WHAT IS E-COMMERCE?

(Reference: http://www.winfieldcomputers.com/images/ecommerce_diagram.gif )

Electronic commerce (widely known as e-commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services over electronic means such as the Internet.

E-commerce conducted between two business partners is known as business-to-business (B2B) transactions, while that conducted between business and consumers is known as business-to-consumers (B2C) and consumers-to-consumers (C2C). We'll look at the business model (B2B, B2C, C2C) of Threadless under the features of the website below.

E-commerce is a subset of E-business (electronic business), where it is the part which involves the financial transactions of the business (ie. buying and selling). In the case of Threadless, the company has a website which performs the e-commerce activities of the company; which allows users to buy shirts via electronic means (example, the Internet) and allows the company to sell the shirts to customers the same way.

E-commerce is becoming a popular option for many users as it offers many advantages to them such as saving time by shopping within the comfort of their own homes, getting to places within a click of the mouse, and able to spend without the worry of security leak over personal information (due to fraud detection and reporting during the process of payment). However, one of the disadvantages to a company conducting e-commerce over websites may be increased competition from similar industry's competing companies due to readily available information (for example, pricing information can easily be found on the website).

(References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_commerce)

HISTORY OF THREADLESS

Threadless is a community-centered online apparel shop which is run by skinnycorp since 2000. After entering an Internet t-shirt design competition, the co-founders of Threadless, Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart, started the company with $1000 as their seed money.

In August 2007, Threadless unveiled its very first retail shop in Chicago. Not only does it sells a wide variety of members' designed shirts, it also conduct design classes for those aspiring to be one. Another novelty for this shop is that it always changes its stocks every Fridays. So, customers can be assured that what they are buying are the latest that are being offered.

Threadless have become such a huge platform for designers to showcase their works and for customers wanting to get their hands on limited-edition shirts that their growing popularity had spurred fans to set up a blog to show their support for the company. Threadless reciprocate their fans' support by producing a weekly video of the latest happenings that has taken place with the company.

PURPOSE OF THREADLESS

The co-founders of Threadless came up with the idea of this website after one of them, Jake Nickell had won a NMUF London tee shirt competition. They felt good about the experience of having a design chosen to win competitions. This ignited their idea of creating a website for other people to submit designs and have the opportunity to enjoy the experience of having their designs chosen, sold and at the same time gain recognition.

Hence, Threadless.com was created.

(Reference: http://www.threadless.com/help#Who_made_Threadless_and_why)

FEATURES OF THREADLESS

BUSINESS MODEL

Threadless, in general, uses 2 different kinds of business models, each dealing with a different group of people. One of the business model used by Threadless is the most common kind of business model which is the business-to-consumer(B2C) virtual storefront e-commerce model. This type of business model involve the consumer to deal directly with the business. Consumers purchase their goods online, directly from the website without the interference of any middleman, and the company delivers them.

The other type of business model is a complete reversal of the traditional business model(B2C). This model is a consumer-to-business(C2B) model where the consumers offer their products and services to the company.

In relation to Threadless, this model is reflected in the relationship between the designers and the company. The designers submitted their ideas to the company and in return, the company pays the designers if their designs are selected for printing with the voluntary help of users' ratings and comments received on the website.

This concept of collaboration with voluntary users to help solve problems (for example, which designs to print) and reduce costs of the company (less wastage since the company has a general idea of what and how much to produce) is referred as "crowd sourcing". Threadless makes use of the advance technology of e-commerce to break down barriers of communication between companies and customers.

(Reference: http://www.bnet.com/2403-13240_23-52962.html)

PAYMENT SCHEME

Threadless has a simple and user-freindly payment system.Like most online e-commerce websites, Threadless has a shopping cart where you can add the items that you wish to purchase (simply by clicking on the shirt and size that you want) and then proceed to check out once you have finalise your purchases.

Choose A Shirt>>

Choose a Size>>

Check Out or Continue Shopping>>

After finalizing your purchases, you are 4 steps away from buying your shirts!
Step1: Verify Your Order

Step2: Shipping Information Step3: Billing Information

Step4: Place Your Order

The payment modes available on this website limits to credit & debit cards only (Visa, Mastercard and American Express). This may pose as an inconvenience to those who do not have any credit or debit cards.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THREADLESS

One of the key characteristics of Threadless is definitely the interaction between the company/website and the users(ie. people who visits and uses the website). Threadless markets shirts that are designed by users. This allows for product differentiation from other companies as the designs at Threadless are one of a kind.

