Australian luxury fashion brand The Daily Edited (TDE) has commenced its new brand transformation, comprising of major changes to production and retail operations.
Co-founder and director of TDE Tania Liu spoke with Ragtrader¸ noting that over the past year, the company have undertaken a comprehensive review of the business in preparation for the brand transformation process.
“The project is focused on three key areas: developing a strong product design proposition with improved quality, reimagining our approach to personalisation, and improving our online and instore experience.
“A big priority for us this year has been the improvement of our online presence and we will continue to prioritise the development of our ecommerce capabilities into the future.
“Whilst we made a strategic decision to close some of our physical locations last year so that we could reassess what our optimal network looks like in the contemporary landscape, instore retail has always played a central role in how we share our brand with our customers, and it will continue to do so moving forward.
“We are excited to rebuild our retail footprint and have been exploring various opportunities - but none that I am able to elaborate on at this time."
In line with TDE’s transformation, Tania Liu made key hires across the business, including David Dunstan as the new COO, Naomi Wilson as creative director, and Jason Tan as head of production and merchandising
“Often the spotlight is on the leadership team, but it’s our dedicated warehouse, personalisation and customer service teams who ensure day in and day out that our customers receive both their orders on time and the best possible pre and aftercare assistance.”
"De-risking" supply chains
With Covid continuing to disrupt retail industry operations, many businesses – and not just in fashion – have had to re-evaluate their standard of operations.
“COVID19 and the events of the past few years have shown us all the importance of de-risking supply chains,” says Liu.
“Alongside our product overhaul, we have used recent experiences to review our supply chain and ensure that production capabilities are diversified.
“Our new approach to product design will also help us to mitigate the rising cost (and limited availability) of freight."
In the past, TDE relied on a ‘just in time’ production model, says Liu, where the company reacted to trends and had fast production turnaround and airfreight forwarding.
“Whilst this approach served us very well over the years and there will continue to be a place for this production model for TDE going forward, our main focus will be to build out a longer lead time for product development and logistics, which will ultimately lead to better designed and more considered products for our customers.”
While the ongoing transformation will see major changes in various areas of TDE’s business, the overall aspect is expected to remain – and this plays into notable incoming trends according to Liu.
“TDE has long been known as a fantastic gifting destination and we continue to see this appetite from our customers in those key gifting periods across the calendar year.
“We also continue to see great response to SLGs, which we view as being those functional item updates to our customer’s day to day lives – whether they are at work, running weekend errands or on vacation, there are TDE products that make it easier for them, more personal, and more stylish."