Source:BDDwatch
Any founder or designer who highly recognizes the value of design innovation and initiates the establishment as a founder - born with the DNA of the BDD brand - of a startup team, will bring surprises and high recognition to users through crowdfunding, streaming media, and other channels with unique and refreshing product design and experiential innovation, attracting industry and market attention. Product Design Spotlight will conduct agile research and promotion with a new observation method.
Product Design Spotlight NO.2
Henri, head of Kickstarter China, introduced a typical case: VELO suitcase. This 3-in-1 retractable suitcase has received 1 million+ US dollars in crowdfunding in just two months, becoming a dark horse in this category .
VELO's crowdfunding results on Kickstarter
This travel suitcase breaks the limitations of fixed size and capacity, redefining the storage space for travel. With its expandable structure, it efficiently achieves varying sizes and capacities, making it the first expandable travel suitcase that can double its space.
Depending on the user's different travel needs, it can transform into three different sizes: 16 inches, 22 inches, and 28 inches, reducing the need for repetitive purchases and facilitating storage
Three sizes of VELO luggage
This practical and innovative product comes from a young founding team - three classmates under the age of 25, working together to create a "designed for travel" business.
01 Business after graduation
"Every country has a national brand, and these brands contain the 'temperament' of its people. For example, GAP in the United States-casual leisure, ZARA in Spain-civilian fashion, MUJI and UNIQLO in Japan- Orderly and simple, South Korea’s ROEM and CHUU—personal trends. So, what is China’s national brand?”
Zhang Yiyi served as the CEO of Weilv Technology and worked in Dabai Sanitary Ware, Daya Legend and Xiamen Industrial Design Center.
Ding Yifan served as the design director of Weilv Technology. He worked in the Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University and participated in the design of heavy industrial products such as excavators and forklifts.
Jin Xingpan is the chief technology officer of Weilv Technology. He has a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He once worked in the product design and development department of Midea Group. He has excellent industrial design and mechanical design capabilities.
The three founders were classmates, graduating in industrial design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021. During college, the three students chose different minor courses according to their interests. Zhang Yiyi minored in art history and business, and studied marketing and branding in depth, while Ding Yifan and Jin Xingpan liked to study construction machinery, so they chose engineering minors. The different knowledge structures also affected their division of labor when starting a business.
"I think the students' entrepreneurship will be more stable, because we have many opportunities to get in touch with each other in school, and we trust each other." Zhang Yiyi said: "A professional course assignment in the first semester of the junior year required to design and sell products. The three of us Individuals in the same group designed a small stereo and made 100 of them, all of which were sold out in less than two hours. At that time, the division of labor was that I was responsible for promotion and publicity, and they were more responsible for researching product design and structure.
. When I worked at Xiamen Industrial Design Center, I had the opportunity to see many entrepreneurial projects, learned how to evaluate project feasibility, and saw many paths and methods to solve problems. Therefore, when I really started a business, I would think about the whole thing from an operational perspective like a product manager, and consider what products to make. Jin Xingpan and Ding Yifan are responsible for the optimization and adjustment of the exterior design, engineering structure, and follow-up of the supply chain and process. They are very good at digging deep and getting projects to the ground. "
They have also received strong support from their parents, relatives and friends in this venture. Not only did I raise the initial capital to start a business, but I also got to know a lot of resources and contacts through my parents. The most important thing is to invite Li Peng, a technical consultant. He has 26 years of rich experience in the luggage industry and is now the chairman of Hongdamen. His rich supply chain resources and management experience have made this young team mature quickly.
Zhang Yiyi said, "At this stage, our experience and cognition will be lacking. It is very important for us to need an experienced person to help us sort out. In addition, we also share many family resources, such as legal affairs, finance and taxation. , corporate affairs and factory supply chain, etc.
The three of us are all engaged in traditional real estate, trade and parts OEM business. Our parents can provide us with so many resources, but they cannot give us more business guidance. In particular, how to build a brand and how to find a suitable channel needs to be explored slowly by ourselves. For example, our parents don’t quite understand crowdfunding, and think that crowdfunding is a kind of private fundraising. They would suggest that we can send it to 1688 or do wholesale. But we firmly believe that only by establishing a brand can we push our products to a higher level . So we will use the brand dimension to think about this venture, so that we can give full play to the advantages of our designers.
