Betabrand is a retail company situated in San-Francisco. It designs and manufactures clothes for men and women. This company is also known as an online crowdfunding platform that uses the collective intelligence system to meet its specific business goals. The purpose of the following paper is to produce a report based on the activity of this company.
The website of the company creates a positive impression. The company slogan and activity list presented on the home page assures the visitor that one is able to participate in the creative process to get the desired item of clothes. The site is easy to load due to the absence of excessive elements such as sound that might mislead or confuse a buyer who visits it for the first time. The color scheme of the site is blue and involves creative approaches to the design of webpages, such as motion and changing of photos. Some principles of art design are used to create photo collages.
The website contains such basic information as the address of the company retail store and office, as well as email addresses and phone numbers. There are no press releases or corporate reports available on the website at present. Company history is presented as a number of successful products referred to as web hits designed and manufactured by Betabrand.
Promotional offers, coupons, and customer surveys seem to be a part of the collective intelligence strategy utilized by the company. The store has a developed system of discounts presented at each clothes category and visible under the photo of a product. It is also possible to view all discounts available by selecting Mega Deals from the menu at the top of the website. The customer can also get a discount after designing and voting for the models one likes.
There are also group discounts when one purchases more than ten items of one product and student discounts available when one gives proof of being a U.S. student. The last two discounts are hidden at the bottom of the page, which makes it difficult to notice them. The customer is able to give feedback in comments and reviews of the products. It is also possible to fund newly-designed products to support their manufacturing.
The company provides such special services as a free shipment of the order amounted to more than seventy-five dollars and a fifteen-dollar bonus if a customer’s friend registers and makes a purchase. Moreover, one’s friend gets a fifteen-dollar discount for one’s first purchase of more than seventy-five dollars. There are also promo codes available online to get gift certificates for this online store. The website also contains helpful hints on how to participate in crowdfunding and upload one’s design ideas. The company currently conducts a contest to select a model for a bag from the company’s customers.
It might be rather enjoyable to observe various designs and models to vote for those one likes, especially for a person who is interested in fashion and design. The fact that the customer can influence the outcome for a specific model and get a discount as a bonus makes the process full of sense. One might also find it playful to design one’s own idea and upload it to the site. It could be interesting for young designers and individuals who wish to try their talents in developing unique clothes.
All the products are presented with a number of high-quality model photos and detailed information. The description includes sizes, color, fit, care, product details, and story, as well as information about the designer. There are also reviews and comments from other customers available for each product, which is very helpful for newcomers. The products are easy to navigate, sort, and search by categories and collections. Therefore, it is possible to say that products are presented in an effective way.
Online transactions at this online store are convenient and easy to make. The products appear in the shopping cart located at the right corner at the top of the site. It is easy to close the cart and continue shopping after selecting a product. A customer can easily check and update one’s cart in a pop-up sidebar any time to delete some items or see the total sum. This store suggests additional products one may like when a customer adds a selected product to the cart. Usually, these suggestions include three products related to the chosen one. It might be helpful to check whether there are better suggestions at the site.
The payment options are limited to credit cards, Affirm, and PayPal services. The website utilizes Security Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for financial transactions and to protect the privacy of its customers. The access to personal information provided by the customers is restricted. The company uses an electronic firewall and specific software to avoid hacker intrusions and the spread of computer viruses.
The company offers such customer services as email, phone, operator messages, and FAQ section. The email and phone information is located at the bottom of the site in the Contacts section. One can also write a message to the operator in the window, which appears after clicking the Help button in the right lower corner. The FAQ is also located below, together with other links related to customer service. These services might be very helpful when one makes purchases at this site. The online store also provides career opportunities listed in the section called Jobs at Betabrand.
The company utilizes such social media devices as Facebook and Twitter to reach its potential customers. It is also registered at yelp.com, where one can find detailed reviews from its clients about the quality of products and services. The company has a page in Wikipedia and is mentioned in a number of press releases in online sources. The products of the company are also present at amazon.com.
The collective intelligence genome of Betabrand is presented at the Think Tank or Design Ideas section. This approach allows any fashion fan or designer to load new designs of clothes to the site. The volunteers are encouraged by a ten percent discount for a year in case their idea becomes a Betabrand product. This process includes such stages as voting for a design idea by customers and crowdfunding project after gaining enough votes. Crowdfunding means that a sample of a new product is manufactured and presented by the company creative team. If people are interested and the established number of preorders (funds) is reached within a limited period, the company starts to manufacture this product for sale. Therefore, the customers participate in the process of designing clothes and selecting ideas for manufacturing to get the product they like and need. The site has many ideas of clothes convenient for certain types of activity such as sport, traveling or work.
Table 1. Genome of CI strategy in Betabrand.
The value proposition of Betabrand.com includes personalization of product offerings with the help of the system of voting and ability to create new products convenient for the customers. It also offers a system of discounts to encourage the customers to participate in voting and creative process. Therefore, this site gives the buyers the opportunity to satisfy their creative ambitions and get the clothes they desire.
The company uses sales revenue model to achieve profit. It sales clothes for men and women through the website. It also tends to reduce costs on designing new clothes by using collective intelligence system.
At present, there are few competitors in the market applying the same technique of designing new clothes. Still, Threadless and other companies who use customer’s design ideas might be regarded as its primary competitors. Competitive advantages of Betatrand include few competitors and perfect market conditions.
The company uses e-tailer business model to reach individual purchasers. Betabrand is considered to be a bricks-and-clicks e-tailer. The company has a physical store located in San-Francisco and uses its website as an online distribution channel.
Betabrand has such advantages as an advanced system of discounts used to encourage the customers and the opportunity to manufacture new products after checking their potential success among its customers. Its disadvantages might be limited to unprofessional approach to designing clothes as the ideas are often created by amateurs who might not take into account some important design rules. It might lead to poor quality of manufactured clothes. It might be beneficial for the company to improve their strategy of selecting design ideas and pay more attention to the quality of the manufactured clothes.