Shop Introduction

Serendipity Soul strives to be the ultimate shopping destination for Korean fashion lovers, showcasing product lines ranging from apparel, bags, shoes and lifestyle products such as diaries. Imported directly from Korea, our items are not only of high quality but affordability as well. We help our customers to save on overseas shipping costs through bulk order-taking and direct purchases from Korean sellers. Serendipity Soul makes every effort to provide our customers with the best shopping experience whether purchases are from ongoing sprees or the in-house collection. Updated on a bi-monthly basis, customers are treated to an ever changing array of items in the store, reflecting the swift-changing trends in Korean fashion!

Description of Blog Shop Owners

Serendipity Soul is run by a team of 3 dedicated people – Laura, Edward and Maki. Laura is the owner of Serendipity Soul and assumes marketing responsibilities. She engages mainly in product sourcing, site development as well as customer liaison. Edward is the finance guru of the team, keeping track of expenditure and revenue as well the overseas logistics in-charge. Maki is the advertising whiz, internal logistics in-charge and often dabbles in other roles to assist if necessary.

The idea of creating Serendipity Soul was conceived in the month of September 2008, and launched at the end of October 2008. The motivation to start Serendipity Soul was largely due to the frustration of the lack of stores (both offline and online) selling high quality and affordable Korean fashion. In addition, the lack of trust in purchasing from blog shops was also a hindrance to many Korean fashion lovers which Serendipity Soul identified and sought to change.

Serendipity Soul Products

Interview

We are honored to have this special opportunity to interview Laura, the owner of Serendipity Soul. Laura is currently a Masters student at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. This online business is something Laura does besides schooling. Laura speaks Korean and in fact, Kang, one of their team members is a Korean and helps with their logistics and external liaison.

1. SpreeCrunch: Are most of your products from Korea?

Laura: Yes, 100% for all the spree items. As for the in-stocks, there are about 20% of the items which were purchased from live journal shops.

2. SpreeCrunch: Do you get your products from the local suppliers in Korea?

Laura: Yes, we do and that is why we are able to sell our clothes at a lower rate than those found in Far East Plaza or other shops selling Korean clothing. However, unlike live journal shops which get their clothes from Thailand, clothes from Korea are not cheap, especially if they are manufactured in Korea. So in terms of pricing, it can be quite competitive.

3. SpreeCrunch: What makes you want to start this online business?

Laura: The motivation to start this online business was because we recognized the lack of affordable clothes from Korea being sold in Singapore. Also, the range of products imported from Korea is not wide. However, the situation seems to be changing. Mainly, we wanted to experience what it was like to run an online business.

4. SpreeCrunch: How is your business situation now?

Laura: It’s good. We were on hiatus for a month during mid-June to mid-July but we have started again with new sprees and new collections. It is good to see many customers returning again to purchase from us.

5. SpreeCrunch: Where do you gain customers?

Laura: We engage taggers to advertise for us and recently, we have started using Google as well which is useful for people who search for Korean clothing. As for word of mouth, it is still tough for us as we are not sure whether people recommend friends to our shop, but compared to live journal shops for instance, i think word of mouth effort is still quite slow for us.

6. SpreeCrunch: Do you face any difficulties during the start-up of your business?

Laura: Of course! A lot of difficulties. Actually, when we first started out, we mainly imported clothes to sell which was a bad idea! Furthermore, business was very slow and building customer base online is tough since there are so many blogshops out there. Also, people always flock to the popular ones. So we decided to change the spree model, which was equally tough because we had to make sure we had enough orders so as to reduce shipping costs from Korea to Singapore.

7. SpreeCrunch: Do you consider your business as successful?

Laura: A lot of blood and sweat was invested in this blog shop. I would say it is growing. Maybe successful in terms of growing presence but we still have lots more room to expand!

8. SpreeCrunch: What do you have to sacrifice for this business?

Laura: Time, lots of personal time, as well as money because we had to incur some losses before the profits started coming in and last of all, energy.

9. SpreeCrunch: Are there times that you feel like giving up?

Laura: Many! Especially when you have to give up sleep and time to rest or when problems arise such as supply of clothes etc.

10. SpreeCrunch: What kind of situation do you think is tough?

Laura: Site maintanance and sourcing for products as they take time but when you hear your customers giving good feedback about the clothes, it is actually quite rewarding.

11. SpreeCrunch: Are your products mainly for females ?

Laura: Yes, for now. I think for female shoppers, it is never enough! We have not really focused on other items such as accessories. For now, i think we will just concentrate on our female clientele.

12. SpreeCrunch: Do you have any goals for your business?

Laura: Yes, definitely. We hope to keep our customers happy! Existing customers even happier and attract more customers over to SerendipitySoul. We also planned to expand our product line, you can check back with us maybe in 2-3 months time!

13. SpreeCrunch: What makes your shop stands out from the rest?

Laura: I think there are several factors.

1. The layout. I think we have a cleaner and more standardised layout compared to many other blog shops.
2. Customer service. We believe in good customer service, for example, quick replies, constant communication, fast delivery etc.
3. High quality. Believe it or not, ever since we started in Oct. 2008, we have not had a single complaint from customers about quality. This is because our team member, Kang in Korea, checks the stock before they are sent to Singapore.
4. Range of clothing. Most of the feedback we get is about the unique products we offer and I hope to keep that up.

14. SpreeCrunch: What do you think of these online shopping directories?

Laura:Well, i think they are useful for first-time online shoppers but once these online shoppers find shops that they like, i think that they will reduce the reliance on directories and continue to go to shops they are comfortable or familiar with.

15. SpreeCrunch: What do you think will happen to your online business in the future?
Laura: Hm, I hope it will continue growing and we hope to become the one-stop destination of Korean clothing for Singapore and regional shoppers too.

SpreeCrunch’s Remark:

Serendipity Soul has joined SpreeCrunch since November 2nd, 2008. After observing  its popularity, rating, feedback and comments by online shoppers, SpreeCrunch decided to invite Serendipity Soul for an exclusive interview. SpreeCrunch was delighted to receive a prompt response from Serendipity Soul.

From this interview, SpreeCrunch managed to delve into the world of blog shop owners and learn more about them. Their struggling times were unnoticed by many others and this is which SpreeCrunch plays an important role. SpreeCrunch welcomes all kinds of feedback and we would continue to improvise our site to bring more exciting events. Lastly, SpreeCrunch would like to express our thanks to Serendipity Soul for their continuous support and we hope all online shoppers would continue to support Serendipity Soul.