Wolfram Schur, Head of Purchasing at the southern German fashion retailer Zinser, is optimistic about the current order season and is looking for new topics. He doesn’t let price increases slow him down. FashionUnited spoke to the buyer about price changes, trends and what role outlets play for Zinser.
How optimistic are you starting the order season?
We’re going in very optimistically because we’ve also made a few changes on the surfaces and believe that there will be a catch-up effect. We are looking for new topics. We look for modernity, because the customers also check in again Change has taken place and they have become even more fashionable.
Do the price increases dampen your optimism? How have you perceived them so far?
The price changes were very moderate, so we didn’t feel ‘got caught cold’. We had a very high level of respect when the first price announcements came. The price ranges have changed in many places, but still in such a way that we can keep the price points well.
Everyone is aware that there are not only price changes in our segment, but also electricity and other costs have gone up. As a result, we as a fashion industry have to make sure that we don’t drift too far and give customers the feeling: Now they too have become expensive. So far, we’ve been able to go along with the prizes and carry them.
How important are price points for you? Do your customers still specifically pay attention to this?
There are certain product groups that are very strongly associated with prices. Customers have a feeling that a pair of jeans costs 89 euros, 99 euros – at least in our price segment. In certain areas we have to be careful that we provide customers with enough goods for the brands that are important to them in this price segment. The jacket is about 199 euros.
Which brands are these?
These are the mainstream pricers, brands with which we generate a large part of our sales. In the case of trousers suppliers, for example, there are Brax and Mac. Olympus is important. When it comes to jackets, it is Fuchs&Schmitt, among others. There are always the most important brands in the respective segments, which customers use to orient themselves to a certain extent and thus assess whether it has become more expensive or not.
Are there certain trends and topics that you focus on?
It’s getting a little tighter again, and that’s for the ladies and gentlemen. It will be important whether the proportion of blazers increases, which qualities play a role in the pants, which shapes and colors prevail. We also want to expand the outdoor theme further.
What are your thoughts on ordering?
The question arises: How high must the proportion of pre-orders to post-orders be? After last year we have to take a very close look at how we can deal with it. There was no product from the supply chain on the market. Now we have to look: Do we think that the supply chains will have relaxed enough by next autumn that we will be able to buy more goods then? So the questions arise: When do we have to check in the goods and when do we have to make adjustments? Where do we have to go up or down with the pre-orders?
Change the volume of the Voroder?
We don’t want to change the pre-orders in total compared to last season, so not further down. But because too few goods were available this year, we don’t want to increase the total either. We have to reorder the topics that we are missing in the areas. If we pre-order everything, there is no longer the potential to be able to re-order.
What role does sustainability play in your order?
We are very clear on that committedthat all the brands we work with are constantly evolving in this area.
We are not at the point where the product, the brand, the price and the topic of sustainability have to be right. We are not looking for labels that come from the sustainable segment but have not yet made a breakthrough in terms of brand image and level of awareness. We’ve tried that a few times now and noticed that the majority of customers are still focusing on the well-known labels. Of course, something is always added to the right and left. If we see something where we believe in the story, notice it fits, we also include purely sustainable labels.
Do you see any development in this area across the industry?
If you see what all of the brands we work closely with have done over the last few months, weeks, to further engage with the topic, you can see a growing development within the industry. But with us it is also the case that customers are currently not willing to automatically spend more on it.
And apart from sustainable fashion, should the portfolio be further expanded?
We’re looking very closely for new topics. However, we are not looking in any segment and believe that we need to change something. We have a plan, a strategy for where we want to grow, and new labels are part of that. There are two or three labels that we would like to have, but we’re not that committed to a specific label yet.
Since the end of last year, Zinser has also been running an outlet. What is the proportion of old and bought-in products?
Our goal is to drive 50:50.
How does the outlet order differ from the other houses?
There are always different mechanisms and the outlets are almost a separate business model. It is clear that most would like to shove the old goods and leftovers into the outlets, but then you have a bunch of colorful dough.
Outlet is a bit more difficult because we depend on getting good items from the industry – including NOS offshoots from the previous season, of course. The outlet only works if the contents of the goods are suitable for the customers who buy there. We would not be happy with only leftover and individual parts and with extreme prices.
Is the outlet intended for a longer period of time or is it a response to lockdown-related leftovers?
We need a wide variety of mechanisms in the industry to bring the freshness principle to our area. We have to be careful that the topic of ‘goods tourism’ – along the lines of: I’ll send everything back to you first – doesn’t get out of hand. The outlet is a mechanism, a small cog, to get a better grip on the subject of returns. We are thus finding an additional channel for diverting goods – online is just as much a part of it.
We have to keep showing customers more fashion and interesting topics in our most important areas. It is also becoming increasingly clear that they want to look for and find these topics with us. Of course, they also want reduced goods, so we have to offer them identically. The outlet is not an issue driven out of the pandemic.