In this series with speakers at Ragtrader Live 2019, Superdry ANZ brand manager Antony Hampson discusses a powerful new strategy. To learn more from Antony and our power lineup, grab your tickets here.
China is a powerful retail market. What opportunities does Superdry see here?
It's a continually growing market, the tourist market, for us. It's not totally limited to the Chinese market. The last report I read, I think on average the Chinese customer was putting $7 billion into our economy per year which is averaging about $7,000 spend per individual travelling here.
So from a commercial perspective you would be crazy not to see the opportunity there. I mean if you take, I think off memory that if you put the next five countries didn't add up – travelling to Australia, didn't add up what the Chinese customer, the Chinese consumer was spending – Chinese tourists I should say, was spending.
We also have a brand that resonates and our product resonates with the Asian market. It's a strong market globally for Superdry, not just in our market so we only see opportunity there and I think the stronger customer service and the better experience will only help grow sales for us.
You're always trying to win over the local customers but you know in retail footfall it's certainly challenging across the globe at the moment. It's just innovatively thinking of ways to connect with potentially a new consumer as well and cut through the competition.
Why did you create the Lunar New collection this year?
If you look at the traditional retail calendar in Australia – sort of early January, you're coming out of post-season, end of season sales and then you have a new season launching kind of early February. So there's generally a three to four week gap where Chinese New Year comes a real focal point and becomes the key message for a lot of brands, particularly with a strong presence in Asia which obviously Superdry with the branding and the aesthetics appeal to that market.
From a commercial perspective it drives sales through what's traditionally probably a quieter period before the launch of our new season. It's important as well from a consumer perspective, we obviously have to respect and celebrate a community that is large and plays an important part in our brand and supports our brand so to speak.
It is our fifth year, so the range has been expanding. There's a few retailers, particularly in the fashion market, who call out Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year but we've been doing it for five years. The range has evolved. It's getting better every year. We launched it last week, so we are seeing some really strong sell-through results as well which is pleasing. So, clearly we're cutting through and the products are resonating.
Australian-born, China-based social media superstars David Gulasi and Amy Lyons were enlisted to promote the collection. Why?
We wanted to push a collection to the most receptive audience and the challenge that we face is that that audience is not as present across our traditional advertising channels. So we found that what we were looking for were kind of key opinion leaders or KOLs from Australia who are based in China and could help us cut through the masses we're talking about. There's a lot of retailers doing it.
So, how do we cut through? How do we get directly to that consumer who is going to most engage with the product? So, we felt that both of those individuals sort of served that purpose. They're based in China, they're associated with Australia, they have a good point of difference and most importantly they have a strong following. So, you know, kind of guaranteed strong cut through.
Do you have targeted social media and eCommerce sites too?
We do. We have Weibo which has around 430,000 followers. We have a webstore in China – so superdry.com.cn as well.
What results have you seen since introducing Chinese payment methods in stores?
Where we have definitely seen some positive results is where the consumer who is utilising those channels has a positive experience. They're highly likely to promote or return to their network as well, so it has a flow on effect as well and in saying that, we're still – we're not isolating our strategy purely to these platforms. We're still using the traditional platforms to connect with the local Chinese market as well.
We're seeing a strong increase. We're seeing a 120% increase month-on-month since October. But it's getting stronger. We're promoting the use of these payment platforms as well within our windows, at the counters, etc to try and promote them.