Melissa Mash, the co-founder of Dagne Dover, coined the term “the two-bag schlep” to describe the motion of leaving one’s house daily while carrying a tote bag over one shoulder and a laptop bag over the other.
Mash is well familiar with the procedure. Along with the report you need to present at ten in the morning, you’ve packed your workout shoes and water bottle in the tote bag you’re taking with you. The binder for the report needs to be stored besides your workout socks since it is too large to fit in the laptop bag, the granola bar you brought along for a snack is being squished beneath the aluminium water bottle you brought along, and your keys—where did your keys go?
Mash and the co-founders of Dagne Dover, Jessy Dover and Deepa Gandhi desire that you refrain from picking up that second bag. Put those two bags down and grab a Dagne Dover handbag instead. It is designed to provide you with a spot for your shoes, water bottle, report, laptop, granola bar, and keys, making it a method that is both competent and fashionable for transporting your belongings to their respective destinations.
The Art of Fashioning the Ideal Bag
While working for a name-brand luxury handbag manufacturer, Melissa Mash began looking into handbag issues. Every day, I had the opportunity to meet with consumers and learn about the handbag issues that were most important to them. The laptops weren’t protected, the water bottles fell over, and the keys invariably made their way to the bottom of the bag, where they were found sitting next to the used tissues.
Therefore, she pondered the possibility of designing an improved purse for herself. “People wanted to carry something that was not only trendy but also incredibly useful and really functional,” you said. “People wanted to carry something that was fashionable, of course.” She saw a need in the market for a stylish handbag that had an organised inside and was sold at a reasonable price range, and as a result, she decided to enrol in business school.
When Mash returned to the classroom, she observed her classmates lugging around two bags while attending networking events. She thought, “They were putting so much time into their hair, their makeup, the clothes, and the shoes, and their bags were a complete disaster.” Mash knew she could devise a more efficient solution to this problem.
Over the subsequent 18 months, Mash assembled the group that would ultimately be responsible for launching Dagne Dover. To reverse-engineer what Mash referred to as “the Perfect Bag,” the researchers conducted surveys and led focus groups with over 1,000 men and women, asked them about their top handbag complaints, and then spoke to them.
In 2013, Mash and her team announced that pre-orders for Dagne Dover’s Perfect Bag were now being accepted. They trusted those who had signed up to learn more on the Dagne Dover website to disseminate the information by sending the announcement to those individuals who had participated in the surveys and focus groups they had conducted. “Within three months, we had over $40,000 worth of sales.”
Placing Your Confidence in the Ideal Fulfillment Service
When we first started, Melissa, Jessy, and I were responsible for everything. Deepa Gandhi was well aware that the Dagne Dover team would be unable to advance their company if they continued to spend their time packing bags into boxes. They had already exceeded their planned amount, and there was backorder for bags because of customer demand.
As a result, Dagne Dover started growing the firm and searching for more manufacturing assistance, such as a business that could manage the packaging and shipping logistics. They could enhance their shipping capacity by using a third-party logistics facility for the first time, which was helpful. Still, it also presented some unforeseen issues, including delays in the shipment of products.
Then, Dagne Dover had the chance to be the pilot customer for FedEx Fulfillment, a new service that includes warehousing, fulfilment, pick pack shipping, reverse logistics, and custom packaging solutions. This presented Dagne Dover with an exciting new challenge. Gandhi notes that “we are able to provide the Dagne Dover brand experience to our clients in a highly efficient manner” because of FedEx Fulfillment.
How effective? “During the recent Christmas season, our volume increased by more than double, and we were able to complete it in a timeframe that is sixty per cent less than what we used to need.”
Time is not the only factor to consider while developing strong relationships with third-party logistics providers. There is also the issue of trust. “Because trust is the most important thing in the world, it is incredibly beneficial for me as COO to have that level of confidence in our partner. They handle our items with the care we want others to exercise toward them.
Dagne Dover fulfils 1,000 to 2,000 orders per week, and FedEx Fulfillment performs an additional round of quality assurance checks on each item before placing it in the appropriate shipping container. When the customer receives their perfect bag, whether the Classic Tote, the Elle Clutch or the Dakota Backpack, they get a package that represents the Dagne Dover brand experience—and the values that Dagne Dover and FedEx Fulfillment share. This is true regardless of which bag the customer has selected: the Classic Tote, the Elle Clutch, or the Dakota Backpack.
Or, to put it another way, in the words of Deepa Gandhi: “It’s something we can be proud of, and they can be proud of it, too.”