TFR | Strategy Consulting Everlane goes Offline

Everlane goes Offline

Everlane Radical Transparency Pure Fashion Retailer

Everlane is a brand built upon an awareness of a new kind of consumer. The kind of person who cares where her coffee and chickens come from, and also her clothes. -TheFader

Everlane was founded in 2010 in San Francisco, California, USA, as a pure player with the aim of selling its own designed, affordable luxury apparel at a cheaper price by going direct to consumers. According to Owler, Everlane has $15 Million in revenues and 70 employees and top competitors are Cuyana, Herschel Supply and Reformation. After having experienced fashion retail thru showrooming and pop-up stores, Everlane will open soon their first flagship store at 461 Valencia Street (San Francisco, CA).

“For every 100% Human Pride product sold, we are proud to donate to the Human Rights Campaign” – Everlane

In a previous article about the Fashion Retail Long Tail, I introduced Everlane as one of the long tailers that is disrupting the fashion industry covering a special niche in the market. Online is giving the power for those little start ups to face retail challenge and compete to Dinosaurs such as Walmart or Macy´s. Long tailers are leading the Omnichannel challenge due to its agility and flexibility.

Everlane key success factors are:

RADICAL TRANSPARENCY
- Know your factories. Know your costs. Everlane suppliers are located in some of the “hotspots” of quality manufacturing like Ubrique in Spain, a village that produces some of the best leather goods worldwide. Other suppliers are located in Florence, Brescia, Vicenza or Hawick. Some of their suppliers are producing for top luxury leading brands. Everlane also produces in China and Vietnam, and also in Lima (Peru). It´s surprising to see in their website so many pictures of the “day in the life of” their suppliers. Special pictures made with an artistic touch showing how craftsmen manufacture their products.

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Source: Everlane website – Factories

Affordable Luxury/ Minimalist Basics
- Luxury brands mark up x 8-10 times. Everlane x2 times
- From Factories to Customers (#FactoryFridays, a new series to highlight the people that make Everlane´s products)

Challenge itself
- Always Ask Why. Continuous dissection on every single decision at every level of the company (it seems they are using a kind of fishbone diagram, Ishikawa 5-why analysis or a similar process)

Sustainability
- Buy Less, Buy Better. A well-made item will remain in our closet for a long time if the quality is good. See Everlane at ProjectJust

Authentic Culture
- Everlane organizes events and collaborations with a special touch, always close to art and design (i.e. art opening for the photographer Carmen Chan in the East Village; collaboration with Opening Ceremony; Opportunity to meet artists during Transparent City Series)

Pure Player
- No Middlemen, no Brick-and-Mortar costs (less inventory, less discounts, no need of shop assistants, no real estate leasing)
- Online-only + Excellent Marketing Strategy (e.g. Member-get-member)
- App, where users can find exclusive and unique items + Snapchat
- Accurate product design powered by their social media

Everlane is finally going offline

The digital fashion e-tailer is finally going offline in 2017, like other pure players such as Bonobos, Amazon or Warby Parker (eyeglasses) did. Some started experiencing offline thru pop-up stores and thanks to data mining, they are capable to forecast the best location to open a brick-and-mortar store. They just need to analyze where are their orders coming from, or have a look at the social listening or buzz. Bonobos opened its store as a guideshop with little-stock, a showroom.

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Everlane HQ in San Francisco

Everlane´s current approach to retail was based on showrooming and a “retail experiment” according to their site. The first on New York, the second in San Francisco. Everlane flagship store will be located in San Francisco´s trendy Mission District, close to their heaquarters.

Why going brick-and-mortar?

Because human senses can interact with the product in a different way. Sight, touch, sound and smell are the main senses impacted by fashion retail, and we should add the social aspect of shopping. Online pure-players can create a brand, develop a loyal customer data base, but in the end, customers need to have the retail approach. The color and touch of the product, but also the size and fit of clothing is essential, and even more nowadays, when slim fit is the trend. This prooves that online and offline don´t compete to each other. They need each other and the successful omnichannel customer journey will be the one that melt, integrate different contact points across the journey in a homogenous customer experience. Some experts call it phygital.