I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel at StartupWeek in Seattle this year. It was a rich assortment of content and is usually the 1st or 2nd week of October so look for it one year. The full schedule fills in fairly close to the conference, and it’s a total bargain at $35!
Valentina kicked us off by talking about the value of quick consumer responsiveness. As an example she cited WildFang, a women’s apparel company that was able to generate 250K of new revenue in less than a week by putting out a jacket with a phrase responding to a current event. They donated all the proceeds to an immigrant rights organization and got tons of media coverage.
Scott works entirely with direct-to-consumer brands. His key metrics are 1) the Cost to Acquire a Customer (CAC), the LifeTime Value of a customer (LTV), and also Earn Back Period (EBC) – how many purchases must the customer make and how frequently before you’ve recouped the cost of acquiring them? He emphasizes the value of direct contact with the consumer for customer feedback and analysis.
I spoke about my experience with companies using distribution models. I’ve learned that core metrics are footprint (how many stores is your product in?) and velocity (what are the per-week sales metrics per store?). Distributors will often make you purchase that data, and you need to be doing it. Otherwise you will get a distorted image of your actual sales. Velocity is sometimes called “sell through rate”. You can find more retail metrics here: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/retail-math-formulas-2890409
Much thanks to Kathleen Baxley of Startup Valuation Resources for her moderation!
Shaulablog 