wonderbox.fr
Fabrice, you hold a double Master’s degree in engineering and business administration from blue ribbon schools in France. How did you come to this business?
Fabrice Lépine: Having both an engineering degree combined with a business school diploma helped me to get a sense of entrepreneurship and management. Being rational, I used the scientific field to develop my analytical skills. My arrival, at the very beginning of Wonderbox, when there was only a handful of employees and the company was just a year and a half old, led me to shoulder all the brand’s growth. My double degree enabled me not only to remain intellectually thorough and get the business in shape, but also guarantee rigorous financial management methods, intrinsic to our business model. This double training also kept me from making a few mistakes….
What is precisely the brand’s value proposition, as an intermediary?
FL: Originally, our job is to sell gift boxes to people who, most of the time, wish to offer them as a gift. The current market, in the broad sense of the term, being quite wide, it was indispensable for us to stand out. Our value proposition is therefore based on experiences and emotion sharing: we offer adventure! Actually, the first boxes made available by Wonderbox were sport-themed.
Furthermore, our job evolved, but always with the same core value proposition. We became also a “content aggregator”, with partnerships including a great number of suppliers. We listed them in a booklet so that customers could first make their decision, and then make their reservation by means of a gift voucher.
What about tourism professionals? How do they benefit from this intermediation?
FL: Tourism represents 50% of our activity, be it hotels, nights (with or without meals), stays (with or without activities). The rest is evenly spread between sports, gastronomy and wellness.
Firstly, we offer a new customer base to tourism professionals, one that will be booking not only in the busy period, but also during off-peak season, or during the week: such a present often implies booking at a time of the year which is not in our habits.
We also enable them to advertise and promote their company. Our professional photographers go on premise, and take pictures, which our partners are free to use for their own communication. The activities we offer are released on booklets printed up to nearly 150,000 issues. Their services are therefore listed within a national distribution network, as well as online. All of this helps them promote their services efficiently.
Unlike the other players on the gift-box market, our tour-de-force has been to put together, in the form of packages sorted by topic, thousands of varied services proposed with a simple price list, and distributed on a national scale. We succeeded in assembling an offer which, until then, was completely scattered. We distribute it on a national scale, and to some extent, internationally. Beyond that, we also advise and support our providers to help them show their service in the best possible light.
How would you describe the corporate culture at Wonderbox, and how does one master innovation processes in such an emotion intensive business?
FL: We have always tried to develop our structure while keeping a start-up state of mind. Ever since we started, we’ve placed three principles at the base of the business: innovation, self-transcendence, and constant improvement. We arrived in the second place on the market, and as soon as we started, we were facing a powerful and well-established competitor. But this only fuelled our quest for excellence. We also remain very cautious as to quality aspects, while making customer feedback a critical issue for us.
Those are the pillars which founded the Wonderbox philosophy and upon which we have been building. Innovation, for example, which is the marketing team’s assignment, is the consequence of many trials and market feedback. We believe the best way to design a product consistent with what we wish to offer is by having consumers test it. We analyse the feedback in order to improve the product and our approach. We keep an open mind and try not to have any limits. And ultimately, there is no better market survey than real-life testing.
Fabrice Lépine: Having both an engineering degree combined with a business school diploma helped me to get a sense of entrepreneurship and management. Being rational, I used the scientific field to develop my analytical skills. My arrival, at the very beginning of Wonderbox, when there was only a handful of employees and the company was just a year and a half old, led me to shoulder all the brand’s growth. My double degree enabled me not only to remain intellectually thorough and get the business in shape, but also guarantee rigorous financial management methods, intrinsic to our business model. This double training also kept me from making a few mistakes….
What is precisely the brand’s value proposition, as an intermediary?
FL: Originally, our job is to sell gift boxes to people who, most of the time, wish to offer them as a gift. The current market, in the broad sense of the term, being quite wide, it was indispensable for us to stand out. Our value proposition is therefore based on experiences and emotion sharing: we offer adventure! Actually, the first boxes made available by Wonderbox were sport-themed.
Furthermore, our job evolved, but always with the same core value proposition. We became also a “content aggregator”, with partnerships including a great number of suppliers. We listed them in a booklet so that customers could first make their decision, and then make their reservation by means of a gift voucher.
What about tourism professionals? How do they benefit from this intermediation?
FL: Tourism represents 50% of our activity, be it hotels, nights (with or without meals), stays (with or without activities). The rest is evenly spread between sports, gastronomy and wellness.
Firstly, we offer a new customer base to tourism professionals, one that will be booking not only in the busy period, but also during off-peak season, or during the week: such a present often implies booking at a time of the year which is not in our habits.
