Oodie: Key Success Factors, Globalization, and COVID-19 Impact

This report analyzes the key success factors of Oodie, a rapidly growing global brand in the retail clothing industry. The analysis covers several crucial elements, including effective inventory management, clear market positioning, and the ability to produce goods favored by the market. The report highlights Oodie's strategic use of social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram for engaging content and customer testimonials, its unique market positioning as a wearable blanket, and collaborations with pop culture icons to attract a younger audience. Furthermore, the report explores the impact of globalization, emphasizing how technology and declining trade barriers have facilitated Oodie's global expansion through drop shipping, international manufacturing, and access to a large customer base. The challenges faced by Oodie, such as competition and supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are also discussed, along with the brand's strategic responses, including a focus on product quality and leveraging its online presence. The report concludes with recommendations, emphasizing continued investment in social media marketing, strengthening supplier networks, and further expanding online business to capitalize on evolving market trends.

Key success factors of Oodie –
The key success factors in retail clothing are being able to control the stock on hand, having
a clear market position and producing goods which are favored by the market (Suzy 2022).
Oodie has been able to effectively use all these to become a global brand worth millions in a
short span of time. Oodie has leveraged the use of internet by creating effective and
engaging content on social media sites such as tik-tok and Instagram. From demonstrating
their products to customer testimonials, oodie creates small interactive videos to market its
product and this has helped them capture a large audience base within a very small time.
When it comes to having a clear market position, oodie has marketed itself as a wearable
blanket. This has helped the brand to create a clear and unique market position in the global
market. Also, by collaborating with a lot of pop culture icons (such as marvel, avengers, Star
Wars), Oodie has been able to capture the attention of the younger generation and has
been able to produce goods which are favored by the market. With regards to controlling
the stock on hand, in its initial days of business, oodie used drop shipping to deliver its
products to the customers. Drop shipping is basically the process in which suppliers send the
products directly to the customers. This helped oodie in the beginning to test their products
without having to incur extra costs of storing the products and having excess inventory on
hand. This helped oodie to understand its products before it could start building its
inventory.
Impact of Globalisation
a) The impact of globalisation on oodie has been positive. Technology is one of the key
drivers of globalization and the explosive growth of internet all around the globe has
made it easier for an organization to market its product to a larger audience fast and
with minimal effort (Ragtrader 2022). Oodie has been successful in using internet
(social media) as an effective tool to market their product globally in a very small
span of time. Another driver of globalisation is declining trade barriers which means
that oodie can get its products manufactured in a country with cheap cost of
production and then sell them worldwide using highly globalized product networks
(Brun 2017). Oodie has been successful in using techniques such as dropshipping in
the beginning to try different products from different sellers and picking out the best
ones. Also, it is able to manufacture its products in other countries which helps it to
bring the cost of production down and to deliver a good quality product at an
effectively lower cost.
b) The Opportunities created for oodie by globalisation includes easy access to a large
customer base (because of internet) and availability of sellers and transportation
around the globe (Oliva 2022)1. One of the major challenges for oodie has been that
a lot of other players have been able to copy the product and sell it at a substantially
lower price than oodie. Also, some of the competitors are big players and it is
difficult for oodie to compete with them on price alone.
c) The oodie has been able to use the opportunities very effectively to grow its business
into a global brand. The use of social media for marketing and international supplier
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network has helped oodie to leverage the drivers of globalisation for its growth.
When it comes to challenge from the competitors, oodie cannot compete with them
on price or product differentiation. Instead, it is competing with them on the quality
of the product. Oodie has marketed itself as a brand which uses ultra-soft fleece
exterior and sherpa fleece interior and it has tried to deliver higher quality products
than some of its competitors.
Impact of covid 19
The covid 19 pandemic has massively impacted the retail clothing industry, all the way from
suppliers to supply chains to retailers (Navarrete 2021). One of the biggest hurdles that
brands faced during covid was the shutting down of offline stores which impacted their sales
and added on to the expenses of paying high rent for all the retail shops. Oodie did not have
to face this issue as it does not have a physical store and it sells its products exclusively on
its own website. Also, since no shops were open due to lockdowns, a lot of customers
started to shop online. This, combined with the interactive social media presence that oodie
has, helped it to keep up its sales even during the pandemic.
One negative aspect of covid was that the brand is highly dependent on highly globalised
production networks for the manufacturing of its products which were disrupted due to lock
downs and border closures worldwide (Brydges 2020) This resulted in shortage in inventory
but the brand was able to tackle some of it by identifying what garments could still be
produced and delivered while incurring increased freight and transportation costs (Brydges
2021)
The evolving/changing Covid scenarios around the world has resulted in people moving to
online marketplace for all their shopping needs. This can be particularly good for oodie as
most of their business is online and they can leverage that to further expand their brand
globally. One way in which oodie can tackle the problem of disrupted supply chain is by
trying to work with local suppliers. Strong online presence combined with enhanced supply
chain can help oodie to keep expanding its brand globally.
Recommendations –
Social media has been one of the biggest weapons of oodie and the brand should continue
to make fun and engaging content online to attract more customers. Online marketing has
helped it to reach a wider range of audience within a short span of time. It should keep
using social media as an effective market tool. This would help oddie to make a name for
itself when it further launches its brand in other markets.
Also, since it is competing in the market on quality, it should try to make its network of
suppliers even stronger so that it can keep delivering on the quality. Having a strong
network of suppliers would not only help it keep the quality of products top notch, but it
can also help the brand to bring its cost of production down in the long run.
Since covid is still here, oodie should keep expanding its business online. Shifting to offline
retail stores can be capital intensive and for such a new company, taking such a big bet can

be bad idea. Instead, oodie should build a strong online presence and expand further into
the highly dynamic global markets.
References
Brun, A, Castelli, C & Karaosman, H 2017, ‘A focused supply chain strategy for luxury fashion
management’, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 544–563
Brydges, T., & Hanlon, M. 2020, ‘Garment worker rights and the fashion industry's response
to COVID-19. Dialogues in Human Geography’, 10(2), 195–198, viewed on 27 August 2022,
<https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820620933851>
Brydges, T., Heinze, L. 2021, ‘Changing geographies of fashion during Covid-19: The
Australian Case’, 1-11, viewed on 27 August 2022, <
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1557323/FULLTEXT01.pdf>
Castañeda Navarrete, J, Hauge, J & López Gómez, C 2021, ‘COVID 19’s impacts on global‐ ‐ ‐
value chains, as seen in the apparel industry’, Development Policy Review, vol. 39, no. 6, pp.
953–970.
Oliva, FL, Teberga, PMF, Testi, LIO, Kotabe, M, Giudice, MD, Kelle, P & Cunha, MP 2022,
‘Risks and critical success factors in the internationalization of born global startups of
industry 4.0: A social, environmental, economic, and institutional analysis’, Technological
Forecasting & Social Change, vol. 175, p. 121346.
Ragtrader 2022, ‘The Oodie founder Davie Fogarty talks top tips for eCommerce success’,
Ragtrader, viewed on 27 August 2022 < https://www.ragtrader.com.au/advisors/the-oodie-
founder-davie-fogarty-talks-tops-tips-for-ecommerce-success>
Suzy, O 2022, ‘Clothing Retailing in Australia’, IbisWorld, viewed on 25 August 2022
<https://my.ibisworld.com/au/en/industry/g4251/about>