Short Case Study: How THE ICONIC Changed Clothing Retail in Australia

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard of The Iconic. It is a fashion ecommerce retailer with a slew of awards under its belt and is Australia’s largest.

Ten years ago, they did not exist. Now, they are looking at grossing $1 billion in revenue by 2021.

How did they grow so fast? What makes them that good?

It is all about convenience.

Taking Away the Pain

One of the greatest pains is buying something online, finding that it does not fit, and having to return it for an exchange or refund. It is time consuming, especially with ordinary postage times.

The Iconic came along with a solution; why not buy two sizes and simply return the size that does not fit as well? With the fast postage offered, even doing it one at a time and exchanging takes little time. Most of my orders are here within two days. Some Sydney dwellers can even have them within three hours. Saturday delivery is on the cards too.

It all comes together for a pretty painless experience.

Intuitive User Experience

An easy interaction from start to finish – it is what we all want from online shopping.

Being able to input some of your basic measurements for an instant recommendation on which size may fit best is a time saver. Less umming and ahhing means less time spent trying to finish your transaction.

It is not just about that initial transaction either. A good follow up and support is necessary; locally based support staff are a big win in Australian eyes.

Innovation and Convenience

This is – I emphasise – the most important factor in building a winner. The Iconic kept themselves exciting and relevant by doing more than just competing on price, offering a large range and having good customer support; anybody can do that. It is the unique things that differentiate:

In 2014, they provided users the ability to shop the collection of a catwalk fashion show in real time via livestream. They sold 500 items of clothing during the show alone.

Building on this theme, they released a ‘Snap to Shop‘ feature in 2017. Think Shazam, but it is a picture of a garment you really want. In an age of convenience, that is a sure fire winner.

Last year, they ran an 8 week Sport Challenge where users got an opportunity to win clothing prizes for partaking in and logging a variety of physical activities.

When Afterpay came out, it was quickly integrated into the platform. Afterpay took off like a rocket, and the company’s sales benefitted.

I seem to get a new update every few weeks with another innovation being launched to improve the convenience of the service. It never ends – and that’s a good thing.

In conclusion: a winning formula

As humans, we love convenience. We love innovation too. Mix competitive offerings, innovation and convenience and we will flock to it. With regular sales and a huge range, it is pretty hard to have a reason to avoid shopping at The Iconic now.

They’re currently celebrating with a Birthday Sale until October 3rd with 30% off most of their range.

Thanks for reading! See you next time.