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Stylist in Pocket CEO pivots, makes business relevant under the ‘now normal’

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Contributed By Rizal Raoul Reyes

According to a Change and Business Management Consultant friend, he does not want to call the situation we are in now as what others commonly call the ‘new normal’, as this sounds fatalistic. Rather he calls it a transition or the more positive name ‘now normal’.

For many business owners, the disruption brought by the pandemic has caught them flatfooted which perhaps is not only true in the Philippines but across the world. And for Stylist in Pocket founder and CEO, Sheree Gotuaco, the transition of her company towards the new normal has evolved from just offering “good to have” products to “must-have” products and  services by solving deeper pain points of our clients.”

“As a company, we have the willingness to find ways to give what our clients need, and this means having a very open mindset from the top to the bottom,” Gotuaco told to THEPHILBIZNEWS in an Email interview.
“Needless to say, the choice is so simple — pivot or perish,” the CEO of Stylist in Pocket revealed.

For example, their stylists followed the new setup when they shifted from selling and curating fashionable merchandise to PPE safety items. Moreover, the Stylist in Pocket warehouse and fulfillment teams did not complain when they were required to go out to secretly procure fabrics amidst the lockdown because Divisoria was closed.

Gotuaco said the company’s learning curve was pretty fast because they had no choice. If Stylist in Pocket did not move fast enough,  the company would not be able to make the deadlines that their clients wanted nor would be able to serve them the PPE items they needed. Apart from that, we have to be resourceful and streetsmart to make it happen despite many numerous lockdown obstacles. We will continuously adjust and move, and our transition right now is just part of our journey. We will continue to evolve to what is relevant to our clients.

To ensure it follows the current standards, she said their PPE hazmat has been tested by the hospitals via autoclaving and other tests they have for frontliners.

According to Gotuaco, there are different fabrics available. There are fabrics that are fully water-resistant (like umbrella or raincoat) but many frontliners don’t like them because it’s not breathable and they sweat a lot that leads to dehydration. “So we use a fluid repellant fabric (instead of fluid-resistant) that has some ventilation,” she said.

Our Uniform Management Technology patent is a technology patent based on the process and its not a product patent,” she explained.

Getting a patent is not easy. To be able to be granted a patent anywhere in the world, she said the idea should not be existing anywhere. “We engaged with the World Intellectual Property Office and the Philippine Intellectual Property Office to check that the patent is unique.

For the most part, only their stylists and sales teams had to adapt and learn to sell new products that they have never sold before.

As for the merchandising team, she compared producing the hazmats are just like producing new styles, so there was not as much adjustment in that area. As for the other departments like accounting, warehouse, tech, and marketing, there were no major changes since their new work was just like handling new styles.

Gotuaco said the challenge was to coordinate everything remotely. Stylist in Pocket had to use a lot of Viber chats, videos, phone calls, emails, and technology in order to make everything happen at a fast speed during the lockdown.

The CEO of Stylist in Pocket revealed that their company will continue to evolve and will use more and more technology in solving their clients’ problems. “One game-changer solution that we have been developing for our B to B market since last year is our Uniform Management Technology,” Gotuaco said.

“It is a contactless way to gather measurement data from employees and to be able to recommend best-fit uniforms to them. It is perfect for the non-contact safety precaution needed right now. We have already been granted a Philippine patent for this proprietary technology right before the pandemic started, and we currently have a US patent-pending,” Gotuaco added.

To serve their B to C market, it built their PPE site in three weeks to be able to give them access to a wide variety of PPE products with detailed product specifications and an educated team of concierge stylists who can give good advice. “So far, our PPE website is the most complete PPE essentials site that I have seen nationwide with the items available right away. Many safety items from the big e-commerce sites will still come from China, and it’s hard to get good to advise nor have a good after-sales service.”

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