Speaker 1: Oh, I'm spilling the tea today. In this bonus episode
Speaker 1: of Big.
Speaker 2: Business, we are going to be chatting about my experience
Speaker 2: with the Iconic.
Speaker 1: Now I did we mention the Yeah, we were talking
Speaker 1: about the.
Speaker 2: Iconic in like one of last week's episode about the
Speaker 2: free shipping and everything. Anyway, someone posted in our Fate
Speaker 2: Society Facebook group something really funny. They had shopped with
Speaker 2: us and shopped with the Iconic, and then they had
Speaker 2: reused their Iconic bag to send their return back to Fate.
Speaker 2: And she'd put a line through the Iconic with like
Speaker 2: a because you know how they've got like their big
Speaker 2: logo on their shipping bag, and then she'd put a
Speaker 2: big permanent marker line through it, and then underneath she'd
Speaker 2: like carefully drawn out the Fate logo to make it
Speaker 2: look like a Fate bag. And we just thought that
Speaker 2: was the funniest thing ever. Which, by the way, people
Speaker 2: send rittens in other brands' bags. Like, let's say you've
Speaker 2: shopped on the Iconic and Fate and then you want
Speaker 2: to send back your Fate return, but you've ripped the
Speaker 2: Fate bag apart. It's okay to put your return in
Speaker 2: another brand's bag.
Speaker 1: And send it back to us. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people get scared.
Speaker 2: And go oh, I don't want to send it back
Speaker 2: in a show po bag because like, no one's going
Speaker 2: to care if you do that. You can return your
Speaker 2: return in any business's bag and it doesn't matter. So anyway,
Speaker 2: I posted it in our Fate Society Facebook group and
Speaker 2: I said, whoever did this, like this made us crack
Speaker 2: up this morning because she'd like carefully written our logos
Speaker 2: so nicely to try and make it look like a
Speaker 2: Fate bag. And then I don't know what someone commented,
Speaker 2: but something about The Iconic, and then I replied saying, oh, like,
Speaker 2: I have spoken with the Iconic twice over the years
Speaker 2: about Fate being like stopped on the Iconic.
Speaker 1: And I have a little bit of tea when it
Speaker 1: comes to it.
Speaker 2: And someone reply and said, ooh, you should make a
Speaker 2: big business episode about this.
Speaker 1: So that's exactly what I'm doing today.
Speaker 2: I'm going to spill the tea on the two times
Speaker 2: that I've interacted with people that work at the Iconic
Speaker 2: and we were in talks about Fate being on the
Speaker 2: Iconic and then why we didn't end up going on it.
Speaker 2: Now I want to start this out by saying, I
Speaker 2: am a massive customer on the Iconic, like that is
Speaker 2: my number one store that I shop at, obviously outside
Speaker 2: of Fate. If I ever need something, I'll always get
Speaker 2: it on the Iconic. If I need an outfit, and
Speaker 2: like we don't have something that I'm looking for with Fate,
Speaker 2: I'll jump on the Iconic and buy something. I get
Speaker 2: a lot of my beauty products on the Iconic, all
Speaker 2: my shoes, Like I'm a massive fan of the Iconic.
Speaker 1: I want to start out by saying that.
Speaker 2: But I've had two interactions with people from the Iconic
Speaker 2: over the years, and I've gone into my emails to
Speaker 2: actually find some of these emails because obviously, the way
Speaker 2: the Iconic works is it's a marketplace, right, Like the
Speaker 2: Iconic have their own brands that they manufacture themselves, and
Speaker 2: like one of the women's fashion brands that they have
Speaker 2: on there is called Daisy. But it's a marketplace, like
Speaker 2: you can shop all the brands that you kind of
Speaker 2: know on the Iconic. It's just a marketplace where other
Speaker 2: brands can be for sale on there. And that's how
Speaker 2: they're so huge, because they just have hundreds, if not thousands,
Speaker 2: of other brands on their app.
Speaker 3: Do they just do their basic range or do they
Speaker 3: have like a larger range like you would have fade.
Speaker 2: Like, I'm not one hundred percent sure of what brands
Speaker 2: are the Iconics actual brands. I know, like on the
Speaker 2: women's side, the Daisy one is one of their brands,
Speaker 2: but I'm not one hundred percent sure, like how many
Speaker 2: other brands they actually have that are their own. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Also, if it's the first time you tune into an episode,
Speaker 3: I am producer X, so I'm not a random.
Speaker 1: Man on the random men.
Speaker 3: I forget to introduce myself and people like, who the
Speaker 3: hell is this man?
