Latest / Best of Business / Catherine Williamson: Mocka chief executive on the business launching a physical store in Christchurch

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Catherine Williamson: Mocka chief executive on the business launching a physical store in Christchurch · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Brian Bridge.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Major key We online furniture retailer has decided to also
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: become a major key We bricks and mortar furniture retailer.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Mocker was founded in two thousand and seven, started out
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: making kids furniture, but has since expanded to basically every
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: sort of furniture that you could want in your home.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: And now a couple of decades later, I know, hard
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: to think that. I mean, how long is the internet
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: been around? Obviously a lot longer than that. First ever
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: standalone physical Mocker store has just opened in christ Church.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Katherine Williamson is Markeer chief executive and joins us now
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: kas from Good Evening.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Hi.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Hi.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: So it's like you're doing everything back to front, isn't it?
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, the mock away, We're doing it the mock away.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Why after, I mean, after such a long period of
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: time online, why need why do you need a bricks
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  Speaker 2: and mortar store?
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Well, we basically a giving our customers what they want.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: So this has all come from us from like a
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: deep business listen listening where we did a survey of
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: customers that know Mocker and shop with Moca and those
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: that might not yet have discovered us, and one of
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: the key things came out was that they wanted to
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: see the product in physical form. So hence why then
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: we've opened a physical store. So I think as well,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: when you play in a space that sort of design
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  Speaker 3: meets accessible and quality definitely, customers want to want to
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: touch and feel that product.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Is this stuff relatively expensive? Like you're not You're not
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: competing with Ike here.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: I think we were really competitive price. So I think
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: the difference between us and you know, global brands is
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: that our team designed for key we homes. So the
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: crossover is that we require assembly as well, so you
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: have a sort of commitment to make the product at
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: the same element, but the design is definitely more suitable
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: to the kei we homes. And then we have operations
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: in New Zealand. You know, the stock sits in New Zealand.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: We have a customer service team sit in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: So when you compare our prices across brands, we're very,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: very accessible and reasonable.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Stores nine hundred square meters that's quite big. Why do
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: you need it so big? I suppose you get a
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  Speaker 2: lot of stuff.
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  Speaker 3: It's our biggest store, so this will be our biggest
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  Speaker 3: store in the Southern Hemisphere. We recently opened a store
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: in Australia and it's about half the size, so this
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: is super exciting for us, a large concept store. So
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: again in this testing of if we show all ranges
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: and have destinations, so there's a nursery destination, a mini
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: mocker or a kid's destination, there's a youth destination, then
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: a whole furniture is half the store. So for us,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: this is really to showcase room looks or even you
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: might say open plan looks to our customers and then
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: what do they love from us from this large format?
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Fascinating. So if I need something for my living room
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  Speaker 2: to kind of something to zest our living room up,
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  Speaker 2: what would you recommend at the moment? What's hot?
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: What's hot look? It depends what you're wanting to do.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: But we've just launched sofas last year, so that is
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  Speaker 3: obviously a big anchor of the room and we've got
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  Speaker 3: some very global trends I'm going to say in the
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  Speaker 3: sofa department, or we're really quite well known for armchairs,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: so you could you could do your whole living room
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  Speaker 3: look with everything from Lokka.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Do you know my husband and I having an argument
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: at the moment about the how comfortable like the style
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: versus comfort? I want? Oh, yes, you know I want something.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I would have a hideous lazy boy because I want
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: you know, I've got a bad back. I want something
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: that's comfortable and convenient and something that's gonna, you know,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: tip me up and what put me to while I
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: watch a movie. He's all about the style, right do
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: we have this? Is this not something? Can we not
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: meet somewhere in the middle, because I look around and honestly,
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  Speaker 2: if you want something that's comfortable that's going to help
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: you back, it's going to be pretty ugly from what
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  Speaker 2: I've seen.
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  Speaker 3: I think these are extremes, but in general, I believe
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  Speaker 3: really great design comes with quality and comfort. So another reason,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: you know, for us to have physical form, because I
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: think everyone can question that, particularly for just an online brand.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: So that's a great physical form. And then for your
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  Speaker 3: particular Ryan, something that we've had recently is where someone
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: might not want the particular brand of recliner. We have
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  Speaker 3: actually sold nursery chairs because they're much more stylish. You
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: know what a nursery chair is is in a baby
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  Speaker 3: feeding chair, but it actually reclines and recline. It's like
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  Speaker 3: it swivels around and it reclines. And I know that
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  Speaker 3: you're like, oh my.
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  Speaker 2: Gosh, what she say? You want to put me in
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  Speaker 2: a mom's chair. That's what you want to do.
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  Speaker 3: But they're very fashionable and cool, trust me. Like they're fluffy,
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  Speaker 3: fabric and lovely and more stylish than what you might
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: find in a more traditional recliner.
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  Speaker 2: Fascinating first time I've heard of them. I'll go have
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: a look. I'll have a look on the market. See
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: thank you. That's Katherine Williamson, who is the market chief
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: executive for.
• 5:38
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