The Rise & Fall Of Fabric.com
As you may or may not have heard, Fabric.com recently announced that they were getting out of the fabric business completely. In this blog, I will discuss the rise and fall of fabric.com among a few other things related to the company.
For starters, let me clear up one major misconception that I keep hearing. Fabric.com was owned by Amazon.com. Many people think that Amazon is now going to buy Fabric.com, but that is not the case. Rather, Amazon.com is closing Fabric.com and getting out of the fabric business for the time being which will likely be forever.
For a little bit of history, a gentleman named Stephen Friedman started Fabric.com in 1999 under his Phoenix Textiles Group. I actually recall the first time I met Stephen. I also recall when the Jaftex Companies started to sell to Fabric.com. It wasn’t long before that all changed when in 2008 Fabric.com was bought by Amazon.com. The thing is that at that time, Amazon was nothing like it is today. 12 years later and post-Covid, Amazon.com as you all know is a different beast of gargantuan proportions.
I won’t lie, over the years, Fabric.com had been a great Jaftex Customer. They were very loyal, buying at a minimum, a little bit of almost everything that we offered them from all of our brands. I truly enjoyed working with many of the buyers there. Those buyers were very bright. Whenever we would meet, I would learn something about how the “Amazon” people were looking at things and I found it very interesting and insightful. I always went away from those meetings with new insights, knowledge and perspectives. One of the problems to me though was that the Fabric.com people were numbers people and less so fabric people. That was a big negative to say the least and contributed to their demise in my estimation.
Over the years, I have seen many of the “big” box retailers try to find the secret sauce to fabric to no avail. The problem is that fabric is a totally different beast and always has been. The biggest reason to me that it is a different beast is that it isn’t a widget. It isn’t a can of soup or a box of cereal which is a lot easier to manage when you can just grab one off the shelf. Rather, we are dealing with a length of fabric that needs to be cut into various lengths until the entire original length is gone. In there lies a challenge.
One of the other major challenges in my eyes was the labor aspect. That, in my opinion, was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Fabric.com. The fact that someone actually had to cut the fabric each time someone wanted to buy some is a real hurdle. With minimum wage rising more and more these days, the labor aspect put a real squeeze on the margins and we know that Amazon is all about margins. It’s so much easier and cost effective for companies like Amazon to deal with widgets that can be grabbed off a shelf. This compares to a fabric bolt that needs to be taken off the shelf, rolled out on a table, measured, cut, folded, refolded and put back on the shelf. It sure sounds like a lot of costly steps to me. Those steps were eating into the profit margins for sure.
Another challenge to me was the inventory. In the Amazon way, the Fabric.com buyers bought almost every single item out there from every single vendor. They wanted to be the assortment leader and they were. However, you can see how that might create a problem at some point. Perhaps the frenzy of Covid got them so loaded up on inventory that someone decided that the Fabric.com plan was no longer sustainable, the inventory got out of control and there was no way to right the ship. Perhaps they just couldn’t figure fabric out. It kind of reminds me of what happened to FreeSpirit Fabrics under the Coats & Clark Company. As hard as they tried, they just couldn’t make it work for them. At some point, you just need to fold and cut your losses.
For many of the fabric suppliers, I think many of us had an inkling that something like this might happen. Recently, the Fabric.com people were making the effort to get suppliers to sign on to the Amazon platform. The problem with doing that was that each supplier would have to manage their own business on the Amazon platform and deal with various other aspects of that process. That was definitely a daunting task for suppliers and would probably require a part-time employee at a minimum and a full-time or more than one full-time at the maximum. Needless to say, they cut the chord before this got into full swing so we will never know the answer.
Fast forward to recent weeks, team Fabric.com sent out an email with the big announcement that they were closing the business. That was followed by lots of chatter and speculation in the industry. They are still closing and this is now all a reality. In fact, they gave all vendors the opportunity to buy back their own fabrics that Fabric.com was still holding. We at the Jaftex Companies felt it was important to protect our brands. As such, we recently purchased back all the goods that they had of ours. Not everyone in the industry felt the same, so others are allowing Fabric.com to sell off their branded goods to whoever wanted to buy them. That would concern me a little as you never know where your fabrics will show up. That could definitely create problems. For example, what if loads of quilt shop only goods ended up in big box stores? I don’t think my customers would like that…nor would I.
So the million-dollar question is, what do I think of all this and what will be the impact? In the short term, it won’t be great to have all that excess fabric floating around the market without a home, especially the way the market is right now with lots of Covid excesses. In the short term, it will also be bad not to have all the regular fabric orders from Fabric.com. More importantly though, we will miss the regular reorders that were placed weekly by Fabric.com based on their algorithms. That was important business for us to help keep moving through inventory. That will be missed for sure too.
