Neil Westerby of MK Prom sat down with marketing expert David Ciobanu from Hanco Global Solutions recently, to get an update on how the new 2023 prom season is shaping up.
David: So you’re back in the saddle I see!
Neil : Yes David, raring to go, I had a nice holiday whilst the shop was being refurbished so its full steam ahead. We have done some big improvements to the shop including a brand new dressing room, new lighting and we are expecting the big new sign to be up by the end of the month.
David : So obviously its downtime for you, what have you been up to since the holidays. ?
Neil: There is never a down time for us, after returning from holidays, we are busy planning the new prom season. My most important part of the year is making sure we are going to sell the right dresses, to date we have been finalising the styles of dresses that are going to carry on in to the next season and the ones that are not, in a couple of cases there have been some dresses that have been discontinued and I have asked for a re run of some sizes because I know they will work well in my shop, its then about visiting all of my suppliers to see their new dresses and going to a number of shows to see the new styles of dresses.
It’s a good time to sit in the background and just look at what other stockists are buying, going to other suppliers stands to see what variations there are, but in the whole all of these stands have similar styles. We have picked up 15 to 20 new dress styles for this season, and are discontinuing a similar number.
Keep it a secret, but this is where you find the bargains at my shop. Some of the suppliers are selling discontinued dresses for a fraction of the price and I have brought quite a few of them and sell them cheaper, the same is for dresses that I a discontinue, we will have them cheaper, so the savvy buyer will be in early to take advantage of this.
David: increasingly you see girls buying online, does this affect your trade ?
Neil: Of course it does, but the thing with buying from us is that we have a prom register and no one from the same school will have the same dress, Plus look at it another way, you try a dress on, you know what you are getting, you also have the added benefit from our expert opinions, last season we fitted over 400 girls, we also include the alterations in the prices of the dress, so realistically the end price is probably not too far off what you would pay for a decent dress online. Last year also we delivered 100% of our dresses to our girls with fantastic reviews.
David: When will we be able to see the new dresses in the shop:
Neil: Actually we already have had some of the dresses in and by mid October we should have the full collection, you can also see our new dresses at the wedding shows in both the Milton Keynes shopping centre and Doubletree in October and November.
David: Thank you so much Neil, I think we know understand a bit more about what MK Prom is up to!