According to the local IUIGA logo, they discovered that it was a “dilemma” when it comes to buying food for household products.
They had to decide between high-end brands with exorbitant costs or customer brands whose quality and design were ubiquitous.
As consumers themselves, they were frustrated by the lack of a non-unusual floor and were surprised by the upper margins. They looked for an option where they could have quality at an affordable price, but couldn’t find one that met their expectations.
They took the themes into their own hands and presented IUIGA – “carefully designed everyday products with a superior design at absolutely transparent prices”.
IUIGA is based on this question: “Why pay so much for quality?”
It focuses on generating quality products at a lower cost and is the first e-commerce logo in Singapore and the region that works with a business style of ODM (Original Design Manufacturer).
Basically, all IUIGA are manufactured through the same factories they produce for primary brands such as Sephora, Samsonite and WMF.
In the past he included Muji on the list of big brands, but that claim was given to them in hot soup.
In March last year, the Japanese store sued IUIGA for “brand infringement. “IUIGA subsequently subsidized down and agreed to “remove and cease” Muji’s trademark in its marketing and promotion materials.
Although IUIGA would like to comment more on this test, it strongly supports its ODM model.
By partnering directly with the MDGs and directly promoting consumers, they will offer “exceptional products at a lower price than other high-end retailers,” said Jaslyn Chua, co-founder and expansion director of IUIGA.
In classic retail, a product is marked 8 to 15 times when it arrives, the product goes through a long process of at least 10 to 20 layers ranging from the manufacturer to the distribution and, nevertheless, to the final consumer.
Taking into account distribution point profits and rental costs, classic profit margins make up two-thirds of the value of the final product you see in stores.
Product labels are also removed by the possible added price of the brand, which sends a blunt message to consumers: you pay for quality, not the brand.
Another of their key proposals is transparent pricing, in which they brazenly focus their profit margins with consumers to show them precisely where their cash has gone.
According to Jaslyn, each product has a different load percentage, as it is manufactured in other factories using other methods.
As such, we provide a percentage of the true burden of quality through transparent price breakdown and our margins on the item on our online page and app.
Traditional stores cannot be as transparent, as they have to take into account many layers of intermediate charges. When building a finish-to-finish source chain, we must reduce our margins and transfer charge savings directly to the finish consumer. .
When IUIGA first introduced itself in 2017, it began as a purely online style, but temporarily evolved into a hybrid style as they began to identify an online and offline presence.
They presented their first pop-up at the SingPost Center in May 2018, followed by their first permanent retailer at Causeway Point in November this year.
According to Jaslyn, the pop-up store allowed consumers to touch and smell its user before purchasing.
Knowledge also revealed that online penetration rates in Southeast Asia are less than 5%, at an average of 25-30% in larger markets such as China and the United States.
This translates to 95% (of) offline conversions (and) gave us a clever explanation of why to connect.
I am also very excited to experiment with offline retail, as Singapore is a satellite city with a shopping mall at almost every single station. If this strategy works, it will also mean a massive increase in logo exposure for us.
In addition, although online helped physical expenses, there were some disorders that may not be resolved, such as the exchange and return process.
Although IUIGA offers a flexible 30-day exchange/return policy, it is expensive for consumers to return a bulky item such as pots and pons.
However, with retail stores, consumers can now shop online and exchange a product in-store without paying a higher shipping fee. It made a lot of sense to them because they were looking for consumers to make a purchase with confidence.
Today, IUIGA has grown to 10 in Singapore in just 3 years.
Although IUIGA began promoting home products, it has since diversified beyond that.
Last year, IUIGA introduced single-carat singles diamond rings for singles at a “real cost” of S$1,799.
However, a quick check on its online page showed that an 18-karat white gold diamond ring sold from $2499.
With industry profit margins, the classic retail value of a one-carat diamond ring costs an average of S$5,174, according to IUIGA.
When asked about traction so far, Jaslyn said sales were encouraging with about 10 consumers consistent with the month.