In the long term, I think all the people that were buying from Fabric.com will have to find a new place to find fabric. I am sure there will be some fallout and perhaps this will be the impetus for some to stop sewing altogether. This will ultimately mean more business for everyone else who is selling fabric and that is a good thing. I am of course hoping that more of this business goes to quilt shops, but I am sure that plenty of this business will go to big box retailers too. Either way, I imagine that there are lots of quilters searching for new places to buy fabric.
With that, if you own a quilt shop or are an online retailer and if you play your cards right, you have an opportunity to pick up lots of new customers. Therefore, 2023 would probably be a good time to figure out how to convert these customers to your own customers. Good luck!
What do you think of all that?
30 Comments
mlaiuppa
I’ve got my own local quiltshop that carries a pretty extensive inventory but they can’t carry everything. Fabric.com was a nice online resource as it was close to a one stop shop as I could get. Now I will end up buying one or two here and another few there because no one will have everything I’m looking for. That not only means having to make accounts (and then unsubscribe from the numerous e-mails) but also have to pay shipping for each individual purchase. I liked that I could consolidate one purchase and pay for shipping not only once but often times at a discount.
It’s really a shame but as you say, they weren’t fabric people or quilters or sewing people. They are bean counters. Bean counters can’t run any business except for accounting and tax preparation. One should never run a business one knows nothing about.
PAM
Great read. I had read previous articles regarding Fabric.Com but this filled in some of the gaps. I started to wonder if Joann Fabrics bought Liberty of London fabric from Fabric.Com. I wouldn’t normally think that Joann was a good match to Liberty. Just wondering. Almost all of the quilting shops around here (North of Boston) have closed, so I buy from a couple of trusted on-line shops.
ncalgal
I stopped buying from Fabric.com several years ago. Periodically I would go back to their website and browse again, but lately I found that their site was dismal to navigate and there weren’t enough quality fabrics at affordable prices for me. And I’m not ever going to order fabric online from Amazon, despite Fabric.com being owned by them. I’ll just stick to fabric sellers with good reputations, better websites and occasional sales.
Frances Grimble
I’m not a quilter, but I buy “quilting” fabrics to make clothing. When I started sewing in the 1970s, sewing with cotton prints was very popular. I am not sure why there is now such a strong distinction that garment sewers put each other down for sewing with “quilting fabrics.” If I were in the fabric industry, I’d be trying to promote these fabrics for garment sewing as well as quilting. There’s nothing wrong with an attractive, durable fabric that’s easy to sew!
Like many home sewers, I hate Jo-Ann’s selection and service, but it’s the only large brick-and-mortar fabric store in my area. I almost never buy anything there. I’ve been doing my fabric shopping online for many years, long before Covid. Very little of it at fabric.com. Their selection was so huge and badly organized that it was hard to find anything. However, there are plenty of other online fabric stores with a smaller but perfectly fine selection. My favorite is the discount store Fabric Mart. I’ve been wondering if some of the fabrics offloaded from fabric.com will end up there. Many home sewers like Mood Fabrics, which I find overpriced. And, there are lots of other stores. Just look on Etsy, which is full of small fabric shops, people offloading stash fabrics, vintage fabrics, anything you can think of. Ebay is another source.
I don’t think ANYONE will quit sewing or quilting because fabric.com went out of business!
Martha Myers
I am a consumer. I make 98% of my clothing. I don’t shop big box and I seldom quilt. Fabric.com sold non-quilting fabric too. After Amazon purchased them, quality dropped. They used to have public sales here in atlanta that were super fun. I’m sorry they’re closing but I won’t miss the hit-or-miss quality. And there a number of high-quality online shops for us.
Kathleen
Scott,
I am not a fan of on line fabric buying , I enjoy looking ,touching see all the fabric in the store, I am not an Amazon fan to beging with.
Sherri Huff
Thanks for all the insight on Fabcic.com, I was not a shopper with them. I prefer my local quilt shops to shop at when ever possible.
I’m so glad you bought back your fabric lines, who knows where they would have ended up?!?
Thanks for sharing more of the back side of the fabric industry, I love learning more about this fabulous industry.
Have a Joy filled and blessed Holiday Season and a rip roaring 2023!
Elida Godsey
I will miss fabric.com; we recently moved to a small town with one local fabric shop. Fabric.com saved me when I started preparing for Christmas gifts, I couldn’t find the novelty fabrics that I needed. I ordered all the fabric I needed at one stop & helped me jumpstart my projects. I would have preferred to shop local but the merchandise just wasn’t there.
Thanks for the info, I wasn’t sure what happened, I recently went to Fabric.com and the page was totally different & took me to Amazon.
