Uniting Offline Roots & Digital Growth ft. Clio Goldbrenner

Léonie: 0:00

So Clio Goldbrenner literally went door to door with her handbags to try to place them in multi-brand stores. So she really started from nothing and made it all herself. The way she made her little niche was to really be distributed in multi-brand stores. Our distributors are partners. That's how we see them. Every time we have a marketing action, every time we do something new, they are implicated. So the idea is to do it with them. They know what people need, they know what people like and they know specifically for themselves what will be working and so on. I do have a lot of my clients on the line. We do talk about the bags. They gave me feedback that I kind of find always interesting. We now produce annually approximately around 20,000 bags, so we've designed over 300 different models, or at least we came out with those. Our product asks us to be present in store. We have to be in store because it's about how it feels. It's leather, it's natural, it's about texture, it's about the product, It's about how it goes with what you're wearing. So you kind of have to feel it to see it. But a lot of our clients still use both the website and the stores to kind of see it and wear it. The one point that was really interesting with Odoo was indeed that all the parts of the business were aggregated in the same place. Everyone was doing their own thing together but differently. And so now everything is connected. So I think Odoo brought us connection. Mostly we had to adapt some changes, but there were easily made to really tailor our own Odoo experience to our specific needs for fashion. A project can be implemented really fast on Odoo, so if we tomorrow decide to integrate a new marketplace, it will take some strategizing to make sure that we covered everything. But in a few hours or in two days, we can make sure that we are live and ready to sell.

Richard: 2:04

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Planet Odoo. My name is Richard and I will be the host of today's episode all about Clio Goldbrenner. For those of you who do not know, Clio Goldbrenner is a Belgian based retail distributor of high end leather bags and accessories. And with us today we have Lenny, who is responsible for customer care and after sales services and Jerome, who is head of Finance and Operations, who will both help us learn more about Clio Goldbrenner and their digitalization journey. How are you today? Thank you for joining. Hello.

Léonie: 2:35

Doing fine. I'm happy to be here.

Richard: 2:37

Great. Me as well. Hopefully the journey wasn't too hard with all the rain today. Classic Belgium. I guess let's start off at the beginning. Explain to our listeners who is and what is Clio Goldbrenner.

Léonie: 2:50

So Clio Goldbrenner is a Belgian brand to start off with. That was founded in 2011 by Clio herself. And so the aim was to create a affordable luxury leather handbags and accessories for an active woman. So the idea is to support them in a more practical way, but also allow them to express themselves with what we call timeless pieces and kind of express their personalities through a really colorful light and positive designs. So that's kind of the aim for the brand.

Richard: 3:29

Okay. And I remember reading that she essentially went door to door to sell these.

Léonie: 3:34

Oh, yeah. She started her brand on her own. So that's really the active woman that we're kind of basing ourselves on. She literally went door to door with her handbags to try to place them in multi-brand stores. So she really started from nothing and made it all herself and we grew from there.

Richard: 3:55

And how long ago did this start?

Léonie: 3:57

2011. So it's been 12 years now.

Richard: 4:01

Oh, okay. So a lot, I imagine, has changed since then.

Léonie: 4:03

Oh, yes, a lot.

Richard: 4:05

And so where are you now? How is the business growing? How did the story go from her being on her own and to hiring her first employee, that big landmark?

Léonie: 4:14

Well, our colleague Carolyn is the first employee. She's still here. And they started working mostly the two of them. And then it grew from there. We always worked in smaller teams, so as of now, we are eight and so it grew from there and everyone does everything or has been doing everything in the in the brand. Okay. So the first employee started doing marketing, but also customer care. And then from then on they built from there. So growing to different challenges, like going online, digitizing the brand and going a bit more international and so kind of depending. Provides we need.

Richard: 5:01

Right. So it started door to door, I'm assuming directly to consumers. And then. Or is that directly to the boutiques?

Léonie: 5:07

More boutiques. Because the big difference with Clio to maybe other brands or what really made her the way she made her little niche was to really be distributed in multi-brand stores. Okay. So mostly stores with their own styles, with brands that are kind of similar to ours, right? And so the idea was to really offer the full look and so to see also how the bags can be worn in combination with other items. Yeah.

