How the Founder of Zola Grew Her Bottom Line by Giving Away Free ProductsTo grow its business, the CEO of the wedding-registry website added new services -- and gave them away for free.
This story appears in theOctober 2017issue of雷竞技手机版.Subscribe »
Since its launch in 2013,Zolahas had one way to make money: wedding registries. The company makes registries easier
and more efficient -- for example, offering the ability to curate them from dozens of brands, to delay shipping gifts until after the nuptials and to allow guests to pool funds into group gifts or honeymoon experiences. This has attracted hundreds of thousands of lovebirds to the site. Zola takes a 40 percent cut, on average, of gifts purchased directly from itsmarketplaceand a smaller slice of items purchased through affiliates.
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It's a straightforwardbusiness model, but last year, founder and CEO Shan-Lyn Ma was eager to expand. She knew what users wanted. "The number one request from couples was help with planning more of their wedding," Ma says. But she couldn't figure out how to do that efficiently. How does Zola build new services that complement its registry business?
