Men's Electric Dealer Bonobos: Vertical integration, multi-channel retail

Absrtact: Recent well-known science and technology blog PandoDaily founder and editor Sarsh Lacy published an article, the male clothing electric dealer Bonobos analysis, the article is as follows: Recently bonobos company has obtained 55 million dollar venture capital, They've got 70 million beautiful before.

Recently well-known science and technology blog PandoDaily founder and editor Sarsh Lacy published articles, the men's clothing electric dealer Bonobos analysis, the article is as follows:

Bonobos recently got 55 million of dollars in venture capital, they had already won 70 million of dollars in investment, heard the news, as the company's founder Andy Dunn's friend, I am very uneasy, because many of the large number of companies to get big VCs 2.0 of the end of the bad. For example, before Gilt and fab, and of course, ShoeDazzle and BeachMint and so on.

For Andy Dunn, he admits that the funding is scary, but he wants to prove that bonobos still has a chance to succeed. And for them, listing may be the right way to go in the future. It sounds risky, but for Dunn, the whole process is not easy. He is modest to say that their task is to provide customers with a more fitted clothing.

He believes he has found the right path, which no other company has found, that is the brand, said the float is "vertical integration, multi-channel retail."

And I think bonobos is actually not a real electric company, it is a retailer, just happen to sell things on the internet, of course, also in the chain stores to sell, and they set up a lot of experience shop across the United States. This financing is to increase the number of experience shop, the target is from 10 to 40.

The model of the experience shop has been popular in the field of electrical business for the past year, with the exception of bonobos, the Warby Parker, a similar model. and Etsy and Thrillist and so on.

These are all part of the transition, such as Andy Dunn, who is changing from Stanford Business School's typical tech entrepreneurship model to a traditional style. From a power company to a retailer who happened to be selling things online.

In the final analysis, what is the problem of the electrical business? Generally there are two points, the first is the cost of the industry to obtain users, and these users can create value problems. No one can compete with Amazon on this issue. Another problem is that these 2.0 companies have to come up with new ways to keep growing, whether it's a flash or a brand order, there's always a way to keep going. The most obvious is the Fab company, they were very concerned about the quality of the product, but then continued to shift, only focus on the design, the result in one months to burn out a round of financing money. Similar problems have been found in BeachMint and ecomom companies.

And Bonobos's success, there is a very important part of the reason is its experience shop strategy. The experience shop is not the most popular channel for users, but it is the place where the user has the most value. For example, the average consumption of online users is 180 dollars, while the average consumer of experiential shop users is 300 dollars. And all the experience stores they've opened have been profitable so far.

Seems to have a countercurrent, from various online way, return to the physical store. But Andy Dunn says it's not traditional physical retailing because they don't have to be responsible for inventory and logistics, so they have the highest sales per unit area in the industry.

The idea of a physical store appeared in 2011 and the first was established at Bonobos headquarters. They were planning to sell their shoes online, but the effect was totally off, so they planned to train some salespeople to go straight to the customers. So in a way, the experience shop was the first place to train salespeople.

He was very dismissive of the idea at first when Andy Dunn really set up an experience shop. But once he saw a consumer try out his clothes in the experience shop, and when he went online and finally left empty-handed, he realized the value of the experience store. Then Dunn persuaded the board that he thought it was important to offer the most suitable clothing to consumers, and that it was worth trying.

After the bonobos of the physical store has achieved very good results. And they are also constantly progressing and trying, a recent question whether they can try the women's business. Although some people say that the way the experience shop is not suitable for female consumers, but to the present position, their women's clothing brand Ayr performance is also good.

For years it has been thought that electricity is the king, but Bonobos's physical retailing has been profitable. But after all, the real store to face a lot of fixed cost problems, long-term they will also be a failure of the end of it. On this issue, Andy Dunn said their analysis proved that there are many markets that are doubling the likelihood and space.

The main investors in this round of financing are Coppel capital, a large Mexican retailer, but not much of the investment involved. After this round of financing, Coppel Capital's investors will enter bonobos's board. But bonobos has no immediate plans to enter the Mexican market.

And Andy Dunn says they need a new round of financing, and that many tech start-ups say there is little demand for financing, something that he doesn't understand, like people in two worlds.

Of course, this round of financing is much easier than the early microfinance of angel investors, but Andy Dunn is cautious about every penny he melts.