Pitch week 6

All the info on the pitch we have to this point

Slide 1: Intro

I am Anessa and this is Tia. We are both fashion students, passionate about advocating a slower, more sustainable fashion environment. Our aim is to slow down the fast fashion cycle encouraging consumers to reduce waste and increase the lifespan of clothing. In New Zealand, we discard on average, 30% of clothing that was only worn once!

 

Evidently, there is already an established market for pre-loved clothing with surplus accessibility to Op Shops and Online Marketplaces such as trade me, and Facebook that allows you to sell your old clothes. With this in mind, our ultimate goal is to challenge the way consumers perceive their clothing by introducing alternate ways of recognizing value.

 

Slide 2: Aim

Are your clothes minded? Does your old pair of jeans need a bit more love?  Well, don’t leave them neglected in the wardrobe, upload your pre-loved items to ZIP and get zipping to find a new match!

 

ZIP is a fun and interactive dating website for pre-loved clothing that allows users to swap and exchange their goods from wardrobe to wardrobe. The only expense involved is shipping, which is free with your initial sign up and a sweet flat rate price from that point onwards!

 

Our website is easy to use, fun and encourages an interactive experience to mix and match your lonely old clothes! The best part is, you can send your clothes away and update your style, without contributing to the textile waste problem.

 

Slide 3: Statistics

Fast fashion is used to describe the current market situation in fashion where trends are created quickly and cheaply.

• During 2011 1.72 million tonnes of brand new clothing was purchased whilst the same amount ended up in the landfill. (Instead stay: each year the amount of clothing being purchased brand new, equals that being thrown into landfill….we are talking tonnes.
• We now currently consume 80 billion pieces of clothing and purchase 400% more than we did 20 years ago, and that amount is expected to increase by 63% by 2030.
• In New Zealand, we discard on average 30% of clothing that has been worn only once.

Basically, we have a bit of an issue with textile waste in landfills. (MAYBE STATS should go after slide one because it is our justification for our intention and informs our aim?)  

 

Slide 4: Opportunities

We are currently the only e-commerce marketplace for clothing exchange that works off a freemium business model.

 

Our only expense is shipping which is free upon sign up and then a flat rate price after that.

 

POD- we aren’t contributing money to the fast fashion industry.

Consumers are getting clothes without spending money, so there are fewer people consuming clothing at the current rate.

 

Slide 5: Competitors

Some of our competitors are both brick and mortar second-hand clothing stores and online marketplaces like facebook and Trademe. Also online marketplaces for renting clothing that has a large social media presence on Instagram, using influencers and branding to gain recognition.

 

To name a few: ThreadUp, Recycle Boutique, Designer Wardrobe, Oh rent me, Rehash Clothing and Trade me.

 

The one thing these brand have in common is a monetary system of exchange whereas our focus is on the match which is free. The only expense of shipping is a flat rate (T’s & C’s apply)

 

Slide 6: Target Market:

The market we will be focusing on is on anyone aged 16 and over willing to set up their clothes with a new love!  There really is no limitation on age as users swap their clothing based on the individual garment, not the person who owns it. Our target market is not defined by demographics, rather psychographics. Our consumers will be familiar with the common issues within the fashion industry and therefore willing to consume second-hand clothing.

 

Slide 7&8 : Features:

We are working off a freemium business model and when you upgrade to the premium package you can

• set filters so you see only items you are interested in
• you can unzip your location allowing more access to user profiles nationally.
• You can also superfly or ‘like’ garments which lets others know you are very interested in a specific item, which could induce them to trade with you.
• You can also skip the line, which sends your own items to the top of the que when you post them to gain more attention.

 

Slide 9: User Journey

1. downloads the app, sign up via email or facebook.
2. receive an email verification confirming their account.
3. set up a profile with their name, age, gender, location.
4. Build your wardrobe. You upload a pic of your clothes one by one front and back)
5. Give each garment a description such as the type of garment, condition, the age of garment, size material etc. You can also write your own description to promote the piece.
6. Get zipping!
7. If you like a garment un-zip it if you don’t you zip up to scroll to the next item.
8. If it’s a match you get a notification and you can start a chat to discuss if both parties are happy with the match and negotiate shipping and.  After this, you can ship your item, with one of our shipping companies integrated into the app. After you receive your item you can rate your experience and if the item doesn’t fit, or wasn’t completely what you thought just re-post it!

 

Slide 10: Promotional strategy:

We will promote the app on social media, like Instagram, facebook, and youtube with paid advertisements and promotion of our posts.

• To create both an Instagram and Facebook ad you can set up a budget. If we budget $2,000 for this type of campaign, it works out to be 200 days of advertising, which will be specifically targeted at our core audience. That’s $10 a day on a site.
• However, in order to reach a core audience, to run beta testing on our app and to make up our initial users, we propose posting on sites like Facebook, and Reddit which focus on topics like sustainable fashion and upcycling clothing and other topics which may relate to our product. This initial promotional strategy will be free.  
• As our app continues to grow we propose reaching out to influencers to promote our app on their platforms. These types of social media deals will vary in cost depending on the influencer, the size of their audience and their platform.

 

Slide 11: Pricing

We will use the fermium business model, where the initial download is free and the premium version cost $13 per month, excluding the cost of shipping. That price was set based on what people are charged for other subscription services such as Netflix, Spotify, YouTube prime etc, as we thought it is what people are willing to pay. The app will have different courier companies integrated so the customers can pay for shipping through the app, allowing an easier exchange. In the future, we may be able to negotiate a deal with shipping companies which allows for a standard shipping rate. For now, we imagine a standard shipping calculator integrated into the app, and possibly partnering with multiple shipping companies, to allow a variety of prices.

 

Slide 12: Timeline:

In terms of creating the product we imagine it will take 6 months to develop the app to the point where it can be Bata tested. The first 6 months will cost $38,400. For our one coder, and our part-time working on building a client base. The second 6 months will cost $96,400 for the three of us full time, and one coder, plus paying for advertising. It is possible that the app will be too difficult for one coder to work on alone if that is the case hiring a company will cost between $60,000- $86,000. The first option, hiring a coder will cost $124,800, and hiring a company will cost $127,500 as an estimate. We have further budgeted $10,000 to market the app. We gain an investment of $150,000 that will leave us with an extra $13,000 to pay for things like trademarks, and business licenses. (Business license $750, trademark NZ $350)

 

Funding:

We will use a crowdfunding method to fund our app, the benefit of this is giving us access to a large number of enthusiastic users when we are ready to test and launch the app. We can use a site like Kickstarter to gain the funds. If we proceed with this model we would need an initial investment of $5,000- $10,000 to target the people who would be most interested in the app. For this approach, we will use the same marketing strategies employed in the beginning stages of app launch.

If we achieve a growth factor of  0.86 we will be able to make $150,000 in 1 year after launch assuming each person who subscribes to the app, does so for a period of 12 months.

For an initial investment, the investor will receive 10% of the company profit and should receive a return on investment within the first 6 months after launch.  The risk of this investment is that it may take a long time to make up the $150,000 amount, which will delay the launch time.

If this sounds like an opportunity for you we would love to hear from you.