Jérôme: 5:37

During, during 4 or 5 years. And then we, we moved to our own stores. Well, we open a store in Antwerp. In 2016. But then we opened also an e-commerce store, an online store in 2018. And you know we plan to go a bit further with the opening of the the marketplaces, online marketplaces. But also we are looking to be distributed in outside the border, in fact.

Richard: 6:13

Okay. So you mainly worked with the boutiques who then distribute your products and then you opened up later a store just for direct to consumer, but also an e-commerce platform for more of the same. Is that correct?

Léonie: 6:26

Yes, that's exactly it. And so we have new challenges with maybe new boutiques coming up. And indeed, the marketplaces are now really going to be really important for us, especially if we want to go a bit more international.

Richard: 6:40

I imagine. So you have a partner network you need to manage and maintain. You have direct to clients, you need to nurture as well, and then you want to expand. And so this was all starting out originally in Belgium, right? And so when did you expand outside or.

Léonie: 6:54

We've tried in the past. We have a few stores where we were distributed mainly in France, but in the past years it's been dying down a bit. Okay. So our next big challenge is to go back on these markets, be it France, Germany. We still have a few stores in the Netherlands as well. But if your publics are really, really different.

Jérôme: 7:20

Right, We are really recognized in Belgium. But the brands, well, it's already a challenge for us to work on the design of our products, making sure we can reach the consumers outside of the borders. And so, it's already a challenge.

Léonie: 7:40

We are really lucky to have a community here, which is like really the basis of Clio. We try to stay relevant for that community, but we do realize that other publics have other needs. So we are working on this at the moment to make sure that we can be maybe relevant for different publics, right?

Richard: 8:00

The relationship with the different boutiques is super critical to your growth and important for your business. And how do you nurture that in a strong and effective way?

Léonie: 8:09

We have an amazing salesperson, so that does help and we try to stay in contact with them regularly. So she is on the road almost every day. She goes to check in with them to see a bit how the sales are going. Great, how we can help because our distributors are partners. That's how we see them. And so in order to nurture and help, we do. It's interesting for all of us that indeed the sales are going well and that we can support them. So we do have resellers, normal ones. And since we used to not have a boutique of our own or we only have one in Antwerp at the moment, we also do have corners. So those are boutiques that really have a clear corner that are best representatives and who distribute most of our of our of our handbags. And every time we have a marketing action, every time we do something new, they are implicated. So the idea is to do it with them, right?

Jérôme: 9:16

Yeah. We consider these corners as internal partners, making sure they can provide the full universe of of the brands to the to the customer and through their boutique in fact.

Richard: 9:29

Okay. So it sounds like there's been a lot of growth over the last years. And to kind of really put that into perspective because it can be quite hard to imagine from 2011 until now, Can you kind of give us a few examples of like numbers of your growth in terms of like maybe sales percentage of growth year over year? What does that look like?

Léonie: 9:48

Um, so to give you an idea, we now produce annually approximately. So we work per season, but annually around 20,000 bags. Okay. So when it started with Clio with a few bags in in her car, it's quite, quite, quite different. Yes. Um, so we've designed over 300 different models, or at least we came out with those. So all our models are usually sold in different kind of leathers, kind of colours and so on. Clio made her iconic model, which is also her eponymous model. It's called the Clio. That model comes back every season and I think it's been produced in over 60 different leathers as of now. So yeah, it comes back every season and it's still it's still the bag that we sell, if not the most, at least one of the, the biggest sellers.

Richard: 10:44

Everyone wants the Clio.

Léonie: 10:45

Everyone wants a Clio. Thank God.

Richard: 10:48

So let's go move back more on to I guess, Clio and how the business operates. So can you describe more about your, your flows like the manufacturing where they produced and yeah, how does that work?

