#06: I Bought Electrolytes from Quince
A consumer brand building customer trust
Author’s Note: The previous four posts have centered around how humans interact with AI. In the next four, I’ll be switching it up to talk about recent trends in the way we interact with brands.
Another Note: This is not a paid advertisement by Quince. Simply a fan of the brand.
For those of you not familiar with Quince, I recommend checking them out. They are a fast-growing clothing and home goods online retailer, offering products crafted from sustainable materials. Think of similar look and material as Everlane, J-Crew, or Boll & Branch, but at a fraction of the cost.
What’s the catch? Quince ships your order directly from their network of factories, cutting out the many middlemen involved with global sourcing. They run a similar scheme as Temu or Shein, exploiting the de minimis loophole, where they ship under $800 in value at a time. If you order more than $800 worth of merchandise, they split up your order so that each shipment falls under $800 in value. I imagine they’ve begun to insulate their business from US policy changes, but that can be the topic of another blog.
Anyways, I was aggressively targeted on Instagram by Quince in the fall time. Generous “Spend X Get Y Off” type offers too. I needed a few staples (dress shirt, long-sleeved button down, cashmere sweater, bed sheets) so I decided to give it a shot.
Worth it. Clothes arrived quickly, neatly packaged, and each piece fit as described. I can’t stand shopping, so this was a big win for me. I thought at the time, “I’ll probably shop from here again”.
But I didn’t expect electrolytes to be my next buy from Quince.
I received an email in early February from Quince that they launched an electrolyte product. Well-crafted email, but certainly an odd combination. Nonetheless, my electrolyte supply was running low, and I took the bait. See a few pictures below of my direct-from-factory bounty.
Guess what? The electrolytes were… *cue Larry David voice*… pretty, pretty good. Smooth citrus flavor, dissolve rapidly in water (doesn’t clump up), and have the minerals I’m looking for.
Why is a clothing company even selling electrolytes? Shouldn’t they stay in their lane?
I’m sure the Quince category management team has the data to support this new product introduction. The conversation could have gone, “Oh, we believe this product fits in well with our customer-demographic and it’s a perfect cross-sell opportunity”. Probably something like that. And with their deep, global network of manufacturers, it’s likely one of them has already made electrolytes for a different company.
But the more important question to ask is, “Why did I buy electrolytes (a consumable product) from a clothing company?”.
Well, it’s because I trust Quince. They advertise that they source high-quality material products and offer them at a fraction of the cost. And then they deliver on this sales pitch as the clothes fit well and the material holds up. More for less? Why not go with Quince?
In most cases, brands differentiate through the story they tell. They aim to make you “feel” something when you use their products. You may feel fit when you are wearing Lululemon clothes, or confident when you sport a new pair of Ferragamo loafers to the office. Perhaps you feel a sense of community when you sign up for Strava and see how many other people enjoy sharing how far they ran today. Omnipresent brands spend many millions each year to get you to “feel” a certain way when you use their products to incentivize you to purchase again. Or they make you feel a certain way when you don’t use their products, so you purchase for the first time.
Since I’m aware of the vast effort brands put forth to tell their “story”, I’m always suspicious of the narrative they are selling. At the end of the day, I’m practical and I like quality products at reasonable costs. I don’t need to pay an exorbitant amount to “feel” an emotion evoked by a corporation.
Now, here’s a story I can get behind: transparency in product quality at a fair price. Enter Quince.
Brand assortment extensions are rarely as ambitious as the Quince x electrolytes launch. And this makes a lot of sense. It’s difficult (read: expensive) to gain customer trust, and so easy to lose it. Quince expanding its assortment from clothing to home goods is a more natural move. If you’re willing to buy a linen shirt, it’s not a huge stretch to buy linen bed sheets from Quince too.
But buying a consumable product from a clothing company? That’s asking a lot from a customer, since that customer can go buy electrolytes from an… electrolyte company.
With that being said, Quince gained my trust upfront, so I was willing to take a risk with them. I’m a part of their story now.