Untrimmed otaku are in the fashion industry and want to make a lot of money by relying on a clothes box, but there is no return on investing millions

◆ Chen Xi's accent also has the flavor of Guangzhou.

| Pencil Road Reporter Wang Lin

► <b>Introduction</b>

White t, shorts, slippers - this is Chen Xi's summer standard.

The outfit looks simple and casual and even a little untrimmed, but he is mixed up in the fashion circle that is almost harsh on the dress.

He joked that he was not in line with fashion, "maybe the difference is strong." But it has been operating a business project for more than 2 years: hanging clothes have found suitable clothes, shoes and hats for more than 8,000 men, and the quarterly repurchase rate is about 60%.

More than 8,000 men were captured, but only one box was used. Specifically, the user logs on to the website to select the preferred dressing style, and then the stylist will refer to the user's preferences, body shape and other nearly 50 dimensions of data to filter out the items that meet the user's preferences. Subsequently, these items (5 to 6 pieces) will be packaged into a box and sent to the user, the user receives the package to try on first and then choose the desired clothes to buy, and the rest of the goods will be recycled by the platform for free.

At present, the recommendation success rate of a single box is nearly 40%, and the unit price of the customer ranges from a few hundred yuan to two thousand yuan.

Note: Chen Xi promised that the data in the text was correct, responsible for its authenticity, and the pencil road made an objective and true record, and the shorthand of the recording was backed up.

<b>Untrimmed boys</b>

February 2015, New York, USA, 8 p.m.

Friend Ben knocked on Chen Xi's door, holding eight pieces of A4 paper in his hand. Ben sat down on the couch and spread out the a4 paper full of flow charts, "I went back to think about what you said in the morning," he said, glancing at Chen Xi.

Just 12 hours ago, the two had just eaten breakfast together. Chen Xi said that he wanted to do men's clothing e-commerce. Originally I just wanted to find a friend to talk to, but I didn't expect Ben to arrive unexpectedly that night. At home, they did not have much contact, but after going abroad, they became close friends.

"From a technical point of view, we need 3 servers, after the user registers, selects the favorite tag, and then we distribute the product accordingly." Ben talked freely, and Chen Xi listened happily.

The night is late, and dreams are fermenting in the heart. It was the fifth year of Chen Xi's master's degree, and he was the head of global arbitrage asia at Parhejion in the United States, managing $2 billion in assets. The nature of his work requires that he be extra careful and not tolerate sloppiness.

That can only be less exquisite in dress. In this regard, Chen Xi has been pursuing two words - minimalism. T-shirts, shorts, pull-up boards — he joked that he was a migrant financial worker, "probably too stressful, so try to release yourself in clothing."

But for the work that has been done for 5 years and has little achievements, Chen Xi does not like it so much. He describes the work in front of him as bland, "caring about the price every day, and counting tricks."

Because he felt bored, he chose to leave, and he wanted to start a business.

And this time, in addition to the field, there is also the identity that is changed. Previously, he was a buyer when he managed assets, and now he's trying to sell things to others — providing clothing for white-collar men between the ages of 25 and 35.

Perhaps it is a special habit of Nüwa when she creates people, and men and women are very different when shopping. The former focuses on purpose, the latter on experience. Many times, men tend to buy and go shopping, while women are more of a pastime, "just shopping".

It is necessary to do what it likes in order to attract users. Therefore, Chen Xi looked at the data, he thought that the user filled in personal hobbies, sizes, styles and other data, and then the stylist selected 8 to 12 pieces (now 5 to 6 pieces) for him. These items are then placed in a box and sent to the user. Users try first and then buy, like to stay, dislike to send back. In this way, after repeated repetition, Chen Xi gradually understands user preferences and continuously improves the success rate of recommendation.

After filtering his thoughts, Chen Xi boarded a plane back to China.

<b>Try before you buy</b>

Hangzhou's Binjiang District, a three-bedroom, two-hall house, is where Chen Xi's entrepreneurial project "Hanging Clothes" dream began.

Choosing Hangzhou seems to be a predestined thing. "Buffett created a miracle of god in Omaha, and I was influenced by him." It is also not a first-tier city, but it is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and from this point of view, Hangzhou and Omaha have quite similarities. With funds constrained, Chen Xi rented the house in the suburbs, "so that everyone can have no distractions."

At first, he didn't know if the first-to-try-and-buy approach would work. In order to reduce the cost of trial and error, he decided to experiment in the simplest way first. They built a website where users registered through a small form and chose their preferences based on images. The team records in excel, and the stylist then selects the items for the user accordingly.