We also enable them to advertise and promote their company. Our professional photographers go on premise, and take pictures, which our partners are free to use for their own communication. The activities we offer are released on booklets printed up to nearly 150,000 issues. Their services are therefore listed within a national distribution network, as well as online. All of this helps them promote their services efficiently.
Unlike the other players on the gift-box market, our tour-de-force has been to put together, in the form of packages sorted by topic, thousands of varied services proposed with a simple price list, and distributed on a national scale. We succeeded in assembling an offer which, until then, was completely scattered. We distribute it on a national scale, and to some extent, internationally. Beyond that, we also advise and support our providers to help them show their service in the best possible light.
How would you describe the corporate culture at Wonderbox, and how does one master innovation processes in such an emotion intensive business?
FL: We have always tried to develop our structure while keeping a start-up state of mind. Ever since we started, we’ve placed three principles at the base of the business: innovation, self-transcendence, and constant improvement. We arrived in the second place on the market, and as soon as we started, we were facing a powerful and well-established competitor. But this only fuelled our quest for excellence. We also remain very cautious as to quality aspects, while making customer feedback a critical issue for us.
Those are the pillars which founded the Wonderbox philosophy and upon which we have been building. Innovation, for example, which is the marketing team’s assignment, is the consequence of many trials and market feedback. We believe the best way to design a product consistent with what we wish to offer is by having consumers test it. We analyse the feedback in order to improve the product and our approach. We keep an open mind and try not to have any limits. And ultimately, there is no better market survey than real-life testing.
Wonderbox recently acquired two leading brands – namely Vivabox and Gift For You – respectively in Belgium and in the Netherlands, in order to scale up its European leadership efforts. What is the aim of this northbound strategic move, in detail?
FL: This new Northern Europe-bound momentum is enabling us to settle into countries where we aren’t operating yet. Rather than starting from scratch and creating a structure with all the risks involved, we proceed through external expansion, by buying a local player. We therefore integrate companies who do globally the same job as we do, and then harmonize common values. This was the case with Gift For You.
In Belgium, a country in which we were already operating, we tried on the contrary to develop on the base of a different concept. We are striving to give new dynamics to our offer elsewhere by exporting new offers on mature markets. This was the case with Vivabox, and their concept « a gift now, a gift later » which we considered could be easily adjusted outside Belgium.
Wonderbox is already the French market leader. How could the Vivabox concept improve the offer to consumers?
FL: Vivabox offers a gift immediately, and a « voucher » for a gift later. It’s a big box, as you need to be able to put an item in it. It can open new market segments, where conventional gift-boxes don’t have a place. For example, children could be interested in an « amusement park » box in which we could insert a board game. For teenagers, a sports box, with smartphone equipment inside, such as batteries. Our customers being in the 30-35 age group, we did not have any products aiming to attract these age groups, up to now. But I believe Vivabox has the necessary assets to target a younger segment.
Can you tell us more about the range of services provided by Wonderbox in Europe?
FL: We are working on 4 main themes, with a network of about 25,000 partners. In Europe, we offer close to 80,000 activities, and we’re distributed in 10,000 outlets. Overall, we sell around 2.5 million boxes per year. Our network is therefore very wide, with many partners. It is not easy to manage but it gives us the possibility of rolling out on the continent: the network we have in Europe could enable us for example to sell Italian holidays to people from Belgian or from France.
Ensuring that things get well done by your trading partners is probably no easy task. How do you deal with the need for harmonizing your quality standards across countries in Europe, considering the countless operators you work with?
FL: Our internal listing processes always work in two steps.
The first one is based on the use of external quality requirements or ratings. We work with labels which are from the outset a guarantee of quality of the partners, for example « Gîtes de France » for B&B or « 5 Mondes » for spas. This bolsters the quality of our offers.
The second step is our own, from the moment we select the partner up to the signature of the contract. Our field sales representatives start by going to meet the prospects. We make sure on site that the offer is compliant with our quality requirements. If the provider is selected, our photographers then go on premise to take pictures in order to enrich the communication media.
Once « operations » have started with the partner, we carry out regular checks to ensure that the quality originally observed is maintained. We have various means to do so. The « dream testers » program is a part of it, and all of our staff is entitled to it, up to 500 euros worth per year. They go and do the activities they wish to experience, but in return they have to fill in a questionnaire and come back with pictures. This feedback enables us to make sure that what they experienced is what they would have experienced as paying customers. This program is also valid for our customers, or for any person outside the company who wishes to take on the role of the mystery customer.
