In June 2015, our first BonneGueule boutique opened at 14 rue Commines in Paris. Ah, the “physical store”, this vast project, exciting and terrifying at the same time (a lot of money involved with profitability impossible to predict correctly, except in an almost pessimistic way).
It was a certain emotion the first time I saw the BonneGueule logo on the facade, it had never been printed so big… It was completely new for us.
And then the beginnings were so encouraging that almost a year later, we opened a second clothing store in Lyon .
The big (and secret) news is HERE!
Why Lyon? At what address ? How did we manage to minimize the risk? Choose the location? Recruitment ? You will know everything! But above all, know that I am not the most legitimate to talk about this store opening, and therefore that this article will be a little special…
Well yes, we have already mentioned it at BonneGueule, we strive to make the teams very responsible and autonomous. And as a result, I have not intervened much in this “physical retail” adventure (the editorial and the BG line take up a lot of my time).
And I am very happy to see all the accomplishments of our team, to see that the BonneGueule employees are not only the arms and legs of the founders but that they are capable of accomplishing things that I would not be able to do. the tenth !
Through this article, apart from giving you the details of the opening of this second store, I would like to pay tribute to this team of which I am so proud . And in fact, each person involved in this big project will explain to you how they went about it, so that you understand the place and role of each person :)
Florian will first give you an overview of the actions he has put in place to serve his obsession with customer service, Maxime and Antoine will tell you their vision of welcoming and advising customers in store, Céline will confide in you her first impressions to BonneGueule readers/customers, then the amazing duo Anaïs/Elie will detail how they went about opening a second permanent store in Lyon.
Let's go !
The Parisian boutique experience: the results
The Paris boutique: qualifications for EURO 2016 (Florian)
The launch of the Paris store was a major project in 2015. Many people worked on the store, and for my part I worked a lot in pairs with Elie; him on the big part: monitoring the work, ensuring that the store is ready and beautiful on time; me on the back office part (all the organization, the processes, the training of the team behind it). In short, ensure that your experience is as pleasant and consistent as possible!
We managed to open the store quickly , in a month it seems to me: it was sporty, but really galvanizing because it was the first.
To top it all off, it opened on June 16, my birthday (totally by chance). Like a symbol.
And since then, the store has not been empty. We are very happy to see you there every day of the week, Antoine and Maxime take great pleasure in welcoming you. It was important to me that the spirit of the showroom continues in the store, a nice place where you can come and touch and try our entire collection in a friendly and sharing atmosphere!
For the opening in Lyon, we already had certainties, experience acquired with the Paris store. Anaïs has joined us in the meantime to develop retail
A structuring project to prepare for the future (Florian)
In January 2016, my big project was to set up an ERP at BonneGueule
This is partly what allows us to:
- Cash out quickly in store;
- Check if your favorite/coveted item of clothing is available in your size at the store . Is the tablet green? It is in stock (within the limits of quantities available at time t);
To find out if the desired piece is available in store in your size, just take a quick look at the sticker at the bottom right.
- Manage in-store pick-up orders in real time (the famous click & collect ). You can order on the e-shop and immediately collect your order in store (and try it, of course).
I insist on immediacy because we are the only ones to do it. For you, we give everything 🙂
And obviously, you will have the same welcome and the same services in Lyon as in Paris, under the leadership of Céline and Alexis 😉
A strong and essential step (Maxime)
The opening of the Paris boutique was one of the highlights of BonneGueule in 2015, it was the culmination of several months of work for the entire team. I remember its layout, everyone put their heart into it so that we could open on time . I even had to sit on Florian's lap in the van loaded with clothes heading to the store! (#Thuglife)
Today, it is strongly recommended that clothing brands be able to try on their pieces before purchasing. The customer can therefore come and see the product, touch it, try it and also receive advice. Because yes, this is also what a physical store must provide as a service, and this is the core business of BonneGueule!
Whether it’s buying jeans; try on a shirt; discuss rags or football; Maxime (in the photo) and Antoine will always be happy to welcome you.
This is why it was all the more legitimate for BonneGueule to have its own boutique, which brings together all our know-how, ranging from clothing brands to style advice. We are always happy with Antoine to share the passion for clothing that drives us!
Every morning when I get up to go to work, it is with a smile because I know that I will find an incredible team and meet new people, who enjoy coming to see us!
