Fresh Clean Tees’ Matthew Parvis 4 months into his startup subscription business and growing 200% per month (episode 049)

9th May by Ellie

Matthew Parvis is the co-founder of the online only subscription business Fresh Clean Tees. Providing the best t shirt you’ll ever wear. They launched end of November 2015 – so only a few months in! 200% growth month on month.

Click to Tweet: Special Delivery – Monthly T-shirts – courtesy of Matthew Parvis of Fresh Clean Tees on @eComMasterPlan #podcast

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About the business

eCommerce Business Structure – Online Only
Product Range Scale – niche
On a Cratejoy platform
2 people in the business
Based in the US, selling mainly in the US
Key widgets in the website:
- SumoMe – for email capture
- Stripe – for payments

Listen to hear how Matthew Parvis got started in eCommerce

Most Awesome Thing Right Now

Matthew says the most awesome thing about Fresh Clean Tees right now is it’s simplicity. The response that he has seen – people have really brought into the idea. Fresh Clean Tees have now got subscribers from all over the US and they are received great feedback about their product.

On the Radar for the Coming Months

The most important things on Matthew’s radar for the next few months is to continue to find new marketing channels and tweak the acquisition process. They are currently trying social media and Google adwords. Matthew feels they need to find a better way to streamline the acquisition and get more customers.

Also in the pipeline is some interest they have received from a men’s subscription quarterly box who have been preliminarily approved to have Fresh Clean Tees in their 2^nd box.

Fresh Clean Tees are also looking to grow – we have had some people interested investment but we are not really that interested because we are seeing growth organically and they need to learn more about our business before they consider anything like that.

Listen to hear more about managing a subscription based eCommerce business

Starting a Subscription Business

Fresh Clean Tees went from an idea to a reality very quickly. Matthew came up with the idea in May 2015 and established the website domain name in June. From June to November the Fresh Clean Tees team went through stages of working really heavily on the business but still feeling that they needed to do more.

However, it seems their worries were a little unfounded with 200% month on month growth to date. Matthew credits the growth to working with Cratejoy – they have a front end marketplace on top of being a platform. Fresh Clean Tees have found this extremely effective and Matthew suggests that any subscription business that is working with one of these platforms takes advantage of what they can offer you. Matthew spent a lot of time on the marketplace listing – as much as he spent on the Fresh Clean Tees site. They now have a lot of reviews – so we appear near the top – presenting themselves as a reputable business.

You can hear about all this on the podcast, for free – right now…

eCommerce Book Top Tip

Rework by Jason Fried

eCommerce Traffic Top Tip

Matthew feels the most effective way to attract traffic is word of mouth there is no better way of getting people to your site – although it is obviously not that easy. He suggests being really creative with the content you publish – it might take longer to generate the types of traffic you like – but you will be a lot happier in a year’s time.

Tool Top Tip

Matthew recommends SumoMe he says it has so many little add ons – it easy to design and track the results. So many great tools in one.

Start Up Top Tip

Matthew says if you’ve got a great idea and you are really excited about it just do it – the hardest thing to do is take that first step. Just don’t mortgage your house before you know the business has legs.

If your business didn’t exist, which eCommerce Business Would you like to be Running?

Matthew chooses Jackthreads they are a men’s fashion that carry almost everything for men that are interested in fashion – great brand, team and business model.