Pam G
Thank you for the insight into Fabric.com. I had wondered how they were selling fabric at Amazon. I always support my local and some online quilt shops. The fabric quality is above and beyond what a big box store sells. Your designers do an awesome job and I enjoy all your info you share about the business. Merry Christmas and best wishes for a great 2023!
Mary DeBrunner
While not a shopper at Fabric.com, I feel pleasure for the local quilt shops who will hopefully see thereturn of more in person shoppers. I prefer to feel and see the fabric in person and limit my online shopping in other areas too. Good news for quilt shops who have long struggled for success. Thanks to you Scott for the info and your interest in keeping the many shops up and running,
Laura Greenfelder
Thanks Scott, I appreciate having accurate information on this. And Happy Birthday!
ELLEN J DREWS
I LOVED shopping at fabric.com, not so much after they became an Amazon store. They had anything and everything I wanted. Sad to see them go. But maybe this will be an oppertunity for some of the not-so-big-box stores? Like Fabric Place Basement out of Massachusetts , or Fabric Hut in Norfolk, Va. , and others who buy close-outs. I’m a consumer, I’ve worked at Joann’s, my girls have worked at Joanns. Getting the employee discount (30% now) on top of the sale price is the only way to get a good deal there any more, with what they call “quilt shop quality” up to 17.99/yd.
I can remember early on during Covid, even Joann’s and Walmart had no sewing machines in stock, and the fabric shelves being nearly empty. Supply chain problems. LQS didn’t have much new either. Maybe the current excess will show up at quilt shows. Or in LQS that are still trying to build up their inventory.
Linda Swanekamp
I realize I am a lone quillter. I made comfort quilts, therefore I consume fabric, not store it. I have some special fabric waiting for some me time to make some of my own quilts, but mostly I sew comfort quilt, about 60 x 72. I consume and piece a lot of backings even if I use scraps for the front. I use a lot of borders, so that is more fabric consumed. I am always trying to replenish those fabrics in a variety of styles and colors. WIth so many LQS closing, I have had to rely on buying online which is tough when you are looking for colors. I never bought from fabric.com as I knew they were Amazon and bought from other fabric only companies. I intend to keep making comfort quilts as the need never ceases, but has increased. I continue to try and source fabrics to fit my needs. I love the fabric lines you sell and am grateful that you bought them.
Janice Matson
I think this is great news for the fabric stores. Years ago before I got into the fabric business, my go to was always fabric.com, Joann’s Fabric then Hobby Lobby.
The customers of Fabric.com will continue to purchase fabric from somewhere, I doubt they’ll stop sewing. More than likely, they’ll purchase online as usual.
I will continue to sell fabrics as long as my manufactures stay out of the big box stores, off eBay, Amazon, Etsy etc. I did find one large manufacturer who sells to the public (under a different name) which was devastating to me when I did some searching and found out.
I love your posts Scott, keep ’em coming!
Kara E Benavides
Thank you for buying your fabric back! I always feel a bit depressed to see high quality showing up in low places. I tried to shop dress fabric last week at Fabric.com and met with the one sentence greeting. Even Walmart is getting rid of bolt fabric and only offering precut yardage. And my Joann’s is pretty pitiful. I am lucky to have moved 2 miles from a huge quilting shop (Tennessee Quilts). And I have another just 25 minutes away (Heavenly Stitches). I was waiting and wondering what would happen when people filled up their storage with fabric and had to stop, or at least slow down, their buying. Or when the labor market refused to catch up. Or, Or, Or . . . Thankful for Jaftex.
Have you considered other kinds of fabric? Just wondering . .
Robert Raymond Tucker
Great read !
Steve Maile
When I first started, I found Fabric.com very reliable and when buying full bolts for backings reasonable.
I liked the discount you got when you were buying say 15 or 30 yards of the same design.
I will missed that.
Many of the quilts we make are over 20 yards used.
It goes fast.
Full retail will give me pause on making large quilts like that or at least limit my purchases.
I understand the need for those prices when you need labor to cut yards off multiple bolts and send it out. Buying full bolts I feel is a little different.
Steve Maile.
B.J. Cataldo
Scott,
Thank you for this column. I was a Fabric.com customer and I can relate to everything you stated about their demise. While I had been a regular shopper in earlier years, my more recent shopping days with them were restricted to those Friday deals and only when I really needed something. Prior to the pandemic, and I mean five years ago, you could call the company, get a real person and resolve a problem. When something went wrong with an order, they made every effort to correct the problem. But, then the pandemic hit and everything changed. Total automation took over. That ended my experience for grabbing those Friday quick buys.
