Bezar.com is moving beyond its pop-up shop format to give artists and designers a permanent platform for selling their products, Storefronts.
Since its launch in March, Bezar.com has introduced four pop-up shops a day for emerging designers and larger brands in four categories, jewelry, accessories, home and art. The pop-up shops, which have featured brands such as Tom Dixon, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Keith Haring, Flos and RS Barcelona, typically last three or four days.
Bezar.com was launched by Fab.com cofounder Bradford Shellhammer.
“I always envisioned two business models under one roof,” Shellhammer recently said, fidgeting on a sofa at SoHo House in the Meatpacking District. “We get to dress our storefront every day [with pop-up shops],” he said. “I like that idea. But I want to move toward permanent concept shops.”
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With Storefronts, Bezar.com has transitioned from having several hundred products available through the pop-ups, to 3,000 to 4,000 items.
“I always wanted to provide a 24/7 platform,” Shellhammer said. “We were losing out on sales from shoppers who had intent. If you needed a certain size poster or a coffee mug, we really sucked. Now people are shopping on discovery and intent.”
Since its inception, Bezar.com has introduced more than 600 designers, Shellhammer said. Unlike Etsy.com, which has a certain crafty aesthetic, “our products are mass-produced with deep inventory. But our products don’t fit into Amazon or Etsy. We’re selling a connection to designers you don’t know about. I don’t want to sell anything that’s readily available.”
Bezar.com’s sweet spot is in the $65 to $85 range, but prices spike for fine jewelry and other categories.
Products have a “post-modern, colorful, in-your-face aesthetic,” Shellhammer said. They also have a sense of humor. For example, Wyatt Little’s ceramic planters shaped like upside down baseball caps and sneakers.
“Fashion apparel will be a new category,” Shellhammer said. “We tiptoed around it and into it. It’s more competitive and there’s the aspect of seasonality, but we want to do it. The other category we’re eyeing is artisanal food or the concept of a pantry.”
With the pop-up model, Bezar.com bought the inventory from the makers upfront. Storefronts participants will receive a commission and Bezar.com won’t own any merchandise.
“There’s always going to be another retailer that can sell more product than you can. Buyers are beating themselves up on margin points, charge backs and delivery times,” he said, explaining that Storefronts just takes a simple percentage.
“Storefronts is creating more fun for my job,” Shellhammer said. “To have a catalog of products, we can tell more stories. I can actually be a merchant.”