Another relatively big challenge is that when we change from being a student to being an entrepreneur, our mentality must also change accordingly. As students, we are most concerned about how to complete the established work assigned by others, but as entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs, our job is to solve some issues that have no established answers, and many things need to be found by ourselves . "
02 Find a good business
"Pain points"
Zhang Yiyi's original idea was to design a suitcase for overseas students. From his own experience, international students usually need to bring a lot of things to study abroad, and they will bring the largest size suitcase. But when you start studying or traveling abroad, the large-sized suitcases are basically useless. Therefore, they have to buy boxes of many sizes, which take up a lot of space in the room.
"need"
Zhang Yiyi's original idea was to design a suitcase for overseas students. From his own experience, international students usually need to bring a lot of things to study abroad, and they will bring the largest size suitcase. But when you start studying or traveling abroad, the large-sized suitcases are basically useless. Therefore, they have to buy boxes of many sizes, which take up a lot of space in the room.
Suitcase sets on sale on Amazon
After discovering the pain points, Zhang Yiyi and the others began to pay attention to the travel market. Since American Airlines’ ticket prices do not include baggage fees, Americans are accustomed to carrying a small carry-on suitcase, resulting in a high demand for carry-on suitcases. At the same time, the United States is a country with a strong vacation culture, and traveling abroad usually requires large suitcases. Therefore, in the U.S. market, almost every brand sells sets of large, medium and small boxes, which are very popular.
"Competition"
When researching the suitcases being sold in the market, they found that these products will make some differences in some functions, durability and appearance, such as the wheels can be stopped or the design is more durable. But Zhang Yiyi believes that this does not improve the most essential needs of users. What users need most is a space that can store things conveniently and flexibly.
. Among the products involving the optimization of storage space, some compress the space to solve the storage problem, but the length and width do not change; some use zippers to make a box slightly thicker, and the capacity they can expand is very limited. Fundamentally solve the pain points of users.
Therefore, if we can make the greatest innovation in terms of the most essential needs of users, and make a suitcase that meets three sizes, it can not only perfectly replace the suitcases on sale, but also adjust the size at any time according to the different needs of users. It is more flexible, more convenient to store, and is green and environmentally friendly. It will definitely become a popular product.
"market capacity"
But it is not enough to become a "good commodity", the brand must have enough room for development in order to become a good business. The scale of the travel goods track is very large. In the United States, the travel luggage market will reach US$4.27 billion in 2020, half of which (US$2.1 billion) will come from luggage. With such a huge market size, the brand needs to design an innovative product, which has the opportunity to become an anchor point and expand to other categories. In the entire field of luggage and travel goods, suitcases are a product category with large volume, complicated craftsmanship and higher threshold. Therefore, from the perspective of brand building and price, although suitcases are not necessarily the product with the highest gross profit contribution, it is easier to establish a brand image.
Solving pain points, meeting user needs, surpassing competing products and having a certain market size, Zhang Yiyi's team agreed that this will be a good business.
In March 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, all three team members chose to return to China, which also became the best time to start this business.
03 Designed for travel
In April 2021, Xiamen Weilv Technology Co., Ltd. was formally established with the brand name "VELO" . Zhang Yiyi explained: "We first thought of the Chinese name 'Wei Lu', which means 'designed for travel'. The English brand name 'VELO' is because the pronunciation is very similar to the Chinese 'Wei Lu' and also comes from 'velocity' This word, which means speed, is in line with our philosophy: we hope to help users improve their efficiency . In addition, these two names are concise, easy to remember, and easy to catch. Fortunately, these two names have been registered successfully.”
VELO's brand mission is " to define the lifestyle of the new era through subversive innovation ", which demonstrates the vitality and ambition of this young team. Zhang Yili believes that disruptive innovation includes the subversion of the product itself, the subversion of the product market, and the subversion of the consumer's lifestyle :
First of all, the subversion of the product itself refers to the Red Sea product concept of luggage. VELO redefines the suitcase through the innovation of storage space.
Second, product innovation will lead to changes in the market structure and will also stimulate the emergence of more disruptive products.
Third, VELO's products subvert consumers' lifestyles, including repeated purchases and travel decisions, making travel more comfortable and efficient for consumers.
In addition, VELO has also carried out some subversive innovations in terms of craftsmanship, using some cross-border craftsmanship that its own luggage brand does not have.
In the future, VELO's product design will pay more attention to disruptive innovations, so that users can use the space of suitcases more flexibly.
Telescopic suitcase
Disruption also means challenges. Initially, they hoped to switch spaces at will, and tried many methods, including using modular solutions, but in actual operation, problems such as assembly methods and opening and closing methods would arise. Later, in the process of communicating with manufacturers, it was discovered that "structural stability" is an important criterion for suitcase products. Therefore, they decided to adopt a stretchable structure, which was improved and adapted according to the existing structural technologies of different industries, without worrying about the stability and impact resistance of the structure itself. Zhang Yiyi added: "Now it seems that the telescopic structure is very practical and reproducible. We can also copy this structure to other products later."