IUIGA looked at the F
This year, he has launched a collection of lava moon cakes since the era of breakers with flavors such as Durian Lava, Matcha Lava, Purple Sweet Patato Lava and Lava Custard.
Another breakthrough for IUIGA is its foray into the furniture and furniture market by launching its first furniture showroom at TripleOne Somerset.
According to Jaslyn, furniture is a vertical “in high demand” by consumers and while IUIGA continues to consolidate itself as a privacy logo, the expansion to arrive with furniture is an herbal progression.
He added that the diversity of furniture at launch focuses on fresh designs with minimalist aesthetics and comes from moral resources of dubious origins.
Most of the diversity of furniture will be “about S$1,000 or less”, as there is no intermediate margin at stake: they come from brands and are sold to consumers.
The store also offers a loose distribution design that comes with three-dimensional rendering so consumers can see how they can frame portions of IUIGA in their home.
In early May, IUIGA raised US$10 million in Series A financing led through Konimex Technologies, a subsidiary of Indonesian conglomerate Konimex Group.
This new investment will be used to invest in IUIGA operations in Singapore and Indonesia, the latter being the target for 2020.
IUIGA was recently introduced to Indonesia in August, marking it as its first foreign market.
“IUIGA the Indonesian market because of its booming demographics and immense economic potential,” Jaslyn explained.
“The mix of a customer culture aimed at cellular programs and foreign investment has made Indonesia a transparent selection for the next level of IUIGA expansion. “
Funding will also be used for investment in product progression and generation, which invests in great knowledge and synthetic intelligence to deepen the personalization of e-commerce.
When asked if IUIGA faced fundraising challenges, especially since taking a stand amid a pandemic, Jaslyn said fundraising in any environment is difficult.
The fact that they can satisfy investor confidence in this era shows that IUIGA is an “agile and responsive company,” he added.
Although COVID-19 did not actually raise funds, it had a negative effect on its retail business.
Store traffic has been declining since the epidemic and attendance has declined by an average of 30% in the island’s 10 retail stores, as consumers crowded areas.
However, online sales are doing very well, we are seeing a threefold accumulation in online revenue for retail. Overall, the effect of the virus has not been as pronounced on revenue because our online channels (website and app) have played a very smart role in reducing our numbers.
Jaslyn also noted the increase in online order self-collection, which helped direct online traffic to stores.
Commenting on her reflections on Singapore’s retail landscape, Jaslyn said that countering classic retail simply by cutting costs would likely be a “losing battle. “
Retailers want to find artistic tactics to offer prices to consumers that online-only retailers cannot, or adopt the display room concept by integrating their experiences online and in-store. For stores operating on any of the channels, this can provide new opportunities for pricing.
IUIGA is a good example. Consumers can enjoy the most productive of both worlds: the convenience of buying food online and the ability to see the product in the user before buying it. In the long run, the retail industry may be more of a convergence of the two than a war between them.
IUIGA took off from the start, generating revenue of a million in just one hundred days.
Since then, it has been strengthened as a “seven-figure omnichannel company” with 10 retail outlets on the island.
Despite the good fortune it has accumulated to date, IUIGA still faces business challenges.
Its heavy operating style is fraught with dangers in managing the chain of origin and a strong call for money flow. Another challenge they face is how to build well stock control sets (TMS) and increase their scale.
I will rethink the proposal in this way: having retail outlets mitigates this challenge, as retail outlets combine with more stock space, as well as being a showroom and an additional marketing channel.
For example, if I’m going to buy all my parts in a warehouse, why buy them in a position where consumers have simple access?
That’s why IUIGA is running to open a few more retail outlets in Singapore this year and expand to Hong Kong and Macau until the end of the year.
“My purpose is to make myself known as the pioneering lifestyle logo in Southeast Asia,” Jaslyn said.
To do this, IUIGA focuses on the continuous improvement of its products.
“I think it’s very vital to create something vital other than money. Many marketing specialists need to generate money temporarily, leading to attracting the type of investors and workers and the company perishes prematurely. “
Featured Symbol Credit: IUIGA