vClusive Brings Luxury 2.0 For HENRY

vClusive is a part of vMobo and was founded in 2008 as a California Corporation but repositioned help luxury brands get more customers through an omni-channel approach. It recently received 6.3 million dollars in funding from Hunch Ventures.

We speak to Vinu Sundaresan, founder and CEO of vMobo Inc.

How does vClusive help the brands they work with get more customers?

Especially in India - this is a "do it for me country", not a "do it yourself country”.

vClusive utilizes the data intelligence from our platform to drive the metrics for the brands by:

1. Acquisition
2. Engagement
3. Retention

Our success is measured by increased repeat frequency and bill size. Our recommendation engine drives the right cross-pollination of members to the right brands whenever there is a purchase made at any store. We design and execute the strategy to reach the right audience based on psychographic profiling.

Why the rebranding?

Given that most of the support provided to Members and Brands were “offline”, we realized that there is tremendous opportunity to fill a gap in the “space” by being a neutral player in the luxury segment which provides an offline-to-online marketplace across all the industry segments we serve. The rebranded offering reflects that shift and our ability to be “all-inclusive, and an omni-channel” platform for our partners.

What’s Luxury 2.0? Is it a real change or just a marketing styling?

In the end everything is a market styling - but without a deep understanding of the consumer shifts in the target audience and their preferences, the connect required to acquire and engage with this new era consumer will not be of substance irrespective of the marketing approach.

This shift needed to happen. Consumers want experiences in all aspects of their personal life today. This experiential based marketing approach is in the Luxury space is Luxury 2.0. While this is a global phenomenon, it’s more pronounced in South Asia. The new buyers are HENRYs (High Earners Not Rich Yet), very different than “old money” oriented HNI.

HENRY’s believe in “money well spent”; that is, the quality of the experience where I have spent my disposable income is very important. They are redefining luxury to mean “experience” not just an expensive watch or a handbag, but more so, that I purchased an expensive watch because I connected with the experience that the watch provided me. I connected with the brand. That is money well spent.

Hence for the brands, it is no longer acquisition at the top of the buyers pyramid, but about roping in the larger customer base with affordable as well as accessible luxury.

Why would a founder with expertise in IT venture into retail and luxury?

The fabric of our firm is based on our ability to be a profiling firm based on data intelligence collected by consumers and brands.

We are an IT firm that also happens to customize and curate packages between brands and consumers by providing real time information to both stakeholders. We are a connector. Our most successful IT firms in the world, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, are all connectors.

Brands become our partners because we not only provide the technology solution platform but we also deeply understand the brands based on historical customer purchases. We are the “last mile” in the luxury retail industry.

Revenue growth, client base growth, business model and monetization details

Our business model is a performance based commission structure with no upfront costs or hidden costs.

The brands get an extended marketing team without the retainer of a typical agency or in-house staff costs.

Hence we work with the brands with skin in the game and a 100% measurable ROI. When the brand succeeds, we succeed.

How have the two acquisitions helped the business?

The last mile of the experience for a member is always the cashier or store staff completing the billing. With our convenient payment modes from the app, the buyer has one less point of contact to be disappointed. 'Styling' has expanded our reach to potential buyers who would otherwise not convert. This is especially true with tier 2 and 3 cities where these brands don’t have a presence.

Vision, mission, revenue targets?

We would like to be South Asia’s largest omni-channel network marketplace for the luxury segment. Expand our reach to at least 3 more countries in South Asia in the next 1 year.

Our target for the next two years is 100 million dollars in net sales.