Most ecommerce business owners want consumers to like their products. But according to Bayard Winthrop, founder and CEO of American Giant, that shouldn’t be your goal. Consumer attitudes are changing. They no longer just want cheap and easy products. They want quality. They want an experience. They want to buy products they truly love.
So the question remains — how do you get your customers to fall in love with your products instead of just liking them? That’s a question Wintrop explores in a book he recently co-wrote with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Randy Komisar called, “I F**king Love That Company.”
In an interview with Fox Business, Winthrop spoke about the book and about the changing landscape of the ecommerce industry. He said that for too long, businesses have focused on scaling their business at the expense of building a quality product or service. Companies spent their resources expanding to new location and building their marketing campaigns instead of improving their products or services. And for many years, that helped big businesses grow.
But about 10 to 15 years ago, consumer focus shifted. And with it, technology offered businesses the ability to improve their product instead of spending their money on new locations and traditional marketing tactics.
When companies are able to re-allocate those resources into improving the customer experience, they create more loyal customers. Those customers who love the experience they have with an ecommerce company are more likely to tell others about it. And that gives the companies they love an opportunity to grow even more while using even fewer resources.
According to Winthrop, that’s why companies like Warby Parker, Airbnb, Nasty Gal and his own American Giant have become so successful. He told Fox Business:
“There’s a whole list of people who are looking at ways to get better in services and products in the marketplace and doing it in new and fresh ways. They’re being very disruptive to the traditional retailers.“
Image: Giant
Aira Bongco
I agree. Marketing is somewhat like promoting yourself for dating. You don’t only want to catch the attention of people. You also want them to promote and stand by your products no matter what.
Annie Pilon
That’s a really great comparison!