I understand your explanation about the fact that fabric is not a widget item. Even more so, I find the fabric industry is a people industry. I find my quilting friends want to talk about the fabric, look at designs, think about outcomes. The product uses our imagination and no one sells imagination, not even Amazon. It has no price. That is why I have always insisted on supporting the independetly owned quilt shops. Living outside of Boston I travel to the likes of Portsmouth Fabrics, Colchester Fabric MIlls, the Quilted Crow, and All About Quilts. I do it because it involves the human touch.
I, personally, will not miss Fabric.com. It was a convenience for a quick buy. However, I will continue to relish in the independent quilt shop where I will enounter kind souls, beautiful minds, brillant fabrics and vibrant ideas. Thank you for continuing to reflect and review on the market as it stands today. Your product brings me joy and so many others with what I get to do with it.
B.J.
Sherri
Thanks for the great post – I have been wondering about why they closed. I’m Canadian, and when the Canada/US currency exchange rate was in our favour, I shopped at Fabric.com A LOT. The selection just could not be beat. Over the last few years, when it has been more expensive to shop there because of the relative value of the Canadian dollar, I still shopped at Fabric.com when there were prints I couldn’t find elsewhere – often novelty prints.
I’m sad to see it go – it was so amazing to shop that selection in just one store.
Lauren Spiegel Marlis
Your insights were well, insightful. While I almost always do my best to shop at a LQS sometimes fabric dot com was the only place to find what I was looking for. I had mostly stopped burchasing from them because their customer service ease of ordering had declined over the past few years ( even prior to Covid) I did not learn that they were owned by Amazon until about a year ago – I feel like they didn’t really promote that in their brand. In my humble opinion the company that should take advantage of the demise of fabric dot com and could benefit the most would be equilter.com.
Always enjoy your videos and subjects discussed and shared.
Piece! And best to you and your family,
Lauren Marlis
denniele
I always enjoyed buying from them when Stephen Friedman owned the company.
Dee
I loved the Stephen’s Scrap Bags with the end bolt pieces. The mystery of what was in those bags were just so exciting for a scrappy quilter!
Debbie Roseman
I am truly hoping that this will generate more consumers going to your customers for their quilt fabrics. It will be very sad if one company closing would cause quilters to stop doing what they love. I guess this is easy for me to say since I am not a owner of a quilt store. I am curious about how much fabric you are talking about making it to large box stores. Wouldn’t the influx of quilt fabrics in box stores only last until fabric.com runs out of their stock?
Frances Grimble
As a garment sewer, I don’t find my local quilting fabrics shop at all friendly. When I go in there for garment fabric, they sneer at me. They act like they really don’t want garment sewers in there, even though I buy “quilting” fabrics for sewing. I would think a sale is a sale, but they don’t seem to.
Liz Crean
I’m concerned with rumors that say material will be as high as $17/yd. shortly. It saddens me that the costs will make it prohibitive to sewing of all kinds. Our guild has many older members that need those places that sell yardage at a lower cost. I’m concerned that a love of mine will disappear over time.
Elizabeth Foster
I’m a consumer not a retailer, but I find all your info on your end of things so helpful in understanding the ebb and flow of the market, price changes, availability issues, etc. As quilters it really helps us appreciate what it takes to develop and market all these amazing fabrics we love (and love to buy!).
Dianne Shorter
Never a fan of the mega-company over the smaller business, though I am sorry to see a fabric source disappear as fabric stores can be spread out thin for some. Yes, I think you are correct in protecting your product’s integrity. Joseph Heller, the author, said when Kurt Vonnegut pointed out that a venture capitalist made more money in a month than Heller would make in his life that he (Heller) had something the venture capitalist would never have, “enough”. It’s wisdom I subscribe to…in everything but the amount of fabric I have. 🙂
Rachael Woodard
I personally think that it’s time to dig deep, work harder than we’ve ever worked before. If we think we worked hard during COVID, let’s re-think that mind set and be sure that we’re here because we want to be here. Customers can tell when we’re just trying to shove them through or really enjoying their time and shopping.
It’s all such a big balancing game — “How much time can I invest in one person who only buys a half yard of fabric to watch her scroll through photos on her phone?” vs. “Should I encourage her to leave, so I can cut the next person’s fabric so we can pay the bills?”
It’s all a big game, and I’m in.. ALL in. My whole team is IN here at QuiltedTwins.com. We’re here to get more fabric, sell it faster, and make more friends than ever! We’ll do our best to get at least a tiny fraction of what fabric.com gave up. But boy, trying to read that crystal ball… it’s getting fuzzier by the day!
Will someone please bring me a jug of glass cleaner and a paper towel, so we can look into that ball more clearly?
Carol
I prefer to do my buying from online quilt shops. I have my favorite live sales that I watch and like to support them.
Annie Unrein
Thanks for sharing your insight, Scott. Very interesting! I agree that local quilt shops have an opportunity to pick up lots of customers now. Good luck all!