Prelude
When it comes to empowering indie fashion communities, none does it better than renowned e-commerce marketplace Sift & Pick. After all, the Singapore-based online marketplace has tons of experience purveying fashion apparel and accessories made by indie brands and designers around the world, including South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and even Hong Kong.
“There are always great brands waiting to be discovered all around the world. Our goal is to provide a stage for these brands to connect with shoppers.”
Yan Chan, Head of Strategy at Sift & Pick on the brand’s aspirations.
Established in 2018, Sift & Pick prides itself in delivering original goods that are of uncompromising quality. Fans of the marketplace can attest to that, often quoting its eclectic selection of overseas designer brands, such as South Korea’s Marhen.J or Japan’s Irodori, as appealing and fashionable. For the uninitiated, Marhen.J is only exclusively retailed at Sift & Pick on local shores.
One of the greatest assets behind Sift & Pick’s success is the team’s eye to trend spot. As conscious shoppers themselves, not only do they recognise changes in consumer trends and preferences, they also find joy in discovering underrated gems and recognising the passion behind aspiring or budding designers.
In the lead-up before National Day, Yan Chan speaks exclusively with hoolah on how Sift & Pick retains its appeal in recent times as well as the team’s thoughts on empowering indie fashion brands and designers.
“We realised that shoppers have become increasingly well-travelled and are exposed to an even larger variety of designs and trends. Many of whom are increasingly less contented with the big labels and cookie-cutter brands that everyone is carrying.”
Yan Chan, Head of Strategy at Sift & Pick on the brand’s outlook of modern-day shoppers.
Sift & Pick is known for spotlighting indie brands and designers. What’s so special about them?
There are plenty of mid-tier designers who may be selling outside of their home countries, but many of them are still very much small-time designers chasing big dreams. Several of them operate out of their own bedrooms, with some starting their brands fresh out of university with little money. If anything that is impressive, it’s their passion for wanting to hone their craft. They are often inspired by the little things in life. For example, Oyasumi Scents is a candle brand that started because they wanted to make beautiful nighttime scents for happy dreams.
What does fashion mean to Sift & Pick?
Aside from our amazing local fashionistas, Singapore isn’t known to be a style hub. We’re confident in our selection process because we are shoppers ourselves, so our process is really like, “From one shopper from another, here’s what we recommend.”
“For us, it is about trendspotting. We take it upon ourselves to sift through the multitudes of overseas fashion trends and pick the ones that resonate with our local crowd.”
Yan Chan, Head of Strategy at Sift & Pick on the brand’s fashion mantra.
How does Sift & Pick market its business, and which tactics have been most successful?
We push the most online, as with many e-commerce platforms. Online shopping has become a huge part of our lives, especially with the current situation. But how are we to cut through all the clutter of established businesses and new start-ups online?
As an e-commerce platform, our marketing and merchandising teams spend time and effort to comb through our giant list of products to match them with a specific theme. Take the currently trending Cottagecore aesthetic for example – from there, we look for products that exude similar vibes: they can be flowery bags that are boho-chic, or lifestyle products inspired by nature and greenery.
“We believe that it’s important to curate our products online. That way, we provide a more elaborate and interesting shopping experience that isn’t just scrolling.”
Yan Chan, Head of Strategy at Sift & Pick on the how the brand curates the customer shopping experience.
Did hoolah help resolve any painpoints along Sift & Pick’s journey?
Most of our products are lovingly made by hand and are of high quality. Naturally, the price tags that come along with them are on the higher side. hoolah’s interest-free installment plan plays a huge part in helping our shoppers split the costs. This makes purchasing something that is pricier but made with lots of love and care, more worth it.
“We are seeing a 10% increase in average basket value as compared to other payment modes. Furthermore, we also saw a 60% compound annual growth in hoolah orders on our site as well.”
Yan Chan, Head of Strategy at Sift & Pick on the how hoolah has improved their sales.
Today, what are some notable achievements Sift & Pick has received?
Since we started as a small start-up in 2018 we have seen a huge growth in interest for indie brands, and our 11.11 campaign last year (2020) saw our biggest sales boost! We’ve also grown so much more in terms of the number of brands. From 20 at the beginning, now we have around 450!
This growth through sales and capabilities has also helped us in getting more exclusive collaboration. For example, we just launched a Sift & Pick-only bag, with South Korean brand MARHEN.J! We have more planned down the line, and are so excited to share more in due time.
“Beyond Singapore and Malaysia, we would love to expand within the Southeast Asia community. Why? We want to grow and become an overseas platform for all our own homegrown brands!”
Yan Chan, Head of Strategy at Sift & Pick on the brand’s next steps.
All images courtesy of Sift & Pick.
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