business journey.   Inside Retail: How did The Editor’s Market get started? Vivian Low: Since its establishment in 2010, The Editor’s Market has focused on creating experiential retail destinations that encourage our community to explore and discover a wide and diverse range of fashion and lifestyle products.  Our unique step pricing system created a social shopping atmosphere that is reminiscent of a bazaar, quickly building momentum among our consumers: The more pieces they buy, the less they pay for each item. As the business grew and our design sensibilities evolved, larger format stores and unique design elements have been commissioned to avoid a cooker cutter approach in an increasingly competitive scene.  Notwithstanding the challenges of Covid-19, omnichannel retail paired with our artistic and design elements will still continue to be our north star.   IR: Can you explain a bit about the supply chain model at The Editor’s Market? VL: The Editor’s Market is based on a lean and responsive supply chain. Our products are manufactured in small batches to reduce the cost and risk of holding too much inventory. Should demand exceed expectations, we will quickly restock the popular pieces. Restocks can be produced and shipped to our stores in under three weeks. Sustainability is a key tenet of the brand and so our demand-driven supply chain is configured to ensure that dead stock is kept at a minimum. IR: Is the business more focused on stores or e-commerce? Does one tend to perform better than the other in certain regions? VL: Our roots have fundamentally been brick and mortar stores hence our loyal customers enjoy shopping at our physical locations. Across all the markets we are operating in, physical stores make up a large proportion of overall sales. However, over the past five years, we have invested heavily in integrating our online and offline channels so as to make our customer experience seamless.  To that note, we have iterated our offerings to include “Online reservations” and “Click and Collect” at our seven store locations in Singapore. If an item is out of stock at a particular location, “Remote Order” allows a customer to lock in her purchase in the store she is currently browsing, and have another store with her desired item deliver it conveniently to her home at no additional cost. These initiatives have resulted in our online channels gaining an ever-increasing share of overall sales, and this trend has been further accelerated because of changes in consumer behaviour brought on by the pandemic. IR: How has 2020 been for The Editor’s Market?  VL: We had a strong 2019 and a good start in Q1 2020 before the onset of Covid-19, after which it has impacted ourselves and many businesses worldwide. From back of house to front of store, we have felt the impact of reduced local and tourist footfall and receipts. The Singapore government’s Job Support Scheme and rental rebates have helped prop us up in this uncertain period. Most importantly, in these challenging moments our supportive staff and customers have warmed our hearts and continue to motivate us.  The silver lining is that our customers are getting more used to purchasing online, at the same time franchisee plans have been progressing to date and we are heartened by these developments. We are seeing our omnichannel investments payoff even though the pandemic has hit many retailers hard; even though physical retail receipts have dropped during the pandemic, our online orders have increased several fold and we expect this increase to be sustained even after the pandemic subsides. IR: As a business that operates in a number of different markets across APAC, did the pandemic bring many challenges in terms of shipping or otherwise? VL: Inbound shipment from our suppliers were affected in March and April but has since normalised.    During the lockdown, our online orders have been encouraging across APAC countries that are not served by our franchise program. We had ample support from our last mile partners hence our local fulfilment orders weren’t adversely affected. Even though overseas shipping rates have increased, we have absorbed the cost in favour of customer acquisition and retention.   IR: How do you balance meeting demand for the latest fashion trends while trying to operate a more sustainable business? Spencer Wong: We do not zealously follow fashion trends but focus on creating clothing that is timeless and can be worn season after season. In addition, we use more sustainable and durable fabrics such as linen and lyocell to make an increasing proportion of our clothing collections. Earlier this year, we removed our signature tiered prices in favour of equally attractive single prices. True to our mission to build a more sustainable business, we made this bold decision because we did not want customers to be forced to buy more than they needed, just to obtain the best prices. Now, our customers can shop just what they really love. Through our marketing channels and the influencers we work with, our creative team pushes the envelope to show how our clothing can be styled in many ways, across seasons and for different occasions, thereby educating our customers to build more versatile and sustainable wardrobes. In summary, what we want is for our customers to buy less, but buy better. IR: Tell me about the move towards using more sustainable fabrics and any challenges that presents? SW: As part of the design process, we consider every single product we are creating and ask ourselves if it can be made with more environmentally-friendly fabrics. The result is an increasing proportion of products made with more sustainable fabrics like linen and lyocell, and a clear reduction in products that use synthetic, petroleum based fabrics so common in fast fashion.  The key challenge is that these environmentally-friendly fabrics cost more than synthetic alternatives. As our aim is to make sustainable clothing accessible so they can be enjoyed by as many as possible, we do our best to absorb much of the cost increase. The second part of the challenge is to educate customers on the different types of fabrics used, how they lessen the impact on the environment, and essentially, why it is worth paying a little more for a product that is gentler on the environment.  IR: In what other ways are you operating more sustainably? SW: By the end of 2020, we’re aiming towards 100 per cent recyclable or compostable packaging in our supply chain. In addition to the sustainable material selection, we are selecting “Life Collection” brands who embody similar design and sustainability ethos such as Meraki.  In store, we use energy efficient LED lightings including natural and environmentally friendly construction materials where feasible. Coupled with recyclable, compostable packaging and poly-mailers, we hope these steps will help in running our business more sustainably.  IR: What’s in the pipeline for The Editor’s Market in the next 12 months or so? Any expansion plans you can share? SW: Locally we are working on product line extensions, whilst our accessory brand Afterall will similarly see more products being launched. In addition, we are also exploring additional physical retail locations in Singapore.  Switching gears, we are looking forward to our first flagship store opening in CentralWorld Bangkok, as well as store openings in Abu Dhabi and Dubai at the end of this year.