Léonie: 10:59

So in the life of a bag? Yes. So it starts with a design phase. Of course, we always kind of analysing what worked in the previous season, what the trends will be and of course what the designer wants to go for, but also what models we're keeping or updating or tweaking. So we first come up with kind of the first designs, the first drafts, the first ideas, kind of confronting them with what we actually need in terms of a product range, um, kind of going back and forth and then producing samples. So we have been historically working with mostly one atelier, but then now we are up to two, Okay? One of them is in China. Great. So it's a working relationship. Clio went herself to the ateliers regularly. We're still visiting those ateliers and so we're it's a working relationship. So they produce a for samples. We have quite a bit of feedback back and forth. Once we have those first samples, we do test them as well to see how practical they are kind of going around for feedback, to see how usable they are also as well.

Richard: 12:23

So walking around, shopping with the bag, seeing how they work. Yeah, that sounds like fun.

Léonie: 12:26

That's amazing. That's really the best part. I see why you're there. So we're kind of testing them, pulling them apart to see, like, how they're reacting and so on. Once we have a definitive collection to present, we organise a showroom. So as we've always been based in B2B first, even though the sales numbers are changing and so on, still the basis and the DNA of the brand as we don't have many B2C direct contacts or B2B are our best assets when it comes to the showroom because they have the best feedback, the direct customer care information and so on. I do have a lot of my clients on the line. We do talk about the bags. They gave me feedback that I kind of find always interesting to have every department at Clio know about so that we make sure that we're implementing and kind of evolving in the best way. Very personal they have. That's, that's the whole point. That's what we're really going for. But the B2B is the best contact because they know their clientele, they know what people need, they know what people like and they know specifically for themselves what will be working. Because a certain range that works in the south of Belgium won't specifically work in the north. Certain cities will have more of a liking for that colour, for that kind of model, for that kind of use of a bag. So that's also feedback we're taking in. So we do tweak a little bit our collections sometimes after that showroom, every B2B contact places are pre-order. So according to that and to provision to our own kind of we're seeing what we need for our own platforms, for our own store, for for marketplaces, for or for e-shop. And there we place our order.

Richard: 14:26

Okay.

Jérôme: 14:27

Then the factory will source locally the leathers and all the components of the product.

Richard: 14:32

And where are these factories located?

Jérôme: 14:34

In Asia.

Richard: 14:34

Okay, so they source locally in Asia and they produce there, then ship here. Is that correct? Yeah.

Jérôme: 14:40

If you have decided to to produce your bags in Asia, we also have decided to source all the components locally in Asia in order to avoid a lot of traffic around the world, let's say. Right.

Léonie: 14:54

Hey, at least limit it.

Jérôme: 14:56

So after that it takes 1 to 2 months to produce all the bags. Okay. And then as soon as it's finished, it's shipped by boat, mainly by sea. And it takes again one month. Well, it depends because. Right. During the COVID, yes, it takes a much more time. Um, and then we receive the goods in in Belgium in our warehouse and we start to ship to, to our customers. B2b first. Right. Or store in store. And then the the B2C as soon as they order. That makes sense.

Richard: 15:33

So there's quite a bit of a lead time. So that means how do you how often do you plan orders to come in? Are you planning six months in advance? Yeah, it's.

Jérôme: 15:42

It's, it's almost six months. Yeah. From the time we start developing the product to the time we receive the goods.

Léonie: 15:50

After COVID, that lead time indeed increased because with shipping it, it increased quite, quite a bit and we changed the way we do deliver goods. So we work with seasons. So we have two showrooms, two seasons per year, and we're working now with drops. So 111 season will be delivered in 2 or 4 drops. So in order to make sure that we do have new bags kind of the whole season. Right. And also to make sure that we can deliver as much on time as possible.

Richard: 16:24

So scheduling is super important. Forecasting is super important.

Léonie: 16:27

Yeah. We have increased that lead time voluntarily to kind of calculate in everything that can happen.

Richard: 16:35

No, it makes sense. And so then do you keep anything on hand? Like do you have your own warehouse here that you store or is it all goes straight to the boutiques?

