The first fashion retailer to run a trial of be Retail Social is clothing retailer Get Cutie. Established in 1998, Get Cutie is an independent boutique retailer that sells vintage-inspired handmade garments from their studio on the south coast, in Brighton, United Kingdom. Like most retailers the pandemic forced Get Cutie to think strategically about its online offering.
Izzy England, owner of Get Cutie said, “As we have been around since the late 1990s our brand has developed through the online clothing revolution after initially establishing ourselves as a standalone bricks and mortar store. We have now been selling successfully online for many years, but our USP lies in our clothes being handmade to order, and offering garments in non-standard sizing has been difficult to get across online. We have never really found the best way to show the breadth of our offering as we have so many shapes, sizes and fabrics that the combinations for customers can choose from runs in to the thousands. We knew it would be a game-changer if we could merchandise more styles and fabrics on different models to be more representative of the many garments our lovely individual and unique customers can choose from! With this in mind we jumped at the chance to be Retail Social! We are a small team and we don’t have an IT department so it had to be a simple trial, I was nervous about the amount of technical support we would need for this to be a success, but we received it in abundance”.
“We knew it would be a game-changer if we could merchandise more styles and fabrics on different models to be more representative of the many garments our lovely individual and unique customers can choose from! ”
Izzy England, owner, Get Cutie
It was agreed that the first trial would focus on Get Cutie’s best-selling dress, The Belle, replacing the existing photos with the new beDynamic assets. “We love our photos, but they don’t really get across our extensive range.” Says Izzy. “We hand make each dress in Brighton but we need to display the variety of styles and fabrics in a more effective way. This was a key challenge we needed to overcome.”
As Izzy says, “As this was all new, we went through a number of options and then settled on women in UK8, UK14 and UK20 sizes, so as to be representative across our customer base. 5’5” is an average height and we decided on 3 different skin tones. The results are amazing. be Retail Social led us through the process and nothing was too much effort for them and it all felt very easy for us.
We could have the models in many different poses, and with so much choice it took a while, but eventually we went with a mover and zoom, so quite straight forward movement to start with. As Simon Iddon comments, “We have a gallery of different motions and movements, or you can use your own. There are so many options for turns, moves, zooms, formal poses, sporty movements, rotations and so on, etc. After we understood the brand we then quickly agreed camera angles, lighting, shadow, backdrop, etc. to fit in exactly with Get Cutie’s look. There were some great learnings to help refine our processes too – making it efficient and repeatable.”
To replace the previously used photos, be Retail Social added moving and changing content through 6 different models, in 3 different skin tones, in 3 different dress sizes and 6 different fabrics. The moving images are much more engaging, and customers can quickly see that Get Cutie offers a dress to exactly suit them, no matter what your size and shape.
“be Retail Social added moving and changing content through 6 different models, in 3 different skin tones, in 3 different dress sizes and 6 different fabrics. The moving images are much more engaging, and customers can quickly see that Get Cutie offers a dress to exactly suit them, no matter your size and shape”
Izzy England, owner, Get Cutie
The beDynamic trial is just going live and, in the meantime, Get Cutie has been busy moving premises and battling the highs and lows of the pandemic’s effect on the economy and the new tough economic environment that the cost-of-living crisis has created. But, even with these hurdles, Get Cutie has been bullish in the agreement that it has put in place with be Retail Social, with very clear services, options, and commercial terms. In addition, Get Cutie will get more data from using the platform than they have had before and will use this going forward to refine and inform all aspects of their offering.
“There will always be a place for our models and we love them, yet it’s not practical to shoot multiple dresses, on multiple models, in multiple sizes.” Said Izzy, “There is a cost to that course. But now, using beDynamic, we can have almost anything on any person in any fabric. It’s amazing. Even the seamstress team, who were involved in QA testing love it as it gets to show off more of their work.
“The team love it too as it helps us show off more of their great work which we hand make in our studio! “
Ruby Hermon, Design Director, Get Cutie
Summarizing the trial experience, be Retail Social founder, Simon Iddon says “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster working with Izzy’s team at Get Cutie. We certainly could have started with an easier trial for the MVP but we would not have learnt half as much. Get Cutie’s tailored and made to measure approach allowed us to demonstrate how we could directly address their needs beyond what they had previously imagined. Also, from Izzy’s side she has taken a really brave move – during an unparalleled period of business upheaval – to see where the future for her business had to go and to partner with an untried platform because she believed in the vision. The first trial has involved beDynamic, but we will be adding beInteractive next where customers can swipe through different dresses and fabrics on moving models and see them change instantly, all within their control. We cannot thank Izzy enough for her unending enthusiasm and belief and we are both looking forward to analyzing the next set of data and insights .”
About Get Cutie
Get Cutie is a boutique brand that focuses on made to order garments. We use earth-friendly fabrics, creating responsibly, and offering handmade to order. All off-cuts from fabrics we make in smaller accessories and sell as scrap bags, to ensure we are zero waste wherever possible. We want you to love your Get Cutie garments forever and use local seamstresses to ensure the quality is perfect. Everything is produced in a limited edition run so we can keep things small and be free to experiment with new prints and ideas.