I have been in the business of selling formal wear especially suits, be it ready to wear, tailored or made to measure, for quite some time now. And I make it a point to attend to our customers very regularly.
All this has given me a deep insight on the customers' needs, some well articulated and some unexpressed. Given this, I propose that the current way of buying suits leaves a lot to improve upon . What's more, many of our customers, after experiencing "the new way" agree with me.
So lets first see, what the traditional way is:
It is about going to a store,
choosing a ready-made suit or a fabric,
If it is fabric, then getting measured,
revisiting for fitting session (s) &
then collecting the final ready piece.
Seems simple and straight forward, happens all over the world. Well lot of things had been happening in a particular way, for so many years till someone introduced a change. Sometime fast or sometimes very gradually, people did respond to this change & the traditional way of doing things got replaced with newer process or technology.
Coming back to buying suits, one doesn't wear suit as a standalone piece. Instead one would like to coordinate it with the existing shirts, shoes & ties in the wardrobe.
So when one enters into a suit store, one has to remember all the colors and the patterns of the shirts, ankle length & toe style of all the shoes& existing suits collection so that the decision sits well and doesn't disturb the wardrobe continuity
The second important point is that shopping is considered to be a leisure activity & customers prefer to be in their casual attire, shorts, sandals etc. when they are out in the market. This constrains the trial process because the attire cannot be completed.
These two points make the decision making process, in the traditional way of shopping, extremely limiting.
On the other hand, we have noticed that customers are able to think and decide comprehensively when We visit their homes.
Access to their wardrobe helps us consult them better & creates a perspective based dialogue as against a unidirectional sales pitch which happens in a store setting.
When at home (or even hotels), customers bring out all their shirts to match with the suit fabric.
They bring out their existing suits to discuss issues or good points in them. This gives us better understanding of their requirements and helps us serve them better.
During the trial session, they wear their multiple shoes to see if the length goes well with them, ditto for the jacket sleeves and their shirts.
All this is just not possible in a store environment.
Suit being an expensive purchase, it is important that a decision is made considering as many points as possible. and that is why one needs to change the way one buys suits.
-- Neeraj Joshi
All this has given me a deep insight on the customers' needs, some well articulated and some unexpressed. Given this, I propose that the current way of buying suits leaves a lot to improve upon . What's more, many of our customers, after experiencing "the new way" agree with me.
So lets first see, what the traditional way is:
It is about going to a store,
choosing a ready-made suit or a fabric,
If it is fabric, then getting measured,
revisiting for fitting session (s) &
then collecting the final ready piece.
Seems simple and straight forward, happens all over the world. Well lot of things had been happening in a particular way, for so many years till someone introduced a change. Sometime fast or sometimes very gradually, people did respond to this change & the traditional way of doing things got replaced with newer process or technology.
Coming back to buying suits, one doesn't wear suit as a standalone piece. Instead one would like to coordinate it with the existing shirts, shoes & ties in the wardrobe.
So when one enters into a suit store, one has to remember all the colors and the patterns of the shirts, ankle length & toe style of all the shoes& existing suits collection so that the decision sits well and doesn't disturb the wardrobe continuity
The second important point is that shopping is considered to be a leisure activity & customers prefer to be in their casual attire, shorts, sandals etc. when they are out in the market. This constrains the trial process because the attire cannot be completed.
These two points make the decision making process, in the traditional way of shopping, extremely limiting.
On the other hand, we have noticed that customers are able to think and decide comprehensively when We visit their homes.
Access to their wardrobe helps us consult them better & creates a perspective based dialogue as against a unidirectional sales pitch which happens in a store setting.
When at home (or even hotels), customers bring out all their shirts to match with the suit fabric.
They bring out their existing suits to discuss issues or good points in them. This gives us better understanding of their requirements and helps us serve them better.
During the trial session, they wear their multiple shoes to see if the length goes well with them, ditto for the jacket sleeves and their shirts.
All this is just not possible in a store environment.
Suit being an expensive purchase, it is important that a decision is made considering as many points as possible. and that is why one needs to change the way one buys suits.
-- Neeraj Joshi
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