Case Profiles
Case Profile: Joe Button – When Necessity is the Mother of Invention
- 4th November
- Natasha Sholl 100
Joe Button founders Melissa Lee and Modi Song knew that they needed a tailor-made business strategy for their tailor-made shirts. We find out how the Joe Button brand went from an idea to a reality.
The idea for Joe Button first came about when co-founders Modi Song and Melissa Lee were still working in their corporate finance jobs.
Smart looking shirts were a necessity in the high-powered Deloitte world, but they could never find ones that were made of premium quality cotton, fit them well and were also affordable. ‘There was always one missing element,’ says Song.
In 2009, Song went to Hong Kong and visited a tailor to get some business shirts made. When she returned, colleagues asked her if they could also get some shirts made through her tailor. That was when she realised there was a gap in the custom-clothing market.
‘We deliberated for a long time before deciding to quit our corporate jobs and focus on bringing this concept to an online platform so that we could offer this service to everyone. People shouldn’t have to travel overseas just to get high quality fitted clothing,’ Song tells us.
Song and Lee realised instantly that they needed a strong business model. ‘Our business model is very different to both traditional retail and traditional online and this is reflected in the price of our products. We don’t have the heavy overhead costs of traditional retail or the storage and logistics costs of online businesses that store their entire inventory in large warehouses.’
The Jo Button e-commerce model is based on the concept of mass customisation, which means that every single product is individually made to the customer’s wishes and doesn’t get produced until the customer submits an order.
‘Our customers go onto our website, design their shirt or shirtdress on our 3D model until they’re happy with their creation. Our tailors will then receive the order and start crafting their unique shirt or shirtdress. We do not hold any stock because our tailors do not mass produce anything and make every single shirt based on the designs that are created by our customers.’
Song and Lee knew that they needed to invest strongly in the basics to make their business work. ‘One of our major challenges was finding the right supplier who was trustworthy and willing to meet our very specific needs,’ says Song. ‘It was also very important to us that they had adequate processes in place as well as rigorous quality controls because as an online business selling customised products, we were very concerned about keeping the number of product returns at a minimum.’
Gap in the market? Strong business plan? Basics sorted? Tick, tick, tick. Next up we speak to Modi Song about the foundations of the website and the Joe Button online retail strategy.
