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

Marketing to global customers can be tricky — ongoing paid search campaigning is costly, language issues complicate everything, email successes can be hit or miss. The list goes on with questions like: How can we make ourselves known to the overseas customers? What’s the best way to attract them and build a sustainable business?

A presentation from Tom Ryan, CEO of Threadless.com, at the Internet Retailer Conference & Expo (IRCE), provides a fascinating success story of global e-commerce. Threadless' success may have provided a roadmap to answer that very tricky question — how to attract global consumers?

The Social Roadmap
In Threadless’ case, the secret is utilizing its social network and building a community where a geographic boundary doesn’t matter. Judging by its results, this can be the most effective and organic marketing method to build your global following, and more importantly, to convert your global fan base into loyal, repeat customers.

Let’s trace the trajectory of Threadless’ global expansion: Threadless is a community-based design e-commerce company. All designs printed on Threadless' T-shirts and other merchandise are voted on and picked by the community. A pioneer in crowd sourcing, Threadless now boasts an active community of 4 million monthly visitors with a strong social presence of 1.6 million, whose passion helps sell millions of T-shirts in over 150 countries. Threadless was created with a vision on the joy of sharing, but according to Ryan, it didn’t start out with a global vision.

At IRCE, Ryan called his company an “accidental world traveler.” Just a few years ago, Threadless was just another U.S.-based retailer seeking to build a strong foothold in its home market. Global expansion was never its ambition. But gradually, orders started to come in from its international members, and the retailer passively reacted by fulfilling international orders, all without any real investment in the international business.

By Q2 of 2010, 50 percent of Threadless' revenue came from its overseas markets. Recognizing the tremendous growth potential in the global market, Threadless began to invest more on language translation and localization. The focused approach is already paying off — a year later, its global revenue contributes 60 percent of its total sales.

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.

Start simple by focusing your social commerce initiatives on English speaking communities. Language and localization are more complicated and require more resources. Evaluate the need to do localization enhancements when the demand rises.

High culture-context countries like China, Japan and Korea require different approaches and dedicated resources with localization and language, even attention to cultural nuances. Those are the markets you’ll need to be educated more before you dive in. But don't overlook opportunities when your brand has unique advantages in other countries.

Retailers rarely think about global expansion when they first start out. Their strategic imperative is to build a sustainable business in their home market first. It’s reasonable for them to ponder the question, “Are we ready to explore the wilderness of the global market?”

If your firm isn't sure, pay attention to the global traffic to your website by checking out the data on alexa.com. Listen to what your global fans are saying on social networks and touchpoints. This will help you foresee the first wave of international customers coming your way. Build your social network by nurturing your global fan. Take care in picking the right platform once you decide which countries to go after. Do this and you may find your brand already has more connections to the global market than you may have imagined.

International e-commerce isn’t just another shining object — it’s an untapped reservoir of opportunities. It's up to you to unleash its potential. If you do it right, it can become the major source of growth for your e-commerce business. That’s the message we heard from Threadless' global expansion story, loud and clear.

Sherry Shi is a marketing executive for Pitney Bowes Ecommerce Solutions. Reach Sherry at sherry.shi@pb.com.