In recent years, with consumers' relentless pursuit of personalized products, customized consumption has become a thriving market. In this realm of opportunities and challenges, VANGO (Chinese: 梵海) has quickly emerged as a standout player among Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) customization brands, thanks to its unique business model and innovative concepts.
Established in 2018, VANGO's core development strategy revolves around the global customized consumer market. It focuses on personalized DIY products, encompassing customized clothing and custom home goods. Since its inception, VANGO has leveraged its self-built independent platform and utilized various sales channels such as social media promotion, Google, Facebook ads, and more to successfully introduce its customized products to the global market. Catering to the characteristics of overseas consumers, VANGO analyzes overseas consumer demands through its in-house BI (Business Intelligence ce) system. It employs a flexible supply chain model to create customized product categories. By improving materials, reducing production costs, and enhancing product manufacturing techniques, VANGO has garnered over a million customized users.
Recently, we had the privilege of interviewing Wang Gang, Co-founder of VANGO, to gain deeper insights into their entrepreneurial journey and the unique aspects of their brand's development.
Customization: Building a Distinctive Competitive Edge
"We mainly deal with customized items. Other customers or competitors cannot replicate our business model in bulk. Our current focus is on customized accessories and clothing and in this area, we have established certain moats in the domestic market," Wang Gang's words reveal VANGO's distinct competitive advantage in the market. By concentrating on customized accessories and apparel, VANGO has constructed a formidable barrier that makes it challenging for competitors to mimic its business model, establishing a solid presence in the domestic market.
Innovation-Driven: The Role of the Design Team
In the realm of customization, innovation is a perpetual theme. Supported by a robust design team, VANGO consistently introduces fresh ideas to maintain its product innovation. Wang Gang explains, "We have dozens of designers. Our designers develop new products every week, and our operations team selects products developed by them. After selection, we then proceed with market promotion." Designers continuously explore new concepts each week, generating a steady stream of innovative ideas. The operations team meticulously curates these ideas, maintaining the product's innovative capacity. This collaborative mechanism is what ensures VANGO consistently meets diverse consumer demands.
Global Expansion: Precise Market Expansion
Regarding sales channels, VANGO employs a multifaceted approach, utilizing its self-built independent platform, social media promotions, and advertising investments. "Our primary sales channel is the independent platform. We also use social media promotions and advertisements on platforms like Google and Facebook," emphasizes Wang Gang about VANGO's diversified market expansion strategy.
Particularly in overseas markets, VANGO has established warehouses and logistics systems in Europe, the Americas, and other regions, providing robust support for the swift delivery of products. In addition to its collaboration with SF International (Chinese: 顺丰国际), VANGO has also established overseas end-point accounts with European logistics companies such as DPD and o MOS to ensure efficient product delivery to various destinations. He further explained, "Our goods are first sent to our overseas warehouses. For larger quantities, such as for stocking, we send them to our own overseas warehouses. Then, when we received customer orders, we ship the products from our overseas warehouses." Wang Gang also mentions that VANGO's sales in overseas markets have reached 100%, with the majority concentrated in the United States, showcasing its strong competitiveness in the global market.
Supply Chain: Flexible and Innovative
VANGO's supply chain innovation goes beyond just building a logistics system – it also extends to the construction of a flexible supply chain system. Founder Wang Gang explained that the flexible supply chain in the traditional clothing industry is highly intricate, whereas customized materials are relatively uniform, and the complexity of craftsmanship is currently lower, with fewer product developments. Therefore, by applying the level of precision seen in the traditional clothing sector supply chain to the customized product category, VANGO can significantly enhance fulfillment capabilities and guarantee better user experience.
Market Education and Brand Building: VANGO's Unique Approach
In terms of brand building, VANGO faces an important task—how to conduct market education in overseas markets and establish a positive brand image. Wang Gang explains, "We collaborate with overseas influencers, including some internet celebrities. We provide them with gifts or offer some fees for them to build our brand identity within their fan base." By partnering with overseas influencers and internet celebrities, VANGO utilizes social media platforms to establish its brand identity, attract target customer groups, and successfully carry out market education and brand building. VANGO's primary user base includes families and couples who favor customized products.
Future Prospects: Becoming a Globally Renowned Brand
As for future development plans, Wang Gang states, "Ultimately, we want to become a globally renowned brand. We'll leverage our fanbase, our operational methods, and utilize data from our existing terminals and B-side data to create a multi-category brand." VANGO relies on customer data and terminal information to create a multi-category, globally recognized brand. Through continuous innovation and meticulous operations, VANGO is steadfastly advancing toward this goal. Wang Gang also mentions that VANGO may encounter challenges in market promotion, such as the continually rising cost of advertisements. However, he believes that these challenges can be overcome through team efforts and innovation.
VANGO’s innovative thinking, unique competitive advantage, and global expansion have positioned it as a remarkable player in the DTC customization domain, garnering attention as one of the noteworthy brands in the market. In the future, there is every reason to believe that VANGO will continue to lead the customized consumer market with its innovative prowess and establish itself as a globally recognized brand.
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