Know Your Audience: Why Fab Flails And Zulily Thrives

Ecommerce can be a tricky territory for retail startups to navigate. A few years back, mobile retailer Fab was one of the hottest startup on the scene, yet the company started to flail in 2013 after blowing through $200 million in two years without finding a sustainable business model. Flash forward to now, PCH Innovations is set to close its acquisition of the what’s left of Fab for a meager $15 million. Meanwhile, fellow digital retailer Zulily has been steadily growing and just posed an impressive $1 billion in 2014 annual revenue.

The difference between the fate of the two retailers comes down to “know your audience.” Over the years, Zulily has greatly benefited from its unwavering focus on young moms and a nuanced understanding of its targeted audience through purchase data analysis. The company stayed true to its core value offering daily updated collections of well-curated products that caters to its niche costumers. In contrast, Fab simply cast too wide of a net with its aggressive, uncalibrated expansions, including some costly over-scaled marketing campaigns and a hasty venture into the European market. At the end of the day, a deep understanding of your audience is what leads to targeted offers of true values, something all brands need in order to thrive in today’s market.

Do you know your audience?