Participate>>

Submit Ideas>>
Design a Shirt>>


Threadless allows aspiring designers to design the shirts and submit them for rating by visitors and members of the community on the scale of 0 to 5. The website looks at the top 300 designs every couple of weeks and decides on 10 designs to print depending on the ratings, comments and the number of 'I'd buy it's the design have. The rating system allows the company to have a general idea of what designs customers would want. The good news is - the aspiring designers not only have their works printed out and worn on shirts internationally, they also win cash prizes and gift certificates along with the recognition of their art piece. There are incentives for both the company and the users - the company gets fresh designs every week to market and the user gets rewarded.
(Reference: http://www.threadless.com/help#How_do_I_submit_a_tee_design_and_what_do_I_win)

Rate some designs>>



From time to time, special contests - known as "Loves Threadless" run in association with several sponsors. These contests set a theme for designs and the chosen designs gets rewarded similarly with an addition of prizes from the sponsors. The success of this community model concept has led to various companies adopting the same approach.




Users may also post their photos of themselves wearing Threadless shirts to be uploaded on Threadless's photo gallery and earn points to get a shirt from Threadless for free.

Submit a Photo>>




This is undoubtedly one unique standpoint from an e-commerce website, where users of Threadless voluntarily participate in the activities of website besides shopping.

DESIGN OF THREADLESS

Threadless design is very simple and easy on the eyes. Using plain colours for its tabs and labels, the website itself focuses more on the designs submitted by the designers This format is very much appreciated by the designers as it gives them more exposure for their works.


Another great aspect of this website is that when a cursor is placed on the photos of the shirts, the designs actually pop-up, making viewing the photos much easier. Cute fonts and icons makes the website appear more friendly and gives consumers a feeling of being welcome and fun. Consumers will have a good and fun experience browsing through Threadless.


Threadless has also divided their shirts into catergories such as tee shirts' lines, sizes and styles so that customers are able to browse through the wide range of tee shirts by that certain catergory. And if they are still unable to find a certain shirt, they are able to search a design through the website's search engine.

Browse by line>>

Browse by Style>>

Search>>

STRENGTH & WEAKNESSES OF THREADLESS

STRENGTHS
~Threadless makes use of electronic means (by creating a website) for marketing their products to break down geographical barriers where anyone in any part of the world (who has access to the World Wide Web) is able to view, purchase and participate in their activities at any given time. This allows their products to be known world-wide and thus, able to distribut their tee shirts internationally.

~ Threadless has a product focus that is the design of their shirts (which are designed by almost anyone!) and this provides product differentiation. This gives them an edge over competitors in similar industry and hence they are able to capitalize on this edge and sell their tee shirts at a relatively cheaper price compared to shops that sell designer tee shirts.

~ With reference to the point made above, Threadless's website creates a platform for budding designers to showcase and publish their works. At the same time, their works will be critiqued by members of the community which then can be used by the designers to improve on their works. And winning design entries are entitled to cash prizes. This may provide the designers as a source of income and will spur them to produce more designs. In addition, such designers may get 'talented-spotted' by design companies and offered careers.

~ Threadless also provides reasons on why they had to, on some occasion, reject the some of the submitted designs. This form of transparency helps users better understand the decisions that the company makes.

~ Threadless engages users to participate in their activities, besides submitting designs and buying of tee shirts, which is one of their strengths in keeping many users interested as they can rate shirts(on a scale of 0 to 5), give comments, submit and rate slogans, and even take a photo of themselves in a Threadless tee shirt!

~ Threadless's website is well organised and this makes finding things a whole lot easier and faster. It is also easy to understand as there are step-by-step instructions and help guides that make browsing the website (like ordering tee shirts, submitting designs etc) a breeze.

~Threadless also provides measurements of their shirts' sizes so that customers are able to wear them after buying. Hence, this reduces the cost of returning the goods back if the shirts do not fit.

~ The website categorizes their stocks (by line, styles, tees) and provides a search engine, making browsing easier for the users.

~Threadless sends out newsletters to customers (who choose to subscribe to their newsletter when making purchase for tee shirts) as a form of customer retention. This allows customers to be reminded of the website every time they receive an email from Threadless. The website also sends out emails to users when a shirt that they have chosen (in their shopping cart) is limited.



WEAKNESSES

~ Shipping costs are not stated clearly as users have to go through the process of ordering for them to know how much is the shipping costs.

~ Threadless only accepts credit and debit cards. No other payment schemes like Paypal are accepted by the company.

~ Theadless lags in corresponding with customers enquiries and feedback since they may receive large volume of orders at certain periods of time and sent a vague auto-reply which does not satisfy users' queries. This may caused some customers to lose faith in the company as they might feel that the company is not concerned about their customers.

~ Designs can be copied without the designers nor the company knowing, even though they have copyrights law stated in their website.

ANALYSIS OF THREADLESS

With the emergence of better Internet connections and the Government emphasis on tech-savvy citizens, e-commerce, in Singapore and perhaps the world, might become a more popular choice for organizations to conduct businesses and for consumers to purchase their goods and services online.

The case study on Threadless shows how e-commerce had progress up to the point where users are able to purchase goods with the company via the website and thus, breaking away from the traditional bricks and mortar business. On top of this, Threadless also provides a platform for users to interact (by participating in their website's activities) which gave Threadless a tremendous edge against normal e-commerce businesses.