@mattalexand Awesome work! The curation on Need is always exceptional.
I'm particularly curious about your experiment with brick and mortar. One thing holding me back from purchasing everything is simply the concern that something wouldn't fit, or wouldn't look good on me. Beyond your return policy, I'm wondering what could be done to make trials more frictionless? I have no insight into the economics of Trunk Club or Try.com but showrooms in major cities seem like a good idea.
@kepano Right. This has been a big point of conversation.
To your point, we've set our return policy to be as flexible and friendly as possible. (30 days. Free. Etc.)
For the broader point, though, our mutual friend, Chase Reeves, once visited our office. He saw one of our products in person and was stunned by the quality and was compelled to buy it. He'd seen it online, but the physical experience meant a lot more.
So, we've been focusing on trying to get more transparent and creative around portraying product.
The best solution, though, is brick and mortar.
My main focus there is to focus on social experiences. I think shops are most used (and interesting) when they can be social destinations/escapes, rather than just showrooms where they serve whiskey and the like.
Our new experiment, opening next week, will have co-working, coffee, drinks, happy hours, and so on. If it works as I expect, I don't think it'll be long before we open something more permanent.
And, indeed, as we expand internationally, our intention has always been to localize. I suspect we'll end up with store/office hybrids with unique concepts befitting each market.
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