(Update: 20 July 2020)
Vaniday officially relaunched in Singapore on 2 July 2020. You can read more about it here.
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Beauty service booking platform Vaniday sent out an email to its users yesterday (Dec 10) informing users regarding its closure in Singapore.
With this closure, “customers will no longer be able to book appointments or services through Vaniday with appointment dates beyond 15 December 2019”.
This is with the exception of bookings at Benefit Cosmetics salons, which is still valid until 24 December 2019.
It added that appointments from 16 December onwards will be “automatically cancelled”. Users will not be charged for these bookings as the pre-authorisation on their cards will be reversed, according to Vaniday.
Vaniday cashback balances however, will be forfeited. It “is not refundable and will not be reimbursed,” asserted the firm in its terms and conditions.
For all unredeemed gift cards issued in 2019, Vaniday will “process a full refund to the credit card used to purchase the gift card.”
Gift cards that were partially redeemed will be partially refunded for the remaining balance on the gift card.
Vaniday also urged users who are owed a refund to contact the team by 23 December 2019 with proof of purchase, the gift code, and the total value of the gift card purchased.
Is Vaniday Gone For Good?
Vaniday raised a “7-figure” funding (in euros) in June this year led by parent firms Rocket Internet and Asia Pacific Internet Group.
Following this funding, it gradually shut down its global operations — except Singapore.
Vaniday used to be present in Australia, Italy, the UAE, Russia, and Brazil.
The firm also shared ambitions to raise more funds as it plans to launch in new markets “by the end of this year or early next year”, naming Thailand and Indonesia as its top two choices.
In an interview with TechinAsia, Vaniday CEO Saurabh Chauhan admitted that Vaniday hasn’t been profitable as it solely runs on cash from its 2015 investment.
Regardless, he was very positive about Vaniday’s growth, sharing that it witnessed a 2.5x growth rate in terms of revenue and transactions processed last year.
As an avid user of Vaniday, I noticed that Vaniday stopped pushing out promo codes to users sometime in November. It previously used to roll out promo codes regularly, almost on a weekly basis.
On its Facebook page, the last promo code it offered was on November 4 in line with Singles’ Day.
It’s still unclear as to why Vaniday chose to call it a day, but the cessation of promo codes could hint at its financial instability.
Vulcan Post has since reached out to Vaniday for comments on this matter.
Featured Image Credit: Vaniday