From 2020 to October 2022 when VELO's first product is launched, after two years, the three young people are basically running the factory, following up and optimizing and modifying.
VELO production plant
"We encountered many problems during the manufacturing process, because the production process of our case is different from that of ordinary suitcases, so we need to communicate with workers frequently, and workers also need to adapt to the new production method, which affects production efficiency. As a result, our production cycle is relatively long. Another point is that we also have a lot of accessories, involving many materials such as plastic parts, metal, wood, and cloth art, and the entire production process is relatively cumbersome."
The VELO team also spent a lot of time and thought on product design and structure. The first is the telescopic structure. In order to allow users to complete the telescopic steps more conveniently, they designed an ultra-wide pull rod, and through the extension button on the top, users can conveniently switch between 16 inches-22 inches and 26 inches.
two-part zipper
The two-stage zipper is a relatively important design, because the characteristics of the telescopic structure cannot achieve the entire zipper of the ordinary zipper box, so it is designed as a two-stage zipper. In order to make it reach the destination in the same direction and keep it smooth during the pulling process, in the case of fixed-length zippers, the length of the entire zipper is set within a fixed length, which can be set according to user needs Gear position, such as 24 inches or 28 inches.
A carrying handle is also designed on the side, considering that when the user boards the plane, it can be more convenient to lift it with both hands and put it on the luggage rack.
Establishing a systematic supply chain system is the first problem that start-ups face. In the luggage industry, the entire upstream and downstream accessories and assembly plants are completely separated. Therefore, unlike other industries, there is no industrial cluster in the luggage industry. Since the headquarters and registration place of Weilv Technology are both in Xiamen, they first choose the finished product factory in Xiamen. From the perspective of the entire luggage industry, brand owners rarely purchase individual accessories by themselves, and they will entrust finished product manufacturers to purchase.
Zhang Yiyi said: "Although our company also has business and procurement, we pay more attention to the operation and maintenance of the brand itself. I will go to the parts factory for research and inspection, such as aluminum frames, zippers, pull rods and wheels, etc. We are looking for R & D. Ability, can innovate the structure of the manufacturer, rather than a manufacturer with only a board room for proofing. Although the luggage industry is simple, there are still differences in details. We must choose the best factory at the source to make the best match.
Our consultant will often give me some suggestions, and also systematically teach me some process knowledge, and take me to inspect the manufacturers he is familiar with. But our products are innovative, so there will be problems that he is not familiar with. I will get to know them one by one through the factory network. Slowly build up our system. In this process, I not only know how to find a good processor and place an order, but also accumulate some process details, such as how long the oxidation time is required to achieve a specific process, how many times of polishing is required, and so on. If there is a problem in the assembly line, our consultants will also solve it together, and evaluate whether it is a machine problem or a manual problem. "
Talking about how to communicate with the supply chain for the first time, Zhang Yiyi said: "Because of the epidemic, many companies are in the most difficult time. Factory owners are more willing to accept new things. When we inspected the factories, we found that the assembly of many suitcase factories People have stopped making boxes, and started making small parts and electronic products, etc. They need orders, so relatively speaking, at that time, the factory boss was very willing to communicate and cooperate. But it is also difficult for you to meet Find a boss who is immediately impressed by your product. Most bosses will not believe in your vision until they see the specific sales figures and cash flow. So in actual communication, you need to pay attention to multiple aspects , Combined with their actual situation, use your own personality charm to convince them that your product has strong reproducibility and prospects, instead of prevaricating them with rhetoric.
This is a great opportunity to exercise. As the founder of the company, I need to be responsible for the entire company, including product definition and supply chain construction. Ding Yifan and Jin Xingpan are responsible for the follow-up of the supply chain in the later stage. They are all people who can calm down to research and do things. "
Suitcase Peripheral Product Sketch
The team of Weilv Technology mainly has a professional background in product design. In addition to the three founders, there are two business personnel and two designers. It is a small team of seven. VELO's current products mainly include suitcases and peripheral accessories, such as computer bags, 4-piece sets of toiletries, travel tags for suitcases, travel pillows, etc. Since the VELO suitcase is a wide trolley, ordinary computer bags cannot be inserted into it. VELO's computer is ingeniously matched with the suitcase through the webbing. Other accessories are also redesigned according to the shape of the suitcase, forming a design language with VELO characteristics.