A human experience (Antoine)
I arrived last November, after Romain, and, from the first days, I immediately knew that it was not a store like the others. It had to be a continuation of the site , a warm place where you can spend 5 minutes to say "hello", just like an hour if you want to try the whole store 😉. It is also reassuring for the customer to be able to try and touch the parts.
As Florian said, we put different actions in place - and always try to find others - to make your experience as pleasant as possible. There is a real relationship of trust with our customers, who have realized, after this past year, that we have the same kindness in store as on the site. For me, it's so nice to see our readers' satisfaction when they try a piece, that my advice reassures them or helps them.
This is actually what I found during our weekend in Strasbourg, a big thank you to everyone!
The store also allows some people to put a face on BonneGueule, I explain that the team is not made up of robots (I have a doubt about one member 😉 ). We have also set up a courier service at the store , which allows you to have your purchase delivered later in the day, to the office or at home. This is still something we need to work on.
More personally, it's a real pleasure to be in the store. Every day, I have sincere exchanges with our readers. I try to give them as much advice as possible so that they still feel good when they leave. I really have a special relationship with them and it is very enriching for me .
A new adventure begins: BonneGueule settles in Lyon
Think outside the box for you
We know where our customers and readers are thanks to Paul – our super growth hacker – and this has allowed us to identify the cities where it would be good to go to meet you. The Tour de France was a magnificent human experience , full of lessons and particularly rich, which pushed us in our desire to develop elsewhere than in Paris ... and above all not to do like the others.
Last stage of the Tour de France, Strasbourg. No worries, we already have other cities in mind 😉
Usually, brands open a first store in Paris, then a second and, once they have established a presence in the capital, the model moves abroad. Then in a very secondary way, in the region through resellers.
Always having our mission in mind when making decisions - to help men feel good in their clothes - we made the choice to position ourselves in locations that would serve the greatest number of our customers.
However, we do not forget those who only have access to the e-shop. The complicated process of returning products could be a hindrance, today we have further simplified the return sheet (exchange or refund) and they have even become free !
But that's not all and we continue to think about other avenues, because not everyone can go to Paris to go shopping.
A carefully chosen city: why Lyon? (Elijah)
Lyon is a superb city. For a Parisian (but not only), it is the dream city:
- Many move there to find a better quality of life;
- Highly appreciated as a fertile economic hub;
- The town remains relaxing, a stone's throw from the ski slopes;
- There is real comfort there (especially in terms of accommodation).
It is a city that attracts a lot of traffic from surrounding metropolises such as Saint-Etienne, Chambéry, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Annecy and even Geneva, therefore an attractive hub that brings people together!
How can you not fall under the spell of such a pretty city?
A real offer is developing in Lyon with brands like Jimmy Fairly, but there are not yet very many of them leaving European capitals to join the provinces.
Many of you told us that the offer could be more complete in the mid/high-end niche and, despite the (very good) multi-brands like Summer Store present in Lyon
Especially since after visiting Printemps (and meeting their teams), we said to ourselves that in Lyon, a little novelty could be appreciated by men!
The pop-up shop test (Anaïs)
My research began when I arrived at BonneGueule, at the beginning of December 2015.
After establishing a comprehensive set of specifications and spending long hours on the internet, on various apartment search sites that you all know, we realized that we were going to struggle .
Opening a store is a complicated thing, given the many criteria to take into account, but opening a pop-up store over two months is downright mission impossible.
But nothing stops us!
Never admitting defeat , we therefore went back to our notebooks and reviewed our objectives. What were the most important elements:
- The localisation,
- The surface,
- The distance to the nearest Ricard?
And we found our holy grail in the intimate Ainay district, in a spacious art gallery. As the space allowed, we quickly decided to share our space with a few friends from the sector, who were also up for an adventure of a few weeks in the region.
There was everything to do in the space, even installing the fitting rooms, with Samy de Hast behind him, who proved to be a formidable handyman.
As a result, from April 1, 2016, many of you came to meet us and encourage us in this new adventure and that greatly rewards the past weeks of stress .
Shortly after the opening, while touring the neighborhood with Elie and Samy (from Hast), we had the chance to meet Myriam from the very cool Arpete boutique, located at 3 rue Henri IV. Unlike us, they were looking to establish themselves in Paris in the Haut Marais. We are now the new happy tenants.
