MozillaStore

The General Idea

There's a lot of demand for Mozilla & Firefox gear -- anecdotally, it's something we hear quite often, and we've seen evidence of demand whenever we have a new product as part of a donations campaign.

And in addition to the clear benefit of a successful store -- donations revenue -- having a well-functioning, global store would be a great boost for community engagement and global brand awareness.

The goal would be something that's as close to global as possible, offering a variety of conventional and inventive Mozilla and Firefox merchandise in a well-presented way. Potentially, MozSpaces could also become retail hubs and provide ways to test new concepts.

Rationale

There are three, core drivers behind the development of a public-facing Mozilla Gear Store:

Revenue generator • Builds identity & engagement • People want it

The Mozilla Store would be both a revenue center and a brand enhancer.

We think that we could make between $100,000 and $300,000 per year, net, with greater returns in subsequent years. (As a baseline, we generated about $400,000 in 2012 through ambient channels and multiple direct campaigns, though only selling t-shirts.)

For users, access to broader gear -- currently, a Firefox t-shirt is the only item a member of the general public can get -- would provide new ways of identifying as an ally of the open web, and provide new and interesting ways for them to support the mission of building a better web.

Community Analysis (Demand)

Comparable Initiatives - Canonical, etc.

JoinMozilla
Our current t-shirt / donation order flow, mainly from Mozilla list.

GearStore
Gear request for contributors and Remos. Powered by Merch Mania.

MozillaStore/Storefronts
Selling merchandise in MozSpaces.

MozillaStore/Cafes
Installations in cafes (MakeThingsDoStuff)

Demand for Mozilla Gear

The Store

Front End

Product Offering

Products

MozillaStore/Products

Outreach & Engagement

Narrative

Channels

The Budget

Cost to Build

Revenue Model

We have prepared a revenue model for the online store:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AscGc9tzuVAHdHFyZG1iNzZJalVTTm9XSzFocnY1REE#gid=0

Assumptions:
Conversion Rate 2.5% (Industry Average is 3%)
Average Order $40.00 (Treehouse average is $70, current Mozilla t-shirt order average just under $40)
Margin 70% (variable)
Shipping cost $12.50 ($12.50 Average/Order)
Cost of Hosting/etc $75,000
Shopify is $3500/month - plus integration/customization

Variables:

Projections

Critical Success Factors

Long-term, the Mozilla Store must embody the following principles:

Mozilla-wide collaboration

Global

We have a global community, and, in our view, any store that only served some subset of that community would fall short. This means that we don't just need a solution that can ship anywhere, but one that can ship anywhere *at a reasonable cost* to the user.

Respectful of user data and privacy

Mozilla's strong standards around the collection, use, and retention of user data must be carried through by whatever vendor is chosen. There is a privacy vendor review that will be done with each vendor viewed as a real possibility.

Security

Anything involving payment processing must be Level One PCI Compliant. Mozilla's security team will review their codebase. Preference will be given to solutions that could be hosted and maintained on Mozilla servers if the code can be accessed and updated by Mozilla engineers.

Cost

A primary goal of this gear store is to serve as a revenue center for donations. We can spend what's needed, but cost will be a primary factor (within reason).

Merchandise quality

We will strive for a good balance of high quality and reasonable price in the merchandise we want to stock in the store.

Merchandise flexiblity

In addition to standard product lines, we should have fairly frequent turnover of merchandise along with limited edition and seasonal items.

Localizability

Mozilla's community is global; the gear store needs to serve that community by offering global fulfillment and making localization possible for both language and currency.

Donations and tax framework

Vendor analysis

We have performed an analysis of several e-commerce, sourcing and fulfillment partners and vendors. Since we do not want to turn into a fulfillment center ourselves, we've sought partners who are fairly full-service and offer something like a consultant relationship.

The analysis of each partner is here: MozillaStore/Vendors

Recommended Path

Bootstrap a North America store. Get it started; walk then run. Develop a beautiful, well designed, full featured Shopify storefront that can expand internationally and over the years Create a consultant relationship and test the waters. Treehouse: design, analysis, ordering, fulfillment, shipping, customer service Don't try drastic change or pin huge hopes; for near future, parallel with existing t-shirt donation stream (Don't frame this as NA first. Frame it as the security review and best vendor points to an unfortunately NA-centric approach at first. But we'll work to bring in a more global supply chain as sub-contractors.) We front cost of merch buy, per quarter, Manage risk. Treehouse: 40 percent of revenue. Expensive, but the ceded revenue is not something we could get without their help

   will put us in a good position for 1-2 years down the line when we can expand on this idea again

minimal risk right now; all external staff few dependencies less of a distraction on our team all investment in process, knowledge, product design and storefront is good for future

   but marginal cost of store is zero
   need to figure out another story for outside of North America
   Treehouse doesn't include the complexity of VAT, international shipping, etc
   Possibly subcontract with Merch Mania in Europe?
   long term:
   store for each region
   needs careful research and coordination
   continue to grow model out slowly:
   treehouse north america store
   merch mania UK store
   maybe another store for other regions
   let people pick the store that serves their needs better

Management Framework

The Team

   The development team will be responsible for making the store works and is successful.
   The store will be bootstrapped with administrative, development, and community staff on loan.
   The platform that's chosen will affect ongoing staffing needs
   It's possible that a short-term contractor will be needed soon, or that a new FTE will be needed when we crest over a certain revenue threshold.
   Attention requirements
   This  will depend on what is automatable, but someone will need to be  consistently monitoring functionality and inventory, at a minimum.

Strategic Oversight

   CMO, Head of Engagement, Head of Development

Ongoing Resource Requirements

   There will be substantial up-front costs, to build the store itself and buy initial inventory.