Referral Marketing Drives Double-Digit Sales

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

June 2014 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

Apparel retailer American Giant measures social marketing impact in real time with its SaaS-based referral marketing platform.

With just a little more than two years in business under its belt, American Giant is a start-up retailer on paper. But what the company lacks in history, it’s more than made up for in its baptism-by-fire experience with the fundamentals of e-commerce. When American Giant launched in February 2012, its motives were simple and pure. The company believed the world needed a better hoodie. In fact, it believed the world needed a complete line of high-quality yet affordable Americanmade casual wear. It needed sweatshirts, T-shirts, and sweatpants that fit better, looked better, and lasted longer than the market standbys. “We identified a false choice consumers faced in the cotton casuals market. They were forced to either tolerate poor quality or out-of-reach prices,” says Don Pillsbury, VP of sales and marketing at American Giant. So the company invested heavily in construction and design. It spent eight months testing and rejecting fabrics until it found the one it felt was worthy of constituting the iconic brand it believed it was building. It invested in U.S. manufacturing facilities. Then it went to market, with little more than high hopes and an e-commerce engine at www.american-giant.com.