Australian Post-80S Chinese Anti Brand Business! Sell Customized Online

The effect picture of a custom shirt is on the website of Blank Label.

Usually, customization means expensive, but the 23 year old Australian Chinese bifan is in the opposite direction.

Bifan founded.

As a post-80 generation, how did Bi fan achieve this remarkable achievement? Entrepreneur magazine tells us about biffan's story.

Unwilling to work

"The real reason people like Blank Label shirts is that they can show their friends when they wear this brand of shirt:" look, this shirt is designed by myself! "Said 23 year old bifan, who shows maturity on the face which does not match his age.

Bi fan is a banana man born and raised in Australia (though he is a yellow race, but his behavior and values are completely westernized). His parents are all from Shanghai.

Bifan said he founded Blank Label - his parents helped him to provide online clothing companies with customized shirts.

Everything has to start in 2008.

That year, as an exchange student at University of New South Wales in Australia, bivan came to Babson College in Massachusetts, near Boston, to study finance.

There, he was attracted by the strong entrepreneurial culture and determined to start his own business in the future.

In the summer of 2008, bifan traveled to Shanghai with his parents.

At that time, Bi fan worked as a part-time designer for a clothing design company in London. After traveling, with the help of his parents, he inspects some local clothing suppliers in Shanghai, and found that it is entirely feasible to "buy from Shanghai's individual clothing producers far below the price of Boston or New York".

In biffan's view, fresh college graduates are the main target customers of these "cheap shirts," because they don't have much money in their pockets, but they need to dress formally when they are looking for jobs.

The idea is good, but there is a problem: how to sell these clothes? Do you sell clothes like the shops on the streets of Madison and new Boulevard in Boston? There are no business features, and the price advantage will be left behind by high store rents.

The idea of starting a business is shelved.

Later, he graduated from Babson College and returned to Australia to become a junior analyst at the Bank of Sydney.

Although the work of a large company looks very bright, it is rather dull for bifan.

"In a big company, I feel like a very small ant, no matter what it is, and there is no sense of achievement at work, so the idea of wanting to start a business is stronger and stronger."

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Customized shirts for online sales

In the summer of 2009, BIE, who was not satisfied with the status quo, resigned from his work in Sydney bank and flew to Boston to set up a clothing business here.

He said to his family, "I think Boston has a vibrant and passionate company.

People there regard entrepreneurship as a way of life, and I want to say, "this is what I am after."

At the beginning, bifan did not expect to go through the network marketing clothing.

His idea is to hire a salesman in every university in Boston to sell clothes to college students.

In this way, after the recruitment advertisement was posted, bifan met Danny Wu, who later became his partner.

Danny Wu, 20, is also a Chinese American from New York. He studied information in the University of Bentley in Boston.

At that time, when freshman Danny Wu met with bifan, he began to talk about his own ideas about selling clothes from his speciality.

He believes that in view of the fact that college students spend a lot of time online, they should sell clothing through the Internet.

In this way, the idea of starting a business is becoming clearer. The two decided to work together to create a network apparel company that specializes in providing customized shirts for customers.

Through the network, customers can choose shirts, fabrics, styles and colors independently, and directly participate in the manufacturing process of shirts purchased.

Moreover, customers can buy this custom shirt only at an approachable price.

The name of the company comes from "anti brand" inspiration.

Next, bifan and Danny Wu recruited two Internet technicians: Zeza Mohamed and Eric Harrison.

After a busy schedule, the website of Blank Label clothing company was formally launched in November 2, 2009.

Danny Wu explained that the company's name "Blank Label" came from everyone's "anti brand" inspiration.

"People always want to create a brand with rich meaning, but we think that brand is not so mysterious.

As far as Blank Label is concerned, since netizens can participate in the production of shirts online, he / she can use his name as a brand (label) and write it at blank.

If this shirt is made for me, I will tell the others that this is the Danny s Label shirt.

"You design, I make".

The slogan of Blank Label is "you design, I make".

"The concept we have introduced is" cooperative design ", so that customers can become their own fashion designers to narrow the distance between customers and manufacturers.

Bifan said.

When you open the website of Blank Label, you will find that this participatory marketing method has its own characteristics.

Customers want to buy a shirt, they have to go through 4 steps: 1. choose fabrics; 2. choose the details of styles and collars, cuffs, pockets, shoulders and so on; 3., choose other details, such as sewing personal name abbreviations on shirts, etc. 4.. When the above steps are completed, a picture of the effect of a shirt will be automatically generated on the web page. If there is no mistake, then click the "confirm" button.

The price of shirts is also very interesting, which is similar to "auction".

The starting price of the shirt is 45 dollars. If you want to sew your initials in the clothes, then add another $15. If you want to show your personality, let the shirt be green on the other side of the shirt. No problem, please dig another 35 dollars...

However, this does not mean that the price of a shirt can go up without restraint, because there are so many additional details to choose from.

"Most of our shirts are priced at around us $70, and they never exceed $150, because you can't choose all the additional details when you customize them, unless you want to make a very, very ugly shirt."

Bifan said.

Small changes have "University questions".

It doesn't matter if customers are not familiar with costume design and color, Blank Label has the style of shirts that have been designed.

The layout of these ready-made shirts is very knowledgeable.

Bie fan revealed that when the website was just online, they placed these designs in the top of the webpage. It turned out that many customers did not want to spend five or six minutes to customize their own shirts, but instead chose one thing directly from the ready style.

The average price of these shirts is 52 dollars, and the "added value" is not large.

To increase the profit of a single shirt, bifan puts these ready-made styles below the webpage.

Later, he was surprised to find that more customers were involved in the custom shirts, and the average price of shirts reached 67 dollars.

"The change is small, but it is very important not only to increase profits, but also to highlight the characteristics of our company's" customization ".

Bifan said.

Sales are expected to break millions of dollars.

Usually, customization means expensive, but Blank Label's shirt is just the opposite.

"In the shop, shirts of the same quality cost up to 300 dollars per piece, several times more expensive than ours."

Bifan said.

Besides the high quality and low price, the speed of delivery is also very critical.

After ordering a shirt, the order goes to Blank Label in Shanghai, which can be produced in just a few days, and then sent to the world in less than two weeks.

Danny Wu said that Internet sales can make customers "do not have to pay some extra cost", such as store rents, warehousing fees, labor costs, etc., but also allow customers to buy "products on general shelves can not buy."

According to bifan, there were only one or two orders per day when the company opened.

Business has been booming since 2010, with an average of more than 10 orders per day, with an annual turnover of US $350 thousand.

"Every time a shirt is sold, the company has money to make."

Bifan said.

Sales of $350 thousand are not much, but for a small company founded for more than a year, it has been a great achievement.

Small scale is the advantage of Blank Label.

The company does not have complex management. It does not need to produce shirts of various sizes and styles, nor does it need to rent warehouses, storefronts and offices. There is only one room rented to Babson College in Boston.

At the beginning of his business, bivfan thought about financing, but he was forced to cancel the idea because he was not favored by VC. He started to "reckless" for the $10000 start-up money saved by himself.

He said: "we are helpless, of course, we want to get investment, but the reality is that we have to start from scratch.

At present, we do not have advertising input, nor do we want to burn money, because everything is uncertain now. "

Relative to bifan's "introverted", Danny Wu appears more "exposed".

He said that with the gradual progress on the right track, the company is prepared to expand its business scope, and sell pants and jackets, of course, all are customized.

"In 2011, sales of the company are likely to exceed $1 million."

Danny Wu is full of confidence.