Ecommerce success case: the story of Fabletics

25/02/2020
  • Let's learn a handful of good things (and some not so much) with the story of Fabletics. Put on the tights and warm up, we start right now.

  • Today's eCommerce success story, Fabletics, is a very interesting case, as it can be inspiring to get a good handful of insights to apply to your business. But, to show you that we all put our foot in, we are also going to highlight a couple of aspects that are not so positive

    We do this so that it also works as a lesson when it comes to avoiding falling into the same mistakes. It is said that it is very difficult to learn a lesson by the mistakes of others. However, if we are able to do so, we will save on a few headaches thanks to Fabletics.  
  • The story of Fabletics: This is how all started

  • Behind every business there is always an idea and the detection of a need that is not resolved. In this regard, Fabletics is no exception. 

    Its founders were two entrepreneurs and an actress whose face is as popular as Kate Hudson's. The first thing they detected is that, despite there was a great offer in women's sportswear, there was not so much to choose from for an audience that was looking for quality and design in trend with a fair value for money

    In a nutshell, good, nice and cheap
  • INSIGHT: When starting a business, you should value your resources and opportunities. If you can position yourself in the market within the segment that interests you, as in the case of Fabletics, it will be easier to reach your audience. If you cannot, then you had better look for more niche products. 
  • The growth of the company

  • You cannot always find that kind of product. But, at Fabletics they took advantage of the contacts they had and came out on the market in October 2013. Their catalog included women's-only clothing. Over time, they were adding other lines that were not originally sold, such as swimsuits and footwear

    In 2015, thanks to the enormous success of their eCommerce, they decided to take the leap towards omnichannel opening their first physical stores. To this day it can be said that their incursion into retail has been very successful since, right now, they have over 20 stores in the United States. 

    Oddly enough, it was not until March 2016 when they also began selling men's clothing following a similar strategy and with identical brand positioning. Men are also interested in quality and well-designed sportswear, and growth from experience gained over 3 years was a guarantee. 
  • INSIGHT: The key to success in the growth of Fabletics lies in scaling the business without haste, adapting it to what the audience requests and balancing it with its own resources. Trying to do it all at once is not usually a good strategy
  • Fabletics strategy

  • If something characterizes this brand, in addition to its product, it is how they have been able to sell it and bring it closer to their audience. On a strategic level they are absolutely fabulous.

    Although they really started to stand out in the online store , we are going to start by reviewing something before expanding on its online strategy. 

    Fabletics is present in many events with pop-up stores that remain open during event. Although it seems complicated, I assure you that you can open a temporary store without dying trying and being a company of any size
  • INSIGHT: Taking your product to those places where your audience is together  is a strategy that favors direct and recurring purchases through the Internet or the rotation of the audience in your physical stores. In addition, it allows you to get closer to your audience and that they can appreciate your product first - hand. 
  • Influencers are in Fabletics DNA: in fact, they have one among their founders. Kate Hudson and her brother Oliver (both actors) show the public figure of the female and male lines respectively, as well as their huge contact list (Kelly Rowland, Maddie Ziegler ...). 

    Their influencer marketing strategy is worthy of recognition. Instagram, naturally, is the network that best suits them. They have managed to create a good community, in which there is a good balance between users who use their hashtags to share their own photos with influencers and micro influencers.  
  • INSIGHT: It is very important to interact with the community as Fabletics does. This generates engagement naturally. The transparency used when labelling advertising updates, such as #ADS, is also remarkable. 
  • The brand has a loyalty program, which is one of those aspects we mentioned at the beginning that are not as positive as possible or, at least, are controversial

    They have called VIP users, those registered get up to 50% discount on certain products purchased a month long. 

    In order to access these special conditions, users must pay a monthly fee of € 49.99. Despite being expensive, the truth is that it can be profitable if purchases are made on a recurring basis. 

    What is the problem? Well, apparently unsubscribing is not so simple and is automatically renewed month by month if there is no request for express desist. 
  • INSIGHT: As a loyalty strategy let's say it is quite aggressive. It is probably profitable in the short and medium term, but it is likely to cause complaints and online reputation problems in the future. In fact, the popular portal Buzzfeed repeated it on numerous occasions. So, think about this kind of policies very well so as not to make similar mistakes. 
  • eCommerce

  • Fabletics online store is not particularly groundbreaking regarding design. It is actually quite conventional. The important thing is found in the concept than in the execution. Let's see what we mean. 

    The first thing that stands out is that, when you see a product, a window is displayed in which we are asked about the type of exercise we perform. This is aimed to recommend the best based on our needs, preferred colors, various sizes, desired level of support, how we found them, date of birth … 
  • Just before asking us to enter our personal data and, therefore, get at least, one fairly qualified lead, they use a bait with a touch of gamification with a roulette that holds a "prize". 
  • INSIGHT: Again, we see pros and cons in an aggressive approach. Surely, as we say, you get very qualified contacts so that you can impact a posteriori, and personalization will be interesting to offer complete looks (cross selling). The problem is that many users may not be interested in leaving so much information without even seeing the product.
  • In order to conclude with something 100% positive, we should highlight the size system in which they are working or, to be more precise, the way they represent it

    Yes, Hollywood influencers and actresses are their image, but also ordinary women and men with different heights and complexions. That is why they have created a button that allows us to see photographs of how the same garment looks on models of different sizes. You can give it a try here.” 
  • INSIGHT: Being inclusive is a good policy and is not against the fact of using aspiration as a resource and sales pitch
  • What do you think about the success case of Fabletics? Do you see more positive or negative things? What would you keep for your online store? Let us know!

  • Images Fabletics and Unsplash.

Miguel Nicolás


Miguel Nicolás O'Shea is a life-long copywriter (more than 15 years working in agencies) and a specialist in Search Marketing (SEO and PPC). From now on, he will contribute with his online marketing experience to Oleoshop, publishing regularly.

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