Interview with Amr Massry, co-founder and CEO of VINCO
What is VINCO’s business model?
We found the name VINCO from the Latin word which means “the winner” or “the victory” and in Italian it means “I win”. Our main business model is that with everything you buy, you have a chance to win. We sell dreams. We will reshape the future of e-commerce and the e-commerce experience and focus on winning prizes. We are going to change the perspective of buying online as there is no longer a unique selling proposition on any of the e-commerce platforms available here in Kuwait. The customer is only oriented on the price and he checks here and there to make a decision. We have created this platform to provide marketing support to our suppliers. We like to think of the platform as a marketing platform where sellers can create online promotions and customers can buy the same product they are already checking out online for the same price and have a chance to win big. We start with Rolex Watches, Chanel Bags, Cash Prizes, iPhone, Samsung and more to come. We are also introducing cars and jewelry. Our economic model is unique, especially in Kuwait and even in the region. In Dubai, there are many live gambling platforms. From our side, we are compliant with Islam and this is a main point we focus on in Kuwait. We are licensed by the Department of Commerce and all of our draws are conducted by the Department of Commerce. The idea of raffles in general in the country has been around for a long time and banks and businesses are all doing raffles. But the special thing about VINCO is that you can know your exact odds. For example, if there are 100 products and you are 1 out of 100, you know that your chance if you bought one product is 1%, if you bought five products, it is 5%. This is how you calculate your odds. In other places, you don’t know the ratio or the number of people you’re competing against. On VINCO, it is placed on the main screen, the customer can consult it, the date of the draw is displayed and everything is transparent.
What type of products do you offer at VINCO?
We are the first promotion-based platform available in the GCC. Our business model is unique. We affiliate ourselves with legitimate and quality products.
We mainly manufacture handpicked products because we want to give value to our customers. Before assigning the products to the platform, we test them, see the quality of the products, see how relevant they are to the platform, as well as how they look on the UI and user experience. Then we proceed with. For example, we have an exclusive Constantin Nautics edition of bracelets and key rings. These are exclusively manufactured for VINCO. We collaborated with Constantin Nautics, the Romanian brand, for 1,600 bracelets and 500 key rings. Our main objective is that we choose the products. 50% of these products are exclusive on our platform. We want to make sure they are useful to our customer or fun. We also have monopoly and risk. We introduce Marvel mugs like Spider-Man, Superman, funky and close things to millennials and gen Z who are our target audience.
How do you choose those specific products that you curate?
This process is not easy, especially because we are a new platform. Being new and picky is not a good combination, especially when it comes to dealing with suppliers. However, 90% of the sellers we approach are interested in the idea. From our side, we try to promote their brand and we also invest in the marketing campaign of the product, for the promotion itself and on other advertising channels. This is how sellers accept us. For example, we have a promotion with Bella Lenses which is the most famous lens brand in the region. Bella Lenses was one of the top selling lenses and one of the lucky winners will receive a Chanel bag. The Chanel bag itself costs $7,000. Thus, we promote Bella and Chanel at the same time, and the buyer also receives a relevant gift.
What challenges do you face with this business model and with the competition?
The model itself helps us a lot. There is a high risk for us and for the seller himself. But, we target adventurers who take risks. Ultimately, I tell people that you have a chance of winning. We sell dreams. We want people to buy something with the expectation of earning something bigger in a month or three. That’s what makes it easy, especially with high-end brands like Altissimo, Bella, etc. Now people are starting to trust us. Cozmo is the largest entertainment center available in Kuwait and they also invest with us in advertising, venues, screens, etc. People love anything that is new and has good potential and good management. The same goes for sellers and traders. When I started, I hired regular sellers, but we are not a regular e-tailer. Our main interlocutor in other companies is not the sales department, it is always marketing. So even my sales process shifted to media personalities. We are a marketing platform with an e-commerce business model. In the past two months, we have successfully secured 14 new suppliers. It’s only a month and a half after the launch of our platform. We’re also creating five private labels with items focused on apparel, technology, and more.
What are your competitive advantages?
We are the first promotion-based platform available in the GCC. Our business model is unique. We affiliate ourselves with legitimate and quality products. We give our clients the chance to achieve their dreams and win. Everyone likes to win. Our slogan is “Let’s Shop and Win. Let’s Vinco”. We are focused on winning, we want people to win, we want suppliers to win, and that will eventually win us too.
What is your vision of the company in the medium term?
In the next three to five years, we will certainly be present in the regions. we will penetrate Saudi Arabia by 2023 at the latest. We are already working on licensing the company in Dubai, but it is not a crucial step for us at the moment because there is a lot of competition, albeit with a different business model. In terms of population, money and more, Saudi Arabia is booming.
What drives you to do what you do?
COVID is the main reason my co-founder and I decided to start this business. I ran an outdoor advertising business. I have worked in the media industry for 10 to 15 years. After the pandemic, everything was closed. It was a wake-up call because everything was moving online and I was still working in a very traditional form of outdoor advertising. I love outdoor advertising; however, during this phase, people were not coming out to see our ads. So we didn’t generate any money for almost four months. During this phase, I was always at home and had nothing to do. It was the first time in nearly 20 years that I was semi-unemployed. I was still thinking about how to overcome this pandemic and there was no certainty about the future of any industry. So, I started thinking about going online. I started with an app called Kootmart which was a directory for everything related to online shopping, reservations, etc. While I was working on it, I started having ideas regarding e-commerce. Then the idea came to my mind. I called my partner because we had discussed opening a business. We could open a business and create an e-commerce platform with a loyalty program, based on promotions, etc. We made a decision the same day that we were going to do this platform. Every day from August 2020, we discussed how to implement the idea, how to do the UI, UX, and we put everything together. We were so picky about everything about VINCO, from the name, to the color of the app, to the features, to the product, to the coding, to our staff, etc. We are a team of 21 today and everything is running smoothly.
For more information, please visit: www.letsvinco.com.
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