Mass Customization Enablers I: Zazzle Acquires Confego to Move the Company beyond BtoC Customization Business

When Brennan Mulligan, founder of Confego, told me that he sold his company to Zazzle, this transaction made a lot of sense for me. With Confego, Brennan had helped other companies like Nike, Rebook, or Timberland, to open mass customization businesses, based on the experiences he gained by working at Timbuk2, the messenger bag customizer, going into business more than 12 years ago (Timbuk2 was founded by Rob Honeycutt).

Confego, a San Francisco Bay Area-based company, has helped in the past years large retail brands to offer customizable versions of their products. The company's primary role is to build and maintain supply chains that are optimized to source customized products quickly and efficiently. While Confego also provided a proprietary, web-based order management software to link contract factories directly to client web sites and other points of purchase, their special focus was more like a boutique consulting firm, helping big brands to understand mass customization in lager detail.

And Zazzle? Like Cafepress or Spreadshirt, at Zazzle http://www.zazzle.com anyone can create and share one-of-a-kind products like apparel, posters, and greeting cards. Zazzle combines on-demand manufacturing, an online community, a huge collection of customizable digital images and different toolkits to empower consumers to create their products. In addition, individuals can choose to become contributors by sharing their unique creations in Zazzle's public galleries. Within these galleries, anyone can browse, comment and connect with others who share their interests. Contributors also earn royalties every time their creations are purchased by others.

So how can this consumer playground ( “Internet's Creativity Marketplace(TM)” is Zazzle’s claim) match to Confego’s boutique BtoB focus? Well, the core of both companies was to enable others to sell custom products, either brands or individual users. And both companies did utilize existing brands: Confego helped large mass production brands to go customization. Zazzle played with brands twofold: First, they used big entertainment brands as part of their merchandising strategy to offer branded images of cartoon characters, movies, etc. Secondly, they created the user brands: Create your stuff, name it, and sell it to everyone.

The Confego acquisition by Zazzle now combines these areas. As a result, Zazzle arrives as a great enabler of customized brands, on the retail, consumer, and merchandising level. And so the press announcement is full of joy:

"This relationship marks the beginning of a new generation of customization for Zazzle," said Robert Beaver, CEO and co-founder of Zazzle.com. "New brand partnerships mean new choices for our customers who are always looking for better means of self expression."

"The creativity of the Zazzle community is a perfect fit with our current offerings," said Brennan Mulligan. "Consumers have come to expect more for their money. The growing availability of fast, easy and affordable customization is empowering shoppers to get exactly what they want, without being force-fed what designers are offering."

And Zazzle gained more: Confego co-founders Brennan Mulligan and David Gross will become part of the Zazzle team. As a pioneer in the field of customization, Mulligan will help Zazzle achieve limitless customization that provides consumers a unique finished product almost immediately and at an affordable price. Confego has perfected the manufacturing and fulfillment process, allowing delivery of custom shoes in just one week, as opposed to the three to five week lead time currently provided from similar vendors. Confego also brings expertise in the customization of the construction of products, including cut, color, fabric choice and custom embroidery.

Comments

[Phil]

Hey Frank,
another great article!
Just wondering if you know how Confego has perfected fulfillment. Zazzle claims they ship orders within 24hours. Is it mainly because production in located within the U.S as opposed to the far east?
Many thanks,
Phil.