Fresh from launching the Steve Nash Collection line of suits, Vancouver-based online custom suit maker Indochino has embarked on another marketing technique aimed at boosting sales: opening a pop-up retail location at 1139 Georgia Street November 16 through 19.
This is the first temporary store in the four-year-old company’s history. It will be open between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and customers can make appointments for fittings.
“We intend to have pop-up locations in other cities,” Indochino’s 26-year-old CEO, Kyle Vucko, told Business in Vancouver October 31. “We want to see how things go in Vancouver.”
Vucko believes that the pop-up location helps the company recruit new customers who are uncomfortable measuring themselves and who want to touch fabric swatches before they buy a suit.
The company sends potential customers fabric swatches for a fee that is refundable if the customer buys a suit. But many potential customers remain wary of buying a suit online.
Much of the company’s roughly $10 million in annual sales comes from repeat business. Nash, for example, has been a customer for years, Vucko said.
Nash got involved with Indochino partly because one of its biggest investors is Jeff Mallett. Nash and Mallett co-own the Vancouver Whitecaps along with Stephen Luczo and Greg Kerfoot.
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom