Fab.com has become one of those jaw-dropping success stories capable of evoking twinges of envy and awe-struck admiration at once; just over a year since its transformation from gay social network to high-flying, design-focused e‑commerce site, it’s announced record-breaking U.S. revenue for Christmas Day from its mobile apps alone.
In news that will leave many an aspiring e‑commerce manager, web content manager and e‑commerce analyst sitting back open mouthed, Fab has just declared that no less than 56 per cent of the thriving startup’s US revenue on Christmas Day came via its mobile apps, the largest single-day cash-inflow it’s seen to date.
Making mobile work
Fab’s co-founder and CEO, Jason Goldberg, has placed much emphasis on the potential of mobile apps to drive business. The company’s first apps were launched in October 2011 and exactly one year later, they contributed 33 per cent of the site’s visits and 33 per cent of its sales. Goldberg was confident then that mobile would shortly generate 50 per cent of the site’s revenue. It turns out he was wrong – it just delivered over 50 per cent in a single day.
There’s still some way to go before Goldberg’s vision is truly realized – a single swallow doesn’t make a summer, to mangle the old saying, and Christmas Day is a hard act to follow for the other 364 days of the year. But the company’s redesign of its iOS app this October undoubtedly appears to be paying rich dividends. The new apps have a friendlier user interface designed to encourage browsing, and they provide virtual shoppers with social feeds so they can catch a glimpse of what fashions their friends are buying.
To the stratosphere and beyond
Fab has, frankly, enjoyed stratospheric success since its change of direction from social network to e‑commerce site. The site now has bragging rights over some spectacularly successful results, with 7.5 million users in no fewer than 26 countries.
But that’s not all. Sales are also soaring: on Cyber Monday 2011, it made $350,000; by 2012, the same day generated £1.3 million in sales, a 350 per cent increase and the firm’s first million-dollar day of trading.