Proozy sustainability

Proozy SWOT NotesStrengths

Opportunities

Weaknesses

Threats

Two sites, two brands; daily deals and full-price high end (Yeti, Hydroplast) (need two sites to get merch from brands.

Affiliate marketing-cost-effective--influencers get commission for driving sales.

18-19 years of building network with buyers for brands and stores (Nordstrom/TJ Maxx)

Making good use of micro-influencers (1,000 - 2,000 followers), local, trusted

Local events program (Hospital, Runs, Tent sale) helping with local awareness.

Gym makes employees happy; partnership with Crossfit; convinced Patagonia, Aloe, Yeti

Respect partners’ desires with unique discount system--use codes and coupons rather than cutting the price on the website too deeply. Don’t put brands on Amazon.

Move products for partners; allow brands to experiment with new products/test market

Sustainable in this way: sell goods that might otherwise be trashed or burned (H&M)

Alternate channels (warehouse sales too) allow the company to move stock

Low acquisition cost per customer (make $8)

Clear target customer (female 35-54-67%) and data on what she wants (leggings, hoodies, t-shirts, shoes) always can have/use more (continuity items) wear for sports/home

Strong sales of fashion items in test expansion--Kenneth Cole, Calvin Klein, Hilfiger, Birken- stock.

Customer loyalty program

Managing quality within this system--hard to know why stores have a surplus or cancel orders (didn’t pass QA)

Sourcing can fall behind; house all of own inventory; need to find fresh relevant new prod- ucts--difficult to do/ Getting the amount of stock needed for deals

Inventory turnover ratio--from 4-5 times a year to 3 times

Not enough personalization of targeted ads to new customers

Not much brand awareness locally

Could be better at keeping customers after the first purchase. Most of business comes from top 20-25% percent of customers; also, once customers have been onthe list for over a year, they become regular, loyal buyers

Confusion about difference between ‘deals’ page and ‘clearance’ page

Can’t figure out how to get Lululemon on board.

Home state (MN) worst state for brand recognition; mose customers are in the big city; need to take advantage of closer locations (Midwest)

Need to get deeper data earlier on (give gift cards/promotions; use tracking and cart items)

Money is not unlimited; need to be careful about costs

Group of “mommy buyers” buying mostly for gifts and family now-what do they want for themselves? Deal hunter moms buy a lot at once (meme with tons of boxes)

Mobile shopping increasing--developing an app as well, but would have to appeal to younger buyers to take full advantage

Customers want customized, curated content (which Proozy provides some of and would provide extensively on the app)

West Coast labor is cheap and plentiful; shipping less costly to many buyers in this region (plan is to become better known in Minnesota, expand to Midwest; also to put a warehouse in the West Coast; a location on the East Coast.

Sustainable customer might buy Proozy product if can show where it was made, by whom, sup- ply chain. (Do they want to do this for every product? Not sure.) Would combine with some type of cause marketing (like buy one, give one).

Local businesses may want to partner for deals; smaller businesses could be ready to be ac- quired; large department stores with no online experience often want to acquire or partner with businesses like Proozy

A lot of struggling retail stores offloading goods

Market for luxury goods expanding (Proozy Luxe-Prada/Dior/Chanel)

Market for Yoga wear expanding

Besides fashion; expansion in markets: home goods, small electronics; small appliances

Fighting against much bigger companies (Macy’s, Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, Target)

West Coast real estate extremely expensive

Need to get repeat deals from brands to keep customers (Columbia)

Many customers depart after the first purchase

Can’t find a good digital marketing firm; have no Instagram person; paid ads are a “long-term expensive game and are not timely enough for flash sales.

Customers never willing to pay for shipping; have to take that into account when pricing/mar- keting

Competitors are expanding to Canada and South America; so they will have to.

Most brand ambassadors/influencers are too expensive for ROI

One bad comment on social media can ruin reputation

App costs $200,000-300,000--have to have the right timing and plan for this investment

Labor in MN extremely expensive (#1 labor market)

Not Interested In:

Opening new bricks and mortar stores-Had stores in San Francisco; Minnesota; Chicago; Michigan (Novi); collected huge email list through stores; moved online.

Heavily investing in social media--not too active; ROI is not good enough--finding right partners is more important.

Return policy that is too lenient: want to prevent ‘buyer’s remorse’ for overshoppers and people who buy (and get free shipping for) lots of expen- sive items and return a lot.

Selling a lot of hard goods: margin is lower.

Drop shipping: labor intensive and complicated; can’t guarantee timeliness or control the customer experience; poor profit margin.

Wants:

Sick of marketing to everyone else’s customer

Have relationships with UA, Nike, Nitroplast, Ray Ban--all with different needs; Reebok will test products through this company--want to do more of that to have exclusive products to offer.

Marketing director loves the services/offers of the Chipotle app--how do they do this with non-food?

Characteristics of new app: exclusive deals; new drops; limited quantity; profile prefs tailored to each user; products, but alos other content tai- lored to each user. Can provide input about what they want to see.

Offering a better quality customer experience; more curated emails.

Acquiring small companies; partnering with large retailer needing more online selling experience.

Coupon site partners--always looking at where competitors are going; looking at how they are partnering with others--make a case for Proozy deals matching audience and site.

Sustainable apparel; connection to a cause--not sure which

Other Information:

300,000 customers; 1.83 purschases a year; avg. $51 dollars; free shipping over $50

Customer loyalty program has five levels of “Proozers” and different rewards for each type (exclusive products at the top)

Deals--offer something new every day; goes for 7 days, but 80% of items are sold during the first day, with weird colors and small sizes left over.

More fun than TJ Maxx (What??)

Partnering with shipping company for 2-day air (UPS/Fed Ex) $75 or more

Proozyfit is for hard-to-find full-price items.

Secondary type of customer: male 35-54 (33%); hardly any younger customers

For Pricing: Alex Case experiments interpreting data results from color/shipping strategy/name of code

Private label would be a small part of the business $1 million of $56 million