Quirky | Free-For-All | Cha-Ching! (How We're Growing Revenue)
Cha-Ching! (How We're Growing Revenue)
Hello Community!
Now that we've completed the move to our new office, launched the new site, doubled the size of our team, made several process improvements, and raised six million dollars, we're now turning our focus to two specific areas. First, continuing to improve how we identify, select and develop the best possible products, and second, selling the products so we can reward you guys as much as possible (cha-ching)!
Today I wanted to give you an update on what we're doing on the sales front:
• Engaged a Big Box Rep Firm. We've hired the top rep firm - Compass Marketing in Minneapolis - to help us develop relationships and sell the quirky products into big box retailers and other key strategic accounts. The accounts are Best Buy, Brookstone, Costco, HSN, QVC, Sam’s Club, ShopNBC, Target, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. Developing these relationships takes time and our hope is to begin with their online stores this year and grow into the physical stores in 2011. If we get lucky, we may get into one or two of these in 2010. Our kick-off meeting with Compass is this Friday in Minneapolis.
• Evaluating Other Rep Firms. We're identifying and evaluating other rep firms that may have specific expertise in certain regions (cities, states, or regions) or categories (design shops, hardware stores, college book stores, etc). If you have any ideas, let us know.
• Hire #1: We’ve hired Matt Beckemyer to lead our efforts of selling products directly on quirky.com. Matt is responsible for making the site easier for shoppers and he’ll also be developing SEM, SEO and other marketing initiatives to drive buyers to our site. Matt has a lot of experience in online commerce and in less than two weeks is already driving significant changes at quirky. He’s a terrible coffee maker but is rumored to be a former beer pong gold medalist. We’re excited to welcome him to the quirky team and you’ll be hearing from him soon. If you have any ideas for him, please let us know.
• Hire #2: We’ve hired Joanna Roth to help develop relationships with US retailers not covered by Compass or another rep firm. There are approximately 300 of these retailers across the US. Joanna spent a few years in sales in a large bank and at Lulu Lemon. She was also a bad-ass varsity tennis player at Princeton. Joanna begins next week. We’re excited to welcome her to the team and get her out evangelizing quirky to retailers nationwide.
• Hire #3: We’re currently interviewing for someone to develop and manage international distribution. Our goal is to be selling products into more than a dozen countries by the end of this year. This includes identifying and evaluating distributors, negotiating the terms of the relationships, educating on new products each week and working with operations, finance, design, and marketing to optimize sales. We expect to have this person started no later than June 1st.
• Exploring how you guys can help. If any of you guys are interested we’re exploring ways the community can help us sell products. This could be direct to consumers (think some cool new version of Avon) and/or wholesale (talking to retailers). We haven’t figured out a great way to do this yet but are actively thinking about it. Let us know any good ideas.
There’s a lot we’ve already done and a lot more we’ll be doing to promote the quirky products and increase sales and rewards to the Community. There’s no silver bullet here. It’s a lot of hard work, evangelizing, educating, follow-up and baby steps each day. We'll continue to get stronger and stronger and over time we’ll build a killer distribution network. As always, let us any ideas you have on how we can do this better, faster or cheaper!
Mitch
email: mitch@quirky.com
twitter: @mitchlowe
Apr 15, 2010 11:33AM
Judi Sigler Apr 15, 2010 11:46AM
Fantastic news! Thank you Mitch for this information.
I have actually been thinking about that new twist to the Avon model, I think furthering the social aspect of Quirky into real life interactions could be pretty cool. So something like a Quirky party where you can not only show the merchandise, but even better, brainstorm an idea together and submit it, perhaps, as a small team.
I am sure there will be no shortage of suggestions!
Austin Kerr-Valentic Apr 15, 2010 12:28PM
@mitch.. Thanks for the update! I would love to be able to approach retailers with quirky products! There are a lot of smaller shops that carry things very similar to quirky that I would love to approach about retailing quirky goods, but I have no idea how that would take place. I'm glad you guys are working on it!
DCFW Apr 15, 2010 12:51PM
Mitch, I've put an idea suggestion on support.quirky to get an API built so developers can create ways to work the referral codes into custom feeds, banners, etc. I think with the right tools from Quirky, people can get pretty creative with promotional tools to put on their websites and blogs.
Also, any thought of getting products once in full production into online sites that get searched a lot, like Amazon, Buy.com, etc?
Thoughts?
Toby Johns Apr 15, 2010 01:12PM
"people can get pretty creative with promotional tools to put on their websites and blogs.
Too late.
DCFW Apr 15, 2010 01:27PM
Too late for what?
If there is a collection of images that are availible (or if we are legally OK to link to Quirky site images), that isn't readily apparent anywhere, at least to me.
And I'm not aware of any general purpose banners, or tools to make something such as a banner or ad space that would show the 3 latest IPod related Quirky Products, or 3 random Household products, etc.
Again, I understand the whole "social buzz" aspect, I am talking about ways to integrate Quirky into more "traditional" website ad spaces.
Popeye Apr 15, 2010 01:32PM
How about a virtual quirky sales connection. For example: Say i went to some sites and said to the owners: I would like to place my quirky icon on your site so people who visit your site can press the quirky icon to visit the quirky store and to some shopping. The check out the stuff and purchase 5 wrapsters. (Here's the good part) I get a commission for setting up the quirky virtual store account and for every purchase from that virtual site. There would be a great potential for driving people to the site. This would probably make everyone filthier rich and we could invest in more beach front huts.
DCFW Apr 15, 2010 01:46PM
Michael... not a bad idea, other than, most website operators I think would be able to figure out that they could just sign up, get their own code, and make 100% of the referrals. But, there are some lazy and unknowing website owners out there. Unless you are saying you'd get another cut separate of the usual 10% that the site would get for referring the sales lead, because you referred the site to quirky. I guess that is possibly, but, we certainly don't want it to get to a point where quirky isn't making any profits either.
Samuel Rosen Apr 15, 2010 02:13PM
Have you considered using OpenSky, which leverages the powerbloggers who often recommend services? Already has an established network / referral fees in place.
http://www.theopenskyproject.com/
gabriel krieg Apr 15, 2010 02:50PM
A referral code on purchases seems like the best way for community members to contribute to this effort. Harnessing community power is what quirky is about, and I am excited to see how we can be incorporated into the process. Perhaps there could be a system where we could approach local businesses or online retailers and if we set up a sale, then we earn a commission.
Joe Colburn Apr 15, 2010 03:50PM
This is great news. I'm most excited about the prospect of products being picked up by some big name retailers. That's the step that could turn our influence earnings into much larger numbers for everyone. I can't wait to see what happens.
@susyn : I'm working on a Quirky products WordPress plugin.
Toby Johns Apr 15, 2010 05:05PM
Check out my thread about "Quirky Forum Banners" if you want a button people click on to go to your referral page. All you need to do is replace the URL that leads to the Quirky shop with your referral URL.
