Noveré (means sister) was founded by two sisters Jeanita Adeline and Jesca Aderland in 2017. It started as a small business, selling through Instagram and WhatsApp where all transactions were handled manually. As the business grows, the team at Noveré built their own website to collect and manage orders.
Noveré as an apparel brand has speciality in providing ready to wear casual-chic women’s wear. Noveré aims to always have social messages behind every collection. For example, Noveré once came up with one collection called Noveré Birch, which means strong, to encourage #noveresisters (nickname for Noveré buyer) to step out of their comfort zone.
From the product side, Noveré focuses on providing apparel with sustainable materials using Tencel™ fabric including using plastic-free packaging, hang tag that can be reusable as a bookmark in order to support the world with less clothing waste.
Noveré has two major segments: ready to wear, for women who love to use loosen/non-tight apparel and home wear, for those who like to still look chic by staying at home, using Tencel™ as the material, very comfortable to be worn. The latter comes after the pandemic arises and people have a tendency to stay at home.
Flash sale, a trendy strategy for eCommerce businesses
In June 2021, Noveré conducted a web hunt, a kind of flash sale where customers would hunt for items via their website within a certain period of time. It started when the brand received high demand for purchases every time they launched a new collection. Hence, to accommodate these requests, the team at Noveré came up with the idea of where the #noveresisters can purchase their newest collection on a scheduled date.
From a business perspective, they can have better preparation of stock and also inform their buyer before the launch date, so that the overall sales process can be a lot more predictable even though they are still trying to accommodate buyers to be able to purchase the product post the launch date. For now, Noveré has 2 different collections launched via web hunt every month.
There are a few checklists that the team maintained before running a flash sale. The first is product development, from material to design. Usually product collections have been prepared a few months before launching. Secondly, it is promotion preparation. The team conducts photo shoots, creates ads and provides the information in their social media.
Last but not least is the technical preparation. Since Noveré has an agency handling their e-commerce, Expatify. All technical aspects will be covered by them. Usually Noveré will only check with Expatify if everything is settled including the payment side. This time around, Expatify recommended Noveré to start using Xendit as their payment gateway.
Previously Noveré only enabled bank transfer payments. They found it very frustrating to check the payment receipt one by one especially when they are facing high demand during product launch.
“When we decided to connect with a payment gateway, we explored Xendit competitors too. However, they couldn’t accommodate merchants with a web hunting model, and they couldn’t accept foreign customers via cards. Fortunately, Expatify as Xendit agency partner introduced Noveré to Xendit, Noveré agreed to revamp their payment scheme.”
Since using Xendit, the team finds that it is very useful in helping them eliminate errors in payment checking. Previously, when the team only enabled manual bank transfer, the buyers needed to confirm their payment by filling out a form.
However many buyers forgot to confirm their payment but then complained about their product not being sent by Noveré. Hence, Noveré found that using Xendit reduces the stress of getting many complaints due to human error. Also, they love how Xendit responded to their issues. Since they just try out using Xendit for the first time, few customers were asking on what to do if they didn’t get the email, and why the failed to make payment (which turned out to due to bad reception they had), once they raised the issue, Xendit team is promptly checking the issue and provided solution.
During the flash sale, traffic was excessive. Noveré received up to 400 invoices requests in the initial 15 minutes. Despite few inquiries due to the first time they are accepting payment with payment gateway, buyers found that Xendit simplified the payment process while purchasing their product, as they added options payment of VA, cards, QRIS, and e-wallet in their website.
Noveré upcoming plans
The team at Noveré considered flash sales to be an essential part of their business operations. As the team continuously comes up with new product collections, flash sales via web hunting will be a regular activity that the team is planning to conduct twice a month.
“Hopefully the system keeps running well, and smoother even with higher traffic on our website and can always eliminate errors in receiving payment and provide better customer journeys to #noveresisters.”
