Social is Global: Learning From Threadless’ Success in Global E-Commerce

No Accidental Success Story
Threadless’ global expansion success was no accident. There are many things the company has done right to bring its global e-commerce to where it is today. But the social aspect of its formula can shed some light onto the question: How to attract international consumers?

Here are a few things we can learn from its success:

• The nature of social network is global. Leverage that.
• Threadless’ crowd-sourcing business model is intrinsically social and viral. The community votes on the best design ideas and the best ones are made into products. There's no border inside the community. The whole creative process transcends the geographical and cultural boundaries.
• The type of audience Theadless draws defies geography. They're creative, passionate about sharing, take pride in their work, and they're of course global. Connected by their common interest in design and inspired by each other’s work, they have a perfect profile from social perspective to grow from community participants to raving fans and loyal customers.

For most retailers, building a Facebook page is more feasible than building a community. Building the community is the hard part. Of course, Facebook, with its global presence, provides a perfect platform for retailers to start interacting and engaging with their global fan base.

However, be aware that different markets have different social media platforms.
Here is the world map of the social networks:

As much as Facebook dominates the world of social networks, its lack of presence in a few big markets is equally glaring. Orkut is the market leader in Brazil; QZone and Renren lead the way in China; VKontokte is the most popular in Russia. Make sure that you pick the right platforms for your key markets.

Engagement is Still Key, No Matter Where They Are
Launching social media is never the end, rather a means. The fundamental value of social networking remains the same — connecting and engaging with your fans, listening, responding and bringing out the passion in them. Do this and conversion will happen organically. Revenue will naturally follow.

Even in its relatively nascent state, social commerce has demonstrated the positive and relatively low-cost impact of an engaged fan base on conversion rates. Threadless has proven that it doesn’t matter where these engaged fans are based. A community member in Singapore can be just as engaged as a member in Oklahoma. The basic formula between conversion and engagement still holds true even as it goes beyond your home market.