Speaker 2: So that's the way the Iconic works, Like when everyone
Speaker 2: knows that you can go on there, you can shop
Speaker 2: Tony Bianco Berllini, like they've got all brands on their platform, right,
Speaker 2: and as a business, you can sign.
Speaker 1: Up and be on their marketplace.
Speaker 2: So the first time that I ever spoke with anyone
Speaker 2: from the Iconic was in May of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: so almost three years ago now. And the Iconic have buyers, right,
Speaker 2: so the buyers reach out to the brand saying, hey,
Speaker 2: this is us. I'm the buyer for women's wear like
Speaker 2: they go out and find women's war brands. So they
Speaker 2: reached out to us in two thousand and twenty two,
Speaker 2: actually April twenty twenty two. I'm reaching out to you
Speaker 2: about the potential of working with the iconic Australia's number
Speaker 2: one fashion online retailer with twenty million visits per month
Speaker 2: and organic social.
Speaker 1: Following and blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: The team and I love your product and brand story
Speaker 2: and feel there is an alignment with our customers. I've
Speaker 2: attached to deck that goes into more detail about our
Speaker 2: business and the marketplace model, and I was so excited,
Speaker 2: like you could me in twenty twenty two, like this
Speaker 2: is three years ago. Fate is super small back then
Speaker 2: compared to what we are now. At that point, I
Speaker 2: think we went to a size twenty two or twenty four,
Speaker 2: which was huge back then because like, not many people
Speaker 2: were doing that. And I was just so excited when
Speaker 2: I got this email, like I was jumping up and down.
Speaker 2: I knew nothing about how it all worked, but I
Speaker 2: was so excited. So I went back to them and said,
Speaker 2: of course, like I'm I'm so interested. I would love
Speaker 2: to know more, like I was just ecstatic. And then
Speaker 2: they came back, which was the weirdest thing ever. And
Speaker 2: she said, well, I think I emailed and then I
Speaker 2: didn't hear back, and then I emailed again to like,
Speaker 2: hey like following up. So then that was April and
Speaker 2: now this is May. And then she said, sorry for
Speaker 2: the late response. Our mainstream team has reviewed and decided
Speaker 2: that Fate styles are quite similar to the assortment we
Speaker 2: currently already have online, so we might revisit in a
Speaker 2: year or two time instead, if that's okay.
Speaker 1: And I was.
Speaker 3: Sorry, yeah, that is the most bizarre I know ever they.
Speaker 1: Reached out to us. Yeah, And so I was like,
Speaker 1: of course.
Speaker 3: What do you mean you've reviewed? You would have had to.
Speaker 1: Review in the viewers first place find you. This is
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: I don't think they had any brands on there at
Speaker 2: that point that even went to a size twenty And
Speaker 2: so I got super upset.
Speaker 1: Right Lisa, and I said, hi, person's name.
Speaker 2: Ah, that's such a shame. I think a huge I
Speaker 2: think the huge point of difference for us is our
Speaker 2: size range. We currently go to a size twenty two
Speaker 2: or twenty four in all of our styles, So I
Speaker 2: feel like we could have been a great addition to
Speaker 2: your customer base with how hard it is for anyone
Speaker 2: above a size fourteen to shop.
Speaker 1: Pretty much anywhere.
Speaker 2: If you do ever change your mind, let me know,
Speaker 2: have a great week and hopefully speak soon.
Speaker 3: And did you hear back?
Speaker 2: No, never got a what I never heard back from that,
Speaker 2: which was fine, like no, that is I defended that.
Speaker 2: They reached out and said we love your brand and
Speaker 2: your story and everything, and then I said, oh, I'd
Speaker 2: love to chat and she's like, actually no.
Speaker 3: Upon reflection, we actually don't want to work with him.
Speaker 3: Don't send the email on the first place, do you
Speaker 3: due diligence?
Speaker 2: Yes, it was bloody weird, but again this was three
Speaker 2: years ago, so I kind of let it slide and whatever,
Speaker 2: you know, and fate was a baby back then, like
Speaker 2: we might have had two stores, then we might.
Speaker 1: Have just had the one.
Speaker 2: I don't remember, okay, So then I let that die,
Speaker 2: like that idea die.
Speaker 1: I didn't find out any of the pricing or anything like.
Speaker 1: We didn't get to that point.
Speaker 2: It was just like the intro email and then them
Speaker 2: saying actually no, we changed our minds. Sorry, And I
Speaker 2: was like, no worries and Then in October twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: so not too long ago. What's that a year and
Speaker 2: a half ago, we had another buyer reach out who
Speaker 2: I'd actually connected with on TikTok, and she again said
Speaker 2: she's been a massive fan of the brand for a
Speaker 2: while and I would love to see if you guys
Speaker 2: wanted to have a chat about the opportunity to have
Speaker 2: fate on the Iconic.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, here we go again.
