Like a Colourful Bird

Moho/St. Gall en. In the swarm of the same old brands and department stores, the store of Sandra Schmitter in St. Gallen’s Old Town is a real eye-catcher. It’s cheerful, casual, and it has - by local standards - a truly exotic product range.

Text: Dörte Welti. Photos: Dörte Welti, Tobi Siebrecht

Sandra Schmitter equipped her store with a cool lounge area that makes it a pleasure to linger a little longer. Actually, the most complicated part was finding a name. “I had them all working on it - friends, family, and colleagues”, the young store owner Sandra Schmitter remembers. “I only knew that I wanted it to be a bird name.” One of them was a natural fit. In the end it was her sister who came up with the Hawaiian moho. “A name is like a tattoo. It stays with you forever”, Sandra says. In contrast to the moho by the way, which became extinct because the residents of the dream hunted the birds down to use its beautiful plumage for the splendour robes of the rich.

Perched on a Niche

In St. Gallen, in any event, the moho is still thriving. Just six months after opening Sandra had to ask her landlord if she could have more space, double the space if possible. The landlord, who runs the neighbouring furniture store, knows how persistent his tenant is. She had even badgered him for the initial space until he finally gave in. Why did it have to be exactly that space? “He is a customer of Freitag bags”, the 33 year old, who was a wholesaler at the Swiss bags label in Zurich for four years, explains. “I’ve always loved his store; it is in the perfect location at the end of the trendy St. Gallen shopping mile.” When Schmitter wants something, she is fully committed to getting it, especially when it has to do with her store concept. St. Gallen has a colourful retail environment, but customers can mostly only find mass-produced goods or high-end boutiques. However, the mid-price range for customers who are willing to spend a little (but not too much) money, who value something special, who purchase sensibly, and who don’t want to see the shirt they just bought on everyone roaming the bustling alleys of the university city is near to non-existent.

Because She Can

Whoever visits Moho, knows there’s not much time to grab that special dream item. “I only purchase two or three pieces per size”, Sandra Schmitterer explains. This creates exclusivity and increases the number of regular customers. They are generally between 25 and 35 years of age, which is the dream target group of every store owner. St. Gallen may be a university city, but the students have money to spend, mainly because the living costs are so much lower than in Zurich. The urban people also know that Schmitter finds out as much as possible about the production conditions and social responsibility of the brands she stocks. However, those brands are still not too expensive. Shirts cost no more than 30, 40, or 50 Swiss Francs, while jeans start at

as little as 60 Swiss Francs. It’s always a challenge to find such brands, Schmitter mostly finds them at trade shows. As the sole owner of the store she cannot travel as much anymore, which is certainly difficult for someone who was initially trained in the tourism industry. However, she cannot (yet) afford another full-time employee to assist her. Schmitter is not a fan of seasonal fashion anyway. “For Moho I look for pieces that can be worn in both summer and winter”, the commercial studies graduate explains. “I see fashion as a circle where everything fits together perfectly.” During her time at Freitag, she also learned that the recycler of truck tarpaulins does not have particular summer or winter trends. Nevertheless the

company gave a lot of intention to detail, which is something that Sandra took on board for her own business. Every corner of the store is carefully planned. Parts of the store’s interior are self-made, while other parts were created with the assistance of Daniela Niedermann, a friend of her’s who is conveniently an architect. The budget is limited; she finances everything herself. If she can’t afford something, then she simply acknowledges that she can’t do it. This is how you do business properly - all for oneself, with passion, with commitment, and with conviction. The customers can sense this and flock to the store. Although there are some customers call her and ask: “Could you maybe send me this or that?” Schmitter then

scurries through the store while putting together the order on FaceTime. She finds this aspect quite amusing, which is why she is thinking of turning it into an official service. But she will think it through first and crunch the numbers. She has always worked that way, which is why Moho lives on.

Sandra Schmitter wanted to create a homely atmosphere in Moho; NW/A Zurich’s Daniela Niedermann realised the vision perfectly by utilising chipboards.

Moho

Spisergasse 40, 9000 St. Gallen/Switzerland www.moho.ch Opening: August 2012 Owner: Sandra Schmitter Employees: 3 Sales area: 125 sqm Women’s brands: Armed Angels, A.O.CMS, Cheap Monday, Louche, Mbym, Minimum, Minkpink, Rules by Mary, Sessùn, Stutterheim, Suit, Worn By Men’s brands: Armed Angels, Brixtol, Cheap Monday, Farah, Minimum, Ontour, Stutterheim, Suit, Topman, Worn By Accessories brands: Nina Bee, Riviera

Oh Customer Where Art Thou?

