elope's new Sloth costume
By Ed Avis
It’s not often that a major manufacturer gets acquired by a customer, but that’s exactly what happened a year ago when Fun.com acquired elope.
“Fun.com is one of our oldest customers,” explains Kevin Johnson, chief excitement officer of elope, which is known for its creative costumes, hats and other accessories, many focused on animals. “About five years ago we started talking about how great it would be if we combined the companies to leverage our strengths -- Fun.com’s strengths being a fantastic online marketer and elope’s strength in the product development area. About a year and a half ago we said, ‘Let’s do this.’ So we started moving towards combining the companies and it was finalized in June 2020.”
Combined Strengths
Fun.com started as bricks-and-mortar costume retailer in 1992 and dived into the internet sales area in the late ‘90s. The company is a major player in online costume sales today with over 60,000 items available. elope, which was founded the same year as Fun.com, has focused on its design and manufacturing business and found online sales efforts somewhat distracting, Johnson says.
“We were spending a lot of time and energy trying to navigate the complexities of online retailing,” Johnson says. “Back in 2015 or ‘16 we were selling to any online retailers that wanted to buy from us, but we realized they were competing with each other and driving the prices down. We didn’t want the online pricing to be lower than bricks-and-mortar pricing, and we soon discovered that the only way to do that was to do it ourselves.”
Deciphering the complexities of online retailing, was simply not a good use of resources. Instead elope focused on the enormous task of designing and manufacturing costumes – elope released 430 new products this year.
“So having Fun.com handle that piece of the business has allowed us to focus on what we do best and what we enjoy doing. We enjoy coming up with new innovative, fun products. The biggest change since the acquisition has been not having to worry about the online piece of the business and just develop new products.”
For Fun.com, merging with a manufacturer gives them a new profit center and access to all of elope’s latest products. A press release issued after the merger stressed that Fun.com’s knowledge about what products customers search for online will help the combined company get new products to market quickly.
“I have worked with elope for many years,” said Tom Fallenstein, Fun.com CEO, in the press release. “Their product quality, customer focus and unique culture always matched Fun.com. We worked great together as customers of elope and I am excited to continue to work together as partners.”
New Products, Obscure Animals
Fun.com employs 50 product designers in the United States and an equal number at the factory they own in China, Johnson says. In 2021 that combined team has created such new products as accessories for Disney costumes, a new line of products for the Cruella movie, and many new animals. (See a gallery of some of elope's new costumes below.)
“We’ve really said, ‘What animals are missing in the marketplace?’” Johnson says. “And then we’ve gone after more obscure animals -- such as sloths, parrots, flamingoes – so our animal line has expanded a lot.”
Johnson explains that elope’s relationship with Disney results in a lot of licensed product that can drive sales, but the majority of the company’s business comes from their own designs, known as the “elope originals.”
Halloween 2021: Looking Big
Johnson says elope’s sales have been good so far this year, and he anticipates a great Halloween season.
“We’ve noticed a huge uptick in our brick-and-mortar business in the last two months. It keeps getting bigger and bigger,” he says. “The biggest uptick has been in our attractions business – amusement parks, dinner theaters, Renaissance festivals. Those customers started putting in orders six to eight weeks ago, and they underestimated, so they’ve been reordering like crazy.”
Regular bricks-and-mortar retailers have been more cautious, Johnson says, but he’s optimistic that that situation will change as Halloween nears.
“Halloween 2020 was very good for us. I think most people were surprised at how good it was. So now I think no matter what happens this year, Halloween is going to be big, because even if there are COVID restrictions, we know Halloween can happen.”
The only concern Johnson has is supply. Though elope’s orders from their Chinese factory have already arrived, he knows some manufacturers are being affected by slower shipments from that country.
And will retailers order enough product to take advantage of a big Halloween this year?
“We’re encouraging our customers to put an order in and lock that product in, and if you have to cancel, fine, because we allow that with no penalty,” he says. “At least then you know you’ll have product to sell. I worry that the mom-and-pops will sell out early and won’t be able to get more product. They won’t be able to fulfill the potential of what could be the biggest Halloween ever.”
As for elope, a big Halloween would just be the start of a growing future.
“We designed 430 products this year, and we’re planning to double that for next year,” Johnson says. “We’re hiring new designers and expanding to new product categories and adding new licenses. So we’re going whole hog on expanding development and bringing in more products.”
Matt Johnston
