Brand continues to grow under Tan’s vision
“Most importantly, the average amount per order was higher offline, since customers could feel the fabric for themselves and try it on, and we could provide personal service from the retail team,” Tan added.
From that point on, the brand and company under Tan’s vision continue to grow and expand into 5 more permanent locations located around the greater KL region and Penang, along with a few pop-up stores around the country and even internationally into the Australian market.
While she had achieved her goal of diversifying her business into the physical retail industry, Tan clarified that merely having both an online and physical store was not enough for a retailer to succeed.
“You need to be able to connect the two and make use of the data collected from both ends in order to craft the best possible user experience. The customer journey has to be seamless from their mobile phones to their favourite store.”
“For us, all these offline data points are converted into actionable insights that we ultimately tie back to the online world. This data helps to inform not just our marketing decisions but also our fashion design decisions,” Tan explained.
Besides this, Tan added that brick and mortar stores would also allow retailers to participate in traditional marketing schemes such as held events to help increase customer loyalty and brand development while boosting awareness in their surrounding areas.
While it is clear that Tan is an avid supporter of a dual strategy between online and physical retail, she does not that deny that startups would benefit much more if they began purely online.
“Everyone knows that the startup capital needed for a brick and mortar store is a lot higher compared to an e- commerce store. And for me, starting small and online first allowed me to move fast and adapt quickly to changing rends, which I feel is absolutely vital in the fashion industry in particular.
“It’s my philosophy and I’m still sticking to even now that we’ve opened 6 stores and that’s not to say that it’s all rosy online as online marketing costs can be very high.”