Olya Li: “Now we teach our designers that they need to comply with world experience…”

Olya Li, a marketer at Pink Label, talked about how to instill in designers the experience of foreign colleagues, what needs to be done to sell a brand, and how to select designer collections for new seasons.  

1. Typically, designer stores are quite small. And you have the largest concept store, is the burden heavy?

How did the idea to create a large concept store come about? The fact is that this is a global trend and in recent years it has reached us, the post-Soviet countries. You also have similar projects in Kyiv and we are following this. After all, the principles of work, and the concept are similar. In some ways we are ahead, in others we are behind. The idea is not new, but it grew out of the fact that our owner had a room in which there was, and still is, a beauty salon. There were local designers who said that you have free space and interesting clients come to you, let’s hang our things. And it so happened that many reached into the salon and this space was not enough. Then we decided to open the first Concept store for Kazakhstani designers.

Now all this is interesting, relevant, so there are no problems to fill it. Today we have a broader mission. We are not limited to just a trading platform that takes goods for temporary storage and sells them. We help designers grow by organizing meetings and business breakfasts for them. We help with the competent construction of the brand, we will improve the cut. Our mission is to help the education of designers so that their level grows. We are often approached by the organizers of shows, competitions for designers and we advise them. Over the two years of work, more than 150 designers or those who consider themselves to be designers have passed through us. We do not stand still and develop dynamically. We have 27 designers in TSUM, but we can increase their number to 50. Essentai Mall has a more premium line and it is designed for 20 designers, and at the moment there are twelve of them. We help designers grow by organizing meetings and business breakfasts for them. We help with the competent construction of the brand, we will improve the cut. Our mission is to help the education of designers so that their level grows. We are often approached by the organizers of shows, competitions for designers and we advise them. Over the two years of work, more than 150 designers or those who consider themselves to be designers have passed through us. We do not stand still and develop dynamically. We have 27 designers in TSUM, but we can increase their number to 50.

Essentai Mall has a more premium line and it is designed for 20 designers, and at the moment there are twelve of them. We help designers grow by organizing meetings and business breakfasts for them. We help with the competent construction of the brand, we will improve the cut. Our mission is to help the education of designers so that their level grows. We are often approached by the organizers of shows, competitions for designers and we advise them. Over the two years of work, more than 150 designers or those who consider themselves to be designers have passed through us. We do not stand still and develop dynamically. We have 27 designers in TSUM, but we can increase their number to 50. Essentai Mall has a more premium line and it is designed for 20 designers, and at the moment there are twelve of them. We are often approached by the organizers of shows, competitions for designers and we advise them. Over the two years of work, more than 150 designers or those who consider themselves to be designers have passed through us. We do not stand still and develop dynamically. We have 27 designers in TSUM, but we can increase their number to 50.

Essentai Mall has a more premium line and it is designed for 20 designers, and at the moment there are twelve of them. We are often approached by the organizers of shows, competitions for designers and we advise them. Over the two years of work, more than 150 designers or those who consider themselves to be designers have passed through us. We do not stand still and develop dynamically. We have 27 designers in TSUM, but we can increase their number to 50. Essentai Mall has a more premium line and it is designed for 20 designers, and at the moment there are twelve of them.

2. What designers do you have?

In fact, there are quite a lot of them and I can’t single out someone. We are for our designers to accept experience from foreign ones. The same Ukraine, Georgia in terms of design, quality of cut, interesting models have gone far ahead. We understand this and, therefore, we often invite Georgian designers and are happy with Ukrainian ones. And so I would not want to single out someone, since we treat everyone equally.

3. What criteria do you use to select new collections?

Rather, we are not judges, but friends of our young, interesting people who want to be designers or have become them. Therefore, we always look at the quality of tailoring and the most important detail is the desire of the designer himself, how much he sees the development of himself and his brand in the future. If it’s more like, I have a certain amount of money and I want to try it, then it’s not interesting. Because we have a unique platform, we have an online store, two offline outlets, we are also launching a magazine that will be all about fashion and beauty. And this is not just a magazine, but rather a unique project. This is what will help sell. Designers are partners for us, and, in any way, not suppliers of goods. We put our soul, heart, means to promote it all. If we take someone on the team, then we give the designer a schedule so that he knows when to provide collections, so that we can describe and photograph them. And, most importantly, the collections should be author’s, and not copied from somewhere. To make it clear that a person has imagination, design skills. We invite foreign speakers who tell our designers that the most important thing in clothing is an idea that should not be worse than a face, and sometimes even better. This is what you sell, this is why a person should choose not the mass market, but, precisely, you.

4. Do you easily start cooperation with new brands?

We do not have such that you need to go through ten stages to meet with us. The first thing a person should do is call, then information about him is somewhere on the networks so that we can look. We don’t have the opportunity to travel somewhere, so we choose the same Instagram. If we see that this is really something interesting, then we invite you to a meeting. As a rule, the designer brings 3-5 products with him, tells how much and how much, and we are already working further.

5. You position yourself as a show-room of domestic manufacturers. Is it really possible for designers from other countries to get to you? 

