Publication Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2005
'BeZazzled'
'BeZazzled'
(August 24, 2005) Palo Alto company offers personalized merchandise through the Web
by Aurora Masum-Javed
After searching through dictionary after dictionary, Zazzle creator Robert Beaver grew exhausted with searching for the perfect company name.
In the midst of the dot-com boom, every word imaginable already had its own domain. From acronyms like "ecod" (electrical commerce on demand) to the bizarre "irutabaga," Beaver struggled to come up with a name that would satisfy his co-creators and sons Jeff and Bobby Beaver. Finally, sitting on the floor of Borders, Robert found the word "zazzle" at the end of a slang dictionary. A derivative of pizzazz, the name fit the personalized e-commerce company perfectly.
"It means 'to embellish something,' which is exactly what we do. We take something ordinary and make it personal, unique," Robert Beaver said.
After developing a new manufacturing technology to make personalization easier and more efficient, Robert and his sons launched a Web site in 2003 where consumers could create their own apparel, posters and prints. After two years, the Palo Alto-based company has grown to include greeting cards, postcards and most recently postage stamps.
Along with growth in product choice, Zazzle secured $16 million in investments in July. With the financing from John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures -- two of Google's early backers -- Zazzle is aiming t0 expand its market and improve its site.
"At first we were reluctant to accept the offer. We were very focused on growing the business our way, and we had a set path. What they presented to us was the inspiration and the experience to help us switch from a really serial company to operating in parallel," Bobby said.
Initially, Zazzle grew without any marketing and just two programmers -- Jeff and Bobby. Depending on word of mouth, the e-commerce site grew on its own, drawing in about 1 million visitors a month. With all of the publicity that has come with the venture capital money, Zazzle has more than doubled those hits.
It's no surprise that Zazzle is so popular. For years, people have made their own T-shirts for races and events. As college students at Stanford University, Jeff and Bobby observed the high demand for personalized apparel. They also realized how inefficient silk-screening technology was. With a father who had business as well as manufacturing expertise, the two boys felt compelled to try their hand at entrepreneurship.
"I was a junior at Stanford when we first started kicking around ideas about starting companies," Bobby said. "We became fascinated with the notion of on-demand manufacturing, specifically the apparel industry.
"Printable t-shirt technology was very antiquated, and it was tough to actually go through the process. We wanted to manufacture things on the fly and at a very high quality. The market place notion spawned from that."
The Zazzle site allows consumers to browse through thousands of images -- which include Disney characters and historical photographs from the Library of Congress as well as the creations of other customers -- and put together their own personalized products.
Buyers can look through galleries created by people from around the world, or turn their own photographs and artwork into T-shirts and posters and become contributors themselves. Whenever a contributor's work is purchased, the creator receives a portion of the profits.
Along with the freedom to manage and customize their own galleries, contributors can also send and receive feedback. "It's exciting to be a part of a marketplace that is connecting people by their interests and likes," Bobby said. "I could find someone from France that enjoys the same things I do."
The Beavers also listen to contributors concerning future changes. Along with "hiring like crazy," Robert said Zazzle will use the new money to improve the functionality of the site and increase the span of products. Reluctant to give any specifics, Robert emphasized that Zazzle's main goal is to meet the demands of its customers, which are often disclosed in contributors' emails.
"Our users really own Zazzle. They create the products. They create the community," Jeff said.
Although, there are several competitors out there, the Beavers feel they have found a niche. With a large variety of products, guaranteed satisfaction and a promise to mail out an order within 24 hours, Zazzle is unique. The key to their success lies in the manufacturing process. While Jeff and Bobby created the Web site, one of Robert's main tasks was to perfect the technology.
After building five machines that were all more effective than silk-screening, Robert was crushed to discover that one, new brand of Tide detergent washed away 70 percent of the shirts' colors. Left with the decision to either warn consumers not to use this specific detergent or start over after a year and a half, Robert and his sons opted to develop another technique.
The process they use today works with all detergents, and is faster and more cost effective than silk-screening.
"I think in general, there's this 'wow' factor that people don't really understand until they purchase. What Zazzle is doing is taking something that is digital and turning into something that is real, tangible. Customers experience a really meaningful and personal end result from the site," Jeff said.
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