OWNTHELOOK.COM has a curated edit of coveted and undiscovered brands - what’s your criteria for listing a brand on your website and who is your target audience?

When I’m looking to bring on brands, the number one criteria is whether the brands aesthetic matches our own. It’s so important to me that the brand reflects the overarching brand we’ve created and instantly fits within the fold, almost so the collections appear as one – now that’s not easy when stocking so many brands but selecting the right product from the right brand is what makes it work. In close joint second comes price point – it’s vital that the product fits into the ‘premium high street’ bracket where quality is as much of a priority. Lastly, in joint second and just as important, is which other e-tailers the brand is stocked with - we want to be the introducer to the UK market, so finding brands that don’t yet have a heavy UK presence is key. We’re targeting forward-thinking, trend-driven women with a fierce eye on the pulse of fashion.

Describe your responsibilities as co-founder.
 

I have so many responsibilities as a co-founder and building every aspect of the business from concept to creation ensures I’m now able to execute every area. My main responsibility is to our consumer, ensuring we’re delivering what they want. We aim to provide a shopping experience that offers a solution and a platform for outfit dressing. My former positions held as a fashion editor and Stylist meant that I put together aspirational looks for glossy magazine spreads and I wanted to transition the love I had doing that into a digital business - I now style every look that goes live on site, which is one of my favourite and most important parts of the job. I’d say another main responsibility of mine is ensuring we’re building a brand that we can stay true to, that’s offering something new and most importantly that we’re able to grow.
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In such a competitive retail market, what gives you the edge? What are you doing differently? 

In a nutshell, we’re making outfit dressing our focus and doing it with brands that are new to the market. We strive to be a voice in not only what to wear but how to wear it, and we want to be considered not only an e-commerce platform but also as a styling tool for women looking to embrace the digital evolution of shopping. Our USP is that we provide a two-click wonder to ‘Owning The Look’ where our customer can browse through the site and buy the head-to-toe look within two, quick clicks. These looks are super trend-led and offer an alternate offering when it comes to traditional e-commerce styling. We also offer stylish tips alongside every look on site. This is something we are keen to continue evolving in the future with authoritative industry voices.  

What would you say is the biggest risk for the retail sector given the current climate? 

With Brexit approaching, I feel the biggest risk for the sector is the unknown. We work with multiple brands and consumers both inside and outside the EU and we’re unsure of the impact Brexit will have.

Anything you’d do differently and what's the biggest lesson you've learnt?

My hardest challenge when launching OWNTHELOOK.COM was getting people, suppliers and the industry to believe in just ‘another online startup’. In such a saturated market, I had to make people believe in me as opposed to the non-existent business and that wasn’t easy! When I was looking to on-board brands, I really had nothing to show for myself other than an idea so ensuring I created a niche and developed something that wasn’t just ‘another online startup’ was not only my biggest challenge but also my biggest achievement.

Social media is so crucial to gaining traffic to your website, talk us through how your brand and social media link up. How do you think this will change in the coming years?                      

With the women we’re targeting, social media is absolutely vital and ensuring our social channels align with the brand is my number one priority. I’ve mentioned our ‘Own The Look aesthetic’ before and this is something that is followed through all the way to our daily posts on social – they reflect the mood and experience we’re creating on site. Social media is a vital tool, but one that sits within a larger marketing strategy, all areas must align for a campaign to be successful. We work with our social channels in so many different ways, from influencer collaborations to video content to ads – this is how we interact with our consumer on a daily basis. The millennial woman or ‘Gen Z’ are so digitally minded, I believe social media is only going to become even more vital to digital businesses.  

How does having a DIARY directory membership benefit you as a brand owner? What do you most use it for day to day? What would you love to see us do?

DIARY directory is a vital tool for us when it comes to keeping our finger firmly on the pulse of the industry, keeping up to date with all day to day goings on; new launches, influencers requests, media requests and events. The marketing team use the platform daily if not hourly in order to connect with the media and ensure the brand is at the forefront of journalists' and influencers' minds and in their inboxes. With such a large focus on our digital strategy, the ability to have eyes on Influencers' figures and analytics all in one place is key. Essentially we need to be able to move fast, react quickly and reach out…with this at our fingertips, we can.
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What other social / information tools do you use and why? What tools do you wish existed to make your working life easier?

As mentioned above, the ability to have an Influencer's full analytics at our fingertips is essential.
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