• Boutique Fairs Singapore, a biannual fair featuring local designers, had to cancel its events last year due to Covid-19
• Its founder, Ms Charlotte Cain, set up an online marketplace called eBoutiques last September to support local designers
• However, eBoutiques ceased operations on Sunday after suffering “substantial losses”
• Ms Cain is planning to bring back the physical fair this November, subject to approval from authorities

SINGAPORE — Like many other retailers and event organisers, Boutique Fairs Singapore decided to go online after Covid-19 scuttled its plans last year.

The biannual fair, which showcases brands by local designers, is one of Singapore’s premier shopping events. Its last outing in November 2019 at the F1 Pit Building featured close to 300 vendors and drew more than 36,000 visitors over three days.

The fair’s founder, Ms Charlotte Cain, launched eBoutiques, an online marketplace for designers, last September.

However, after half a year and “substantial losses”, she is pulling the plug on eBoutiques, she told TODAY. Its last day of operations is Sunday (Feb 28).

Ms Cain said that she had decided to enter the “totally new playing field” of e-commerce as she wanted to support local designers even through the pandemic.

“I know how important it is for the brands to participate in the event. For a lot of small brands, Boutique Fairs is the only avenue where they have some substantial sales during the year,” said Ms Cain, who declined to disclose her age.

Given the strong following that Boutique Fairs has on social media (it has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram and over 22,000 followers on its Facebook page), Ms Cain felt that having an e-commerce platform would be a good opportunity to reach out to followers and support the brands that usually participate at the fair.

The platform, which was integrated with Boutique Fairs’ main website, tried to recreate the community feel of the physical fairs.

Each brand had its own page featuring profiles of a brand’s designer so that shoppers could learn more about them. Shoppers could also chat live with designers directly through the site, said Ms Cain.

But by January this year, Ms Cain said that the platform was not performing as well as she had expected.

“The sales just weren’t there,” she said, declining to go into details.

WHY E-COMMERCE PLATFORM FAILED TO TAKE OFF

She attributed several reasons to eBoutiques’ failure, including its lack of funding, which prevented it from becoming a financially self-sustainable site.

Competition from other platforms and existing websites of designers themselves could have also contributed to poor sales on eBoutiques, she added.

An online platform is also unable to replicate the “incredibly energetic vibe” of a pop-up fair where people can meet and browse through new brands, said Ms Cain.

Ms Olivia Loh-Ing, a publicist and writer who has attended Boutique Fairs, said that on the two occasions that she browsed through eBoutiques, nothing “jumped out at her”.

When she did come across items of interest, she also preferred visiting the main website of the brands to learn more about the items directly.

Vendors of Boutique Fairs, too, observed that customers preferred purchasing directly from their main sites rather than through eBoutiques.

Ms Alicia Tsi, founder of fashion brand Esse The Label, who joined eBoutiques last November said most of her label’s sales continued to take place through its own website. Prior to Covid-19, about one-fifth of her company’s annual revenue was from sales at Boutique Fairs.

The 33-year-old declined to disclose sales figures but said that customers may have preferred to order directly from a brand’s main website as each vendor on eBoutiques imposed individual shipping charges.

Similarly, Mr Louis Koh, 38, the co-founder of fashion label Reckless Ericka, said that his brand had five-figure sales when it took part in both the physical fairs in 2019. However, sales through eBoutiques “did not do as well” as his brand was only on the platform for a short while and his brand’s website featured a wider range of collection, he said.

Mr Lucas Tok, a lecturer in retail at Singapore Polytechnic, said that eBoutiques may not have worked as pop-up fairs, by their nature, offer novel items available for a limited period.

PHYSICAL FAIR SET TO RETURN

Despite her disappointment that eBoutiques did not work out, Ms Cain is not sitting around. She is already working towards staging a physical fair this year.

However, as with all events affected by the pandemic, there will also be changes to Boutique Fairs. To maintain safe distancing, the next fair will feature fewer vendors and will be a ticketed event to limit crowds. The event could also be held in smaller, more frequent formats or extended over several days as it is not possible to have all 300 vendors at one go, said Ms Cain.

She is currently in talks with the authorities to resume the fair this November.

Vendors said they are looking forward to the fair’s return.

Ms Tsi, whose company’s revenue last year took a hit by up to 30 per cent due to Covid-19, said that she is hoping the physical fair will help to boost revenue this year.

However, vendors may have to do more to pull in customers such as Ms Loh-Ing, 45, who are looking to cut back on spending during this economic downturn.

“I may skip it unless a brand or designer I'm supporting is featuring something special or exclusive,” she said.