Bonobos
Careers at Bonobos
Mission
Bonobos is a retailer of men’s apparel and accessories. It aims to provide customers with a more personalised, accessible, and hassle-free shopping experience, as well as with high-quality products.
History
Bonobos was founded in 2007 by Andy Dunn (“Dunn”) and his housemate Brian Spaly (“Spaly”). The Company’s journey began when Spaly, while still a student, started designing and production of trousers that featured a curved waistband and slimmer thighs to prevent the bunching of fabric in the rear, and ensure a good fit. Demand for the products grew quickly, leading Spaly and Dunn to pursue commercial opportunities.
The Company initially operated exclusively online, selling its unique range of fitted trousers to customers across the US. Bonobos began to attract the attention of angel investors in 2008, raising more than $7 million from investors such as Otter Rock Capital. This allowed the Company to expand its catalogue of products to include shirts, shorts, sweater and other items. The Company completed its first formal round of funding in 2010, and to date has raised more than $127 million in seven funding rounds.
Bonobos has expanded its operations to include physical guideshops, where customers can try on clothes and receive personalised assistance, which are spread across the US. It also ships internationally to customers across Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
Logo © by Rainor12 (Wikimedia Commons) under CC BY-SA 3.0
Benefits at Bonobos
Business model of Bonobos
Customer Segments
Bonobos offers a range of clothing and accessories to the general consumer market. Its business model is built around providing a hassle-free, efficient and enjoyable process, through which men are able to purchase high-quality clothes for all occasions.
The Company has a specific target market, namely millennial males who do not enjoy traditional retail experiences. Bonobos typically serves male customers who prefer to shop for clothes no more than once or twice per year and appreciate a shopping experience during which they can receive fashion consultancy and fitting from a professional, and leave the store without having to carry it with them. Bonobos is also reported to operate a model with no-discounts, appealing to customers who do not enjoy the pricing complexity of traditional apparel retailers.
Bonobos serves customers primarily in its home market of the US, where it operates a network of guideshops across most major US cities, including Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. The Company also ships orders to select group of international locations, namely Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
Value Propositions
Bonobos provides value to its customers in the following ways:
- Its innovative sales model, with the Company employing an innovative and unique sales model, providing personalised fitting and consulting services to customers through its guideshops, in conjunction with an online store and domestic and international delivery;
- Its high-quality products, with the Company providing a range of high-quality shirts, trousers, and other items, with its trousers utilising a signature curved waistband for a more comfortable and flattering fit;
- Its personalisation offerings service, with the Company offering various personal choices, allowing customers to select different cuts, fits, and styles of various items;
- Its affordable prices and shipping model, with the Company offering its customers quality items at affordable prices, with free shipping both ways, including for returns; and
- Its high-quality customer care, with the Company making tailored customer care and assistance available to all customers.
Channels
Bonobos operates a website at www.bonobos.com, through which it provides information on its products, services, and locations. The Company’s website also serves as it online sales channel, where customers are able to browse products, place orders, manage account details, and arrange deliveries. The Company also offers a Bonobos iCatalogue app for iOS devices, through which customers can browse the Company’s catalogue of products on the go.
In addition to its more traditional online retail business, Bonobos also operates an innovative sales model that combines the convenience of online shopping with more personalised shopping experiences. The Company operates a network of more than 20 guideshops across the US – including in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and Boston – where customers can try on clothes, receive personalised advice and fitting assistance from one of the Company’s specialist guides.
The guide will subsequently place an order for the customer which will be shipped to them directly. Hour-long appointments can be booked through the Company’s website.
Bonobos operates its own logistics infrastructure, including distribution centres and warehouses. It does not, however, operate its own fleet of delivery vehicles. The Company, instead, works with various distribution partners to complete its deliveries.
Customer Relationships
Bonobos operates an entirely self-service channel through its website and mobile app. These channels allow customers to browse the Bonobos catalogue of products, manage their account details, place orders, and arrange deliveries without interacting with members of the Company’s sales personnel. Customers can also make returns by post independently and free of charge.
Bonobos also provides a more personalised service through its guideshops, where specialists guides are available to provide tailored assistance to customers, offering advice on clothing ranges, fit, style and cut, as well as responding in person to any queries or questions about the Company or its service. The Company’s guides also place orders on behalf of customers. Under this model, Bonobos seeks to secure regular recurring business from customers.
The Bonobos website also includes a range of online support resources, including FAQs, shipping guides, and returns policy information. Alternatively, customers can contact the Company’s dedicated support staff, either its telephone support team – which operates seven days per week – or via an online contact form.
