Fashionista Outlet is one of the UK’s favourite websites for discounted designer fashion. However, this November they’ve decided to come offline and are launching their first pop up shop on the fashionable Kings Road. We chatted to founder Myriam Duran to find out more...
What inspired you to open a physical store?
We recently held some open days/sample sales in our warehouse which proved to be very popular with the public. We recognise that many of our customers still prefer to see the items physically before making a purchase especially as designer clothing tends to be an investment as opposed to throwaway fashion. With this in mind we thought we would bring our product to the high street and interact with our customers directly.
We have a fabulous selection of autumn and winter clothing which is why we decided to open in November. And our evening dresses and party dresses are always popular at this time of year so we will of course be bringing the best of these along too!
Why did you chose the Kings Road space to appear in?
Historically, Kings Road has some strong links to the London fashion scene - this is a road which is likely to be recognised by anyone with a knowledge of fashion whether they are in London or not. As our product is luxury designer fashion, it also made sense to open in an area such as Chelsea, where we are likely to reach our target market and be within reach of our existing London customers.
At the moment our offices and warehouse is located in Fulham in London and Kings road within walking distance. The nearby location of the pop up shop therefore makes setting up, transferring stock and liaising with the office so much more simple.
What do you hope to achieve from the pop up?
First and foremost we are aiming to inject a sales boost into the company before the Christmas rush online takes over. On top of this however, we also want to increase brand awareness to what we perceive to be our core target market.
After the pop up (and during the pop up) we will of course continue to trade online. If we are able to secure new customers online as a result of the pop up shop and even raise our brand awareness then the pop up venture can be viewed as successful.
What's the best part of setting up shop?
As we had never done anything like this before, we have had to start from scratch which has meant the preparations have been very full on and very stressful. The set up has taken us away from our normal daily activities though and has been a fresh challenge for us to sink our teeth into!
As we have quite the creative team, we have particularly enjoyed the visual aspects of the set up. For example creating our window display and choosing props. And of course with our love of fashion, selecting the stock to take to the shop was so much fun!