Paranoia Board Store
Store – Paranoia
Location – Switzerland
Website – http://www.paranoia.ch/
What particular product has been the best seller? What’s working and what isn’t?
Streetwear Jackets and Accessories have been our biggest growing product categories, especially backpacks.
Outerwear has been the most difficult, more then 20% less turnover in this category.
What percentage of your sales are from online business compared to your brick-and-mortar sales?
We don’t do any online business!
What are five products you couldn’t live without right now?
Vans Authentic Shoes
RVLT Streetwear Jackets
LibTech Snowboards
Cheap Monday Denim
Did your store’s sales increase or decrease over last year? To what do you attribute your gain or loss in sales? What will you do to either maintain your growth or to reverse the decline?
We were able to slightly increase the turnover. Considering the fact, that we prebooked a lot less than years before, we can be quite happy with last years business. We did focus a lot more on streetwear and accessories, which turned out to be a good move…We still want to carry a wide enough hardware segment in both Skate and Snowboarding, but at the moment it seems to be key to be on point with what you carry in your store. We are shifting more and more into brands from outside of Skate-/Snowboarding.
If you could go back five years what would you do differently?
Maybe adapt earlier to the decrease in Outerwear sales. We had a lot of overstock from two and three years ago, simply because we believed the year after would be good again.
The decision to shrink down our Outerwear Segment has definetely paid off…
What are the benefits of having a physical shop over simply having an online store?
People simply want to try on clothing they buy, you will never be able to check out the fit of a denim or a tshirt online. Of course, there is certain product categories that are easy to buy online, but for most stuff we carry, it’s very much appreciated by the customer, that he can come to the store and have a look at everything and touch the product, before he buys.
What trends do you see upcoming?
Snowboarding will be stronger again for independent retailers, because big stores will loose interest, since it’s not the big trend anymore. In Streetwear, people buy less and less by the brand names, it’s all about piece you buy, not the label inside. That makes it more difficult as a buyer, but on the other hand also a lot more interesting.
What are you doing to pull people into your store?
I think the best marketing is the choice of product you carry. Try to seperate your store everyone else next to you is doing.
Please tell us of any upcoming initiatives your shop has planned?
We are working on a new website…
How do you stay in touch with the wants and needs of your customers?
We try to listen to what people ask for in the store and we don’t have. We also try to as helpful as possible in customer service, if there is anything we don’t have; we always try to order it for the customer.
How confident are you for the coming summer?
So far spring has been alright; let’s hope it keeps on going like this.
What kind of advice can you give other independent retailers who are trying to compete against the big box megastores?
Stay true to yourself, and try to always be one step ahead of what the big guys are doing.
