From now until the end of 2019, Sydney customers shopping on The Iconic can nominate to pick up their purchases at General Pants’ George Street store, thanks to a partnership between two of Australia’s biggest youth fashion retailers.

Customers can also nominate the store as the drop-off point for returns – a move General Pants chief executive Sacha Laing told Inside Retail would create a “seamless customer experience”.

“This feels like a good extension of a retailer with a national footprint and Australia’s largest pure-play fashion retailer coming together,” Laing said. 

“We’ll do it in the [Sydney] CBD store through to December 31, and then from there work out what we’ll do next.”

The trial is the evolution of a partnership that started almost a month ago, with General Pants’ own-brands, such as Ksubi, Insight, and Arvust, becoming available on The Iconic marketplace.

According to Laing, General Pants is delighted with how the partnership is going so far.

“Culturally there is a lot of alignment between our two businesses internally, and certainly from a customer point of view,” Laing said. 

“Exploring a partnership with [The Iconic] with our own brands on the site felt like a very natural thing for us to do. They’re powerful brands in their own right.”

According to The Iconic, the partnership signifies a new era of retail, and indicates what best-practice customer experience looks like for Australian retail in 2020 and beyond. 

“We have a great test-and-learn culture at The Iconic, and I couldn’t think of a better way to end the year than with such an exciting trial,” The Iconic chief executive Erica Berchtold said. 

The partnership is facilitated through logistics provider Parcelpoint, which will handle the drop-off and pick-up service of orders to and from the store, and is indicative of a more collaborative retail environment, according to Laing.

“I think you’re starting to see [collaborations] more often. Collaborations between brands and influencers, and brands and media,” Laing said. 

“I think that for us, we’ll just continue to explore different ways of connecting to our consumers. Ultimately, this is about creating an improved customer experience – that’s what we want to do through this initiative, and others like it in the future.”

The initiative is expected to drive increased footfall to General Pants’ George Street store, and it has staffed up the location with dedicated workers to serve extra customers and ensure there isn’t any disruption to Christmas shoppers.

According to Laing, providing seamless customer service is a top priority for both General Pants and The Iconic, and it’s imperative if the business is to capitalise on the increased footfall.

“As we strengthen our partnership with the Iconic and we begin doing more innovative and interesting things, we just see a natural opportunity for both brands to leverage off each other’s strengths,” Laing said.

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