Mazen Kurdy of Stylemyle tells us how their tech-enabled platform lets independent multi-brand luxury boutiques and designers find a home for every item they curate.
First of all, how are you and your family doing?
Mazen Kurdy: We are all well. Thank you. Glad to see the world coming back to normal.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Stylemyle.
Mazen Kurdy: I have worked in startups in one form or another, and while living in Paris started meeting with multi-brand fashion boutique owners and realized that end-of-season luxury stock was a problem for them all. That’s where the idea for Stylemyle came about.
How does your company market its product/services online?
Mazen Kurdy: We have been lucky with very strong word of mouth. Once a shopper comes to our site, they are highly like to come back again. We offer a huge selection of luxury goods that you can’t find anywhere else because they are oftentimes already sold out. We also use a basket of digital tools to educate potential shoppers about what we do.
How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how did you get through it?
Mazen Kurdy: First, It takes a long time to build a business and even longer to turn it into a brand. The quote attributed to Bill Gates, “most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years,” rings true in our case. When Covid became a reality, we were initially fearful, like many startups; however, within a short period, we realized that shoppers were still buying and buying more. The difference was their purchasing habits changed. You can’t believe how many slides were selling during the first summer of the pandemic!
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Mazen Kurdy: We have a self-built, fully customizable software that allows us full flexibility to manage inventory, create relationships with shoppers and manage our online marketing. Along with Meta, Google and others, we are able to specifically target our customers and provide them with a massive selection of inventory.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Mazen Kurdy: We are pleased to see a lot of competition in our field. Sites like Net a porter, Ssense, and Farfetch are all in the same market. We know that it is healthy to have competition, and since we are in such a fragmented space, you can have many winners. The key for us is our offer. Imagine having the sales section of every fashion luxury boutique on one site. That is Stylemyle! Our innovation is also key and helps us to be competitive. We offer boutiques many tools through our admin panel, whether through marketing, shipping logistics, or customer service. We plan to continue focusing on our end-of-season luxury fashion curation and continue to speed up adding our inventory selection. We have a technology-enabled retail model, but we don’t have to rely on stock ownership. We operate on an inventory light model where our partners hold the inventory and are able to sell at a more sustainable price, better for them and the brands. Moreover, we are close to launching our latest fundraising campaign on www.republic.com to help scale our operations.
Your final thoughts?
Mazen Kurdy: I think the next several months may be challenging as we see uncertainty in markets which gives us an even stronger value proposition in regards to our boutique partners. Through discipline and a strong focus on the future, we are able to create a win-win for our boutique partners and shoppers all over the globe.
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