Aleo Iliopulo, Porta 9: “When we post a photo of the new item on Instagram, by evening it may not be“ “The most interesting of my biography is that I am a fifth -generation shoe,” begins

Aleo Iliopulo, Porta 9: When we post a photo of the novelty on Instagram, it may not be in the evening

“The most interesting of my biography is that I am a fifth -generation shoe,” Aleko Iliopulo begins an interview. Indeed, relatives of a 24-year-old entrepreneur were somehow connected with the shoe sphere: some were engaged in skin, others sold shoes. Father – Andrei Iliopulo – heads the Novard holding, which owns a brand of women's shoes Econika. After graduating from the Marketing Institute, Guu Aleo worked with his father, engaged in the development of the Econiki online store, and then decided to open his store.

The Village journalists met with Aleo Iliopulo in the shoe concept steamer Porta 9, which opened a year ago. In the afternoon, there is not a lot of people on Wednesday – two adult women come in who look around the shoes on the shelves, run between the racks and come out. A little later comes a man who clearly knows where he got, and begins to try on. There are quite a few male here, the bet is mainly on women's shoes – slopes with fur pompons, sandals with tall and not very heels, lofors with carved tongues.

The company's office is located above-with a concept stand, they are connected by a window that is disguised by plastic curtains. On the floor – shoes, bright stickers with numbers are glued on insoles. These are new samples that came from China. Some of them will be in the new Portal stores: this year, the company, tired of the jumping rate, decided to sew shoes on its own, thereby reducing the price. Recently, a monobrand store has opened in Tsvetnoy, in line – retail outlets in the Aviation Park, Atrium and other places. The Village found out how he manages to sell fashionable shoes at a time when saving became a trend.

Launch

In parallel, we began to look for a premises for a concept-operator and found it only in October. In the store I had to dismantle a lot: out of four premises, we made one trading room, and the ceiling was completely removed. Fortunately, the building was not included in the historical fund, so there were no problems with coordination, although the supporting walls, of course, remained in place. The costs of the premises amounted to about 6-7 million rubles (the investment of the Novard holding), of which 3-4 million rubles went for repairs, and the remaining – for interior details (350 thousand rubles for lighting, 500 thousand rubles per window and so on ).

Empty shelves

In July 2014, when we went to the first exhibition with all the composition, we immediately launched an Instagram account, which Katya Butko led. I wanted to create a brand with our target audience and tell it about our successes.The number of subscribers gradually grew, and by the time of opening their number approached ten thousand. Today we have 71 thousand subscribers, and when we post a photo of the novelty, we are ready that in the evening it may not be.

Such support, of course, helped us – especially at the initial stage. Since this was our first project, we were very worried about the discovery. Therefore, they decided to launch work in closed mode only for subscribers: they wrote to us the time when it was convenient for them to come to us, and we wrote them into the schedule and literally opened the door after everyone. They worked successfully – at the entrance, the line of those who wanted to get to us was lined up at the entrance. By the time of the official discovery, almost all the media had already written about us, and it worked – in April we began to end in stocks in the warehouse. At first we bought 1,600 pairs of shoes, and this was our largest jamb. As a result, the bestsellers, about 600 pairs were in a hurry. It is clear that delivery from Europe and Asia takes some time, but we took a chance and brought a summer collection in August, when everyone already has a 70 %discounts. And they did not lose. We have already purchased autumn and winter in a larger volume – 2,600 pairs.

The jump in the course

We managed to work the first season with a pleasant course – shoes from the summer collection on average cost 10 thousand rubles, which we wanted to navigate further. But such a strong change in the course – almost twice – we, of course, could not predict. We tried very hard not to raise prices, so now the summer collection costs 11 thousand rubles. This was made possible due to the fact that we worked with brands and refused some. The anchor brands, of course, remained, but, for example, the slopes of Chiara Ferragni are now in the region of 20 thousand rubles, and we understand that we have already gone beyond the limit. In the next season, this shoes will cost even more, so no matter how original it is, we will not order it anymore.

We already have experience and understanding that if you choose from two identical ideal pairs of boats, you can take those that are made not in Italy, but in Spain, as a result, with similar quality and style, the model will be cheaper. New brands appeared, for example, French Bronx – affordable shoes within 10 thousand rubles. But world brands also feel a crisis, and this affects their collections: if Senso used to have a choice of several hundred models, now – 50–100 models, of which we choose about 10 %. But, of course, the store should not suffer from this. Initially, when the Porta 9 brand was created, we focused on the audience of 18–25 years. But later we realized that at this age people usually do not earn so much to buy shoes for 10 thousand rubles. And at some point, our average age on discount cards has become about 35 years.

