After rapidly amassing millions of customers through its signature flash sales, the online design store Fab recently announced that it was moving away from that model and introducing a new program where users can receive personalized recommendations for shopping, through “following.”
As founder and CEO Jason Goldberg put it in his blog post on the announcement:
It’s really simple: Follow the stuff that excites you.
We’ll personalize your Fab experience on-site based on what you follow.
We’ll also only send you notifications when there are new arrivals of the stuff you follow, and you’re in complete control of how you hear from us.
Instead of receiving one generic promotional email informing them of a flash sale, users will now receive emails tailored to what they choose to “follow” on the website. Initially, they can choose to follow departments, such as furniture or food, and eventually they will be able to follow designers or brands. The company will inform them when there are new items or specific sales happening on the things they follow through email and mobile messaging.
Much like Facebook, and now Twitter, Fab is hoping to achieve an even greater degree of personalization based on what you buy, except it is trying to personalize its own promotions, not third party ads. It’s not really different from what Amazon or any other major e-commerce site does, but by introducing the “follow” element, Fab has given the site more of a social media vibe, (i.e. more like Pinterest) making it seem like customers have their own private little shop that makes things just for them.
