The pandemic forced the fashion company JOELLE to go online. Success is there, the company has grown by 350% in 2021.
Designer Joelle Desaulniers and her partner Billy Lacasse founded their clothing design company in 2016. Everything is designed, thought out and designed by the entrepreneur and her team. It offers no less than 12 clothing collections a year, which builds customer loyalty. The fact of releasing a monthly collection brings people into a universe. This is not a new arrival. I [lui] offers a complete look, a full wardrobe for a month.explains the designer and entrepreneur.
Each year, JOELLE sees its clientele grow and experiences 100% growth. The associates open a physical store about a year before COVID disrupts the economy.
A necessary web shift
With the temporary closures, the owners had no choice but to turn to the Internet: There was like an unlocking at the level of online purchases. Then, we were already installed online, we were ready for this growth.»
The bet is successful, its turnover amounted to 10 million dollars in 2021
© / Radio-Canada
Joelle Desaulniers is co-owner and artistic director of JOELLE.
For Madeleine Goubeau, lecturer at the ESG UQAM fashion school, those who have been able to focus on their online strategy have weathered the pandemic better. But the challenge in this digital sea is to be discovered: Succeeding in getting people to come across your brand, that if we manage to do it online, the place where we are located, whether it’s in Trois-Rivières or in Paris in reality, it doesn’t make a big difference.»
From 60,000 mailings in 2021, the entrepreneur wants to increase to 100,000 this year.
Expansion projects
Starting in April, the entrepreneurs will move their head office and distribution center to rue Bellefeuille in Trois-Rivières. For Joelle Desaulniers: The goal is to centralize operations. So to have the distribution center and the head office together, to facilitate communications.»
Over the past year, the number of employees has grown from 13 to 30. A dozen more are expected to join the team in 2022.
With information from Julie Grenon