{"id":14196,"date":"2021-03-02T14:56:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T19:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/zola-your-new-favorite-all-things-wedding-platform-is-free-mostly\/"},"modified":"2021-03-02T14:59:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T19:59:13","slug":"zola-your-new-favorite-all-things-wedding-platform-is-free-mostly","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/zola-your-new-favorite-all-things-wedding-platform-is-free-mostly\/","title":{"rendered":"Zola: Your New Favorite \u201cAll Things Wedding\u201d Platform is Free.. Mostly!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Industry Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

The wedding planning industry is well known for being incredibly expensive and difficult to navigate. Time, energy, and money allocated to celebrating nuptials has risen over the years. In 2019, that number hit $33,900 across the U.S., while couples tend to budget for $10,000 less than their actual amount spent [2]. While the market itself is over $55bn, the fragmented industry has no major players with a market share greater than 5% [5]. There is an incredible variety of players in the market that the couple have to seek out and understand well enough to write out the big checks. For example, communicating with venues, caterers, photographers and videographers are only the start of what gets previously excited couples a headache before they\u2019re able to get their vows written down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Company Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the attempt to ease the wedding woes for planners worldwide, Shan-Lyn Ma and Nobu Nakaguchi, launched the Zola website in 2013. While the founders began with a mission to simplify wedding registries, Zola has grown to be an all-in-one planner, marketplace, and advisor. They saw a need for a platform that includes all aspects of the wedding journey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Value Creation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nicknamed \u201cThe Apple Store of Weddings\u201d by a Fast Company article in 2019, Zola has broken barriers for what wedding service can look like [3]. The key features and uses are listed below:\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wedding Registry<\/u><\/p>\n

Starting with the cornerstone of the Zola platform, the gift registry is incredibly robust. The registry allows users to connect their registries from other places (such as Amazon and Crate & Barrel) so that guests see one collective page of potential gifts. Zola has over 600 brands that they partner with to offer over 70,000 products on the online gift registry [4].<\/p>\n

Moreover, Zola understands that the millennial generation is more interested in experiences when compared to their desire to be given traditional wedding gifts (e.g. blenders, and Tupperware). The offerings to have gift cards and honeymoon funds plays a crucial part in maintaining this customer type.<\/p>\n

Thriving Community<\/u><\/p>\n

Social Media groups create important network effects. For example, the Facebook Zola Community, a private group where wedding focused members discuss tips\/tricks, has over 13,000 members.<\/p>\n

Invites + Paper<\/u><\/p>\n

In keeping with traditional wedding planning, Zola offers paper products such as invitations, save-the-dates, and even \u201cChange-the-Dates\u201d (a type of notification that became popular during the COVID pandemic). This is one of the first categories where a user will actually pay Zola, excluding the \u201cChange-the-dates\u201d that Zola offered free to brides who were some of the first impacted by COVID rescheduling requirements.<\/p>\n

Website<\/u><\/p>\n

A free website is offered to anyone who creates an account, a major advantage to wedding planners keen on affordable solutions for a temporary web page. The web page is made user-friendly by offering templates to couples who can simply add in their photos and change some wording. For an example, see this bloggers site here: https:\/\/www.zola.com\/wedding\/shekeylaandwilliam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

Guest List Management<\/u><\/p>\n

For anyone that has planned a sizeable wedding, it is known how much difficult it can be to organize, maintain, and update guest information. From picking who makes it to the guest list, finding the proper mailing addresses, and getting labels completed, this is a tedious process. Zola allows users to not only store guest information in a user-friendly interface, it also allows customers to send automatic reminders to guests, and even labels envelopes automatically (if you buy the cards from Zola). Guest list management is a free service and the only aspect a user pays for would be the option to have envelopes labeled with guest names and addresses.<\/p>\n

Vendor Platform<\/u><\/p>\n

Zola makes personalized recommendations for vendors based on the couple\u2019s desired wedding characteristics (style, budget, location, guest count, etc.). Listing as a vendor on Zola is free and the company has vowed to keep it free. The vendor part of the platform has grown slowly as it must be targeted to particular areas at a time. See excerpt below [1]:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Additional Services<\/u><\/p>\n