Reina Olga

Inspired by the colours and prints of Brazil, and the high-cuts of the 90s, sister-duo Guia and Isotta Cleps founded swimwear brand Reina Olga in 2014, named after their grandmothers.

Having been spotted on the likes of Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa and Kylie Jenner, the demand for the swimwear label has grown rapidly. Coping with steady growth in the early years of the brand wasn’t a problem, and software certainly wasn’t a priority, the focus was on establishing a strong online presence.

As sales ramped up, so did the production runs, as more and more orders were placed each season, the bigger the quantities grew. “We started growing so fast and had a huge database of wholesale clients for the very first time. So, production absolutely needed a programme to count the pieces we needed to produce and the fabric minimums for suppliers.”

Luckily, from experience, the search for a programme that could solve these problems was pretty easy. “Guia knew Zedonk before, from working at another company and had a really good impression of it. We needed to find software to help us and immediately thought about Zedonk. We tried it for the first time, during high-summer, and it was amazing, everything worked.”

We’re all human and unfortunately, at times, prone to error. But, by integrating their sales and production operations, it is now much easier to spot and stop any from happening. “It is very simple for us to avoid mistakes. When we place orders, we know how many meters of fabric we already have in-house and how many we need to order. Zedonk is super helpful, from the beginning until the end.”

By forecasting how much fabric and trim is needed each season, it is clear to see at a glance just how much each piece is going to cost. “If we add the supplier and the cost of the product, we immediately realise how much money we’re spending on one product and how much is needed in advance. We can send a purchase order, with all the details, to our supplier as a PDF, it’s clear, simple and we’re very happy. With Zedonk, we have our money situation under control.”

Needing to store all this information, it was a no-brainer to choose a fashion-specific system that understands and recognises the complexity of creating products. “Zedonk is very useful, there are functions for colour and size breakdown. We can add any raw materials to products and name them. Zedonk is perfect for fashion, for clothes, and for swimwear.”

Of course, with all new systems, assistance can be useful along the way. Being able to ask questions can help solve a problem a lot quicker. And having someone explain it step-by-step can unlock new ways of working. “Every time we speak with the support team, we find out a new way of doing something that can make us do our job even better. We can tell that the Zedonk team are experts.”

After realising the benefits of having a system in place, their way of working has changed. Manual tasks have been automated and old processes have been eliminated. Not only is money saved, so is time, time and stress. “We used to have to count the orders, all the products on each order and sizes, along with raw materials, labels and packaging. We were stressed because we didn’t know if Excel was accurate. When we add it in Zedonk, the proper way, it’s done automatically.”

From using Zedonk’s Offline B2B Sales App, a huge amount of time has been saved by adopting a new approach to selling, whether at a tradeshow or not. Time is no longer spent editing line sheets into different formats or writing orders by hand to type up later.

“In Paris, we weren’t using the app and had to send line sheets and order forms that we made but customers would ask to have prices next to styles and colours. It was longer for them to place an order this way. We took the app and set everything up in a few days.

Then, in Miami, we sent customers selections using the app and they were happy because they could place an order straight away. If a customer doesn’t come to a show and wants to place an order, we can send the line sheet and confirm the order, it is much easier and faster.”

Whenever brands experience growth, they also experience a lot of changes. And a system that can support such growth quickly becomes an integral part of the business. “Even if brands are selling well, if they are not organised, they will lose customers because they cannot manage all the processes from production through to delivery. Zedonk is a necessity for us and we found the perfect software without having to research any others. If we didn’t have Zedonk, it would probably be a mess.”