- The coronavirus has steered businesses towards search for new solutions.
- The fashion and retail sector must innovate so that companies do not go bankrupt.
- The VIPO GROUP created before the pandemic, has adapted to new dynamics brought by the coronavirus. The challenges faced in the market have been significant since customers are not always willing to innovate.
- Companies such as Arturo Calle, Totto, and Falabella in Colombia are using our solutions.
Keywords: Startup, retail, company, solutions.
VIPO GROUP
William Bernal, CEO of VIPO GROUP, never imagined that a pandemic would drive the growth of his business. The arrival of the coronavirus also widened the company’s catalogue of solutions for fashion and retail.
“It has not been easy. The pandemic was a large obstacle, because fashion and retail have been hit hard over the past year. This forced companies to freeze their budget for pilot projects”, as stated by Bernal. “We had to redesign our products. We used to focus only on physical stores, but we now offer solutions aimed for online customer experience.”
Bernal explains that VIPO GROUP only offered the V-Shopper technology at the beginning to improve customer experience. It consisted on a screen located for customers to interact within fashion stores. After sharing their data and taking a picture, the artificial intelligence system analyzes the information. The V-Shopper recommends a fashion outfit to the customer that includes clothes available in the store and where they can find them.
However, the rise of e-commerce led VIPO GROUP to discover an innovation-worthy insight. “We saw that online stores did not have applications that enabled a customer – website interaction”, as exposed by the CEO. In other words, the V-Shopper was seen as an option to online businesses. Undoubtedly, sleeves were rolled up to face the challenge head on.
The future
“Developing this solution took between four and five months. This is because each store has different e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, Magento or WooCommerce”, says Bernal. “Our solution is compatible with any e-commerce alternative out there”.
According to an analysis published in Forbes Magazine by businessman Cody Candee, there are various strategies to navigate the pandemic era. Diversifying and meeting the ever-changing needs of users have allowed VIPO GROUP to adapt to the current situation.
“The forecast for 2021 is promising. Various pilot projects will be launched during the firs quarter of year. We have Macson in Spain and Cache-Cache in France. In Colombia, we are planning a new project with Falabella and another one with Arturo Calle”, said Bernal. He is actually optimistic in France where new anti-Covid measures will promote more interactions inside physical stores.
Functionality
Usefulness throughout the production chain is the most valuable element of VIPO GROUP. . Its technology not only promotes highlighted products, but also the ones that have low turnover. This creates a “smart purchase” package leading customers to choose the best product, according to their needs. “A customer with closed stores and expands to e-commerce is a potential customer”, indicates Bernal. Nonetheless, “this customer is not confident on e-commerce. He does not believe that his business will stay the same for very long”. Hence, VIPO GROUP guarantees that both in the physical store and e-commerce, the customer can have access to the most appealing experience. This is a convenient path to boost sales.
Success and hardships
The development path for VIPO GROUP has been marked by many efforts and hardships. The implementation of pilot solutions for well-known stores and companies has not been easy.
It all began with the “EIT Digital 2020” contest from EIT Digital. This non-profit entity receives funds from the European Union for innovation projects. Additionally, companies and universities are linked to carry out development and research in the retail sector. VIPO GROUP applied to this call and was chosen.
An alliance between the University of Rennes (France), the University of Barcelona (Spain) and the Bright Cape Company (Netherlands) supported them to develop their solutions. Technological validations were performed over the first three months. Then, the strategy was created to tackle the market and position the product. However, due to the pandemic, the second phase was delayed until November 2020. The confinement strongly limited the application of new technologies within physical stores.
One of the major challenges faced has been to find resources to accelerate growth. For instance, VIPO was selected in ten acceleration programs split between France, Germany and Spain before the coronavirus came to be. In the end, only one program supported them as a consultancy figure without any direct investment.
“Finding where to develop pilots has been hard, since customers are not familiar with us. Furthermore, this is an investment that the customer cannot measure out immediately, but over time”, as exposed by Bernal.
The call to innovate
Bernal believes that companies often forget that the started out small. When startups knock on their doors, the usual questions are with whom have you worked? and where has your solution been implemented?
“A company that is beginning its testing phases is not easily accepted. Convincing market powerhouses to test our solution is no easy feat. This needs to change. Companies should be more open to innovation and trying out new solutions”, concludes the CEO.
For the time being, the startup is still trying to expand its technology to more businesses. In fact, an alliance is about to be forged with other companies in the technological sector for check-out in stores and online shopping optimization. These will become commercial and cooperation agreements between VIPO GROUP and e-commerce platforms. It will also involve platforms that are in charge of transactions for credit card payments. 2021 comes with a brand-new horizon and many challenges ahead.
Reference links:
- Eight Strategies to Navigate the Pandemic as a startup (Forbes):https://bit.ly/2WBw3u5
- The Unexpected Boom In Startups: https://n.pr/2Ke6KLJ
CRM TEAM
VIPO Group
