DOGO delivers cheerful design products to its customers in more than 80 countries by the internet and continues to grow by opening new stores to its 33 stores in total. In the September issue of PARA Magazine, our Founder Gökhan Peksarı and Gökçe Peksarı were Interviewed about the great success of DOGO at home and abroad.
How did the idea of DOGO show up?
DOGO is a project of me and my sister Gökçe, who felt close to design world. My parents are in the construction industry, so they always wanted us to be with them in the same sector. However, we decided to set up an agency to design. Turkish values and motifs were on the rise in those days. In 2006, we produced products for the Ministry of Culture under the brand Turqs. The printed products we made for this brand and foreign guests were much loved. We wanted to remind our forgotten values to Turkish youth. We printed photos and figures of our historical values on our t-shirts and made a sales boom. With this collection we have entered the retail business by selling our own products.
How did DOGO grow?
The Turqs brand and similar printing jobs we have done with companies taught us to look at the project 360 degrees with the logic of an agency. As a young team that loves being different and innovative, we entered e-commerce and prepared our website in the early period. The technology that developed in those days revealed the need to personalize the products. We always believed in the importance of innovation. We did very simple things. Mobile phones and notebooks look so similar to each other, we thought adding some design would make us different, and DOGO’s story began. If we could spend a little less time with product development, we would be the first brand in the world to produce stickers for phones. However a Canadian design brand acted before us. We became second in the world. People loved to color their black technology devices with hundreds of designs.
How money products did you sell?
100 thousand pieces … That year, Turkey took place on internet retailing quickly with its young population and credit card penetration. I met the shopping site Markafoni in its establishment. We cooperated and started to sell our products through this channel. In this way, our sales increased very quickly. It was also the right time to produce printed bags, they received great attention! While thinking about what we can do, we have the idea of selling digital paintings from the internet. We didn’t find the digital painting, but we sold it online for the first time. We sold 2 or 3 trucks of products every week. In 2010, we became the first brand in the world to make digital prints on shoes. In this way, we became a globally recognized company in a short time. Foreign brands have interest in us. We aim to be a strong global brand with a strategic partner.
How’s export going?
Beginning to export online in the early period provided a recognition and success abroad. We always knew we will get interested abroad because we try to sell designs and ideas. As we improved our relations with our business partners, now we are able to reach our customers with better service. We deliver our products more than 80 countries through our website. In 2011, we started to open stores. After Turkey, we have drawn a strategy to spread our success abroad. Currently, we have stores in 14 countries including USA, Germany, France, Netherlands, Iran, Spain, Switzerland, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Israel, Qatar. At the beginning of August, we opened Houston store in the USA and in Paris last month. We will be in Rome very soon.
