Content, exclusivity and metrics: how F+W builds winning ecommerce niches
Nussbaum is credited with transforming the former print-focused niche publisher into a digital-first company that combines content and ecommerce like few others. Prior to F+W, Nussbaum spent more than eight years at Penton in senior management positions, including CEO of Penton Media.
For our users who don’t know much about F+W: Tell us a bit about the company, the audiences served and the products and services offered.
F+W is a content and ecommerce company serving enthusiasts in core vertical communities including crafts, art, writing, design, knitting, quilting, and more. We provide inspiration, instruction, and exclusive products and services for these enthusiasts through our diverse and growing portfolio. We offer online education – self-directed and instructor-led – print and digital books and magazines, subscription video sites, consumer and trade events, and more than 30 highly-curated ecommerce stores. F+W is also the largest craft-focused company in the US with a market opportunity of more than 63m self-identified enthusiasts.
You changed F+W from a primarily print business to one focused on digital and ecommerce. What were some of the key things in the company that you had to change for the transformation?
First and foremost, we needed to take a radical shift within F+W to a digital-first philosophy. Which may be easier said than done for a century-old print publisher. We did it by staying true to our core tenets serving our vertical markets, while reinventing our core strategy and moving away from antiquated businesses no longer valued by our consumers. We also reorganised our entire employee base from product silos, books, magazines, other media, to communities within the company – art, craft, quilting, writing. In fact, F+W was the first media company to organise in this way, which seemed radical then. We also added new talent throughout the organisation from outside the industry and created a focused digital media team – everyone from programmers and developers, to marketers, SEO and SEM experts, ecommerce and email specialists.
Your audiences are enthusiasts. How has the usage of media for this audience changed over time?
The great thing about serving enthusiast audiences is they are just that, enthusiastic about their hobbies and pursuits. Thus, there is a robust need for information, new projects, new designs, new artists — and we try to be there for them 24×7. Of course there has been change — online video is more important as a teaching tool and more products are purchased through online venues. In each of our leading enthusiast categories we take a 360-degree approach for our content offerings in video, TV, print, digital – and whatever comes next.
How do you stay close to your audience?
Our passionate, talented employees are the leaders in the communities they serve. They, too, are writers, artists, designers, crafters. They live the lives of our consumers and know what it takes to profit from their passion, get information, get inspired, and learn. We are in daily communication with our customers via social, email, or in person- and online- events.
Ecommerce is an important part of your business. What is F+W’s approach and what drives its success?
Our success in ecommerce really developed from delivering content; and curation is our differentiator. There are pure ecommerce companies in the enthusiast markets and there are pure content companies. We are one of the few who deliver both. This enables us to support our ecommerce offerings with more than just good pricing — but the bonus of great content and information. We guide consumers through the selection of the right products and services at the right price.
Another part of our success is exclusivity: exclusive products and services, kits and bundles – that can’t be found anywhere else, and are not available to our vendor partners for resale. Kits and bundles, special offers, targeted by niche, skill level, or area of focus. We offer value-added VIP and Loyalty Programmes for our best consumers and a friction-free satisfaction guaranteed return policy. We strive to be the one-stop shop for the niche products and services our enthusiasts demand. And a large part of our success lies in our metrics and data. We hold a significant database with demographics and purchasing history and employ the same best-in-class email marketing and remarketing strategies as the biggest dot coms.
At F+W, what are your main challenges for the future?
Like any business, our key challenges are the fast pace of change in digital markets, the increasing need to compete globally, and the importance of driving innovation in our company every day. Creative destruction is part of our operating philosophy as change is constant and we’d rather poke holes in our own story, than have others do it.
Useful DIS links
Apart from the speaker programme, we also have a hackathon ahead of the main Summit, on 21-22 March, as well as tours of Berlin startups, the Berlin startup scene rated as one of the hottest in Europe if not the world.
Tour to the USA
Want to join us on our tour to the US in April 2015? Read more about it here.
We recently launched the new FIPP.com (in beta, while doing live testing and refinements). The relaunch is not only about look and feel, but even more so about us providing a platform to further enable the sharing of ideas, insights and opinions within our global network. If you have a story to tell, or are interested in contributing to FIPP.com on a regular basis, get in touch with our communications manager, Amy Duffin.
