Threadless Creates Thriving Artist Community With New iPhone App

Social networks are becoming top destinations for like-minded individuals to share ideas and opinions. With Facebook acquiring more than one billion users, and sites such as Twitter and Instagram following closely behind, many brands and retailers are trying to create their own thriving communities on their e-Commerce sites.

Threadless was created with community involvement in mind. Designed to connect artists to consumers who love creative designs, Threadless provides an outlet for its members to vote on which designs get printed onto T-shirts, sweatshirts, iPhone cases and other products. Now, the company has unveiled an iPhone app, which will serve as an extension of the web site, providing a new channel for artists and fans to connect and communicate.

“The reason it took us so long to make an app is that we didn’t just want it to be an e-commerce experience where you go in and buy stuff,” said Jake Nickell, Founder and CEO of Threadless, in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “We wanted to give users a reason to open up the app multiple times throughout the day and interact with other people.”

Since its official launch at the end of February, the Threadless app has been downloaded more than 50,000 times, which “exceeded our expectations,” noted Todd Lido, Head of Marketing for Threadless. “The response has been terrific; we’re really happy with the way the app has been received based on the anecdotal feedback from our community as well as the response metrics we’re seeing.”

But consumers aren’t just downloading the app and letting it sit idle on their devices. More than 40,000 consumers are actively using the app, “which is really encouraging,” Lido added. “Based on the trends I’ve seen, our performance is above average.”

Threadless plans to  release another iPhone app by the end of March called TypeTees, which will enable users to type in slogans and words, and apply typefaces to design and order custom T-shirts in real time.

TypeTees “really lends itself well to mobile,” Nickell said. “If you’re out with friends and someone says something funny, you can just take out your phone and type it in the app.”

A Social Experience

The standard features of the online Threadless experience are available in the mobile app, including the ability to vote on designs. However, the overall design and aesthetic of the mobile app is extremely fluid, similar to a social feed.

Users can scroll through an extensive roster of designs, as well as rate and share their favorite creations. Designs can be sorted by their popularity or date created, and products can be filtered by their category, such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, prints and bags.

Consumers also can follow artists and receive notifications when new items get printed — a new feature on the e-Commerce site that was immediately available on the app.  

“We have built that into the shopping experience so when a customer comes to Threadless and buys something, they automatically follow the artist who created the piece,” Nickell said. This function, he added, was added to help “link together the customer and artist community.”

The app includes a one-click checkout process, which makes the mobile shopping experience more seamless and enjoyable.

“If you’ve purchased from us before, you tap ‘check out’ then ‘place order,’” Nickell said. “You don’t have to type in your shipping or billing information; it’s already there from the first time you ordered.” 

In fact, once consumers log in with their user account, all their information gets carried through the app experience.

Threadless worked with dedicated users and brand advocates to develop the app. “We were in beta for a period of time,” Nickell explained. For months, the eTailer “had a good chunk of our close community using the app before it was launched.”

A Mobile Roadmap

Although Threadless has seen mobile activity grow steadily over the years, the company decided to wait before diving into the app space.

“We first wanted to create a great mobile site experience,” Lido said. Once the Threadless community and site was optimized for mobile email and web users, the team focused on creating an iPhone app because the hardware category accounted for 40% of total mobile visits.

“We wanted to prioritize [an iPhone app] and get it out to those users,” Lido said. “It’s going to be a really great way to get people more engaged, generate more activity and visits through the app, but also reach a new user base that is using mobile devices rather than just desktops for their browsing.”

The iPhone app is the first phase of an extensive plan that also includes iPad and Android apps. However, Threadless will be creating a tablet experience first because the conversion rates among tablet users are higher than desktop users.

 Lido added that Threadless also sees “more quality site experiences and higher engagement on tablets than smartphones.”