has seen incremental growth, recently opening its 10th and 11th stores at Doncaster, in Melbourne, and Indooroopilly, Brisbane. The new stores are a little different to what you would normally expect from Sambag. “We’ve removed all of the pom poms from the stores, so it’s sleek, but they still have the blue colour, which is very prominent for us. We were still wanting to create that warmth of a boutique feel,” said Wagner. “We wanted a fresh approach with the brand, which eventually we will launch to the rest of the stores, that is just a bit more modern, fresher, and comfortable.” On the e-commerce side of things, Sambag is embarking on a complete website overhaul, set to go live in November. “We have resigned We Are Digital to redo our whole website starting from scratch. We want to make it faster, more user friendly, customer focused, sales driven, and spunkier. “Obviously things change so much, it’s quite cumbersome, so we want something that is a much more customer friendly experience.” Wagner says the new website will have lots of “bells and whistles”, but is keeping the details under wraps at this point. “We are looking at making it truly fabulous and a much faster experience,” she said. Fifteen per cent of Sambag’s business is online. “It (online) should always be our number one store, and that’s something we’re hoping with the website as well – that the revamp will really push that.” Last month, Sambag launched a collection of nine footwear styles into 12 David Jones stores. “We’re excited about the experience and customers being able to find Sambag in David Jones. The next six months are looking good,” she said. This article first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2006.