive over 135,000 new designs every week.
          * If by some odd chance you cannot find what you want you can create your own with
             there online design tool.
          * Over 11 million unique visitors a month to their website and they ship 6 million products
             year.

In 2010 Cafe Press had 2 million customers, shipped 2.7 million orders, with an average order size of $47.

So, to grow their business they are testing a "kiosk" at Western Kentucky University.  Now, for the retailers perspective this is not a bad idea; a customer comes in, sits down at a computer in the kiosk and designs and orders something.  They then pay the retailer and in a few days the consumer can return to the bookstore and pick up their order.  It brings the retailer a second visit from the consumer and it saves the consumer shipping.

But, why would anyone, with a computer and internet access, feel compelled to visit a college bookstore to design and place an order with Cafe Press?

If a company, such as Shapeways, were to establish kiosks on college campuses that would be a brilliant idea because they have something that is relatively new to the consumer market, its something that is not all that well known nor understood, thus the exposure on college campuses would make logical sense.

But for a company like Cafe Press, it really seems like nothing more than a duplication of something they already provide.  Now, Western Kentucky University's bookstore, has decided to take this Cafe Press Kiosk and create their own, on campus, "Threadless" community by holding weekly tee shirt design contests.

Thus the concept of a "kiosk" or a "store within a store" is basically the first volley of Cafe Press to create a Threadless community on every college campus where it can gain entry to the college bookstore!  Campus groups competing in design contests against each other which will eventually lead to college design teams competing against other college design teams!  Obviously, Western Kentucky University was chosen because Cafe Press has offices and manufacturing facilities in Louisville, Kentucky and Western is the only university in the state that has an independent bookstore.

The reality is that its not the kiosk that will create the demand but rather the community that creates the demand; is there an existing community that wants this opportunity?  If there is its probably safe to assume that they are already part of the Threadless community and right now there is no established Threadfan community in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

I am a big fan of interactive kiosks, shops within shops, and pop up shops, and I believe that internet brands and retailers will eventually have to develop the ability to integrate on line with off line.  But, I think Cafe Press needs to to realize that a kiosk can also be nothing more than a duplication of something readily available without a more obvious strategy; and they need a strategy which reduces their products/designs, reduces their SKU's, and increases the dollar value of their average order.  

Business By Design

Change is constant and never linear;  and I can't help but get excited over all the opportunity I see today!

Watching the technology that being created and envisioning how that could benefit a consumer goods manufacturer/retailer I cannot help but see new opportunities on a regular basis.

The internet has exploded retail, opening opportunities for niches to be exploited and specialty brands to flourish.  But, change is transformative and dialectic; thus you have to think 'thesis,' 'anti thesis,' and 'synthesis.'

Yes, the internet (ecommerce and social media) has dramatically changed retail, but mobile and QR codes will be even more disruptive.

Macy's has already begun to push back by developing "incubation centers" for fashion designers.  Major department stores will begin to develop their own private label, or store brands of clothing.  Thus, to bemoan the death of the major department stores is too premature.

Even brands like Fruit of the Loom and Hanes, will eventually find themselves competing with "Value" brands that will be developed by the major discounters to increase their margins on the commodity products much like grocery stores have done.

Where as ecommerce and social media disrupted retail shopping channels smart phones and QR codes/bar codes can very easy restore the old dynamics of scale.  40% of all wireless phones are now smart phones and 20% of smart phone users acknowledge that they regularly scan codes in to seek out better prices. 

That will force retailers to develop their own exclusive brands and force manufacturers of major brands to either go exclusively B2C or work out exclusive deals with retailers, such as what HP and Dell do with their computers.

The future for small niche companies and or web based product lines is to use this same technology to their benefit; a SHOPBOX or a Pop Up Shop.  Every time I sit down and review my business plan I find more options, more opportunities, and cannot help but get excited at the sheer size of the opportunities being created on almost a daily basis!  I think every small retailer should read the books recommended in this post:  Whenever anyone claims "big trouble" that also translates into big opportunities!

Think of your consumers as "tribes" and follow them! We are so focused with connecting and having conversations with our consumers that we fail to realize that the future of retail, for brands is to now get out among your communities.  The future belongs to those brands that become part of their consumers lives.

Reinventing The Term "Retail"

This conversation is based on three facts; one, I come from a background of dealing with retailers of all sizes and independent sales reps.  Two, my perspective is of a manufacturer, and three, I am looking at the retail world from the perspective of a niche market product; big and tall.

I have worked with the biggest apparel retailers on three continents, with all the demands and stipulations, and at the same time I have had to deal with 'mom and pop' stores where the owner would get the UPS driver to leave for a few moments while they removed the product of one box of COD goods and replace them with old junk and then refuse the delivery; keeping the new merchandise and returning a box of old stuff, all unpaid for!

