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Q: What is Dialog’s involvement with CFW over the years?
A: Dialog has been involved with CFW over the past couple of years as a communication partner, firstly via Dialog Television and this year in a more holistic manner in presenting the BRIGHTSPARK SHOW and through that acting as the technology enabler for the CFW Curate.
Q: How will Dialog add novelty to the Bright Spark shows?
A: The Bright Spark shows are the first step for young designers who are showcasing their talent to a mix of local and international audiences. Dialog’s commitment is to enable these youngsters to take their creations to market. To take an idea and make it a viable business in this industry can be a daunting challenge, you either need a brick and mortar store or an established retail chain willing to take you on board or you need to invest heavily in marketing your brand and your designs. All these challenges are taken out if you go into online retailing or by using a platform like ideamart which allows the designer to establish a market for their designs and simultaneously engage potential buyers by getting their feedback on designs, gauging popularity of their designs or interacting with their customers to provide exclusive offers to them. This is what Dialog brings to the table as the technology enabler.
Q: What is it called? How does it work?
A: The CFW Curate, which is an incubator for design talent that is fed through the BRIGHTSPARK shows presented by Dialog, will be given the opportunity to present young designers to the retail market through a virtual online store front, namely WoW.lk, the largest online trading portal in Sri Lanka. The designers will be able to promote the garments produced by their design lines through this to a potential clientele, bridging the last mile of go-to-market for these designers who would probably find it a struggle to set up a store front and invest in the infrastructure needed to go retail and sell. The invaluable boost provided by WoW.lk will be further strengthened no doubt by the robust online presence of online vehicles such as ideamart and guru.lk coming to the fore in providing a platform for young entrepreneurial designers to market not just their finished garments but their design concepts and ideas as well in their new found niche of being industry experts. Ideamart and guru.lk allows designers to set up their own fashion consulting line should they so desire, provide a pay-as-you-go service on design and fashion tips, infact, there is virtually no limit to the entrepreneurial opportunities on offer for innovative designers.
Q: What do you’ll hope to achieve with the launch of this technology?
A: Given our position as a brand that constantly strives to enhance and enrich the lifestyles of Sri Lankans, we continue to be a technology enabler that has been a trendsetter in Sri Lanka and South Asia in bringing technology that adds to your experience as a consumer while advocating the spirit of entrepreneurship and the inherent creativity that goes with it. With this in mind, our online trading and e-commerce platforms will serve as an ideal launch pad for these young up and coming designers to flaunt their wares, be it designs or retail clothing and launch their own personal brand to the commercial level.
Q: Why this approach? Is there a need for it?
A: The need is imminent if we are to take Sri Lanka beyond the status of being a manufacturing hub that caters to global market requirements and moving towards being a design hub. The level of talent on display as well as the tremendous untapped potential of the Sri Lankan talent pool at large well warrants a move of this nature and we have no doubt the talent pool of designers will avail themselves of this opportunity to its fullest.
Q: Has it been done before? Even on a lesser scale?
A: Retailing online has been in effect but to provide an online trading and retail opportunity for the Sri Lankan designer base on this scale and this reach is definitely something unique. Investment in an online retail store that is unique to each designer is a cost factor that most new designers cannot absorb as a startup entrepreneur. In taking the burden of this off their shoulders, a novel proposition is created for the designer to focus his or her talent on the task at hand.
A sustained effort of this nature that will spread out beyond the week of the show itself and engage the designer on a long term basis has not been engineered before to the best of our knowledge. It is therefore indeed a ground breaking innovative move in light of the new vistas it opens out for the design community.
