Since launching in 2017 to fill a gap for those looking to gift unique and memorable moments for their friends and family, the brand has progressed significantly and the name needed to reflect this.
“BananaLab launched as a cool, fun, quirky new experience gift concept reflective in the name and its nature,” explains co-founder and director, Tom Dufraisse, who exhibited at Reed Gift Fairs Sydney last month for the first time.
“Since then, BananaLab evolved into a premium experience gift solution that supports its local experience partners, provides unique customer engagement solutions and pro-actively engages in philanthropic activities through our non-for-profit initiatives.
“We wanted to represent and highlight our value proposition in a contemporary name with the ‘We’ reflective of our strong community involvement through our large footprint of our local experience partners and the ‘Wander’ as the inspirational reference to our experience concept.
“It overall feels like there is a strong natural alignment between our brand, concept and name. Something that has been shared with us numerous times.”
While the concept as a whole hasn’t changed, the brand has evolved and matured into Australia’s fastest growing experience provider with a national footprint of over 1,300 experiences and growing.
“We are about to launch our second-generation Experience Hamper in partnership with Vranken Pommery with complete customisation capabilities for the corporate market.
“We are in the final stages of integrating the National Breast Cancer Foundation as our second NPO besides Oz Harvest, allowing our giftees to donate the full cost value of their experience box.
“We are also about to launch two new experience boxes all around accommodation and wellness,” adds Dufraisse.
Like every other business in the tourism and experience field, We Wander has been significantly affected by Covid.
“We focused on using the time effectively, streamlining our processes, adjusting to the market requirements, opening up new opportunities through the launch of our corporate solution, redeveloping the product and overall getting us ready for a time post Covid.”
We Wander is now being stocked across 2,200 stores nationwide with an entire new product lineup that ranges from $70 to $600. Its experience portfolio has grown from a few to over 1,200 nationwide and the brand is now represented nationally with a team across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and even Argentina.
“We are constantly innovating with the launch of Australia’s first Experience Hamper late last year. We want to become Australia’s home for experience gifting.
“We are on track to add 500 new stores to our retail footprint just in time for Christmas and with the launch of our second-generation experience hamper, amazing new features from video messaging to post experience touchpoints for our corporate world, We Wander is ready to tackle 2022 and beyond,” enthuses Dufraisse.