The selected items are stuffed into the box and sent to the user. Most of the 8 to 12 pieces (now 5 to 6 pieces) lying in the box were collected by the team from overseas shopping websites, "buy more when discounted.". The price of the single item ranges from a few hundred yuan to a few thousand yuan, "the coat is definitely expensive, the shirt is very cheap."

The customers are white-collar men aged 25 to 35. This group of people has the ability to spend, is more picky about the quality of clothes, and is willing to try new models.

After 4 months, Chen Xi felt that the process was feasible. The team began to choose labels in a rich range of nearly 20 dimensions, from size and style to body characteristics. They want to continuously optimize the algorithm according to the behavioral attributes of each purchase of the user to improve the success rate of the recommendation.

But only if the drape needs enough users. To this end, Chen Xi participated in a program called "I Am a Unicorn". The program invited 5 top domestic investors such as Fang Aizhi, Tong Shihao, Wan Haoji, Zhu Ye and Fu Sheng as guests, and the entrepreneurs told about their entrepreneurial projects, passed the investor assessment, and reached the investment intention.

Chen Xi felt that she would be suitable for the show, "I have seen the American version of 'Shark Tank'". His background in finance + mathematics gives him a strong logical thinking, "our team has a strong combat attribute, which will be very good in the show."

<b>Smash 1 million to retain only 10%.</b>

The server was crowded.

Chen Xi, who was on a business trip, received a call from an engineer while watching a TELEVISION show he had recorded in late 2015. In the program, Chen Xi saw the tricks and captured the hearts of 5 investors on the scene (and for some reason, he failed to reach a deal). "Hurry up and add broadband, can't collapse", Chen Xi's tone was hurriedly filled with joy.

2000 visits in one night.

Chen Xi was a little surprised. At the time of the festival, he did not expect the effect to be so. Before that, there were only a few hundred users on the draped clothing platform, and the order volume at this time soared nearly 10 times.

Tasting the sweetness of many users, Chen Xi mistakenly went astray. He began to burn money to smash advertisements, 1 million yuan smashed, bought more than a thousand users.

But after 3 months, the drawbacks have been highlighted. More than 80% of users are disposable consumption, "buy and go", and the user retention rate is only 10%. Looking at the capital pool, the 3 million yuan raised by the angel round has long been exhausted, "there is no money."

Poor thinks differently. The result also pulled him back to reality, "can no longer burn money to buy users."

One weekend last July, Chen Xi brought the team together. He did not shy away from it, "We must tighten the belt of our pants, the previous practice was not right, we have to get back on track."

They shifted their focus from sales to referral rates and repurchase rates. "When 3 of the 5 recommended pieces were left behind, we succeeded." Next, the team must constantly optimize the algorithm to achieve the intersection and synergy of humans and machines.

Chen Xi knew in his heart that the operating data in front of him was not beautiful, and capital would not buy it. To this end, he cobbled together millions and "decided to gamble".

<b>60%</b> <b>repurchase rate</b>

Change it.

17%, 25%, 38%, the success rate of product recommendation gradually picked up. 10%, 20%, 60%, quarterly repurchase rate continues to rise. The number of users who purchased reached more than 8,000.

In the supply chain, draped clothes gradually have bargaining power. In the past, when the purchasing team went to the outlet store, they always had to ask the other party what they could sell. Nowadays, many supply chains take the initiative to find the door, "opening up the visibility, many people are willing to cooperate."

"We play more like a retailer," Mr. Chen said with a laugh. They buy out a single item from the supply chain and then sell it to users in combination with the rest of the item. At present, there are 30 supply chain resources in the hanging clothing.

Chen Xi also has the leverage to reintroduce funds. In September this year, Hangyi received a $22 million pre-a round of financing led by Yuan Jing Capital.

The nearly 100-square-meter office can no longer accommodate the team. It turned out that the office of the draped clothes was also equipped with a warehousing function in addition to the work. There are already 1,000 skkus in the draped clothes, and the area of more than 100 square meters is obviously cramped. Today, Chen Xi has expanded the office area to 2,000 square meters, "800 square meters is a warehouse."

The storage area is increasing, and the distribution capacity is also rising. In November 2016, the delivery time was 2.99 days, and by April this year, the number had become 0.39 days. Goods stored in the warehouse can generally be sold out in 40 days.

But Chen Xi did not want to expand, and the business was still limited to Hangzhou. He thought about making the next move after hangzhou was consolidated.

/the end/

Edited by Fu Wenwen Proofreader Wu Zeqian

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[Original title: Financing 22 million He used a clothing box to capture 8,000 straight men First try and then buy recommendation success rate of 40%]