Customers are also able to interact directly with bonobos through its various social media accounts, including with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Key Activities
Bonobos is a clothing and apparel retailer, engaged in the design, manufacture, and retail of clothing and accessories. The Company operates a hybrid online and offline retail service, providing a range of products for men, including trousers and shorts, shirts, suiting, sweaters and outwears, shoes, and accessories.
Bonobos operates a network of guideshops across the US, which operate effectively as fitting shops, where customers can book an hour-long appointment with a guide to discuss the Company’s catalogue of products, try on clothes, and receive advice on fitting and style.
The Company then ships the order directly to the customers, allowing them to leave the store without carrying any items. Alternatively, Bonobos operates an online retail store that ships domestically, as well as internationally to customers in Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
Key Partners
Bonobos has a number of partnerships in place that ensure that it is able to provide high-quality, efficient, and reliable services to its customers. These partners include:
- Supplier and Vendor Partners, comprising suppliers of resources, tools, services, and technologies that are utilised across the Company’s manufacturing, sale, and distribution operations;
- Manufacturing Partners, comprising a range of contract manufacturers and clothing producers that assist in realising Bonobos’s designs;
- Distribution and Delivery Partners, comprising a range of delivery and distribution service provider, both in the US and abroad, that assist in fulfilling the Company’s orders and shipping packages to customers; and
- Retail Partners, comprising various retail businesses with which the Company cooperates, or to which the Company supplies products for resale.
In 2012 Bonobo agreed a partnership with Nordstrom, under which the Company provides clothes to Nordstrom for resale at Nordstrom outlets. The Company also collaborates with various non-profits and charitable organisations on social and community projects.
Key Resources
Bonobos’s key resources are its brand and intellectual properties, its products and supply chain, its manufacturing network, its sales and distribution infrastructure – including its guideshops and warehouses, its digital platforms, its IT and communications infrastructure, its partnerships, and its personnel.
Bonobos owns and or leases a range of properties across the US that are key to its operations. This includes its network of more than 20 guideshops – including in New York, Miami, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles – and its distribution centres, fulfilment centres, and warehouses.
Cost Structure
Bonobos incurs costs in relation to the design and manufacture of its clothing, the development and maintenance of its online channels, the maintenance of its IT and communications infrastructure, the operation of its physical sales and distribution infrastructure, the implementation of advertising and marketing campaigns, the management of its partnerships, and the retention of its personnel.
Revenue Streams
Bonobos operates primarily as an online retailer of men’s apparel and accessories. It derives its revenue from the manufacture and sale of unique products, including trousers, shorts, shirts, sweaters, and suits, with sales made either directly through its online sales portal or via one of its numerous guideshops.
Bonobos remains a privately-owned company, and as such is not obliged to publish its financial results on its website. Recent reports, however, suggest that the Company generated more than $100 million in revenue for 2015, with the Company expected record growth on this figure in the coming years.
Our team
info: Dunn is Chief Executive Officer at Bonobos, and has been a member of the Company’s senior leadership team since co-founding the Company in 2007. He also serves as Chairman of furniture business Interior Define, and children’s apparel company Monica and Andy. Prior to co-founding Bonobos, Dunn worked for more than three years at Bain and Company as a senior associate consultant. This was followed by an almost two-year spell as an associate at Wind Point Partners.
info: Antonio Nieves (“Nieves”) has served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Bonobos since joining the Company in 2016. Nieves has held numerous finance positions across multiple industries, beginning his career as an associate financial analyst at Johnson and Johnson. He subsequently served as a financial analyst, senior financial analyst, and manager of financial planning and analysis at Johnson and Johnson, before leaving the company in 2007 to join Blue Coat Systems as a finance manager. In 2009 he took on a finance manager position at Gilead Sciences, where he served across multiple departments, before leaving the company to join Logitech in 2011. Nieves held senior management positions at Logitech, and subsequently served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at ModCloth before joining Bonobos.
info: Dominique Essig (“Essig”) has served as Chief Experience Officer at Bonobos since 2016, taking responsibility for understanding the needs of users and delivering on their expectations across all channels and devices. She first joined the Company in 2015 as Vice President of Product and Customer Experience. Essig began her career in 2000 as a product manager at Jobs.com. She moved to Trevalocity.com in 2001, where she held a number of positions over the course of around 12 years. She served initially as an assistant product manager, going on to hold product management roles of increasing responsibility, including spells as Director of Product Management for Flights, Director of Product Management for Hotels and Dynamic Packaging, and Director of Site Health and Enterprise Initiatives. Prior to joining Bonobos, she served for more than two years as Vice President of Product Management, User Experience, and Design at Giilt Groupe.