We became interested in the experience of foreign brands, because our designers also watch and know about the fashion industry from the former CIS countries. gone far ahead. Products and brands from Ukraine and Georgia became known in other countries of the world. After all, Michelle Obama herself wears products from Ukrainian designers. We invite and are happy to cooperate with foreign brands. Yes, we cannot do it in bulk, because the concept is that 70% should be our Kazakhstani designers. Now we are negotiating with a new Kyrgyz brand, which was presented in Moscow at Fashion Week.

6. You will already have a second Show-Room in Almaty. Is the product range different?

In every post-Soviet country there were TSUMs, GUMs, and this was, so to speak, a fashionable label. Show-Room, which is located in the Central Department Store in the old part of the city, is a kind of classic. But now there are many new shopping centers and different classes. When we tried to get a premium contingent at TSUM, it was not very successful. Just because the Show-Room in TSUM is very large, over 300 square meters, and there was both a mass market and a more expensive one, and there was too big an abyss. Therefore, we decided to make a different segment, to show that audience that it is not necessary to buy a European luxury brand, if ours have already learned how to work with leather, fine textures, they can sew some leather patterns and ornaments to the finest organza and sect. We selected those designers who, in our opinion, were ready, those who had already grown up, who had their own friendly audience. Because commercial success is also important for this. But, we are always open, if a designer comes and says that he wants to try to get up in Essentai Mall, then no problem.

7. How often do you arrange promotions, draws for customers?

Now we teach our designers that they need to comply with world experience. When the sales season, ours also make discounts. Because they understand that no matter how beautiful a designer skirt or blouse is, next year it will lose its relevance. At least, because a person who enters the show-room will say several times that he saw it last year. And we always say that it is better to sell at a discount so that there are funds for sewing a new collection. We are on the way to make discounts on time, we always offer customers bonuses, gifts for purchases in order to become attractive to customers. It is already March and each client will receive some nice bonus. Since we declared ourselves as a premium, Essentai Mall always has good champagne, treats so that customers feel super comfortable and the process itself becomes pleasant. Still, drawings and so on are the lot of other mass markets. We are very often offered to take part in all sorts of promotions, but we understand that clothes are a more delicate thing, because designers often sew in one copy and one size. How can we give away a suit in size S and the winner will be in a different size?

8. Advertising is the engine of trade, and Instagram, even more so. Do you attract popular personalities for advertising?

We have a slightly different approach to this. Three countries are working on our outlet, including Ukraine. We have chosen the path of large companies and we spend a lot of money on online marketing and content marketing. We have our own production, from productive catalog shooting to advertising campaigns. We work according to three principles: idea, concept and analytics. Quite a lot of money was spent on technological communications. We fully track the actions of our clients on the site, if, for example, a call comes in to the call-center, then we already know on which pages the client was on the site. Our team has gathered a lot of experienced and competent people who have gone through all the stages of formation at a time when everything was just in its infancy. Each time we more and more accurately understand who our audience is, where is she and what does she need. We pass this information on to designers so that they can see by search queries when and what product is relevant. What we focused on before and what turned out to be in reality are slightly different things. And we show the designer what is actually for sale. Classical marketing no longer works and you need to look for an alternative. Just like instagram in its classic form does not work. People are oversaturated with information that is in the news feed. We walked around the regions a bit and it turned out that there are two cities that do basically all online sales. These are cities that, it would seem, others could ignore, but in fact, online orders come from there. Our offline stores are operated online. The cash register in the store developed from scratch and there we resolve the issue with the actual balances. If the product is sold in an offline store, then it is immediately removed from the online store. Or, if a person reserved it online, then at the checkout at the sellers it is displayed that it needs to be removed. At the checkout, we can record the client’s data and they immediately fall into the mailing list. Then it will be so that we will know that it was Klavdia Nikiforovna who came to our store and the screen will show that at the moment there are things of her size and what we can offer her. Unfortunately, a lot of designers do not pay enough attention to marketing and they think that if he is a designer, then everything should come naturally. that it needs to be removed. At the checkout, we can record the client’s data and they immediately fall into the mailing list. Then it will be so that we will know that it was Klavdia Nikiforovna who came to our store and the screen will show that at the moment there are things of her size and what we can offer her. Unfortunately, a lot of designers do not pay enough attention to marketing and they think that if he is a designer, then everything should come naturally. that it needs to be removed. At the checkout, we can record the client’s data and they immediately fall into the mailing list. Then it will be so that we will know that it was Klavdia Nikiforovna who came to our store and the screen will show that at the moment there are things of her size and what we can offer her. Unfortunately, a lot of designers do not pay enough attention to marketing and they think that if he is a designer, then everything should come naturally.

9. What new items will be presented in the Show-Room on the eve of spring?

We expect several new brands with interesting original collections. From Kazakhstan, we are waiting for interesting ethnic brands. Now it is popular. Also in March we will present our magazine. Unfortunately, there are few publications in Kazakhstan anyway, and there is no such thing for all of them to be read. Gloss is in decline right now and they use every opportunity to write about someone to make money. Therefore, we create a magazine that will talk about fashion, new products, interesting brands, while increasing sales of collections.