Have you ever seen an online store where every item is three dollars?
When I came across the website for Brandless I was intrigued. The first thing I saw was that everything on the website was only three dollars. At first, I did not believe it, but as I searched through the website I learned that it was true, besides a few exceptions. The store has a wide range of products such as food, cleaning supplies, pet supplies and baby products.
Brandless started in July of 2017 with the goal of making products accessible and affordable for people. The CEO, Tina Sharkey, saw a problem in the way retailers and brands markup costs for simple necessities. The company highlights, in their about me section, that many name-brand products have added on distribution costs, settlement costs and premium retail shelving. All these extra costs contribute to the price of simple items such as snacks, soap and cups. The company calls the middleman markups the BrandTax and they even trademarked that name. Brandless buys right from the supplier, eliminating all extra costs associated with branding.
All products on the Brandless website are named with what they function as. Dish soap is called dish soap. A porcelain mug is called a porcelain mug. Gummy fish are called gummy fish. The color of the bottle or packaging reflects what flavor is in the ingredients the packaging also has checkmarks on it with important information on the contents that customers would want to know, like no dyes, non-toxic formula and EPA certified. The philosophy for the company is “just what matters,” emphasizing that they prioritize the values, time and needs of their customers.
Sharkey says that Brandless is more about creating a community than generating sales. She believes that better does not always have to cost more. In the company about-me page, they highlight that relationships are two-way communication and that they want to hear from their customers. They give an example of a customer who wrote them a note asking for organic beef jerky and how they listened to the request and started selling the product. Brandless also partners with Feeding America and has donated over 3 million meals. In a video featuring employees, they emphasized that they like working for Brandless because of the people. This demonstrates that there is also a good internal culture and environment at the company.