Imagine a world where your luggage isn’t just a container but a trusted companion on your journey. A world where every trip, whether a quick business excursion or an extended beach getaway, begins with the simple act of packing – a moment that sets the tone for your entire adventure. This is the vision that Assembly, an innovative travel gear startup, brings to life.
Founded in 2019 by avid travellers Mohit Garg and Aditya Khanna, Assembly is reimagining the essence of travel accessories. With a keen eye for aesthetics and functionality, this young company is crafting luggage that extends the traveller’s personality, not just a means to transport belongings. In a market dominated by established giants, Assembly is carving out its niche by addressing the pain points that every wanderer knows all too well.
From their virtually indestructible German polycarbonate use to thoughtful additions like built-in packing cubes and USB charging ports, Assembly’s products are designed to make your journey as seamless as possible. But what truly sets them apart is their philosophy – that a great trip starts long before you step out the door. Are you curious about this rising star in the travel gear industry? Here’s a detailed interview with Assembly, delving into their origins, design philosophy, and vision for the future of travel:
BRL: Can you provide an overview of Assembly, highlight what sets you apart from competitors, and explain how you’ve established a unique brand identity in a market with prominent, established brands?
Assembly reimagines elegant yet functional luggage and travel accessories to give travellers an effortless journey. The main aim of establishing this brand was to cater to every traveller’s pain points and provide them with a seamless trip. We understand that travelling is not merely an activity but a lifestyle, and therefore, all our products are carefully crafted to imbibe the perfect blend of aesthetics and functionality. Our motive is to elevate our customers’ travel experience and instil confidence and a sense of ease in their travel story, no matter how big or small.
Every brand has its own space and story to tell, whether big or small. At Assembly, journeys start before you’re on the road, right from when you start packing. The idea led us to create seamless journeys for travellers no matter where they’re headed, whether a few days by the beach or a business trip. We understand that your luggage isn’t a box with wheels but your wardrobe on the go. We don’t perceive it as a trend but an innate extension of the traveller’s persona. To ensure hassle-free and effortless travel, we strongly emphasise even smaller components and crafting experiences that last a lifetime.
BRL: What inspired the design and features of your products, and how do they cater to the needs of modern travellers?
Assembly’s journey began when two avid travellers, Mohit and Aditya, got together. While Aditya travels to gain knowledge and learn about new places and their history, Mohit travels to explore the beauty of the unexplored and grow through cultural exchanges. Despite their different motivations for travel, they both have spent many years in the luggage industry to create minimal and functional travel pieces for every traveller, paving the way for Assembly. Having spent significant time on the road, they understand travellers’ pain points and desires.
This insight motivated us to create a product line that seamlessly integrates functionality with aesthetics. Think of a companion that travels with you everywhere or an innate extension of your personality and style notes. We’ve reworked all details of the classic silhouettes and reimagined them with thoughtful features like packing cubes, a sturdy trolley for manoeuvrability, smooth wheels and charging on the go and easy access front pocket for essentials like laptops, books, tablets and more for hassle-free transit at security checks. Ultimately, we aim to empower travellers with tools that blend seamlessly into their lifestyle, offering style and substance to enhance every travel experience.
BRL: What inspired the design of your products, how do they meet modern travellers’ needs, and how do you ensure their quality and durability compared to major industry players?
We are a very customer-centric brand; all our designs have been made for the problems consumers face in their day-to-day travel. Unlike some other brands, we use a German polycarbonate outer shell which makes luggage practically indestructible; when adding the wheels, we re-engineered them to be screwed inside for better performance on all surfaces. To ensure effective space organisation inside luggage, we add three complimentary packing cubes with a breathable mesh top panel that lets you easily see what’s inside without unpacking or opening it. Further, we’ve added USB ports for charging and Keyless TSA-approved locks for security.
BRL: What sustainability practices or materials do you incorporate into your manufacturing process?
We prioritise sustainability by utilising 50% recyclable polycarbonate materials. This ensures that if our products need to be discarded, they can be effectively recycled into new products, minimising waste and promoting a circular economy.
BRL: How do you engage with customer feedback and incorporate it into product development?
As mentioned earlier, Assembly is a customer-centric brand. We’ve maintained an active customer experience team that takes valuable customer feedback. We also conduct frequent market research to understand what the consumers and our target market want. With strategic partnerships with Indian manufacturing units, we are quick to reiterate based on feedback. Not only this, we conduct regular quality checks and tests to ensure we are living up to our promise of delivering quality products to our customers.
BRL: How do you approach pricing strategies to remain competitive while maintaining quality standards?
Competition is inevitable in our category; our pricing strategies are essentially based on understanding the Cost of Goods once they are manufactured and conducting thorough market research to match the prices of our products with the affordability of our target market; this is how we come up with prices which are the most feasible for us as well as accessible to the customers. Product quality is an aspect that we continuously strive to enhance product by product, thus investing a considerable amount in conducting regular tests. QC checks to verify the quality of our various products per industry standards and their features, ensuring the standard quality for all our products.
BRL: What distribution channels do you utilize to reach your target audience and expand your market presence?
Currently, we utilize three distribution channels to reach our target audience and expand our market presence. These are the websites that are essentially our website, and then we have marketplaces where we partner with platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, etc. We also have a third channel of institutional sales, through which we have signed up with various channels for employee gifting programs and B2B sales. These channels help us reach our target audience and expand our market presence. Additionally, we’ve onboarded Zepto as our quick commerce partner to get our customers swiftly.
BRL: Can you share any upcoming product innovations or collaborations customers can look forward to?
Something that has been on our minds since our inception is offline travel stores to meet the end-to-end demands of our customers. After being held back by the pandemic, we are now venturing into this prospect and will soon expand on this collateral. Further, we are also branching into other quick commerce platforms.
BRL: How do you envision your travel baggage company’s future growth and success in the face of intense competition and industry trends?
According to the data available, the travel industry is estimated at 100 bn and is growing at 8.87 CAGR after the recovery from COVID-19. It has only become fierce in our category, but we want to keep doing what we do best: providing a seamless travel experience to our customers. Looking ahead, we’re thrilled to be a part of this sector with our offerings encompassing all aspects of travel. Even with all the competition, we’ll be able to make a mark with all the love, support and encouragement. By continuously innovating, diversifying and focusing on customer satisfaction, we aim to differentiate ourselves in the market and become the go-to brand for all travel-related needs.