The steadily declining customer frequency is probably the biggest problem the fashion trade is facing today. This is not only confirmed by many conversations with retailers, but also by official statistics such as the Footfall Index. The reasons are manifold. One example is the negative consumer climate. It’s not really surprising after years during which media outlets outdid themselves with various disaster scenarios. It’s also not surprising when you look at the unstable political situations such as in the Ukraine and Europe in general. One should also not deny the effect of the online trade, which is a competitor that is becoming stronger by the day. It’s not uncommon for an online shopping spree to replace the good old stroll through the city centre. In my opinion, however, there is another and equally decisive reason why fewer and fewer people, and therefore (potential) shoppers, make their way into the bulging stores. The fashion retail industry - actually the entire fashion industry - has poorly educated its customers over the last few years. I use this rather unpopular term quite

deliberately, even though many believe it suggests paternalism despite it merely meaning conscious guidance. In this specific case, it is the management of needs and buying behaviour. The modern customers feel as if they can purchase everything they need - or don’t need - whenever and wherever they want, possibly even at a reduced price. And if the customers really DO N’T get what they want or at least NOT at a reduced price, then they don’t really care because they don’t really need anything anyway. In addition, there is a second huge problem. As we have often pointed out here in our magazine, this second issue is the perverted seasonal rhythm that offers customers all the goods with reduction during their moment of maximum purchasing urge, which is when real and emotional desires meet. A customer is unlikely to have an increasing interest in buying a winter jacket while thinking about some cool beers in the sweltering heat, but would be quite willing to get excited about a fine summer jacket. However, the latter is no longer available in his size; he really should have looked for that during the winter. So what does a customer, who believes he can get whatever he wants or - even worse - feels he can only obtain what he wants at a time when he wasn’t interested in it yet, do? Well, he doesn’t go shopping as often as he used to. He is convinced that he isn’t missing a thing. The retail industry feels the effect by noticing that bargain and clearance sales are no longer the frequency boosters they used to be. After all, consumers are quite aware of the fact that there’s always someone who’s reducing the prices. Consumers who no longer have to make an effort because they are always offered everything and even too much of it, will become as sluggish as a lion in the Serengeti desert after the rain season. What are the countermeasures one could take? Or - let’s ask directly - how do you win back customers who have become increasingly bored? The answer is pretty simple really. Try to excite them again. This may sound like a truism - but it is 100% true. My belief is confirmed by the fact that many retailers manage to excite their customers with independent product ranges, excellent service, and various intelligent campaigns for (regular) customers, even in these times of significantly increased competition. Humans (aka consumers) are ultimately quite simple beings. They want something “special”, or the feeling that something is special. Those who can only offer them the same old everyday products will soon find out that the customers will visit them very rarely and eventually never again. This is why it is so vital to make the most of the time at trade shows and in the showrooms. Make the most of that time by finding something “special”.

Stephan Huber stephan.huber@ucm-verlag.at

Publisher, editorial office, advertising department and owner UCM-Verlag B2B Media GmbH & Co KG Salzweg 17, 5081 Salzburg-Anif Austria T 0043.6246.89 79 99 F 0043.6246.89 79 89 office@ucm-verlag.at www.ucm-verlag.at

Management Stephan Huber Nicolaus Zott

Editors-in-chief Stephan Huber stephan.huber@ucm-verlag.at Martina Müllner martina.muellner@ucm-verlag.at

Art direction/production Elisabeth Prock-Huber elisabeth@ucm-verlag.at

Contributing writers Isabel Faiss Ina Köhler Petrina Engelke Mody Al Khufash Nicoletta Schaper Kay Alexander Plonka Dörte Welti Katharina Wohlfahrt

Photographers/Illustrators Bernhard Musil Harling & Darsell Julian Henschler David Kim Claudia Meitert Juergen Schabes Jette Stolte Eva Vasaria

Image editor Anouk Schönemann anouk.schoenemann@ucm-verlag.at

Advertising director Stephan Huber stephan.huber@ucm-verlag.at

Publisher’s assistant, distribution Sigrid Staber sigrid.staber@ucm-verlag.at Christina Hörbiger christina.hoerbiger@ucm-verlag.at

English translations Manfred Thurner

Printing sandlerprint&packaging 3671 Marbach, Austria

Printing coordinator Manfred Reitenbach

Account info Volksbank Salzburg 105 627 BLZ 45010

Next issue 21 July 2014