Most online retailers that get started without raising outside capital must find free or low-cost ways to get attention. That’s been the strategy for Two Blind Brothers LLC, a three-year-old apparel brand that’s drawn traffic to TwoBlindBrothers.com through an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ TV show, a low-cost social media video advertising strategy and a novel holiday 2018 promotion that asked consumers to buy products without knowing what they were buying.

That “Shop Blind” pitch might not work for many online retailers, but Two Blind Brothers has an unusually compelling backstory.

It was founded by brothers Bradford and Bryan Manning who suffer from Stargardt disease, a degenerative condition that gradually robs people of their central vision. They created a line of clothing that feels soft to the touch, knowing that visually impaired shoppers like themselves often rely on touch when buying clothes. And they give all their profit to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, a nonprofit organization that funds research into curing retinal diseases like Stargardt.

In their January 2017 appearance on daytime TV talk show “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” the two brothers explained their mission, and DeGeneres told the audience she had examined the shirts the Mannings were selling. “The clothing is soft, it is great and all the money is going to find the cure,” she said. Then, she handed the Mannings an oversized check for $30,000 worth of shirts, compliments of online photo-processing retailer Shutterfly Inc., which had a philanthropic agreement with DeGeneres to donate $2 million to various charities.

That video of the Mannings on DeGeneres’ TV show has been viewed more than 3.1 million times on YouTube. And it quickly led to more publicity, including coverage later in January 2017 on the NBC Nightly News.

Two Blind Brothers’ founders explained their mission in an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

The attention they were getting led the Mannings last year to try a novel holiday promotion: They would ask consumers to make purchases without knowing what they were buying.

In an online video explaining the “Shop Blind” campaign, the two brothers described how blind people often must trust strangers, whether asking directions on the street or asking a waiter to recommend the best dishes on a menu. “Here’s my question: Would you trust us?” Brad Manning says in the video. “Would you buy something you cannot see, like the 180 million people in the world that are visually impaired?”

Bryan Manning then explained that they had removed from TwoBlindBrothers.com all product descriptions, images and prices. Instead, visitors to the site would be given three options—they could buy products priced at $32, $69 or $89. But, whichever they chose, they would be making the purchase  without knowing what they were buying.

The “Shop Blind” campaign ran from Nov. 6 to Dec. 27, 2018, and sales spiked. Without disclosing sales figures, Manning says the e-retailer booked four times more revenue during November and December 2018 than it had for the first 10 months of the year.

And many online shoppers clearly responded to the message of the “Shop Blind” promotion. The conversion rate for visitors who arrived on TwoBlindBrothers.com from the “Shop Blind” video on YouTube or from ads built around the video was 5%, versus typical rate of 1.5%. (Bradford Manning explains that its conversion rate is relatively low because many visitors arrive after seeing online articles about the company, and may be coming to learn more, rather than to shop.)

Of the orders shoppers placed, 70% were for the $32 item, and the rest divided equally between the other two price points, Bradford Manning says.

Bradford, left, and Bryan Manning explain their “Shop Blind” campaign.

Targeted social ads

To further increase conversion, Two Blind Brothers recently expanded its line beyond the T-shirts, polo shirts and hoodies it first offered. “We had a very limited line, and if someone loved our story we didn’t necessarily have a product they would wear,” Bradford Manning says. New products include backpacks and jewelry.

It’s just to get people to stop their thumbs when they’re scrolling through.
Bradford Manning
Two Blind Brothers

The small e-retailer—there are only six employees, including the Mannings—still hasn’t raised any outside capital, and thus relies on relatively low-cost marketing strategies to attract new customers.

One strategy is to…

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