Jeff Unze, the President of Strategic Partnerships at BorderX Lab, was interviewed by Pepperjam on Jan 9th, 2018. Jeff shared the unique story that BorderX Lab partners with merchants and brands. Below are parts of the interview.
Share a little bit about your company.
We are a beauty and fashion discovery app that connects global Chinese with US and Euro fashion/beauty brands. Each day we produce up to 50 articles that explain international products to a brand-neutral China audience. We then provide world-class tech that takes the friction out of buying internationally.
Please describe a typical day in your office.
Our office is fun, fast and collaborative. We have internal influencers that live and breathe fashion and beauty, an ops team that ensures customers get their products promptly and a great engineering team that develops new tech to make our discovery app seamless. I spend a lot of time brainstorming with the influencer/content team about how to best write about products to sell more and bring in more customers. The office is very bi-cultural and English and Chinese are frequently spoken in the same sentence.
What types of programs is your team looking to partner with on Pepperjam Network?
Fashion, beauty and lifestyle. Our audience is 2 million global Chinese living in China, Taiwan, US, HK, etc. They love American and European products.
What would you say your company’s spirit animal is and why?
I would say we are a bumblebee—hard-working, color-coordinated, exploring beautiful things around the world and bringing the very best back to the hive (our customers).
Can you share a success highlight from your partnership with Pepperjam Network that really stands out to you?
We've grown both Algenist and Kate Somerville nicely within the app. The Chinese audience is one that needs some reassurance and content before making their first purchase. We've built some beautiful content pieces for both brands that have made our customers comfortable about buying and have also driven sales impressively.
Is there a special meaning behind your company’s name?
Beyond is the English name and BieYang is the Chinese name of our app which means "other kinds." In both English and Chinese the name represents the discovery nature of our platform. We strive to introduce our users to the coolest products from the US and Europe. Things they perhaps haven't seen before or the latest styles from brands they love.
What Pepperjam Network technology innovation has had the greatest impact on your team?
The interface is very easy to work with and promotions are pushed to us very easily by our merchants. It's easy for us to mirror the promotions and sell more product.
What sets your company apart from others or makes it unique?
We make companies ready for the China market in about 3 weeks. Partner with us and suddenly you can accept Chinese payment, have Chinese logistics, Chinese translation, Chinese front-line customer service and even Chinese influencers writing about your products. We deliver new customers through our content.
What do you attribute your company’s success to on Pepperjam Network?
Wow, great Account Managers—can’t say enough about Liz, Molly and Patti.
What is one thing people should know about your company?
We really know our stuff. Our founders are all Computer Science PhDs from Google and the largest DSP in China. Our head of BD has been doing China cross-border marketing for 20 years and our content team is the best in the business at finding great ways to present brands in an attractive way to our shoppers.
Why did you choose Pepperjam Network over other networks?
Pepperjam has some great merchants and the Account Management team is very hands on and isn't afraid to try new things to build a brand's business.
What’s on the roadmap for your company?
We're going to do more personalization, add more brands and get bigger. We expect 5-10X growth this year (we grew 10X last year).
Three words that best describe your company…go!
Discovery, fashionable, fast
(Source: Ryan Binkley |PEPPERJAM| January 9, 2018)