Own brand

All these factors prompted us to return to the original idea – to release our own shoes that will help us go to a wider audience.So the Portal brand appeared, which costs about 30 % cheaper than those brands that are presented in Porta 9. For the Portal brand, we ourselves are developing design, and we sew shoes in factories in China, Guangzhou. This is a kind of capital of shoe production, where all manufacturers of skin, accessories and pads gathered in a small area. For example, we know what factories Carlo Pazolini, CorsoMo, Mascotte, Chester are sewn in factories.

In Guangzhou there are entire shopping centers like the “European”, where only skin is sold in all parts. There are a pool of factories (I have known them since the time of work with Ecnika) that have been tested in our market: they work with the blocks adapted to the Russian foot. But not everyone does it. I was in shock when I found out that some Russian brands that have hundreds of stores simply buy Chinese shoes, sometimes changing only the color of the model.

We traveled 11 factories and realized that we cannot choose a single model that can be taken in their original form. Therefore, they began to work according to the scheme with five stages of approval. Now we have taken up the development of the 2017 collection: our designer and fashion designer left for China to choose the materials necessary for shoes. In parallel, we analyze what will be popular in the next season: we look at what is on the catwalk and well -known brands. After that, we usually send to the factories passports of models in which the design is drawn. According to it, the Chinese make the first models – “Cheburashki”, they are made of leather and even cardboard. We analyze this sample, make comments to the Passport of the model. After that, presentation samples are already coming to Moscow. The fashion designer checks them, evaluates from an aesthetic point of view, and then makes edits. It may, for example, ask for adding some kind of accessories, change the material, duplicate the colors of planned bestsellers. So out of 500 pieces of presentation models remains half. Control samples are made from them, into which final comments are made, and only after that is the dimensional grid is already made at the factory. In time, it takes about six months, delivery lasts another two months. Before the stage of the control sample there are always jambs that we remove in the process. For example, the Chinese are used to thinking that Cheburashka is a stage that just needs to be passed, so they do it somehow.

The stereotype “everything is poor -quality in China” is already coming to naught, as it seems to me: on the fingers of one hand you can calculate the number of brands that are not yet sewn in Asia. For example, in one of the factories with which we cooperate, shoes for Prada are made on a neighboring conveyor. In China, foreign fashionistas and designers have been working, who for decades have been teaching the Chinese to sew shoes correctly. As for the Chinese themselves, who work in production, their performance is not comparable to anyone. And over 20 years, they learned to do this also carefully and efficiently.

Of course, the older audience is ready for such a turn.For them, this stereotype is almost indestructible. Approximately the same thing happens with artificial leather: technology has gone so far that in many respects artificial leather is more attractive than natural, but some still consider it to be of poor quality. At the same time, they can always be used in a mix: shoes are made of genuine leather inside, and artificial leather outside. So you can significantly reduce the cost of a pair without sacrificing quality. We have already begun to develop this direction. We have sandals for 3,500 rubles (with an average price of 7,000 rubles per pair). Once upon a time, the world brand Aldo began to make such shoes. At first, they were very afraid to switch to artificial leather, so they began to make only 10% of shoes from it. The popularity grew, and now 90% of Aldo is artificial leather.

Plans

Now the priority is the development of the Portal brand and the opening of three single-brand stores by the end of April in Tsvetnoy, Aviapark and Atrium; we invest from 2 to 7 million rubles in the opening of each of them. We plan to open more by the end of the year. We will make the final decision on the number closer to May – let's look at the effect of the first three. True, we already see that the brand is in demand. In Tsvetnoy, we again first made an unofficial opening for subscribers (sold 30 pairs), and officially opened for all buyers on March 18.

In general, we have ten shopping centers in the long list, which we plan to visit. Further, most likely, we will develop a network in Russian cities with a population of over a million, including St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and others. Now Peter's concept stores are actively writing to us, which are similar in concept to our Porta 9. They all want to present our Portal brand at home. But we are not yet familiar with the wholesale market, so our margin is not enough for us and those who buy from us to earn. Therefore, if we agree to this cooperation, it will be a marketing step: we will sell to stores at cost in order to keep the same prices everywhere.

As for the crisis, it is difficult for us to analyze: we opened ourselves in turbulent times. If at the first stage everyone ran to buy equipment, then everyone stopped buying anything at all. Now it seems that people have understood: we live here and now, we have money, and it’s not worth waiting for us to be able to buy the same amount of dollars as before the crisis, we have to live and relax. And, most likely, the market has adapted, and people are used to the crisis.