Having a dedicated fan following is a flattering and a humbling experience. In a way this is a clear measure of how popular your blog, website, business, YouTube channel or any other medium is. If you are someone who is quite a celebrity in your own right, then you may want to check this kickass platform called GearLaunch.
This application is one of a kind as it lets you design cool products and sell them directly to your audience in a hassle free manner. Well the best part is that there are no costs, risks, hidden conditions or challenges involved in using the services offered by this portal. All you have to do is build your gear using this online tool, set a selling price and sales quantity goal, and create your personalized GearLaunch page. Yes, creating customized merchandise has just gotten this easy!
Meet The Man That Runs The Show!
GearLaunch is the brainchild of Thatcher Spring. He is an experienced entrepreneur who is passionate about adding efficiency to inefficient markets, building teams, and creating value for consumers.
“We are a team of domain experts from the worlds of apparel, customization, big data, technology, and marketing. We are building new tools in the area of social commerce. Our team is passionate about bringing commerce to the already flourishing content consumption within the internet fanbases”, says Thatcher.
The X-Factor!
We are a platform to monetize internet fanbases through product sales. GearLaunch allows internet influencers to design and sell high-quality custom apparel & accessories with no upfront costs or distribution challenges. Monetize your fanbase, brand yourself, and engage with your audience. This fully integrated design and sales platform will ensure you reach your audience easily and efficiently with the best products and selling tools available.
The Inspiration!
“I arrived at this idea first as a solution to allow clubs and groups to order customized apparel products more easily from my first apparel company. We had many groups interested in customized products but hurdles of working capital for inventory, demand planning, and logistics were often too much to overcome. GearLaunch provides the ability to pre-sell to your audience thus alleviating working capital and demand planning concerns. We also handle production and shipping of product to each buyer which solves the logistics concern”, says Thatcher.
On Challenges Faced & Competitors!
Like most startups, the biggest hurdles faced by Thatcher included defining product-market fit, fundraising, hiring a team, and now to refining his value proposition within his target markets. He wants to make sure that he offers 100% of what his target customers want, rather than 80% of what would be ideal for a broader market.
In terms of competition, Teespring, Represent, CustomInk and Maker Studios pose as potential competitors.
Teespring and Represent offer similar value propositions within social commerce. However, GearLaunch is building more of the tools influencers want beyond monetization, including the ability to brand themselves through the experience, and the ability to better engage with the audience.
On Expansion Plans & Target Audience!
“GearLaunch’s long term goal is to own 10% of customized decorated apparel sales through social commerce, which would make us an $800M revenue company. Social commerce is growing at 93% year over year, and is the fastest avenue within which to build an internet commerce company”, says Thatcher.
At the moment, GearLaunch is mainly targeted at influencers, internet marketers and non-profit organizations (raising money).
Monetizing Model!
The team earns money on each product sale that flows through their platform. The GearLaunch model is scalable very quickly. They own all the customer data, and will build defensibility over time by offering the ability to access the data to optimize the selling experience and conversions.
Well, to know more details on the app, do make it a point to visit: http://gearlaunch.com