Léonie: 16:44

We have one big stock that is managed by a partner who specializes in fashion. So they also have quite a lot of other fashion brands that they're working with. Right. And so we ship out our pre-orders from the boobs and the rest we're keeping at our warehouse. Okay. So we're delivering our own boutique as well, of course, and we kind of factor in pre-orders for the boobs so that they indeed have their first order, but they can reorder almost as much as they want, as much as we have, of course. Right. And then the rest is the stock that is available for our own B2C or own marketplaces and so on.

Richard: 17:29

And that's where it's also being pulled from from the e-commerce perspective. Right? So your partner holds on to it. And then when an order comes in, the partner ships it. Exactly. Okay. That's great. Going on to the e-commerce side of things. And how is that business growing? So is it growing at a pace that you expected to see or is it going well? What challenges are you facing there?

Léonie: 17:47

Um, I think it's going well at the moment, so that's pretty nice. Uh, I think also as much as COVID didn't help for delivery times and so on, it did help us grow our e-commerce, if I'm not wrong. We saw that it was working and we decided to put a lot of our energy in there because it's a great way to complement our other channels of distribution. Uh, it's been growing steadily. We do see this year that it's a bit tougher for everyone given the current situation, of course. So growing a little less.

Jérôme: 18:31

Yeah. And it's not a fast growing situation because we continue personally, uh, as Clio Goldbrenner, we continue to see an opportunity to continue to collaborate with the B2B. We can say we stopped the B2B, we focus only on the B2C and the e-commerce, but for us it's not the, the what we we expect. We, we, we see a lot of opportunities to continue to collaborate with those B2B partners. So it's why probably the the growth of the the B2C, it's not so high. It's not.

Léonie: 19:09

Extremely high. It's growing organically. But like not it's not a crazy boom. I think, first of all, historically, the brand focused on having partners, having boobs, having real life distribution, right? But also I think the nature of our product kind of asks us to be present in store. We have to be in store because people like to put it on. Yeah, it's a pricey product. Yeah. Uh, to start off with. So not everyone buys five kilo bags a season, that's for sure. And. And it's leather. It's natural. It's about texture. It's about the product. It's about how it goes with what you're wearing. It's about how it feels, right? It's a natural element. So you kind of have to feel it to see it. And so we are trying to implement ways to make our online presence as helpful to that. But a lot of our clients still use both the website and the stores to kind of see it and wear it, right, and so on.

Richard: 20:16

And so that's kind of your main current challenge at the moment. How to mix in store with the online e-commerce? Yeah.

Léonie: 20:22

How to give the whole experience, but online, right. And so we're working on that.

Richard: 20:27

And what's your plan to kind of set yourself apart from competition in any way, whether it's this particular issue or other topics? Is it just the in-person, the personal feel like the feedback.

Léonie: 20:37

For us as we're at the moment, but let's see how it goes if we do manage to go international? Of course, for now we are really a small brand and we're focusing on the direct contact. On my personal experience as not all of our distribution channels are our own. We cannot easily mix the online, the offline, the availability in every distribution point in Belgium. But we're trying to focus on really the personal experience, which makes sense.

Richard: 21:10

And so then to kind of go into how complex all of this sounds, what kind of tools are in place to make this simple for you? I mean, your team is only, what, eight people right now? So how do you manage all of this? What tools are in place? What's what's helping you out doing this?

Jérôme: 21:24

Well, it starts with Excel Classic. Yeah. Then we moved to to a first software, um, which is a win box win books. Okay. Um, with the logistic part also implemented a but then we start with the B2C, so we need a more specific tool. For the logistic and commercial parts. So we have implemented Viscosoft, which is a fashion software from Belgium and the Netherlands. Okay. And it starts again to be more complicated when we talk about Shopify for the e-commerce, but also the the the the marketplace is is zalando and so on. So from that, we have decided to see if we can find another software able to respond to our objectives, to our projects and we move to Odoo in fact. So now with Ooredoo, we are able to implement everything easily and connect all the the, the other softwares like Shopify and so on directly to to the RPA. And now everyone is connected to Odoo and it seems to be really easy for, for the entire team. Yeah.

