3 Things: Fix Yo Face App, Window Ads, and Fit Shop-aaS
Happy Sunday! Each edition of 3 Things will contain a dive into 3 rabbit holes I’ve found myself going down recently. Subscribe to get each week’s edition straight to your inbox and if you enjoy it, please share! This past week, I’ve been thinking a lot about:
Fix Yo Face App
Window Ads for Vacant Real Estate
Fit Shop-aaS
1. Fix Yo Face App
It has been scientifically proven that smiling can not only trick your brain into feeling happier but can lower stress, boost your immune system, and prolong your life. Even faking a smile will elicit the same response and immediately lowers you heart rate and reduces stress. When you smile (real or forced), your brain releases molecules called neuropeptides which help fight stress and stimulate the release of neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphins, and seratonin. It’s even contagious like yawning. When you see someone else smile scientists have discovered that our brain has an unconscious automatic response that causes us to smile as well.
On a slight tangent, my favorite Peloton instructor is Alex Toussaint and he has this amazing phrase that he says at the beginning of his workouts: “find your focus, find your pace, and fix yo face”. He’s reminding us to smile and recognize how lucky we are that we woke up today and are able to even do a Peloton class. Every time I hear this I get a big grin on my face and it truly does make me feel happier.
I immediately wanted to build an app that sends push notifications at random times during the day with just the phrase “Fix Yo Face”, a funny or extremely cute picture (think puppies and babies), and a 60 second timer to encourage you to smile for a minute. There is an app that I also think is fantastic called WeCroak which helps people find happiness in their mortality by sending you 5 notifications at random intervals each day to remind you that we all die. Something very similar could be built to bring more smiles (and stress reduction/heath) to the world. I built un incredibly horrible prototype using Thunkable and Twilio for notifications but if someone builds this for real, i’ll 100% use it!
2. Window Advertising in Vacant Retail Space
I love to run and over the last few years, I’ve run on most streets in San Francisco. I started noticing how many retail stores were sitting vacant across pretty much every neighborhood, likely due to the high cost of rent and the challenges of mom-and-pop retail/restaurants. Some place stay vacant for months or even years which seems like a really inefficient use of space (plus its an eye sore) and ultimately someone is on the hook to pay for that real estate. I began taking pictures of all the “For Lease” signs to see if the property management companies or real estate brokerages were more concentrated or longtail (turns out its somewhere in the middle). San Francisco passed a proposition last year that would tax vacant properties $250 per linear foot of frontage in the first tax year the vacancy occurs, $500 for two consecutive tax years, and $1,000 for three or more consecutive tax years. The goal is to discourage landlords from keeping properties vacant until they get a high enough bidder.
Given the amount of vacant retail space in most major cities and the increase driven by Covid, it seems like there’s an opportunity to at least do something with the space that will generate some kind of revenue. Given most commercial retail space is in areas with high foot traffic, why not use the windows for OOH (out-of-home) ads? Each city governs who and how you can do OOH ads but it seems to be a gray area if the ad is placed on the inside of the property. Companies could print window decals that would be placed inside the store fronts (also helps protect against vandalism) and the placements could be sold by the week so that it’s easy to shut it off when the place gets leased. Brands already spend $10.5B a year on OOH advertising and that number is increasing not decreasing. In addition, there are now numerous ways to actually count foot traffic and “impressions” for savvier advertisers who want to calculate ROI. Landlords would at least earn revenue on the vacant properties and could even offset the cost of the taxes if they get implemented.
3. Fit Shop As-a-Service
While most shopping is still done in physical retail stores, e-commerce is growing at an astounding rate and will clearly be the larger trend for the future. Companies like Shopify have made it incredibly simple to get set up as a merchant and begin selling physical products to customers online. Some products don’t require touching or trying on but for the vast majority of products, shoppers still like to look and feel before buying. Many top e-commerce brands do pop-ups in major cities that can draw lines around many city blocks or create a few flagship stores in their top markets so that they still create physical touchpoints with their customers and allow people to interact with the brand in the real world.
A few innovative brands like Bonobos have made all retail locations into what they call Guideshops where you go to try on the clothes, figure out what you want, and then they order it for you online and have it shipped to your house. It’s a really seamless experience and who actually wants to walk around with a bag for the rest of the day? Smaller emerging Shopify brands don’t necessarily have the knowledge or the capital to start doing physical retail but what if a 3rd party company offered essentially a “fit shop as a service” which handled everything from real estate to merchandising to ordering/fulfillment. Brands could be co-located in larger spaces with brands that have overlapping demographics (imagine mini malls or department stores with just your favorite niche e-comm brands) to create a one-stop fit shop for customers. Data collected in Shopify could help find and match merchants and work to grow each other’s customer base.
Given the existence of Fulfilled By Amazon or the Shopify Fulfillment Network, the order placement and fulfillment would be easy. There could be a touchscreen kiosk (like you see at some McDonalds) where you can order from any of the brands within the store and it magically appears at your home a few days later. Since the stores are fit shops, they don’t need to carry inventory which means they can utilize the space much better. Consumers care more and more about who they purchase from and a fit shop can act like a mini museum educating customers on the company’s values, mission, history, where they source materials, any charitable or sustainability initiatives, etc. When you walk into a museum exhibit there is usually a floor to ceiling panel explaining all the context about what you’re about to see. Why couldn’t brands do the same thing to build a deeper relationship with the customers and align on a shared set of values.
That’s all for today! If you have thoughts, comments, or want to get in touch, find me on Twitter at @ezelby and if you enjoyed this, please share with a friend or two!
~ Elaine