The story of Fashion Group begins in 1994 as a project driven by the desire to bring world fashion to Macedonia. Today, 28 years later, Fashion Group is the largest fashion group in the country that counts 40 world-renowned fashion brands for which you have the rights of exclusivity, franchise, and master franchise. Since 2017, the entire Fashion Group portfolio is available online at fashiongroup.com.mk, a platform that has grown into one of the most visited websites for online sales in the country. Tell us about the beginnings of your web store, and its development to date, but also about the development and use of the FashionGroup mobile application that is available for iOS and Android.

If we draw a parallel between our beginnings and the current operation, we can notice indisputable progress, both in the offer that we market and the way of operation, as well as in the habits and needs of the users. We can freely share that from the creation of the first site until today, the change in trends in technology, the wishes, and needs of users, was a challenge that constantly led us to direct our work, in order to adapt to the changes, but also to we create in our market.

As you mentioned, the Fashion Group site was created in 2017. Still, already in 2019, we were looking for a more sophisticated solution and we made migration and cooperation with a new IT company. In 2020 we created www.okaidi.com.mk, while this November 2022, we created a site for products from previous seasons www.fashiongroupoutlet.mk, thus we continue to work on constant progress and creation of a web space that will create the best user experience.

Due to the number and specificity of the sold products through the three sites, and of course, for each of the products, users would like to have more information in order to make the right choice, we try to provide as much detail as possible for each fashion piece that is in our offer. The displayed data is obtained from our ERP system and updated in predefined time frames.

Fashion group products are also available through mobile applications for Android and iOS devices. The number of app downloads is over 10,000 for Android and slightly more for iOS. We could share that during internal analyses, the majority of buyers still decide that the first choice for accessing and purchasing Fashion Group is the mobile version of the site, of course, our goal in the next period is to focus on further progress of the application and implementing the necessary changes that we defined in our research.

We must share that in order to display all products properly, as well as to provide a real fashion experience, Fashion Group has an extremely dedicated team that is constantly expanding, currently, the online team counts 8 young and motivated professionals. Of course, the processing of online orders would not be possible without the involvement of the colleagues employed in the stores, who support the realization of each project.

Fashiongroup.com.mk and the FashionGroup mobile application offer thousands of products from different brands that can be ordered online. It is probably a big challenge to simultaneously ship products from the physical stores of different brands. We would like you to reveal more details about this. How many products and brands are available on the platform, what are the challenges you face in online ordering of products from different brands, what is the delivery method, and for how many days can e-shoppers receive the products ordered online?

The current offer of the website www.fashiongroup.com.mk, as you mentioned in the previous question, offers 40 world-famous fashion brands.. Every season we try to introduce novelties and follow trends and fulfill the wishes of our users by expecting novelties, not only in terms of new brands for our market but also new product groups that were not previously prepared in our offer. In addition to recognizable pieces of clothing, shoes, and fashion accessories, since last year cosmetics from the Italian brand, Kiko Milano have been available on our website. If we look at the number of products presented at the seasonal level, for the last season fall-winter ’22 we would see more than 14,000 different products.

Besides the different products that are offered, of particular importance to us, is the satisfaction of buyers, therefore we treat each of our customers with special attention. In order to get shoppers to head to our website, we often run online-only promotions or send coupons that are only posted to registered users. Of course, we have reward programs and loyalty days for regular customers, when these users can take advantage of the benefits.

We make every effort to process every created order and deliver it to the end customer as soon as possible, due to the fact that we have automated most of the processes from the background work. However, the ordered products are delivered from the physical stores, and in the process of carrying out the orders work colleagues confirm and pack the orders in the stores and colleagues who process and follow them. Colleagues responsible for processing orders, and performing constant monitoring and follow-up of shipments in order to deliver all shipments within 3 to 5 working days at the latest. Most often, shipments are delivered the next day, but the previously mentioned deadline is a defined maximum frame we want to adhere to.

We all have a moment of our work that we are proud of and that has motivated us to work even better and even more focused. Which moment in Fashion Group’s online operation so far would you single out as a highlight?

Of course, the increase in sales and the summarized numbers after a successfully implemented campaign motivate us to work on every future project with even greater enthusiasm, but what motivates us are the comments from our users. Every remark and criticism, regardless of whether it has a positive or negative connotation, carefully consider and take as a roadmap for future work.

A highlight for us is every positive comment from a user, when colleagues from customer support share with the rest of the team, nice words that we received via e-mail or in a phone conversation, for us they are a real reward and motivation to create projects that will always put the user first.

Being part of the e-comm community is exciting, and more and more people are choosing to get involved. What would you recommend to future e-sellers? Do you have a “success formula” that you would like to share?

The real “formula for success” for us is simple, it includes following the latest fashion trends, changes in e-commerce, and really listening to the needs of customers because only in this way success is guaranteed. Of course, for the realization of any success, it is necessary to have the right team, which will complement each other and, regardless of the work position, will have space in a friendly atmosphere to share their views on each ongoing project.

Iva and Alexandra, thank you for the answers and look forward to your success. 🚀