Léonie: 22:42

The one point that was really interesting with it was indeed that all the parts of the business were aggregated in the same place, right? But also that it's really easy to use compared to other programs we have been using, right? So everyone kind of can pick it up and can make their own experience of it. So we had to adapt some changes, but there were easily made to really tailor our own experience to our specific needs for fashion, Right, For accessories. Yeah.

Jérôme: 23:15

And before we were only to Lenny and me connected in in the software. Okay. Then we moved to Odoo and we obliged in fact everyone in the company to be in. And it's it's helped us.

Léonie: 23:29

It's amazing how much time we're gaining.

Speaker4: 23:32

That is good because everyone.

Léonie: 23:33

Has access.

Speaker4: 23:34

To everything.

Jérôme: 23:34

Right? The prediction put actually the purchase order and the system. We can see already what we will receive in the warehouse. The marketing can communicate with the customer. We can we can see from all sides what we have communicated. Lieneke can give some feedback from to the customers. I can see what Lenny told to the to them when when dealing with the accounting part.

Léonie: 24:01

So we're gaining a lot on mostly meetings.

Speaker4: 24:05

Pointless meetings are.

Léonie: 24:07

Kind of well we still have some as always, but at least we kind of gain a lot of time on.

Speaker4: 24:14

Communication.

Léonie: 24:15

Internally.

Jérôme: 24:16

And before we we never had a software on a partner which was able to provide us with some solutions, easy to implement, to reach the targets. So for instance, with the previous software, we were trying to, to connect the marketplaces to the software, they were not willing to. And now with Odoo, it takes a few hours from the partner to to to connect the platform. So straight to the.

Léonie: 24:46

Point a project can be implemented really fast on Odoo. So if we tomorrow decide to integrate a new marketplace, it will take some strategizing to make sure that we covered everything. But in a few hours or in two days, we can make sure that we are alive and ready to sell.

Richard: 25:02

Right. So then, is everything in the business been now implemented in Odoo? So it's digitized everything?

Speaker4: 25:09

Yeah, we're.

Léonie: 25:10

We're still discovering some.

Speaker4: 25:12

Apps, to be.

Léonie: 25:13

Honest, that we're integrating so many of them. So we're discovering them one after the other. We started first. I think the first focus was we started with customer care, I think. So that was the first the helpdesk was the first thing we implemented. We really started with that one. Then we implemented sales and so it kind of grew organically from there with what we needed. And I think to the biggest pleasure of Jerome, we integrated finance quite, quite well.

Richard: 25:47

A complicated.

Léonie: 25:48

Bit, Yeah, it's a really complicated bit because we used to need 2 or 3 different softwares before and so now everything is.

Speaker4: 25:54

Connected.

Richard: 25:55

And what was the strategy or approach to kind of digitize your business into one solution? I imagine it wasn't necessarily that easy or was it easy?

Speaker4: 26:04

No, it wasn't easy as everything that is changing.

Léonie: 26:07

That is new or every new tool you have to get used to, right? It took.

Speaker4: 26:12

Some time.

Léonie: 26:13

It took it took some getting used to. It was long, but it wasn't complicated. So that was pretty nice.

Jérôme: 26:21

Yeah, but I, I don't think we, we have to speak about digitalization of the, the business. Maybe the most important thing for us was to be really connected together in one software and also what, what odoo provides us with the discipline because every everyone was doing their things from their sides and. We were not aware about. And yeah, with the implementation of or do we gains in terms of disciplines and.

Léonie: 26:52

Discipline, teamwork and kind of getting everyone together because if you're eight, nine, ten people you don't imagine but everyone was.

Speaker4: 27:01

Doing their own thing.

Léonie: 27:02

Together but differently. And so now everything is connected. So I think Odoo brought us connection mostly.

Jérôme: 27:08

And know we are able to anticipate also, right?

Richard: 27:12

So Odoo builds connections or strengthens connections. Never thought of it that way.

Speaker4: 27:16

That's so beautiful.

Richard: 27:19

I mean, we are here because of it as well, so it's working offline. So then to go further down that path, what has been the most complex aspect about integrating Odoo into your day to day work? I mean, you said you mentioned finance, right? But is that the most complex workflow or business process that you had to integrate?

