What is ModCloth? ModCloth Review, Features

ModCloth is an American online sales website and an online clothing, accessories, and decorations retailer. It sells retro-style clothing for young women through a beautiful website, focusing on independent designs and high-end products. ModCloth allows independent designers to publish their own designs on its website, and users can vote and comment on these works. Designs that receive more attention from users can enter mass production for users to purchase, thus being sought after by many female users who like retro-style clothing and some independent designers.

About ModCloth

The founders of the website, Eric Koger and Susan Gregg Koger, are a couple who met in high school and were admitted to Carnegie Mellon University together. In 2002, they founded a website to sell clothing. Susan Gregg Koger said: "During college, the customer service phone number was my mobile phone number. I often ran out to answer the phone while studying in the library." The company has been profitable since 2009, with revenue of more than 15 million US dollars that year.

ModCloth attracts women with romantic fantasies by selling vintage dresses, accessories and even home products from designer brands. As of 2017, it has raised a total of US$78 million from investors including Norwest Venture Partners, Floodgate, First Round and Accel Partners.

In 2012, ModCloth's website sales exceeded $100 million for the first time. However, in 2014, ModCloth's performance growth came to an abrupt halt due to its relatively niche style and route. The founders stepped down and were replaced by Matt Kaness, a former executive and retail veteran from Urban Outfitters Inc. Matt Kaness allowed Modcloth to launch its own clothing brand and provide a full range of sizes, including a rich selection of plus-size products, pushing the website into the mainstream. In 2015, the e-commerce sales reached $150 million, and at the end of 2016, it opened its first physical store in Austin, Texas.

After two rounds of layoffs in 2014, Modcloth currently employs about 350 people and is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.

Crowdsourcing Program

•Style Gallery: Consumers can send their buyer shows to ModCloth’s blog to serve as a reference for other consumers.

•Fit For Me: Fit For Me is a feature in the ModCloth app that provides consumers with product recommendations that fit their body type based on user size and other buyers’ reviews of each product.

•Be The Buyer: Launched in 2009, this program allows users to vote on the ModCloth website for clothing designs they like and want to buy.

•Make the Cut: A clothing competition held in 2012 where users submitted their own clothing design sketches and the winner was chosen by votes from other users.

About Walmart’s Acquisition of ModCloth

1. Situation introduction: Walmart announced the acquisition of ModCloth in 2017. As part of the transaction, ModCloth will continue to operate independently, and the platform's CEO Matthew Kaness and more than 300 employees will all join the Walmart team.

2. Reasons why ModCloth attracted Walmart to acquire it:

(1) Sensing the explosion of market demand for plus-size women's clothing: First, after clicking on a piece of clothing on ModCloth's official website, we can see that there are 10 sizes of clothing, including XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, 1X, 2X, 3X, and 4X. These plus-size clothing and other clothing are in the same product list, not in the "plus-size area". The commonly used sizes are usually XS, S, M, L, XL, and 2XL. Therefore, plus-size women's clothing is also what makes ModCloth different from most clothing retailers. In 2013, ModCloth doubled its plus-size women's clothing business and increased the number of suppliers in this category from 35 to 160. By 2014, its plus-size styles reached 1,200. In 2016, ModCloth also launched a plus-size swimsuit series. There are also public data showing that the plus-size clothing market grows by 17% each year, while the growth of normal-size clothing is only 7%.

(2) It has chosen a marketing path that caters to the "natural beauty" of contemporary women: In addition to being active in the plus-size women's clothing market, ModCloth is also serious about women's "real beauty." Also in 2014, ModCloth became the first retailer to sign the "Advertiser Hero Declaration," promising not to change the model's "body shape, fatness, proportions, skin color, and/or delete or enhance physical features" in the post-production of the advertisement. So we can see all kinds of model pictures on their website.

(3) Knowing how to win the hearts of fashion designers: Another major feature of the website is that it allows independent designers to publish their own designs. Users can vote, evaluate, and purchase the works. Designs that receive more attention from users can enter the mass production stage. Therefore, the website is also sought after by many designers who want to seek exposure.

(4) Use the "e-commerce + social" model to strengthen user stickiness: ModCloth's official website also has a community and blog section. The company's co-founder and chief creative officer once said: "Our community has become the reputation of the ModCloth brand. People like to see something different, and when they see photos of people with similar body shapes wearing large-size clothing, they will easily resonate." The content of ModCloth's blog mainly includes fashion, beauty, lifestyle, weddings, etc., most of which are tutorials on dressing, beauty, hairdressing, etc.

(5) Using pop-up stores as a trendy way to create momentum: In recent years, many fashion brands have opened pop-up stores, including H&M, Marc Jacobs, etc. Even recently, League of Legends opened a pop-up store for gaming culture. So ModCloth also started using the popular pop-up store and said it would open a new store in a city in the United States every month. It is reported that in addition to the e-commerce platform, ModCloth currently has a permanent physical store in Austin and two pop-up stores in Los Angeles and San Francisco.