You cannot buy shirts from Dallas clothier j. Hilburn store sales at retail or online. Nevertheless, the company expects to sell for 60,000 of them this year by sending vendors home clients or offices to take action and to suggest fabrics and styles. They send their orders to a factory of Macau, China, where the shirts are cut and stitched Italian fabric. Buyers receive two to three weeks and pay between $80,000 and $150,000 less than half the price of similar shirts sold at some top stores range.
The company was born from the imagination of a couple of types of former financing engaged to serve men perceive purchases like a chore. "No one is really thought about how engaging male shoppers", explains Rathod Veeral 31, one of the founders. Rathod and co-founder Hil Davis (the company took his nickname of its full name, j. Hilburn Davis IV) borrowed direct products launched by Dell (DELL), personalization and Amazon.com (AMZN) ease of shopping techniques (AVP), Toyota Motor (tm), supply chain management Avon sales model.
Some 30,000 people have purchased clothing or accessories Hilburn, the company said. And 93% of customers back for a second purchase, said Davis. That Hilburn was founded in 2007, sales have tripled annually and are on track top of page 9 million by 2010, with the growing demand for its shirts as well as new products such as trousers, headline and Kashmir sweaters. "Customers are basically saying ' you become my solution, now offers me more products,'" said Davis, 38.
Jim Pitkow began to buy Hilburn 10 months ago the convenience and price. Pitkow, CEO of a startup software San Mateo (California) called Attributor, used to visit tailors travel in London or send its measures to shirtmakers, which sometimes resulted in a poor fit. Until it has started to buy Hilburn, "no one came to measure or adjust me correctly", he said. Shirts cost about half of what he was used to pay.
While new customers may find representatives of sales by site Web du Hilburn, most come from referrals. The company has 650 "style consultants" who earn commissions of up to 25 percent on the clothing they sell after paying $399 fabric samples, sale of equipment and training. Most is women with children of school age looking for extra income, said Davis. As in other direct selling companies, they get a cut of sales made by the representatives that they recruit. However, each rep, Hilburn can register only five others directly, who said Davis creates a powerful incentive to find the best vendors instead of simply recruitment more possible.
Amy Mancini started selling Hilburn shirts in 2008. Mother of three West Boylston, mass., the former nurse said that she earns about $60,000 per year, spending between 20 and 25 hours per week of other representatives management and visiting clients. "I have clients of students to Presidents and CAOs", she says. Sales calls are crucial for obtaining law measures and make clients feel comfortable buying a garment may not try. Measurements of the customer are stored in a database and business plans to launch next year, where customers can order shirts again once they have been equipped with online store.
Model removes some traditional initial cost of sales at retail. "You have a sales force you do not pay until they sell things." "You're not paying make the shirt that shirt is sold," says Brian O'Malley, a member of the Board of Hilburn and a partner at Battery Ventures. Menlo Park venture capital Corporation (California) has invested $ 7.25 million in the company. Hilburn reply custom sewing on a mass scale says Milton j. Pedraza, Director General of the Institute of luxury, a consultant for the high-end brands. "They try to scale a model that works already," he said. Prices also give Hilburn advantage: Pedraza says it pays more than $300 for similar shirts.
Make custom shirts, however, brings its own inefficiencies. For each tissue must be shut down individually, not bulk model, how off-the-rack shirts are made. Manufacturer of contract of the company in China finally created a new model Department where the shirt shapes are size on computers and automatically. However, each dressmaker may make shirts only about six per day.
Hilburn has recently hired Lawrence Hagenbuch, a veteran of General Electric (GE), as CEO of streamline the manufacturing and distribution. Davis and Rathod want to halve that time to get clothing customers. Among other measures, Davis wants box individual orders left the factory in China so that they can be shipped directly to customers instead of having to break the shipments once they reach United States "clothing supply chain has not evolved since the 1920s," said Davis. "This is our chance."
Bottom line: J. Hilburn strives to create a new retail for male fashion model combining customization with direct sales.
Tozzi covers small business BusinessWeek.com.
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