Speaker4: 27:35

To me, finance always looks like the most complicated part. That's true for everybody, I'm sure. Sure, I think so too.

Léonie: 27:42

No, for us it was more on the human side, I think, because we kind of all had to, as Jerome was saying, get the discipline right and get everyone connected and make people use the tools we have.

Jérôme: 27:55

Yeah, Change management was really was really a challenge the adoption of the the app.

Speaker4: 28:01

But I think we're there.

Léonie: 28:03

I think everyone is kind of seeing the possibilities and starting to really use the tool and see what the possibilities for the future are, how we can connect things, how we can use every tool at our disposal. So I think it showed growth.

Speaker4: 28:19

On everyone's part.

Richard: 28:20

Yeah. Okay, great. And does that also mean you're using Odoo for inventory management for the partner location? Yeah, indeed.

Jérôme: 28:27

Yeah. It's it's an external partner, but we have the chance today that they work directly in our environment. So and actually, you know, do so it's really interesting. Uh, we gave them.

Richard: 28:40

You gave them direct access to the database and everything.

Jérôme: 28:42

To have access and they can manage the logistics directly from the warehouse.

Richard: 28:48

Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah.

Léonie: 28:49

To tweak a few things to make sure that it's usable for them. But they're working directly in it, which is really useful for us because everyone knows everything, right? And so we can follow up, we can help and we can really work together even though really close physically, Right?

Richard: 29:06

So then how does the future look for both like a Clio and like your business operations and growth? How is everything going to grow in tandem with each other? How are you going to expand your business? Maybe go more into kind of the service side of things? What's the, what's the vision?

Léonie: 29:23

Um, so yeah, the tools we have at our disposal kind of help us today already to give the best tailored support. Like I'm speaking from a customer care point of view, of course this is.

Speaker4: 29:36

Important as.

Léonie: 29:37

It's, as it is mine, but it kind of helps us to really follow up with the clients, have all the information at our disposal from every.

Speaker4: 29:45

From every one of.

Léonie: 29:46

Our touch points so we can tailor their experience, right? We can make sure that we are relevant. Belgium is a specific, uh, specific market with a lot of languages already there, but since we're kind of going for internationalization, right, if possible, as of now, we do quite helped us quite a bit to really have a lot of translation possibilities, right? So it kind of helps us to be relevant in the right language with the right information at every point. So that's kind of how I think from my side it will help.

Richard: 30:21

So I guess, I mean, what is the next step for you? I mean, so you're focusing more on the website e-commerce, and you want to, of course, I imagine, slowly expand internationally, which means ramping up production, potentially, maybe finding new partners. Right? Increasing your presence more. Still keep that personal touch with your contacts, your customers. I guess we can also take it from another perspective. Industry challenges that you have to face as a business generally in the world of fashion and retail. So which direction is that going in? What challenges are you facing and what's helping you overcome those?

Léonie: 30:55

Even though we are indeed having international markets at the back of our minds, right? What is really important or what has been really important for Clio and what for us makes the difference is the community we already have.

Speaker4: 31:11

And.

Léonie: 31:11

We're kind of hoping to build on that and to of course stay relevant, but then hopefully grow it. So always with the personal touch if possible as of now, like we do it in Belgium, but everyone can drop by our offices. We will always answer the phone. We will always have like that personal connection with them. So we're hoping that we can make this a big a bit bigger and offer a lot more services. To this community to keep it and to possibly grow it, right? So this is what we are doing at the moment because we do need to make a difference, because even though when it started, it was kind of a niche for Clio. I mean the affordable luxury Leatherwear as of now, the market is full. So we do have a lot of other brands doing kind of the same things. A lot of other brands that didn't start specifically with leather handbags. So you have big brands and my saying Zadig and Voltaire, am I saying Bash maybe, who also do their own their own handbags? You can find them everywhere. So we do need to be different and we need to stay relevant in that sector.

Richard: 32:30

And how do you plan on being different, I guess, before we go over for.

