ITALIC LAUNCHES MEMBERSHIP MODEL FOR BUYING PREMIUM GOODS
Online marketplace Italic has officially transitioned over to a new membership-based operating model.
The e-commerce site first launched in 2018 by founder and CEO Jeremy Cai, who sought to start a company in large part because he believed there was a better way to sell high-quality goods at an affordable price.
Cai’s family has a long history in manufacturing and having worked in the industry from a young age, he saw the inefficiencies and unfairness first-hand so, after years of planning and speaking with manufacturers, Cai founded Italic as a means to democratize access to quality goods.
Italic is not just another retail company — Italic’s model is reinventing the supply chain altogether, providing better value for consumers (with prices on average 64 percent lower than DTC equivalents) and a better opportunity for its manufacturing partners (allowing them to achieve higher profit margins than they’d be able to in a traditional brand relationship). And these manufacturers are the same luxury makers behind some of today’s coveted brands like Celine, Prada, and Off-White.
Informed by design and function, Italic offers a range of product categories spanning menswear, womenswear, handbags, shoes, and home, with many new categories currently in development (fitness, outdoors, pets, luggage, knives, comforters, dinnerware, and jewelry over the next year). Its design philosophy fuses timeless classics with contemporary elements to create products that transcend convention for the modern consumer.
Italic doesn’t make money on selling products to members, only the membership itself, ensuring its customers Italic will never markup the cost. Members save $746 per year and 93 percent of new members break even in one order. A year subscription costs $100 for unlimited access to 800+ products at cost.
“Our team has spent decades working in the industry inside of brands, retailers, and manufacturers,” Cai tells MR. “The modern retail supply chain is a highly-fragmented system of individual stakeholders, the largest of which are brands and retailers, each vying for a share of the customer’s dollar. Smart consumers know this and they deserve better. And so do manufacturers, who take less than a 5 percent margin on the final sale despite producing the finished products that brands are then marking up 10X.”
“By removing brands, retailers, and distributors, we’re pioneering a new kind of marketplace-inspired supply chain incentivized to lower prices for customers, not increase them,” Cai adds. “Our new membership allows us to provide our customers with an incredible value proposition: unparalleled price points on quality goods without any compromise on design or customer experience.”
To gain instant access to a membership, and avoid the waitlist, click here.