Speaker 2: And so I actually then got on a call with
Speaker 2: this girl and this is no shame to this girl
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 1: What I'm about to tell.
Speaker 2: All of you, like this is quite literally just business,
Speaker 2: and here on big business, I just say how it
Speaker 2: is and I share my real experiences. So I got
Speaker 2: excited again. I was like, cool, like round two a
Speaker 2: couple of years later, let's have a look into this.
Speaker 2: And I scheduled in a call with this person as
Speaker 2: well as one of her colleagues.
Speaker 1: So it was me and then two of them, and
Speaker 1: we had.
Speaker 2: Like a discovery call thing, just an initial meeting where
Speaker 2: you kind of talk through what it's like to be
Speaker 2: on the Iconic. And what I learned is there's a
Speaker 2: lot of different ways that you can be on the
Speaker 2: Iconic because it's such a massive marketplace. They've got lots
Speaker 2: of different options and you can, for example, you can
Speaker 2: be on the Iconic but ship from your warehouse, right,
Speaker 2: so like orders come through the Iconic, but then you
Speaker 2: ship them, or they can like warehouse your stock and
Speaker 2: they can ship it. And there's just all different kinds
Speaker 2: of partnerships that you can do with them. So I
Speaker 2: did this call with them, and I was like, cool,
Speaker 2: send me over the pricing deck, like I need to
Speaker 2: know how much this costs, because that's one thing I've
Speaker 2: always been super curious about, is like, if you're on
Speaker 2: the Iconic, how much money are they actually taking? Like
Speaker 2: surely it can't be cheap. And so I I've still
Speaker 2: got it here. I'm not going to tell you how
Speaker 2: much it is exactly. But I had the call. It
Speaker 2: all went great, they were really lovely, and then I
Speaker 2: had them send through like the pricing guide and deck,
Speaker 2: and straight away I was.
Speaker 1: In my mind.
Speaker 2: My mind went to how on earth am I supposed
Speaker 2: to even make any money by being on the Iconic
Speaker 2: Because the cost to be on there and how much
Speaker 2: they take of every sale, it was just astronomical and
Speaker 2: don't quote me on this, but I believe like they
Speaker 2: can put your stuff on.
Speaker 1: Sale as well.
Speaker 2: Like I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I just
Speaker 2: remember looking at all these numbers and saying, oh my god, like,
Speaker 2: I don't even know how we're supposed to make money
Speaker 2: if that's how much they're taking. And from what I
Speaker 2: could gather based on the conversations that I've had and
Speaker 2: my research is I think for brands to go on
Speaker 2: the Iconic and be on their marketplace, you're going on
Speaker 2: there for the exposure you're going on there to be
Speaker 2: exposed to. They would have millions of customers. Like that's
Speaker 2: I think the number one reason why you'd want to
Speaker 2: go on there. And if I was to put on there,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't be to make money because by the time
Speaker 2: they take all of their percentages and everything and the shipping, like,
Speaker 2: you're not really making any money. It's more so just
Speaker 2: from an exposure standpoint.
Speaker 3: If you did decide to go on there, now, would
Speaker 3: you put only a limited kind of range on there
Speaker 3: to get that exposure and hopefully people will then kind
Speaker 3: of click through or search fate, yeah, as it comes
Speaker 3: to your store.
Speaker 2: And I remember talking with them about that, and I
Speaker 2: think you can just pick and choose like your best
Speaker 2: sellers or whatever. But again, this was like a year
Speaker 2: and a half ago, so I don't exactly remember, but
Speaker 2: I kind of went back to them after a little
Speaker 2: bit and I said, I've got the email here. As
Speaker 2: excited as we are at the idea of being aligned
Speaker 2: with the Iconic, we aren't too sure how he would
Speaker 2: actually make money with the commission being and I gave.
Speaker 1: Her the I can't wait for you to tell me that,
Speaker 1: and then I.
Speaker 2: Said, I mean no offense by this whatsoever, as I
Speaker 2: completely understand just how big the Iconic is and that
Speaker 2: everything is priced the way it is for a reason.
Speaker 2: But I said, I am wondering how brands really make
Speaker 2: money being on your platform, question Mark, Like I was
Speaker 2: just genuinely like, I actually want to know unless you're
Speaker 2: a business that has like an extreme profit margin, which
Speaker 2: I wish we did, but the reality of it is
Speaker 2: like you don't.
Speaker 3: But like Adadas and all those brands that are sold
Speaker 3: on their.
Speaker 2: Their profit margin would be so much higher than us.
