Chen Nian: The Key to "New Vancl" is How to Slow Down

This October, Vancl celebrates its 9th anniversary and held a concert themed "A Plain Song" at the Peking University Centennial Hall, and Yiou was invited to attend. At the event, Vancl's founder Chen Nian shared stories related to the "New Vancl", Peking University and himself, which was followed by a performance by the renowned musician Pu Shu.

　　In his speech, Chen Nian mentioned the concept of "New Vancl" for the first time. He said that the word "new" before Vancl was actually given by friends and users, and it is the new impression people have of Vancl after three years of drastic adjustments. "Quality + tone + cost-performance + richness = distinctive products = New Vancl", he summarized all the connotations of "New Vancl" with this mathematical formula.

　　The three years mentioned by Chen Nian refer to the period from 2014 to 2016, the three years after Vancl "escaped death". Before that, Vancl had its glory days: in 2010 when the "Vancl style" internet meme swept across the country, Vancl's revenue exceeded 2 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 300%, ranking fourth in the entire industry. After reaching its peak, it fell to the bottom due to over-ambition and blind expansion, and the outside world even used the phrase "Vancl is dead" to describe this once e-commerce legend.

　　Chen Nian has also reflected on Vancl's past in many interviews. "Vancol got to experience what it means to be fast," he自嘲ed. Reflecting on the enterprise, he said, "What Vancl did in the past was to over-cater to consumers, always afraid that they would not like our products. That way of catering we did in the past was wrong, we were too eager for speed and volume back then." Reflecting on himself, he said, "I once thought I was particularly good at financing, particularly good at running a business, and particularly good at making money, but those were not actually my skills, just a coincidence." After experiencing great ups and downs, Vancl finally found the right direction. For the present and the future, Chen Nian frankly stated "All those are the results of being fast. The key is how to slow down."

　　And Vancl has indeed slowed down, or rather, it has focused on refined operation. In the past three years, Vancl has rarely appeared prominently in the public eye. Except for a few new product launches and one controversial interview, compared with other e-commerce companies or clothing brands, people pay far less attention to Vancl. In the Internet era, most companies and brands are seeking exposure and brushing up their presence, after all, consumers are always forgetful. But this does not seem to apply to Vancl. Learning the lesson of blind expansion in the past, Vancl has prudently chosen to start from products for the reshaping of its brand value.

　　"Our down jackets don't leak down!" Chen Nian laughed himself after saying this sentence in his speech. This reminds people of what Chen Nian said years ago: "All the clothes I produced before were garbage." It can be seen that over the past three years, Vancl has become more assertive in its persistence and changes regarding products. Chen Nian said, "New Vancl products insist on not making cheap goods; products adhere to useful design, follow Vancl's design principles of being meaningful and reasonable, and add elements with Vancl's own voice on this basis." Sincerity is probably the source of Vancl regaining courage and trust.

　　In addition, the clothing industry is closely related to fashion. Nowadays, while consumers pursue high quality, they also pay more attention to diversification, individualization and brand tone. For the current New Vancl, apart from offering a richer range of high-quality products to impress users, New Vancl needs to make more innovations and changes in developing distinctive products in the future, so as to truly grasp the rhythm of Vancl.

　　In fact, looking at the entire e-commerce industry, vertical e-commerce focuses on segmented markets, has a deeper understanding of the industry and products, is more likely to build their own characteristics, meet the personalized needs of a specific user group, and has its own market value. For Vancl, it may have its own uniqueness in operating e-commerce and marketing methods, but it still needs to do more to support the development of a brand.

　　At present, the entire e-commerce industry is in a stable growth period, and the e-commerce dividend is gradually disappearing. It is not easy for enterprises to achieve breakthrough development under such a trend. In the more segmented clothing field, there is still a situation of oversupply in production and sales and constantly shrinking profit margins. As an independent brand e-commerce in the vertical field, Vancl has limited choices.

　　But at the same time, there is a good opportunity: in today's era where business has developed to such a prosperous level, consumer demand is also increasingly diversified. Consumers are no longer limited to simply purchasing goods, but tend to choose good products, high-quality service and comfortable experience. Judging from Vancl's current development status, if it can grasp the real needs of current consumers, let consumers truly accept the brand, product quality and connotation, the road to reshaping brand value will not be difficult.