Lastly, we have an internal rating system, which enables us to get feedback on our partners. Some can get selected as ambassadors, and others can enter our red-flag process. If they don’t meet our standards any longer, first a warning is sent. As a last resort, they risk being unlisted if they don’t get back up to the required level.
You earlier mentioned the financial aspect of your business as an engineering process. What did you mean by that?
FL: We do by essence a middleman’s job, since we sell prepaid gift vouchers. In order to complete this task, we are connected via computers to all the tills of our distributors, and manage all the financial flows this way. With 10,000 outlets and 2,5 million boxes sold, full traceability was indispensable. This is even more the case as the gift voucher is only valid once it’s passed through the till. On the other side, we have also set up an application in order for our partners to be paid as soon as they flashed the code on the cheque. Our information systems management must therefore be very thorough. Beyond the gift box, we must allow durable growth for all the players of the value chain. This means, among other things, that everyone must be paid on time.
FL: This new Northern Europe-bound momentum is enabling us to settle into countries where we aren’t operating yet. Rather than starting from scratch and creating a structure with all the risks involved, we proceed through external expansion, by buying a local player. We therefore integrate companies who do globally the same job as we do, and then harmonize common values. This was the case with Gift For You.
In Belgium, a country in which we were already operating, we tried on the contrary to develop on the base of a different concept. We are striving to give new dynamics to our offer elsewhere by exporting new offers on mature markets. This was the case with Vivabox, and their concept « a gift now, a gift later » which we considered could be easily adjusted outside Belgium.
Wonderbox is already the French market leader. How could the Vivabox concept improve the offer to consumers?
FL: Vivabox offers a gift immediately, and a « voucher » for a gift later. It’s a big box, as you need to be able to put an item in it. It can open new market segments, where conventional gift-boxes don’t have a place. For example, children could be interested in an « amusement park » box in which we could insert a board game. For teenagers, a sports box, with smartphone equipment inside, such as batteries. Our customers being in the 30-35 age group, we did not have any products aiming to attract these age groups, up to now. But I believe Vivabox has the necessary assets to target a younger segment.
Can you tell us more about the range of services provided by Wonderbox in Europe?
FL: We are working on 4 main themes, with a network of about 25,000 partners. In Europe, we offer close to 80,000 activities, and we’re distributed in 10,000 outlets. Overall, we sell around 2.5 million boxes per year. Our network is therefore very wide, with many partners. It is not easy to manage but it gives us the possibility of rolling out on the continent: the network we have in Europe could enable us for example to sell Italian holidays to people from Belgian or from France.
Ensuring that things get well done by your trading partners is probably no easy task. How do you deal with the need for harmonizing your quality standards across countries in Europe, considering the countless operators you work with?
FL: Our internal listing processes always work in two steps.
The first one is based on the use of external quality requirements or ratings. We work with labels which are from the outset a guarantee of quality of the partners, for example « Gîtes de France » for B&B or « 5 Mondes » for spas. This bolsters the quality of our offers.
The second step is our own, from the moment we select the partner up to the signature of the contract. Our field sales representatives start by going to meet the prospects. We make sure on site that the offer is compliant with our quality requirements. If the provider is selected, our photographers then go on premise to take pictures in order to enrich the communication media.
Once « operations » have started with the partner, we carry out regular checks to ensure that the quality originally observed is maintained. We have various means to do so. The « dream testers » program is a part of it, and all of our staff is entitled to it, up to 500 euros worth per year. They go and do the activities they wish to experience, but in return they have to fill in a questionnaire and come back with pictures. This feedback enables us to make sure that what they experienced is what they would have experienced as paying customers. This program is also valid for our customers, or for any person outside the company who wishes to take on the role of the mystery customer.
Lastly, we have an internal rating system, which enables us to get feedback on our partners. Some can get selected as ambassadors, and others can enter our red-flag process. If they don’t meet our standards any longer, first a warning is sent. As a last resort, they risk being unlisted if they don’t get back up to the required level.
You earlier mentioned the financial aspect of your business as an engineering process. What did you mean by that?
FL: We do by essence a middleman’s job, since we sell prepaid gift vouchers. In order to complete this task, we are connected via computers to all the tills of our distributors, and manage all the financial flows this way. With 10,000 outlets and 2,5 million boxes sold, full traceability was indispensable. This is even more the case as the gift voucher is only valid once it’s passed through the till. On the other side, we have also set up an application in order for our partners to be paid as soon as they flashed the code on the cheque. Our information systems management must therefore be very thorough. Beyond the gift box, we must allow durable growth for all the players of the value chain. This means, among other things, that everyone must be paid on time.