Speaker 2: So I went back and said, like, I'm wondering how
Speaker 2: brands make money being on your platform. My guess is
Speaker 2: having super low production costs and marking up the retail
Speaker 2: price high so there is a huge profit margin. Or
Speaker 2: would you say that the main benefit for brands being
Speaker 2: on the iconic is more for from the exposure and
Speaker 2: accessibility side of it. Again, I mean no harm by this,
Speaker 2: and I totally respect the business model entirely. It may
Speaker 2: not just be financially the best choice for us at
Speaker 2: this stage.
Speaker 1: I never heard back.
Speaker 3: No email back.
Speaker 1: I never heard back.
Speaker 2: But again, like I was saying, and like, right now,
Speaker 2: this isn't the best fit for us, but I would
Speaker 2: have loved, like there's a few questions in there with
Speaker 2: question marks, I would have loved some clarity totally.
Speaker 1: And that was that.
Speaker 2: And so that was in October twenty twenty three, and
Speaker 2: then my reply I was in November. I never heard back,
Speaker 2: and again, like this question was probably out of this
Speaker 2: buyer's scope of.
Speaker 1: Work kind of thing.
Speaker 3: I find that so professional.
Speaker 2: Though, even if it was just like a hey, yep,
Speaker 2: completely understand, you know, every business is different, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: But I just never heard back.
Speaker 3: But depending on what answer she gave you, that could
Speaker 3: have it could have changed in mind, do you know
Speaker 3: what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: She could have pushed for it and like shown success
Speaker 2: of other businesses that have been on there, she could
Speaker 2: have spoken more about like the exposure and that we
Speaker 2: would be way more accessible to more people if we
Speaker 2: were on that.
Speaker 3: I just saw a potential. Now that's no commission for me.
Speaker 3: I'm out, That's what I think.
Speaker 2: So those are my two experiences with going on to
Speaker 2: the Iconic, And if I was to ever chat with
Speaker 2: them again now I wouldn't do it. The commission was
Speaker 2: far too much that we wouldn't make money, but I
Speaker 2: get that it would expose us to lots of potential
Speaker 2: new customers. But after like seeing all the pricing and
Speaker 2: how it works, I was like, this is just not
Speaker 2: for me. I don't understand how we would make money,
Speaker 2: and we would still be doing a whole lot of
Speaker 2: work like that was with us still shipping all the
Speaker 2: orders and everything.
Speaker 1: So that's my tea. No shame to the Iconic.
Speaker 2: I would be scared to know how many orders I've
Speaker 2: placed on the Iconic, Like it's actually quite dangerous, don't.
Speaker 3: I don't really shop there.
Speaker 2: That's like my one place that I shop because they've
Speaker 2: got everything that they've got makeup skincare a.
Speaker 3: The deal's good.
Speaker 1: They do have a lot of.
Speaker 2: Deals often and like I've got the app and you
Speaker 2: always get the notifications and whatever. They do lots of sales,
Speaker 2: but that's just like my go to place to shop.
Speaker 2: And again, like they're shipping is so fast, especially you
Speaker 2: here in Sydney.
Speaker 1: You could order something and it could come to date.
Speaker 3: Are they trade based yes, Oh, because I'm I mean
Speaker 3: not so much anymore. I was such an a sauce boy.
Speaker 2: But it's but like even me and Newcastle, like most
Speaker 2: of the time I can get something within one or
Speaker 2: two days, which is really good. But in Sydney they
Speaker 2: do same day delivery and certain brands like they're really good.
Speaker 1: And this is no shame to the Iconic.
Speaker 2: I think they're an extremely aspirational business, you know, and
Speaker 2: they're fucking massive, Like let me look.
Speaker 1: Up the Iconic revenue three hundred and six hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five million, wow in twenty twenty four. Like they're
Speaker 1: extremely inspiring. But I've just had two weird encounters.
Speaker 2: With them that's left kind of a bad taste in
Speaker 2: my mouth. And also like I just couldn't afford to
Speaker 2: go on there because like we just wouldn't make any
Speaker 2: money at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: But I thought that's a story worth sharing with.
Speaker 3: That some yummy tea if anyone has any because I
Speaker 3: know I have some follow up questions, but our bonus
Speaker 3: can't go on forever a bonus. But if you have
Speaker 3: any follow up questions, head onto the Big Business Podcast
Speaker 3: Instagram send them through.
Speaker 1: Yeah, send us a DM. We would love to hear
Speaker 1: your stories.
Speaker 2: But anyway, there's my tea when it comes to the
Speaker 2: Iconic and you're definitely not seeing fad on there anytime soon,
Speaker 2: but still love you Iconic.
Speaker 1: I'm probably one of their number one bloody customers.