Fab. Email Direct Marketing with Style and Strategy

I tend to swiftly unsubscribe from most marketing emails. If I sign up for a retailer's list (usually for a 10% discount) it's usually only a matter of days before I cancel it.

One exception to my take-no-prisoners approach is an email marketing-based online retailer called Fab. Fab.com positions itself as a product curator, rather than just a seller, gathering an always-interesting mix of products that combine form, function, and frequently, humor.

Today, February 3rd, the product mix highlighted on the homepage includes vintage Kantha quilts from India, an air purifier that looks like an elegant sculptural vase, and Japanese toothbrushes made out of all-recycled materials, sold in sets with names such as "Rasta Trinidad" and "Fresh Nerd." The buyer that selected the product weighs in in a speech bubble underneath the description of each product, lending a personal shopper feel.

The product mix is always pretty fab (even if I'd never buy a statement toothbrush). But more importantly, Fab engineers a sense of exclusivity. Fab doesn't entreat you to "Join Our Mailing List!"--they ask you to become a member, similar to the insider appeal of members-only Gilt Groupe, a high-end fashion retailer that hooks its members up with exclusive deals on designer closeouts.

Because the magnitude of consumer choice is at an all-time high thanks to online shopping, and because environmental and economic concerns as well as an increase in digital property has lessened the human desire to own physical goods (especially in Generation Y) you'd think yet another online retailer dealing in a potpourri-like mix of less-than-necessary objects would be a poor horse to bet on. However, each of the emails Fab sends out advertise a closely curated selection of products that are only available for a few days. Emails state when the sale starts in Eastern Standard and Pacific time zones. And as I've observed, products frequently sell out before the close date, engineering that pre-Internet sense of scarcity.

Fab also times its product selections carefully--this week I got an email with a "game night" theme--and allows its members to tailor their email preferences to their specific interests. There's the email you get if you're a foodie, one for women's and men's fashion, and many other categories, some straightforward, some sly. At the moment there are two website categories for Valentine's Day items: a "Nice Valentine's Shop" and a "Naughty Valentine's Shop."

Fab is moving past merely making useful products available conveniently: it focuses on products that delight, that express the owner's identity as they serve their purpose. They're engineering a sense of scarcity to counteract the paralysis of choice that often stops consumers in their tracks. And in a time when digital belongings hold more sway over our lives, they're differentiating themselves by curating a handpicked selection of the whimsical, the handmade, the one-of-a-kind. Fab indeed.