“Today, the biggest trend is simplicity,” Margarita Suprunova, the co-founder of the online women’s clothing store Maritel
Source: instagram.com
Margarita Suprunova is the co-founder of the online women’s clothing store Maritel. The company was founded in 2015 and relied on sales on Instagram and other social networks. The company’s products are worn by more than 150 thousand people around the world. About 2.5 thousand units of products are manufactured per week.
A month ago, Kirill Suprunov, the husband and business partner of Margarita, spoke on the air of the Big Fish Youtube channel. Today she talked about how their joint project began, why they decided to sell part of the business, and how easy it was to do business with her husband.
ABOUT STARTING A BUSINESS
A friend introduced us to Kirill when I worked in the criminal office. I didn’t have any sewing skills. After 5 years, I started to figure it out a bit. Then I watched the program Paragraph, where they talked about trends. One of them was linen, sconces. At first, it made profit of 400–500 UAH per week. And the first serious money, 10 thousand dollars, I earned at the age of 26 – selling silk T-shirts.
ABOUT FASHION TRENDS
After the coronavirus, the fashion world has changed. Everyone has become committed to convenience, comfort and freedom. The biggest trend today is simplicity. I think a luxury segment like Dior, Chanel will never die, but even these brands have changed. Our main competitors in Ukraine – Gepur, One by One, Lipinskaya Brand are those I follow.
ABOUT INSTAGRAM PAGE
We have two SMM managers who run the pages, and I control the process. Our main direction is social networks. Rozetka and Kasta do not produce results at all, Lamoda brings 1-2 orders per week.
We have not figured out yet why it does not work, and we do not know whether we will develop these areas. I live on Instagram, in content. I used to be painful for any negative comments. Now it’s not like that: you will not please everyone.
ABOUT PARTNERSHIP WITH HUSBAND
We are partners in words. I consider Kirill an equal co-owner. At first we did not agree on anything, we were just hungry and wanted to survive. Now we have a registered trade mark, where we are the owners of 50 to 50. We are also going to document the company.
I wouldn’t work with any other person. Because I’m a suspicious dog and I love hyper control. We went through a lot with Kirill, and I know that I can rely on him in any situation.
While we were discussing the sale, we sank to the lowest level – to curses about share and money. Both bathed in this mud. It’s good that we stopped. Kirill gradually explained why he needed to sell his share.
After that, there was a desire to sign a shareholder agreement. We do not know how to separate: we work 24/7. And I would look at people who can do it differently. The only thing is that we switch when with children.
ABOUT MARITEL BRAND RND DEPARTMENT
I’m not a designer, but my job is to work with him – I approve the models. Although one day I put on weight and came up with a hoodie suit that became a sales leader. I don’t have a physical place to work – I’m always on my phone or tablet. I also look at the models there. I don’t follow fashion designers and fashion houses, I don’t have my own style. For me, inspiration is money.
ABOUT BLACK FRIDAY SALES
Usually we receive in November about 1 million hryvnia more than in the previous month. We remove leftovers, clean the warehouse. 5 managers always work on shift, about 70% of the dialogues are correspondence with existing clients. If there is a complete blockage, we record a video where we ask people to clearly and in one message write information about the order and respect the work of managers.
ABOUT MARITEL PERFUME
They appeared a year ago – on the fifth anniversary of the company. The goal was to expand the line and make a profit, because perfumery has a very large margin. The prime cost of the sample for 50 UAH – 15 UAH. We purchase containers and bottle perfume separately. Now they are almost not for sale. But customers are good at taking samples. We also put them on orders as gifts.
ABOUT YOUTUBE AND TIKTOK-CHANNEL OF THE BRAND
Our YouTube is on hiatus until spring. It is expected to increase traffic and improve its image. TikTok began to run, they took contractors from Kyiv. It is an unrealistically complex process. Until we abandoned it too. It is difficult to do something without seeing the result. Although we do not expect sales from TikTok, but an increase in awareness.
ABOUT PLANS FOR 1 BILLION TURNOVER
We have two modern workshops – 1018 and 530 square meters. We do not plan to open more workshops yet. But we want to create a network of offline stores: in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Vinnytsia. Opening one point costs 50-70 thousand dollars.
We can do it with the money received from the sale of the share. The company was valued at $ 2 million, we plan to sell 10-15%. We will take half of the money and reinvest half of the money.
This decision was very difficult for us, because I feel a mental connection with our company. But we want to achieve a turnover of 1 billion, and the sale of a share will allow us to grow and develop faster.