FAB

Buyer Received Washing Powder Instead of RTX 5090

An Amazon customer in India ordered a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5090 Windforce OC (around €4,000) but received a 1-kg bag of Ghadi washing powder. The buyer posted the case on Reddit, saying the package was shipped from an Amazon warehouse with damaged internal packaging, a tampered manufacturer seal, and an apparently fake barcode. The shipment label showed a weight of 1.6 kg, inconsistent with the GPU's 2.5–3 kg. After the buyer escalated, Amazon told them that a "comprehensive review" concluded the correct product had been sent and denied a refund. The Reddit thread surfaced other customers reporting similar incidents tied to a seller named FAB WORLD Point; the buyer also alleges the seller’s invoice shows 0% GST instead of the expected 18% for electronics in India.

Referral Programs as Growth-Hacking: Five Case Studies

The article examines five notable referral-marketing case studies showing how referral programs can drive rapid user growth. It details Dropbox’s early referral incentive (500 MB per successful referral, up to 16 GB; paid accounts doubled rewards) and credits the program with a major share of its expansion from ~100,000 to 4 million users in 15 months. Fab.com used two-sided $25 vouchers to accelerate sign-ups during a rapid funding-fueled growth phase. Harry’s collected ~100,000 pre-launch email addresses in seven days via tiered rewards (samples and free blades) and later raised substantial venture funding. Hipster generated ~10,000 sign-ups in two days through an invite-based beta. The piece also notes Marin Software (an AdTech/marketing platform) introduced a commercial referral scheme offering up to $2,000 for referrers when new customers remained paying customers. The article frames referral programs as powerful but not guaranteed routes to sustainable business models.

Changing Commerce: Fab.com Extricates Itself From Flash Sales

Fab.com, the design-focused e-commerce site launched in 2011, is shifting away from its flash-sale origins toward a more scalable inventory-planning model aimed at a personalized, curated online lifestyle store. In 2013, Fab announced a $150 million Series-D financing round that, with prior investments from Atomico, Andreessen Horowitz, Tencent and ITOCHU, brought total funding to about $310 million in under three years. Founder Jason Goldberg indicated the new funds would support the company's long-term strategy. The company also outlined a restructuring: more than 100 Berlin staff would be cut and roughly 30 Berlin employees would relocate to New York to centralize operations, while the German office remains to support Europe. Fab plans to consolidate merchandising, marketing, and operations in New York and boost hiring in sourcing and planning, signaling a bet on a scalable, platform-style commerce model rather than pure flash sales.