Supre expects to double its footprint across Australia and New Zealand, with a focus on strengthening its Girl Gang community across those markets. The 106 store Supre chain falls under the banner of the Cotton On Group, which GM, Elle Roseby, told Inside Retail PREMIUM provides access to hard data which helps the brand make educated decisions around expansion. “We believe we could double the footprint in Australia and NZ quite easily if you look at our sister brands. Brands like Factorie and
Cotton On, they’re in a lot more stores than we’re in, so we can actually see how they’re performing in those locations and make strategic decisions as to whether we should be in those locations as well,” Roseby said.
In September, Supre underwent a brand refresh that saw select stores across Australia redesigned with a focus on greater engagement. Since then, 12 stores have been revamped, with the whole network to be transformed over the next five years.
Fitting rooms were a key focus in the initial strategy, designed twice the size to encourage friends to try on clothes together, take selfies, and upload them to Instagram with the hashtags #selfie and #SupreGirlGang.
This strategy has seen Supre’s Instagram go from 90,000 followers to 190,000 since September. The brand has a further 450,000 followers on Facebook.
Roseby says that following the success of the fitting room strategy, Supre is now working on improving the overall instore experience.
“I can’t divulge too much because we’re actually working on the project at the moment. There’s some really interesting things that we’re working on to create even more of a connection to our customer as she comes into our shops. So we will start to roll that out in the next three months.”
This week, Supre launched a new digital platform, which includes greater customer engagement and mobile responsive functions. It coincides with the launch of a bi-monthly e-magazine, Gurl.
The new e-mag has been developed to inspire and empower the brand’s Supre Girl Gang community and showcase young women doing work in the community.
“We certainly know with the web and globalisation that online content needs to be universally appealing, so while Gurl features globally inspired content and stories, it will for the moment profile the extraordinary talent and work of girls in Australia and NZ.”
Gurl is a fully integrated shopping experience and also provides links back to the social communities of featured girls.
“Customers will be able to click through to buy via our fashion trends, our trend articles, and our girl gang content, so the whole magazine is absolutely shoppable.
“When I first saw it I nearly cried because it’s really lovely, being a woman as well, to see what young women are doing and to be able to provide a platform for their voices to be heard, and for them to be inspiring young women across the continent is really fantastic.”
While the focus for expansion, and for the new e-mag is on Australia and NZ, Roseby hinted to Inside Retail PREMIUM that the brand could be looking to other markets as it continues to grow.
“We think it’s important to really build that community. At the moment, we’re only in Australia and New Zealand, so we really want to profile the great work of girls in those markets, and I think as we expand and grow, that’s where we want to take it further into other markets,” she said.
“We’re seeing double digit increases through the brand and incredible sales coming through, so there’s this fantastic sense of momentum really starting to build in the business.”
This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2043. To subscribe, click here.