We are currently carrying out the final work on the facade, the store is looking beautiful for you.
Profiles sharing our values (Anaïs)
For the recruitment of our Lyon store manager, we received more than fifty applications, each as interesting as the last. In search of the rare pearl , the interviews continued relentlessly for almost three months, by telephone then by Skype, so that the different people in the team could also give their own opinion.
The tricky part of this position was finding someone combining:
- Experience in this field,
- Ability to understand and transcribe our values ,
- Sharing our desire to pass on to men our love of clothing .
After weeks of searching (and waiting for them, sorry about that), we took the train with Elie to meet Maxime and Céline. We first fell in love with Maxime , but things meant that he couldn't accompany us at this point in the adventure (but it's only a postponement, eh Maxime?).
So it was with Céline that we were finally able to open our first boutique in the region. Huge satisfaction, Céline is truly wonderful
In store, be sure that Céline will give you a warm welcome and give you valuable advice 😉
“A sincere and lasting relationship” with you (Céline)
Already two months in store! It went by at a crazy pace, it’s a great experience! I found in readers and customers what I wanted to find when working in a store: a sincere and lasting relationship .
A lot of pressure because, when I came to the offices in Paris, I had a little glimpse of the active community that followed BG, some of them from the start! During my presence at the boutique on rue Commines, I noticed that the readers/customers knew almost all the pieces by heart.
Whereas I was just discovering the blog, the brand... It was absolutely necessary not to disappoint them, to succeed in letting the BonneGueule spirit of the media shine through in the store. I knew that customers would not come to buy clothes per se, but to live a different experience and buy "a BG garment", with that feeling of having something unique and rare in their hands.
Our pretty pop-up boutique, where Céline and Alexis welcomed you.
So we had to master all the technical details right away, read as many blog articles as possible, and it didn't fail because they like to know everything about a piece.
The customers are friendly, with this desire to be advised, to talk about the blog. For them, the store is the physical transcription . They like to tell us how much they enjoy reading the articles, that the blog has really helped them develop their style, gain self-confidence... It's the greatest reward.
In Lyon, there is a real demand to discover new brands, they are each time surprised when we direct them towards other names. It's a real friendly exchange, we take the time whenever we can to chat with them, ask them questions about their life, their passion etc... It's a relationship that is being built.
The culmination of a project: presentation of our new store (Elie)
The new store will be located at 3 rue Henri IV, in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, Ainay district.
Don't be fooled by Anaïs's expression, it's a very beautiful space in which we can't wait to welcome you!
It is located a minute's walk from the Ampère – Victor Hugo metro station (line A), 7 minutes from Place Bellecour but also from Gare Lyon Perrache. We said to ourselves that in terms of accessibility, it wasn’t bad 😉
It is a district in full reconversion , today much more lively in the surrounding areas such as rue Auguste Comte and rue de la Charité, where many brands choose to set up (Agnès B. for example, but also smaller ). JC, owner of L'homme Lyonnais , confirmed to me that it is a neighborhood that is becoming more and more diverse.
And if you're feeling a little hungry, don't hesitate to stop by Two Amigos. Right next to our shop, it's a very nice restaurant.
Right next to us, they are at 1 rue Henri IV.
How can I keep up to date with news from the BonneGueule boutique in Lyon?
Okay, here we enter the complicated part.
It's always tricky for us to find the right balance between not being too intrusive, and informing you effectively on very specific subjects related to the store for example.
The best way to stay informed is to like our Facebook page (we announce everything there!), but above all, to activate all notifications by clicking on the Like button :
Are you sure you haven't missed any of our news? The small pencils on the right allow you to refine your choices even further!
Now, when you just like a Facebook page, a lot of the news doesn't show up in your newsfeed by default. Personally, for pages that I really like, I activate all notifications.
Please know that we do our best to have as targeted communication as possible! For the moment, we haven't found a better way to communicate directly with the Lyonnais 🙂
The date and opening hours of the store
After these beautiful testimonies from the entire team on this great adventure, it is therefore not without emotion that we announce to you that the store will open this Thursday, June 2, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. It will then be open from Tuesday to Saturday, from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
As a reminder, it will be located at 3 rue Henri IV, 69002 Lyon. And if you want to call Céline or Alexis for any information, the store number is 04 72 16 00 91.
Alexis and Céline are ready to welcome you with conviviality and good humor 😉
