Inside
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4 Reasons to Personalize Your Brand How Employee Well-Being Can Supercharge Your Workforce Christmas Spirit Builds a Company Culture Are You Connecting With Your Audience? A Pickle Company’s Spin on Their Campaign How Italic Competes With Retail’s Biggest Brands
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Luxury Without Labels
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How Italic Is Changing the Retail Game
realized the internet completely revolutionized how many industries operated. Airbnb made it so anyone could provide lodging to others for a price, which changed the lodging and hospitality industry. Ride-share platforms made it possible for people to easily order rides wherever they were located, which changed the transportation industry. Cai saw no reason the retail industry couldn’t be changed in a similar manner. He decided a direct-to-consumer approach was the best direction, but he wanted to be sure there were no unnecessary markups involved. Cai then began working on ways to get in front of high-quality manufacturers to convince them to work with Italic. To get them to buy in, he never treated them as vendors but as merchants within their marketplace. The manufacturers take an inventory risk but gain access to Italic’s fulfillment network and software orchestration. The real seller was that the manufacturers would improve their margins by 200%-300% by selling directly to consumers. It was a win-win for everyone involved. Italic began in 2018 and now has a post-money valuation of over $100 million. So how has Italic been able to grow so much in such a short period of time? In addition to providing quality goods at an affordable price, Cai also credits focusing on their established customer base as a reason for Italic’s growth. They know they can’t please everyone, so they focus their marketing efforts on 30- 40-year-old women with relatively high incomes living in a big city or suburb. Italic wants to provide their customer with beautiful, elegant items that aren’t cheap in the retail market but appear so when compared to similar brands. Italic offers women’s apparel, women’s accessories, small leather goods, men’s clothing and accessories, home goods, linens, towels, pots, pans, beauty and skin care products, and more. The company isn’t planning on expanding further. Over the next few years, Italic intends to make products more affordable and of an even higher quality. Unlike its competitors, Italic is not focused on branding its products. That’s why it uses the slogan “luxury without labels.” To check out this company for yourself, head over to Italic.com.
Have you ever noticed how expensive certain brands can be? You may have gone to your local clothing store in an attempt to buy a new shirt. You see that they have various brands to choose from, and there are only minuscule differences between each, but the shirt you prefer comes from a luxury brand that decides to charge double what everyone else does. It can be a frustrating ordeal. Jeremy Cai, the founder of Italic, recognized this and realized he could provide consumers with luxury clothing without luxury prices. He accomplishes this by cutting out the middlemen and working directly with the same manufacturers that luxury brands use. Cai came from a family of manufacturers. Growing up, he heard his mother and other family members discuss the supply chain over dinner. They wondered how they could expand their business. Companies bought their products at a reasonable rate, then resold them for 5-10 times more than that. This was a conversation Cai would reflect on when he first started Italic. Eventually, Cai started a tech business that provided him with enough money to focus on a passion project. Thus, he created Italic at only 23 years old. Cai
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