Latest / Best of Business / Aidan Bartlett: Designer Wardrobe CEO on the company's planned expansion across the Tasman

Transcript

Aidan Bartlett: Designer Wardrobe CEO on the company's planned expansion across the Tasman · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News talks'b follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Right found that in twenty fifteen, Designer Wardrobe has become
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: the go to platform for buying and selling pre loved
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: high end designer fashion. It's been usually successful. We're three
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: hundred and twenty five thousand key we users. Designer Wardrobe
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: has now announced that they're expanding across the testment. This
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: is a good news retail story. CEO Aidan bartlet is
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: worth now good morning.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Oh hi frand Chisia. How's it going good?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you? Hey? So is now a good time for expansion?
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, look, it's like when you zoom out.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: It is a tough economic climate. However, for Designer Wardrobe,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: you know, we have been really cool to see increase
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: demand and some of that demand has actually come from
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Australia and Partsis saying hey, look we believe in this,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: in this platform and where it can go, and so
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: just you know, pushing that button and doing it now
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: rather than wasting just makes a lot of sense for us.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean so many positives of that. I mean,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: what have you seen in recent times? With New Zealand business.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, has the cost of living potentially played into
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: your hands. People are looking for a bargain, you know,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: or you know, looking for secondhand items.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, I think there is a growing appetite for
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: pre love because it does have a lot of benefits.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Part of it is that cost saving is actually in
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: a tough economic climate like right now. How it is
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: also just a growing interest in pre love in terms
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: of its environmental benefits. You know, textile waste is huge.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: It's the second biggest contributor in the world. And buying
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: pre loved means you're not essentially buying you and creating
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: all that waste all over again. You know. For example,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: you know, pains is fifty bathtubs worth of water. So
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: there's a lot that goes into producing a new item.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: And if you can just make an adam last longer,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: then that's a great thing.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: As I mentioned in the intro, you launched in twenty fifteen,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: So almost into double digits, is of this what sets
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: you look at from the likes of trade me and
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Facebook and marketplace.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, it's really exciting to actually have hit those
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: those double digits. We've certainly had a lot of you know,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: up and downs of the business, and you know, we
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: haven't been a recent economic times as well, so we
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: are thankful to be where we are in terms of
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: what sets us apart. But trade me is great, but
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: it's it's really set for all categories. You know. For example,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: you could buy you know, your Nike shoes on there,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: but essentially you can also buy a tractor, you know.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: And for us, it's more about being super hyper specialized
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: in fashion and predominantly woman's fashion, and then the other
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: part of the business that we've had a huge we'll
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: put a lot of effort into as trust. So when
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: you purchase something on Designer Wardrobe, you're not paying that
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: seller directly like you would on other platforms. You actually
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: pay Designer Wardrobe and we hold your payment until you've
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: actually received the item, and then we pay the seller.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: So it's really that hyper specialization and the trust factors
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: what has really set us apart. Come over the past
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: ten years.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: And I know that I mentioned before sort of the
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: cost of living in more recent pressures on how we
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: spend our dollar and things, But over the last ten years,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: in terms of the demand for pre love clothing, what
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: have you seen.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a category that's grown exponentially. It grows roughly
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: fifteen to twenty percent annually, which is huge, and that's
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: on a global level too. Certainly. One of the things
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: that played positively into it as well was covid as well.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: You know, everybody was at home and they had both
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: more timed actually list the items in their closet that
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: they weren't wearing, but also everybody had shop online and
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: that really helped sort of catapult people getting apart or
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: being part of the PLOVD you know, what we call
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: pre love and then also seeing that continue on post codes.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: But yeah, certainly the living you know, everybody's got less
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: money to spend essentially, so again we're not immune to it,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: but you know, we do have a really great offering
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: in terms of being able to buy really smartly, and
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: typically when you buy something on Design and Wardrobe it's
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: you know, up to sixty ten off the retailer, so
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: there was really great value there.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Aiden does this broaden the market and clothes available to kiwis?
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Will people be able to buy from both sides of
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: the testament or are the two sites separate.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good question that was actually a really
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: big decision for us, like whether or not we make
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: it essentially two marketplaces or a single marketplace. What we
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: arrived at was there's a lot of cross pollination between brands,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: like Australians love some of the big heavy brands like
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Ruby and Karen Walker and Stolen Girlfriends and those sort
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: of brands, and at the same time, a lot of
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: New Zealanders love, you know, the big Australian brands like
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Lack Zimmerman and those sort of brands. So for us
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: it was like, can we make a really great experience
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: where you know, someone from New Zealand could send something
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: to Australia and vice versa, And we arrived at yes,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: we certainly can. So when you actually sell something to
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: an Australian on Designer Wardrobe, you can actually book the
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: shipping within Designer Wardrobe, so you don't have to fill
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: out all the customs forms or anything like that. So
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: we've taken a lot of the friction away while also
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: meaning that you can have a lot more optionality in
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: terms of what you can buy, and you if you're
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: selling something, you know there's a lot more buyers out
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: there too.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Aiden, Thank you so much. For your time today and
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: best of lack.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks so much, Francisco.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: That was Aiden Bartlett there, who is a CEO of
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Designer Wardrobe. They announced they are going to expand across
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: the Testament.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Out for more from News Talk st B. Listen live
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: on air or online, and keep our shows with you
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: wherever you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.