04 Born Global
At present, VELO's first-generation suitcase is about to enter the spot sales stage. Judging from the crowdfunding performance of Kickstarter, the VELO team is very confident in this product.
Our current productivity is improving, and crowdfunding products have also been delivered to users in batches. Through crowdfunding, our user portraits have gradually become clear. Women's consumption desire is higher, but the conversion rate is slightly lower; men's overall consumption willingness is higher, and the conversion rate is very good. Therefore, there are slightly more male users who buy, but women are stronger in terms of volume. Overall, the ratio of male and female users is about 52:48, and the age group is mainly millennials aged 26 to 40, who are also the mainstream customer group for luggage purchases in the United States. Our sales areas are concentrated in major cities in the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong. These users have more opportunities to travel abroad and business trips, and they all like to experience new things. Their careers are mainly in the finance and design industries. Therefore, we will carry out follow-up design work around these users. "
Japanese crowdfunding results
VELO's makuake crowdfunding in Japan was just completed on July 30, with a crowdfunding amount of more than 100 million yen, exceeding the target crowdfunding amount by 2 times. Zhang Yiyi said that their overall investment in the Japanese market is half that of the United States, but the effect is better. Japan is currently the third largest market in the global luggage industry, and it is also the market with the most potential. The service life of Japanese suitcases is only about 1-2 years, and the overall consumption level of Japanese people is higher, and they can accept higher luggage. price. Japan will be the place where VELO will shine.
We did not have the concept of "going overseas" from the very beginning, because we are not "going out", but we are born to want to be a global brand based on the entire international market. VELO's overall goal in the next few years will focus on overseas markets. brand. Because there are several points in the Chinese market that are difficult for new brands:
The first point is that the domestic luggage industry is very fragmented, with many brands, and consumers in each price segment have a lot of choices. In this case, brand effect is very important to make Chinese consumers pay for a relatively expensive product. Therefore, it is more difficult to impress consumers simply with product functions on the Internet.
The second point is that domestic consumption habits are different. I often receive inquiries from some domestic consumers: why only buy one, I can buy several. This has a lot to do with the travel habits of the Chinese people. The most fundamental thing is that domestic flights can be checked for free, and the storage facilities are relatively complete, so you don’t need to worry about the inconvenience when playing with boxes. In addition, the use rate of carry-on cases is relatively high only in first-tier cities. Most people in second- and third-tier cities are not used to using carry-on cases. Now is not the best time for VEL to enter.
Finally, the entire domestic luggage industry is highly competitive. Many brands are introverted and have expanded to overseas markets. Several well-known brands in the domestic luggage field are already in a precarious state, and their financial situation is even worse.
Therefore, from the perspective of brand strategy, it may be better for us to first establish a good brand image overseas, and then return to China to develop the market. "
Zhang Yiyi's team plans to make VELO a DTC brand . The first task is to establish an overseas independent station. The independent station is a place to create brand tonality, and more innovative products will be better displayed on the independent station in the future. It will also be launched on Amazon in the future, and Amazon will bring about an increase in transaction volume. From the perspective of the VELO team, Amazon is a marketing channel, while independent stations are brand promotion channels. According to Amazon's recommendation algorithm, only products with high rankings are more likely to be searched.
Therefore, in the first stage, VELO will spend a lot of resources on the promotion and operation of independent stations and communities to build brand awareness in the hearts of users . Especially in the U.S. market, consumers will have a strong desire to share because they are linked together because of their favorite things, and their loyalty to the brand will be higher. Zhang Yiyi said: "We will receive 500-1000 word comments written by some European and American users, including praise and suggestions. Loyalty, in the European and American markets, once you build a good community, the relationship between users and the brand will be closer. Moreover, European and American users also have a strong sense of boundaries, and they will not ask customer service to reply in the middle of the night, and the pressure on our operations is relatively small This year, Zhang Yiyi’s team will also introduce local public relations departments to better understand the communication methods of overseas users and make community maintenance more solid and in-depth.
Regarding offline channels, Zhang Yiyi is very cautious. He believes that in the US market, luggage sales are still based on traditional luggage stores. Although online sales can reach 30-40% due to the epidemic, offline channels still account for 60-70% of total sales. When there are enough online shoppers who like new things, VELO will expand to offline users, allowing more people to see VELO products. Therefore, offline is an inevitable step for VELO. Offline stores can display products more intuitively, including reflecting brand tonality and atmosphere, and providing a more immersive experience . Therefore, in the later stage, VELO will try to find collection stores that are similar to the brand tone, such as Tsutaya Bookstore. When the product line is more abundant and the brand sales reach 100 million US dollars, it is the time to open an offline self-operated store.
