Outfittery: "We want to free men from shopping!"

INTERVIEW_ After Berlin-based personal shopping service for men Outfittery made headlines only a few weeks ago with an 18-million-dollar funding round, FashionUnited wanted to know more about the young, ambitious company’s future plans. Co-founder Julia Bösch who launched Outfittery together

with Anna Alex in 2012 and takes care of the company’s marketing and finances, kindly agreed to answer a few questions.

FashionUnited

: After the much publicized investment of 18 million US dollars by Highland Capital Partners three weeks ago, what do your plans look like? How will you invest the money?
Julia Bösch: We want to develop our service further and expand into additional countries. We grew steadily over the last year and pushed our ideas further and further. We are planning more activities soon that should certainly hold a few surprises for our customers again.

FashionUnited: Expansion plans are on the horizon – after The Netherlands and Europe, will Outfittery reach even further?
Julia Bösch: At the moment, we are focused on Europe. After Switzerland and Austria, we are planning to take The Netherlands by storm and make sure even more well-dressed men can be seen on the streets!

FashionUnited:

In the span of only one year, you have increased your customer base from 20,000 to a whopping 100,000 people. What makes Outfittery so appealing and how does the company stay ahead of the competition?
Julia Bösch: We place special emphasis on personal service. Each costumer gets his own style export who chooses his outfits personally. It is exactly this kind of service that customers appreciate. We make shopping easier and offer additional value through the consultation - a dual advantage that is well received by our customers.

FashionUnited: What would your ideal customer be like?
Julia Bösch: Our customers want to bid stressful shopping goodbye; the personal consultation and service is important for them and they are open to new shopping models. We don’t want to send any of our customers through a crystal ball and make new persons out of them but get to know their preferences and work with them to surprise them with a piece or two.

FashionUnited: How do you select the brands whose articles are on offer?
Julia Bösch: Wolfgang Schmidt-Ulm is our very renowned lead buyer and we have a fantastic team on board that focuses on the needs of our customers when choosing brands but also promotes young brands. This enables us to create a good mix of well-known brands and fresh ideas.

FashionUnited: Outfittery started with casual clothing and then added suits and other professional wear. What’s more in demand?
Julia Bösch: That’s quite balanced as our customers generally do not only want one or the other but need outfits that they can combine for work and pleasure. Many customers receive more than one box from us so that a suit as well as casual clothes may end up in their boxes.

FashionUnited: What can your customers expect next, are you planning to expand your range? And is Outfittery supposed to remain exclusively for men or can women get a style makeover in the future as well?
Julia Bösch: Right now, we are focused on the menswear market because we still have so many new ideas and have been getting so much encouragement and interest that we want to stick to our area of expertise for now: to free men from shopping.

Photos: Outfittery