Léonie: 32:33

Now, we're focusing on services, so it's kind of service and experience that is our main focus at the moment.

Richard: 32:40

Yeah, very clear. The community.

Jérôme: 32:43

It's really, really important not going too much, uh, commercial, um, but really take care of the community.

Richard: 32:51

How about from an operational perspective, what challenges do you see in the future and how does something like Odoo help you face them?

Jérôme: 32:56

Well, we talk about earlier we are producing in Asia, right? Even if it's a tiny factory, a family business, a long term collaboration, a partner who provides really high quality products, We have to probably think about relocalization of the the production maybe in Europe. So we are already thinking about that, not for the entire volume, but to start with a percentage of the production. It will probably help us also with the lead time.

Léonie: 33:27

One of the challenges we are facing is to actually do better in term.

Speaker4: 33:33

Of ecological.

Jérôme: 33:35

Traceability.

Léonie: 33:36

Of.

Speaker4: 33:37

Traceability.

Léonie: 33:38

And so on. So Odoo is helping us to kind of have an overview on everything.

Speaker4: 33:43

We're having, see how we can.

Léonie: 33:45

Improve. So we are kind.

Speaker4: 33:48

Of working on materials, on packaging, on shipping. For now we.

Léonie: 33:54

Are shipping quite a lot because indeed we're an e-commerce brand in order to make sure that people can experience our product. At the moment we are shipping free and.

Speaker4: 34:06

Returns are free.

Léonie: 34:07

Uh, in the future we would like to make sure that we are also on human level, maybe that deliveries are paid, uh, like the work from the people who are delivering. We pay them of course, right? But we want to make sure that maybe in the future we can make sure that everyone is paid a fair wage. And even though that means having deliveries be paid from a future date or at least have a participation to make sure that on a human level and on a more to make sure that everyone is a bit more responsible with shipping, uh, we kind of want to work on that and we.

Speaker4: 34:45

Kind of.

Léonie: 34:45

Want to work. We're starting to work on packaging to make sure that we're kind of using a little less plastic. We're kind of yeah.

Jérôme: 34:54

So yeah, it's making things better for everybody.

Léonie: 34:58

In fact, those are challenges that are more internal, less external, maybe less profitable, sure. But that are really important to us at the moment. Of course, we have been envisioning, but for now we haven't found the right solution. But to also go with different materials than leather, right? But at the moment we haven't found the right because it's a big thing at the moment to go for a leather that is not coming from animals. So more cruelty free, challenging, challenging because there are a lot of options at the moment, but a lot of them contain plastic. So we kind of want to make sure that our product stays relevant for our public as well, because if we go for different materials, prices of the bags will increase a bit more naturally. And maybe for public, it's not the first priority. At least we do not want to offer fake solutions to avoid greenwashing for sure. Yes. But so we're trying to step by step be better.

Richard: 36:06

And these are part of your steps to kind of work towards a more circular fashion economy.

Speaker4: 36:11

Right? Indeed, if we can.

Léonie: 36:12

So we've started we haven't found the right partner yet either. Resell function hasn't had a lot of participants yet, so we're kind of working on it. But we do see that people who own Clio's actually love them as part of my job. I do have a lot of repairs coming.

Speaker4: 36:33

In great, and I still.

Léonie: 36:35

Have. I think last week I received a bag that was almost 11 years old. Wow. From the collection. So it just needed to.

Speaker4: 36:43

Improve, I think.

Léonie: 36:45

A little decoration that just fell off. But after 11 years of use, that's pretty pretty okay. Yeah. And people still love them and still want to keep them and maintain them. So another one of our challenges is to make sure.

Speaker4: 36:59

That our.

Léonie: 37:00

Bags have a long life. And if possible, if you go on vinted, if you go on Facebook marketplaces, you will find a lot of Clios because they do get a second life and that's something we do really love about it, right? So at the moment we are trying to see how we can make sure our bags have a longer life. As of the Modélisation stage of the whole creation of the concept of the bag and of the production.

Speaker4: 37:31

So kind of trying.

