Future-Forward, Customers, and Technologies: Retykle's Startup Success

Startups - A budding entrepreneur's dream, but is it all sparkles and rainbow? While many aims to own a company, and might we say, start a unicorn, only 10% to 20% of startups succeed in the long-run, with only 55% passing the 5 years mark. Lack of funding, poor management and strategy planning, poor market research, the possibilities of failing is endless. Is there a secret behind the success of startups, and if so, can it be easily replicated?

As the Founder and CEO of Retykle, Sarah Garner comes with 21 impressive years in the fashion, retail industry, with experiences spanning from being a buyer at Holt Renfrew to Director, Merchandising & Product Development at Shanghai Tang. In this exclusive interview with eTail Asia, find out exactly how did Retykle go from zero to Asia's largest online consignment store for all things baby and maternity, the importance of being customer-focused, and how they've embraces technology to be ready for a dynamic, retail future.

What does “success” mean to Retykle and what’s the greatest risk to a startup?

The scale of our impact and innovation alongside our business growth signals our success. We endeavour to make circularity synonymous with consumption and our mission is to continually innovate for the simplest and shortest path to making circular consumption commonplace. There are risks that are known and those that are unknown. The greatest risks are those that a start up is ill equipped to navigate or weather. Those risks can be different for all. Tooling up for navigating the known and unknown risks are a muscle that is imperative for founders to build.

We do our best to anticipate risk by staying close to our customer, informed about our industry, distilling macro trends as potential for impact and adapting in advance where possible. I’m a big believer in measured and considered risk and I believe that as a founder, you can mitigate a tremendous amount of failures by staying curious, researching and leaning into network to learn from others. One early example was that I had imagined the whole customer/seller experience of Retykle with all the bells and whistles and after many conversations with other founders and interviewing many developers, was pointed to develop an MVP with Shopify and existing off the shelf software to facilitate our V1 of a marketplace vs building a custom solution with Magento out of the box. The latter would been a major investment and required a huge amount of developer support to maintain.

This first and important step in my venture was assisted by having targeted conversations with those who had charted the path before me. I try to pay it forward in the same way to budding entrepreneurs so that they can reach their goals faster and with less missteps.

How can local startups scale up even as global markets cool down?

Focus on creative solutions for organic growth and maximising margin to lower the reliance on capital raising and showcase a resilient and sustainable business model. When markets improve, the start ups who have demonstrated prudence and growth will stand to succeed on a large scale as markets improve.

In our case, we look for where our customer is and then try to insert an organic acquisition mechanism which is purposeful and impactful. As an example, we are working with schools on a circular uniform program which solves a real pain point for schools and also delivers an acquisition channel with a mega phone to our target customer. Get creative and lower your reliance on paid channels.

Unlike established businesses, startups face unique challenges and opportunities, can you tell us more about this? 

Start ups are navigating new solutions to existing problems and those new solutions bring unknown challenges as well as the obstacles of building those solutions with stretched resources. The opportunities that are unique to start ups are that they are not encased in existing large structures which can often hinder innovation or growth and start ups are generally unencumbered to be nimble and move quickly to pose solutions. Capital and exposure are challenges that startups need to cultivate versus established companies.

As a playground of uncertainty, how much of customer feedback does Retykle prioritize in its operations?

Customer feedback has been an imperative ingredient to the foundation and building of Retykle. We engage with our customers regularly in focus groups, feedback surveys and other channels to understand their needs, wants and behaviours. We regularly incorporate the feedback we receive into our planning, pipeline and strategy. We engage with the feedback received so that the customer feels like they are building alongside us and laying the bricks together as we go. When we receive feedback on a survey or in a focus group, we ensure that we reply addressing the point with an action or follow up.

Allowing the customer to be heard and feel like a builder has been integral to building engagement. There is nothing worse than taking the time to share specific feedback and feeling like it hasn’t been received or worse, has fallen on deaf ears. We keep our ears open and are continually iterating to improve our customer experience.

How can startups reshape retail by embracing technology, personalisation, and immersive experiences, setting the stage for a dynamic future?

I think companies have to deliver experiences and solutions to customers which feel intuitive, effortless and beneficial. We are working directly with brands to create a fluid journey between buying first-hand and being able to sell that purchase later in a click - benefiting brands, customers and propelling circularity further. I will share more about this solution at eTail Asia.

There is enormous potential for improved retail experience through technology which can power ease of discovery, easy of fit, demand planning, ease of circularity and so much more. I think we should be pointing more start ups to consider solutions which will enable our transition to a circular economy as it’s not only urgent, the transition will soon be regulated.

You are presenting in a leadership panel at this year’s eTail Asia event. Can you share what the audience can expect to hear from you and what excites you about this event?

Panel: How startups & scaleups are bringing on a new dawn of innovation and learnings for the future of commerce. Future gazing, what to look for & how to win. I will share insights about the retail landscape as it related to the transition to a circular economy and new technology we have built to support the transition.

My background is in corporate luxury fashion so I will also touch on the role of start ups in contrast to corporates in the retail sector and the areas in need of disruption. I will touch on some of the challenges with the transition to a circular economy and how technology can be utilised to support innovation across retail where friction and waste generation persists. The future of commerce will be circular, how we will get there is still an interesting dialogue.

Hear more from Sarah Garner at Equarius Hotel, Singapore, on 16th May, 1:00PM: Leaders Talk: How startups & scaleups are bringing on a new dawn of innovation and learnings for the future of commerce. Future gazing, what to look for & how to win. Find out more here!