Park & Province during the New York SS 14 buy
No longer are young business men and women being held back by old-school practices. The days of storefronts and magazine ads are being replaced by online shops and social media accounts.
Chris Naidu not only realized that but capitalized on it with his online clothing store Park & Province, proving the new way of doing things is here to stay. The Toronto-based company, while only a few years old, is making its mark. Providing an online destination for some of the most highly-regarded men’s fashion brands has been no small task though. Talking with Naidu, it quickly became apparent that the passion behind his brand was not the only reason for his success.
What was your inspiration for starting Park & Province?
Park & Province was created out of a passion for clothing, design, and necessity.
What went into the process of making your own image or identity for Park & Province?
The process was daunting at first, but we realized that the key isn’t to over think the business. In creating our identity, we started to realize that if we just held onto the core values that we believe in and expressed them from different perspectives than what others had done, we could carve out our own spot in the market. It’s important to have unique brands and an image, but in the end people are attracted to what they believe and trust in. This is something we take an emphasis on creating.
What goes into deciding which product you will carry?
A lot of it is personal preference and a mix of letting the market decide what to get. Most of the buying happens in New York, Vegas or Berlin during the industry trade shows. We call it Market Week. Sometimes, if we know what we want, appointments are made with the showrooms directly, otherwise trade shows help us find new things that may have otherwise gone under the radar. Specific to our store, our style is somewhat grown-up casual; we focus on everyday pieces that are high quality and not over-designed.
Why did you choose for your company to be solely an online destination?
There are a couple reasons why we’re only online. As a young company, the first and easiest reason is because it costs less to launch, but more importantly, if you do your work right, it opens you up to a larger audience somewhat quicker. This doesn’t mean online is easy, however if you’re young, as in not a millionaire, and want to create something you can do it right away.
Do you see more clothing companies making the shift away from physical stores?
I don’t see brick-and-mortar stores 100 per cent switching, however I do see them adopting an online presence. Most who don’t will be very disadvantaged in the future and will likely be left behind.
Were there any inherit risks that came with the online territory?
I wouldn’t say there are major risks with being online, just that if you don’t do your due diligence and understand your audience to market accordingly, you will likely fail. There is lots of competition and when you’re online everyday is a learning process.
The Park & Province Instagram Page
A lot of businesses seem to put a heavy emphasis on a strong social media presence. How important is this to the marketing and growth of Park & Province? Should it be an essential tool for most businesses?
A social media presence is extremely important. At the moment, it’s the most efficient, cost-effective and important aspect of marketing for most small businesses, including our own. A lot of it falls on what I mentioned earlier about trust and image. Consumers pay more attention than ever before and if you don’t consistently provide quality content, they will simply move to another company that does. For Park & Province, that means creating a complete lifestyle as opposed to just shoving promotions down our customer’s throats. We embody the things we are passionate about, and those who are interested in the same things tend to follow us. It’s things like this that lead to sales these days, not just tacky promotions.
Where do you see Park & Province in the future?
The goal for Park & Province is to simply grow into a good e-commerce company with an even better overall image and fan base behind it. We want anyone involved to believe in what we are doing and follow us as we develop. As the e-commerce world grows, so will we.
Lesley Salazar Ayquipa
Good article! It’s definitely important for businesses and other organizations to have a social media presence. As well, their online sites are very important and where their core values display.