05 Crowdfunding Pit
With the gradual improvement of the product framework and structure, Zhang Yiyi's team also simultaneously applied for a number of international invention patents, utility model patents and appearance patents. In terms of patent applications, VELO pays more attention to the application of invention and utility model patents, while relatively few appearance patents. In Zhang Yiyi's view, the products currently on the line are still the first generation, and the appearance needs to be further improved. In order to continue to develop the brand in the future, it is necessary to extract brand elements and integrate them into the exterior design .
Despite the patent layout, VELO still encountered patent problems during crowdfunding. Zhang Yiyi shared: "We encountered a rather difficult problem. A gentleman sent a letter through his law firm to inform us that our product was similar to his existing patent. On the Kickstarter platform, both parties need to resolve the patent dispute by themselves. In the end, Kickstarter will make a judgment. We found a lawyer to conduct a detailed comparison, and found that what we made was very inconsistent with theirs. For example, you cannot just apply for a patent for a chair that you can sit on, and other chairs will infringe. In fact, how to sit and how to sit more comfortably are all different designs. The telescopic concept we made is completely different from theirs in structure, so their claim is unreasonable. Later, their lawyers also compared, It was indeed found that we did not infringe, so this matter was withdrawn. But our entire online cycle is about 40 days, and we spent nearly 10 days dedicated to solving this matter.
In addition, in the process of crowdfunding, we also encountered many 'pitfalls'. The biggest 'pit' is the advertising account problem, which delayed our entire crowdfunding process. Before going live, we run ads on Facebook and Instagram to warm up. However, during the process of advertising, we were blocked by Facebook several times because we were using an account from mainland China.
During the crowdfunding process, the advertising account is one of the very important assets of the company. Because the advertising account has an optimization mechanism, your advertising account will be more and more accurately matched to the target customers as the delivery time increases. If your advertising account is blocked, it means that all the previously invested resources will disappear. The repeated blocking and recovery of individual accounts caused us to have no advertising for a whole week during the month of crowdfunding warm-up. Even when we re-run the ads, the initial results were less accurate, so we collected fewer target customers accordingly.
Our experience can remind more entrepreneurs to choose a more stable way from the beginning, such as using an overseas account, or using an overseas company to apply, and we should maintain our advertising account .
The second challenge comes from the launch time, we launched in October. In the European and American markets, November is Black Friday, and all merchants will place advertisements. Your advertisement effect may not be as good as theirs, and it is easy to be overwhelmed. At this time, it is difficult for you to obtain traffic outside the crowdfunding platform. Therefore, we found that the closer to November our ROI conversion rate is lower. Although in the end we still maintained a relatively good level, which is around 1:4, I think if we chose to go live earlier, such as September or August, the performance may be better. Therefore, if you want to do crowdfunding, it is also very important to choose the time to go online .
The third thing to pay attention to is to gain commercial trust . We took some evasive measures during the crowdfunding period. Because of the epidemic situation, many Chinese companies previously crowdfunded on Kickstarter, but they were unable to deliver the goods. This reduced the trust of many consumers in Chinese products. Therefore, during the crowdfunding period, we did not show much that we are a Chinese company. This is not necessarily the best way. I hope that other entrepreneurs can think more about how to gain the trust of consumers as much as possible when crowdfunding . "
06 A Reachable Future
"Our first-generation product is one of the products with the best expansion efficiency and volume change in the market. There is no competing product yet. But we have heard a little bit that some big brands are starting to think about making products in this area. This is a good thing for us. The affirmation of the direction and results, but it also means that the competition in the future will become more and more fierce."
Therefore, VELO's second-generation products will use more cross-border technologies and craftsmanship to improve product quality, and at the same time prevent counterfeit products that quickly follow suit.
Although there is no direct product competitor on the market, as a DTC brand, VELO's competitors are emerging brands such as AWAY, July, Roam, and Monos in recent years. AWAY is a DTC brand founded by two young women. It was established in 2015. By 2019, the brand valuation is as high as 1.4 billion US dollars. A breakthrough DTC brand.
Zhang Yiyi said: "The overall pricing of VELO products is similar to that of AWAY, which is around US$300. But in terms of product functions and innovations, VELO is even better. We expect that the VELO brand will reach the peak in the third or fourth year. The revenue of USD 100 million is based on the forecast of AWAY’s growth experience. AWAY’s expansion speed is related to marketing and platform effects, as well as the expansion of its product categories. Especially in terms of marketing, they have many innovative methods. Our Design and marketing will also be combined. Moreover, our products will be more subversive. I think our brand development is very worth looking forward to."
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