秒杀网购Fab.com的三个小秘密

    13个月前，Fab.com正式上线。它是一个限时抢购（flash sale）网站，主要销售设计感十足的产品，比如老海报，高端餐椅以及手工玻璃制品等。它就像是吉尔特集团（Gilt Groupe，美国时尚领域的电子商务零售商——译注）和MoMA store（美国排名前100名的创意B2C商城——译注）联姻的产物，而且备受追捧。Fab网的创始人杰森•高德伯格，布莱德福德•谢尔哈默，沙阿和沙迪帕在很短的时间里就已让这个网站从众多同类网站中脱颖而出。毫无疑问，这家位于纽约，由风险投资公司安德森•霍洛维茨基金(Andreessen Horowitz)和betashop等投资的初创公司风头正劲。

    如下是有关这个网站很可能不为人知的三大内幕。

    它发展迅猛，非常迅猛。Fab网站之前，类似网站每周用户数接近3万人时就已经宣告崩溃了。而Fab的用户数依然在持续增长。这主要是由不断增加的商品推动的。去年11月时，网站号称用户数达到100万人；现在，经常使用它的用户达500万之巨。高德伯格将这一成就归功于网站推崇质量至上，强调“情感驱动业务”。

    它拥有众多买手。Fab初次上线时，谢尔哈默亲手挑选售卖商品。但现在它拥有25名买手来挑选特色商品，其中多数都没有传统零售业背景。公司的180名员工谁都可以赞成或否决某一选定的商品，这使得网站的待售品类十分庞杂。当然，只要他们恪守公司对投资者的最高承诺：“人们一想到设计就会想起Fab”，就能拥有这种生杀大权。

    它早期是一个同志社交网站。布莱德福德•谢尔哈默和杰森•高德伯格共同创办了它，但它成立的初衷并不是成为一个商品交易市场，而是充当男同性恋群体的社交网络平台，最初名为Fabulis.com。高德伯格说：“结果男同性恋群体对它并不感冒。因为他们已经有Facebook这类选择了。”于是，去年6月，他们以Fab.com的名义重新推出了该网站，主要销售设计师服装、配饰和家居用品。

    译者：清远

    Launched 13 months ago,Fab.com is a flash sale site that sells design-y wares ranging from vintage graphic posters to high-end dining chairs and hand-crafted terrariums. It's like Gilt Groupe and the MoMA store had a baby. A very popular one. In short order, Fab's founders -- Jason Goldberg, Bradford Shellhammer, Nishith Shah and Deepa Shah -- have managed to make the site stand out from a growing crowd of similar projects. Needless to say, the New York City-based startup, which is backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and betashop, is surging.

    Here are three things you probably likely never knew about the site.

    It's growing quickly. Very quickly. Unlike a previous endeavor, which maxed out at nearly 30,000 weekly users, Fab.com's user base keeps climbing, propelled by a growing assortment of goods. Last November, the site reported 1 million users; now, 5 million members check it regularly. Goldberg attributes this to an emphasis on an "emotionally-driven business" fueled first and foremost by quality.

    There's a fleet of buyers. When Fab.com first launched, Shellhammer hand-picked the goods for sale. But now a group of 25 buyers, many of whom don't have traditional retail backgrounds, select which items are featured. Any one of 180 employees can suggest or veto a selection, and what ends up on the site can be a wide medley, so long of course, as it upholds the company's first pitch to investors: "When someone thinks design, they think Fab."

    It wasn't always a design site. Co-founded by Bradford Shellhammer and Jason Goldberg, Fab.com got its start not as a marketplace of goods but as a social network for gay men, dubbed Fabulis.com. "It turns out gay men didn't want it," says Goldberg. "They already had options like Facebook." So last June, they relaunched the site as Fab.com, selling designer clothes, accessories, and housewares.