Pink Woman’s online presence is extremely intensive: Dimosthenis Aravanis

The founder of Pink Woman, Mr. Chatzipavlidis, made his first steps in the fashion industry by opening the first store, in Kavala, a small town in northen Greece.His inspiration was Amancio Ortega, the founder of the Inditex Group, and for five years he studied carefully every single detail of the Zara Stores. “I wanted to do something similar, but not the same, in quality terms and putting the Greek perspective on things.” Dimosthenis Aravanis, General Manager of Pink Woman SA shares insights on the incredible journey with Utpala Ghosh.

When was the company founded? Please tell us about your entrepreneurial journey from the time of inception?
The company and the brand of Pink Woman were found in 2004. It started with two designers, a small production line and three retail stores. Soon the production line grew, leading to collaboration with assemble lines from foreign countries like Italy, Turkey, China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Morocco to name a few. In 2006, the development begins through franchising leading to an exponential growth to 84 stores.

Do you have an e-retail or online retail wing as well? Please share your experience and tell us where does the future of fashion retail lie – online or brick n mortar?
E-Commerce is itself an unstoppable product,unrestrained, on a permanent upward trend and bloom. Selling via Internet, attracting visitors and buyers through your shop, is now the new way of doing business. Commercial online presence therefore is necessary more than ever. And with a global audience of Internet users that reach 3 billion, e-Commerce and e-shop is the new reality and environment for successful trade today and in the future.Pink Woman’s online presence is extremely intensive, using all communication channels that are necessary to achieve it. The results of our consistent efforts, positioned us in the top five of clothing brand queries. Also, we achieve a remarkable increase of our sales each year, ranging from 200 %-500%.

What is the franchise model that you have adopted for your international expansion?
Until now, the franchising model we have applied is Master Franchising. In our long term development strategy, depending on the characteristics of every single country (size, competition and local habits) all three franchising models (Master franchise, Unit franchise, Multi-unit franchise) will be used, evaluating which model is more suitable for the target country.

Do you plan to enter India? If yes, please tell us how you plan to roll out your plans.
India is an extremely interesting and promising market for Pink Woman. More importantly we think the concept, style and strategy of the brand (forever teen) is “compatible” with Indian teens and Indian ladies who feel like teens. Right now we work closely with our strategy partners in India, defining strategy formulation and the mode of our entry.