The Lowdown
- The Perfect Jean reimagines pants—and the experience of buying them.
- Gifting as a new channel to boost customer growth and nab market share in apparel.
- Zest deepens loyalty with existing customers, creates genuine relationships with new ones, and gives TPJ’s gifting experience two legs up on the competition.
Stretchy, Quality, Genuine: The Perfect Jean Disrupts Big Denim
Getting into the clothing industry is a notoriously bold choice. It’s a competitive field with direct-to-consumer ecommerce fashion forecasted to topple over the $1 trillion mark by 2025. The vertical’s growth is leaps and bounds beyond footwear, bags, and accessories combined, with denim snagging particularly loyal consumers.
Despite those objectively intimidating stats, Ovadia Labaton and Zack Arnold forged ahead and co-founded the antithesis to stiff khakis and blue jeans, The Perfect Jean. Together, the duo had a plan to build a brand that would make some noise, embody their edgy humor, and grow big with shoppers who found solace in their disruptive tone and product.
Once a brand was in place, their combined background in manufacturing and sourcing was serendipitous for squeezing into the apparel space and tackling their mission to “find a reasonably priced stretch jean that we could comfortably wear all day, every f#!king day.” Their two-legged vision went from dreamy idea to industry-shaking reality that would revolutionize more than pants.
Unzipping a Modern Customer Experience in an Old-fashioned Industry
The Perfect Jean (or as friends call it, TPJ) is changing the pants game. Ovadia and Zack have set a new standard, moving the vertical from starched to stretched, scratchy to soft, and tired to inspired. In addition to evolving a 150-year-old product, they also have their sights set on evolving the customer experience.
When it comes to jeans, people typically find the style that works for them and never stray. How is a newcomer like TPJ supposed to compete with that level of brand loyalty? The answer sits with the customer experience. Everything from acquisition to loyalty hinges on TPJ’s experience, which is anything but ordinary. The company resonates with shoppers of practically every demographic thanks to a strong voice, humorous tone, and genuine engagement at every phase of the shopping journey.
The customer relationship is important. Engagement is important. It’s crucial to maintain a consistent brand personality throughout the buyer journey.
— Ovadia, Co-founder
When it came to spreading brand awareness, acquiring new customers, and fostering hard-earned loyalty, TPJ’s inspiration came right from their customers. Folks who found the brand wanted more—not just for themselves, but also to share with friends and family.
It was evident that after creating a desirable product and brand, the next hurdle to clear (which is possible while wearing TPJ jorts) was finding a solution that would make it easy for customers to give the product to others in a way that stayed true to the existing brand experience.
The Perfect Jean Finds the Perfect Partner for Growth
Classic gifting mechanisms simply didn’t cut the mustard with TPJ. Giving virtual points didn’t align with their mission. Gift card apps were “too complicated and terrible.” And both strategies would require too much effort to get people to actually use. And when gift cards and credits go unused, it’s impossible for a brand to connect with the recipient and the chance to engage goes down the drain.
I’d never offer a gift card, but Zest matches what our customers ask for.
— Jessica, Head of Customer Experience
As Ovadia put it, growing through gifting means “someone has to actually receive the damn gift” instead of letting mystery points or credits sit in purgatory until they expire. When TPJ found Zest, teaming up was a no-brainer for their goals.
Zest’s experience inspires gifting across TPJ’s website, opening up new opportunities to grow and connect all while giving current customers the gifting solution they wanted. Zest strips the friction from sharing products with people, and it powers a gifting flow that engages everyone involved:
- Customers can instantly gift TPJ products with just a text, complete with a touching gift note, for immediate gratification and an answer to every last-minute gifting need.
- Gift recipients experience the surprise and delight of digital unwrapping, the ability to swap for a style or size that suits them best, and the opportunity to say “thanks!” in seconds.
- The Perfect Jean can connect in more ways by gathering valuable first-party data from both gift sender and recipient through marketing opt-in opportunities placed naturally in the gifting flow. Plus, since recipients can swap for a different size, support fields fewer returns and exchanges, saving time and resources.
“Zest’s button prompts the customer to give TPJ as a gift. Having it on the product description page is unobtrusive and important to the experience,” says Ovadia. “Zest’s customer flow gives us the opportunity to connect with customers because it’s about a specific product instead of being impersonal and generic, like a gift card.”
It’s a unique and memorable journey that sets TPJ apart from the crowd. Loyal customers can spread their TPJ love, new recipients have the best first impression, and TPJ can continue to grow through an engaged gifting channel that reduces returns.
Zest’s Gifting Journey Threads TPJ’s Long-term Goals
Zest adds engaging and exciting touch points throughout The Perfect Jean’s overall customer experience. The potential for driving deeper loyalty with gift senders and connection with gift recipients is huge—especially for a brand paving its own way in an established industry.
Modern customer expectations have shifted from prioritizing low prices to valuing experience, speed, and convenience. Zest seamlessly aligns with with these new ecommerce must-haves, which means serious possibilities for TPJ’s goals.
With The Perfect Jean’s devotion to good jeans and even better customer relationships, Zest is a platform the brand can count on to fuel long-term sales and customer acquisition. This fresh approach to gifting and growth is a supremely comfortable fit for The Perfect Jean’s ambitions.
