Why my business is going online —Emmy Collins
London-trained, Nigerian designer turned blogger, Emmy Collins, is a fashion designer who has carved a niche for himself within and outside the country with his fashion brand. In this chat with Esther Onyegbula he talks about, how it all started, why he decided to take his craft to the next level with the e-commerce platform, his new online store and other sundry issues.
How did fashion begin for you?
Emmy Collins is a designer label that originated from Umuahia in Abia State several years ago while I was a student at Federal Government College. I was in form one then. I would go to Ariaria market in Aba to purchase fabrics. So fashion designing was a talent I discovered in Nigeria but the European environment helped me nurture it and take it to a different level. It gave me the opportunity to take courses to work with good people in the industry. I had mentors like David Jones who believed in me from the beginning and has been very supportive of my career.
Why did you decide to open an online shop after closing your outlet in Ikoyi?
I used to have a showroom at Awolowo road in 2007/2008, but I had to shut down the showroom due to staff challenges. Some members of staff didn’t share the same idea that I have. Apparently, I was spending millions every year to keep the shop afloat but the staff I had were not in tune with the vision.
How would the e-commerce platform impact on your brand?
Luckily enough, Nigeria has evolved into a new direction. That is where the e-commerce comes in. The e-commerce is a department that actually affords me the opportunity to get my clothes and my collections out to my client in Nigeria without actually owning an outfit or having a residence in Nigeria. As you know, I am an international designer; I have visions, aspirations and dreams. And my dreams and aspirations go way beyond Nigeria. With regards to the e-commerce or online store, it has been on for a while, but we just republished it to allow people based in Nigeria to shop from it and we deliver to all locations in Nigeria. Very soon we are going to be linked to the GTB market hub as well. Our online store is called emmy collins shop.com.
How would you guarantee the same quality associated with the brand?
The idea of our online store is actually made to fit with the same standard our brand is known for. It has the same standard that I was trained to live up to and that is the standard I will uphold and that is the standard that I preach everyday and pray that every single designer will operate within that standard.
That is the standard that is respected all over the world. The Italians, the Americans respect that standard. Having an online store that caters for Nigerians affords me the opportunity to sell in Nigeria. When I had that showroom along Awolowo road, I was limited to people living in Lagos. But with the online store, there is no limitation to client. It has given me wings to fly as high as I want to.
Fortunately for us, clients from the Nigerian market would have to order, make payment to the bank and we deliver the product once we receive the bank alert. At the moment, the bank system is the only option available. But we deliver to any location free.
We have two lines; we have the Emmy Collins London which is the one that is sold on our online store. The second one is the EC by Emmy a more affordable brand.
How did it feel the first time you sold your collections to Italians considering the fact that they are awesome designers?
The first time I sold to an Italian store, I remember writing on my facebook handle that I just sold snow to the Eskimos because basically, everybody knows that the Italians are great designers. And the fact that my brand was a British label didn’t matter as the Italians were excited to buy from me.
People all over the world respect British quality, which is what I am offering Nigeria. In every collection, our style, the cut, the workmanship that you find online be rest assured that it is the same brand quality.
I just hope that with this online service we are able to satisfy the needs of our existing and prospective clients, because I don’t believe that there is need for the discerning Nigeria man or woman to have to travel to London or America because they couldn’t be sure they were buying the same brand quality from Nigeria.
Why are people skeptical about brand quality from Nigeria?
Basically a lot of people are afraid of shopping locally because you can buy a Gucci bag at the original price unknown to you that it was made from China. So a lot of people are very skeptical to shop locally. The problem is that you can go to any fashion outlet that stock high end product located anywhere in Nigeria to buy a product, how are you sure that what you are buying is the same quality? But our online stores in Nigeria would have the exact quality we have in London.
It is like buying directly from an Emmy Collins store in London.
How do you see the e-commerce platform in Nigeria?
E-commerce is the way forward now. If you are following the advent of the online stores in Nigeria like the Jumia and Konga, you will notice that they don’t retail high-end, but being a designer I understand that fashion is not about how much. You can still get your good clothes from anywhere, the point that I am trying to make is the progression of online stores in Nigeria over the years.
And this would tell you that the future is now online business.
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