Reaping the sweet fruits of success

The past few years have seen an explosion in online purchasing and neither the fashion industry nor Thailand has been left behind. Today, various international fast-fashion retailers are breaking with the established tradition of bringing out just two collections a year and instead offering the latest trends at just one click of the mouse.
Created three years ago, online brand PomeloFashion.com has grown rapidly thanks to the increasing Internet penetration and constant engagement with social media. And fashion-conscious Bangkok has been chosen as the hub for the South Korean street-chic style start-up by David Jou, 31, the site’s co-founder and chief executive.
He recently introduced the Pomelo Autumn 2016 collection with actress and fashion idol Araya “Chompoo” A. Hargate as the face of the campaign. His marketing ploy paid off handsomely, with the number of shoppers now logging on to his website passing the million mark.

David Jou
“Today close to 70 per cent of people spend time daily on their mobile phones, playing games, browsing the Internet and using the social media. In countries like South Korea and Japan, they are very advanced in e-commerce and up to 30-35 per cent of retail spending is online. In Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia, that figure is much lower, only 1 or 2 per cent. But it is growing fast and there has been a lot of interest in investment in e-commerce,” says the Korean-American, who co-founded Lazada Thailand, the leading online shopping site in Thailand, together with Casey Liang and his Thai partner Win Thanapisitikul.
In October, Pomelo Fashion announced the results of its new funding round, which brought its total Series A funding to US$11 million (almost Bt400 million). This follow-on round was led by Jungle Ventures, with participation from existing investors.  New investors were also brought into the fold with Andre Hoffmann, 500 Tuk Tuks, and Jonathan Price all participating in the round.  Pomelo Fashion will use the funds to continue its expansion in Southeast Asia. The company currently is focused on Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia but has customers in more than 44 countries across the globe.
“As the business grows, we are quite surprised with the results,” Jour says. “We are getting very good feedback from customers. It is exceeded expectations but obviously we still have a long way to go.
“There are many companies that give us inspiration from the US, South Korea, Japan, China but I think we are a fashion brand first, e-commerce just happens to be our main channel. So we look to brands like Zara, Uniqlo and H&M and how they innovate with their products. The Internet is our store and our business model is a fashion brand. We spend a lot of time on our supply chain, manufacturing and designs. Online is where we connect with our customers,” he says..
Jou credits much of Pomelo’s success to the large gap in online fashion. “People are looking for fun and new brands that can bring quality, trendy fashion to them fast. We bring out some 400 new styles each month. My focus is on what our customers want. We have a lot of data on their preferences, what type of trend they are following, and what type of social media they are looking at and we are updating this all the time,” he says.
“Online marketing is great because you can bring the story to consumers and change and update it everyday on Facebook, Instragram and other channels. But what goes on offline is equally important in building brand visibility. At present we have close to a million followers on different channels.
The digital-savvy entrepreneur is currently targeting fashion lovers in the 15-50 age demographic. At its warehouse and studio on Rama IV Road, PomeloFashion.com offers styles embodying chic-cool glamour. Pieces are feminine yet modern.
“Our in-house design team is constantly looking at trends from South Korea and catwalks all over the globe. We are a little different in that we focus on the latest trends rather than a specific style so that customers can mix and match and express their own personality through our clothes. We tend to go for the natural but sophisticated look with outfits that are feminine but not girly. Essentially we are offering a modern interpretation of fashion and especially K-fashion. That model is working too and we are evolving into a more international brand every year.”
Another feature of Pomelo Fashion that pleases is the surprisingly low price. Brand director Meg Mistry’s favourite look, for instance, cost less than Bt1,200. And delivery is reliable, free of charge and takes between one and three days depending on location.
The brand’s data on fitting and sizing collected through research are a major plus for buyers. “We spend a lot of time on fit. Every style that we sell goes though three to five fittings to make sure that the fit is right. We have also localised the fit so that we have very clear sizing fitted to the average customer. What I like about online marketing is that we can constantly improve the fit and style by using the feedback we receive from our customers in real time. All that information goes straight to our development team to allow us to create a better product,” Jou explains.
He also encourages young people who have the desire to build something to seize the business opportunity.
“I personally divide work into three phases: build, manage, and do. It’s important to love what you do and set goals for yourself as you move forward towards achieving your dream. It might be a business, a start-up, or a professional career but the key is the same – to have a very clear goal and when you face roadblocks or problems, either go through them or go round them but always keep going forward. To me it doesn’t matter whether you are young or old, you have to understand what you want to do, manage or build. Determine the area you want to be an expert in. You have to try it. If you don’t try you won’t achieve anything. And anything difficult that comes up along the way is a chance to learn.” ​