Léonie: 37:33

To increase the whole life of.

Speaker4: 37:36

The bag.

Richard: 37:36

Right? And are you like providing like care instructions to everybody on how to do that?

Léonie: 37:41

Yes, we provide them at the moment where we are trying to find the best partners to get the best care products and to explain best how to take care of the leather. It's a tricky material. Yes, because it's used to be alive.

Speaker4: 37:59

Um, so it's basically skin. So it kind of needs to be.

Léonie: 38:03

Taken care of. It needs to get regular care and there are things that will impact it on a day to day basis.

Speaker4: 38:13

So too much sun.

Léonie: 38:16

Exposure can affect the color. Yeah, too much water can not be the best. So we're kind of trying to see how to best explain how to take care of your.

Speaker4: 38:27

Bag because we love.

Léonie: 38:29

Them and I hope the people who use them will.

Speaker4: 38:32

Give them the best.

Richard: 38:33

Life. Definitely hope so. It kind of works with that. The vision that you have. And are you finding it? Are you tracking the repairs or how are you managing that at the moment? The repairs, the kind of any touch points you.

Speaker4: 38:45

Need at the moment.

Léonie: 38:47

The helpdesk is really helpful. So we're using that app at the moment to follow up the repairs.

Speaker4: 38:53

Okay.

Léonie: 38:54

We do work with Natalia that's not too far from the office in Brussels.

Speaker4: 38:58

Great.

Léonie: 38:59

That has been working with the brand for five years now.

Speaker4: 39:03

They know our models almost better than we do, I think, by now. And so we're trying.

Léonie: 39:08

To take the feedback because when we see a lot of repairs on a certain detail of a bag, on a certain hook, on a certain model or simply with usability, you do see some damages as well that maybe we did not foresee. And so that is a feedback we take weekly, we take it up with production so that we make sure that some of the issues don't come back if we have issues, or simply how we can make models better for for future production. So we're trying to really learn from it and improve.

Richard: 39:44

That makes sense. Great. I guess to kind of finish off this episode, are there any other last thoughts, comments, future projects that you're working on or any advice to anyone who's looking to implement Odoo in their complicated business?

Speaker4: 39:55

Um, to implement or do.

Léonie: 39:58

Have a great partner because it's a great tool. You can do a lot with it, but then you need a partner who can help you implement it the best and really make it your own, which we were lucky with. Yeah. So that kind of helped.

Speaker4: 40:13

As usable as it is, take some time because.

Léonie: 40:17

It takes a bit of time to get used to it, to implement.

Speaker4: 40:20

Everything and mostly be curious because we've.

Léonie: 40:26

Been with Odoo for over a year now. The whole business, I mean not just small.

Speaker4: 40:32

Parts and we're still discovering possibilities.

Léonie: 40:35

So be curious.

Speaker4: 40:37

And.

Léonie: 40:38

Always see towards the future and improvement because there are a lot of possibilities.

Speaker4: 40:42

And it's worth it.

Jérôme: 40:43

Yeah. Yeah. For me, Odoo is about to provide everything, so an advice I can give is probably do not change odoo change your process and it will help you to achieve this implementation. Uh, really easier than if you start to change the software. Oh yes. And we are working with with a partner who has this vision and I already shared a lot with some people who did not achieve the project for that reason. In fact, they tried to, to change the software, to develop on the software, and it did not work. So for us, it's it's really important to first try to align your processes with odoo before you you, you start changing the the system.

Richard: 41:29

Yeah. Okay. And I guess we can find clear bags everywhere in Belgium soon. Hopefully.

Speaker4: 41:34

Yes, everywhere in Belgium, that's for sure. Maybe the rest of the world very soon. Great.

Richard: 41:39

Looking forward to seeing him out there. Thank you so much for joining us today. Appreciate it.

Speaker4: 41:42

Thanks for having us.

Richard: 41:44

You have a great day. Thank you. Thank you again, everyone, for joining us for today's episode of Planet Odoo. If you enjoyed today's podcast and would like to learn more, please find and follow us on your favorite podcast platform. And always remember, stay awesome.