I did view the arrival of the internet as "Freedom!"  Freedom, from the dog eat dog world of retail where the manufacturer was what the rest of the food chain fed on.  I now realize that as a manufacturer, the internet opens up a variety of opportunities to create new points of interaction with the consumer; and in fact, it has created an opportunity for a manufacturer of a brand to equalize the retail equation.

So much of the discussion about Web 2.0 is about the concepts of community, interaction, and change the world and or disrupt current channels; and honestly, the excitement for me is the implementation of these ideas within the existing apparel retail infrastructure; there has to be a third way, a way between the traditional apparel retail model and what is fast becoming the "traditional" Web 2.0 apparel retail model.

Now, as I acknowledged initially our situation is "unique" but any econometric model, you input different data and you get different output; we can literally create our own third way with Pop Up Shops!  Then I came up the following picture and article about Puma and its sporting goods store in a shipping container; they can basically set this self contained retail/promotion venture anywhere they want and also have the flexibility to move it anywhere.

Rather than relying on the internet to develop a sense of community, you can actually take your product to where your community lives.  We could run promotions with our retailers using this concept; we could set it up in the parking lot and promote it to our on line community!  Then I found this product, which is much lighter and takes only 20 minutes to off load and set up:

You could literally have a marketing event every week of the year!  The emails that you blast out on a regular basis could be for something other than a discount or a sale and you would not only be creating a community around a brand but also a stronger sense of community among the community! 

It would be a great way to bring the concept of consumer centric to big and tall, as you could establish stations where consumers could design their own screen printed tees!  From here you could establish more traditional pop up shop opportunities including a store within a store!

Wild Tee Shirt Trends And One Great Idea!

When most of think of tee shirts we think about the 3 for $10 kind, or maybe something that reads, "My Parents went to Florida and all I got was this tee shirt." 

Well how about a tee shirt that displays lighted messages:

The fun T-sketch T-shirt lets your write any message or display any logo or picture on your chest with a cool illumination effect.  What you write or draw on the integrated chest display is automatically converted into an illuminated message or design of which you can adjust the intensity.  Imagine, you can walk around displaying your latest YouTube video!

The Music-ed T-shirts are iPod/mp3 music T-shirts that are earphone equipped to allow for easy listening of any portable multimedia player like iPods, MP3 players, multimedia mobile such as DVD players, portable radios, etc. The T-shirts, which are customized, are individually hand printed, so no two garments will be the same. The Music-ed T-shirts from Music and Sons also come with a special short earphones and an integrated connection cable and they are produced by Music and Sons.

Maybe you spend too much time on the internet and can't seem to "hook up" in real life, well, then you need a Friend Finder!  To program the Friend Finder, users enter desirable personality traits onto a portable device using a PC as the medium for that transfer. The device is then plugged into an LED-equipped Friend Finder bag or tee shirt, where it will light up as soon as someone with similar personality preferences comes within 30 feet of you. The wearable Friend Finder was created by New Media students at the University of Maine. While it was created for matchmaking purposes, I could also see a more subtle variant of their e-shirt technology applied to trade shows and business events to facilitate networking.

Are you a techie? Is your significant other into tech too? Then you need to score this clever pair of T-shirts and light up your love this Valentines.  If you are separated by a few feet, 2 1/2 hearts will light up. But when you get within hugging distance, the pixelated hearts on the 8-Bit Dynamic Life Shirt will power up to a full charge.
Feel the power of love and show the world that geeks can be lovers too.

If you truly believe we are a "wired" society then you have to get this shirt:  It detects wireless connections and lights up to let you know when you found one!

Wireless internet… where would we be without it? You don’t have to go far these days to find it, but until Wi-Fi is everywhere, this t-shirt can help out tremendously (as well as score some points with fellow nerd-friends.) This glowing, animated tee detects 802.11b or 802.11g signals and displays the strength directly on the front of the shirt.

Another muscial tee shirt with a battery pack and a speaker included!

But the real trend for tee shirts is something called a "Pop Up" Shop:

"The surprise factor of certain products or services is usually what makes the merchandise being sold that much more yearned for. In the case of pop-up shops, businesses are looking to give consumers both a surprise and a limited time to exclusively shop at a specific location, making their brand that much more sought after. This will definitely make the products they are selling more appealing to their brand-loyal customers around the world."

McDonald's in Japan sponsored one such shop and you can read about it here!  Its a great way to add another dimension to the concept of branding and it allows for the integration of an internet based brand into a variety of "brick and mortar" situations!

Visit Trendhunter for more cutting edge ideas in everything!