Accent Fashion: ‘Our stores are our laboratories’

Last year, Lemmens Confectie opened the first stores of their own in Bruges, Kortrijk and Ghent. Under the name Accent Fashion, they offer everything women need for a complete, perfect outfit or look. ‘When you visit, you also get a cup of coffee and Tunify music,’ says business manager Pieterjan Lemmens.

Once upon a time, Lemmens Confectie only made men’s and women’s jackets. However, the company re-created itself as a design bureau that develops total collections for women. For a few years now, you’ve been able to shop for and put your entire look together with Accent Fashion. Because Lemmens Confectie has made the jump from wholesale to chain store. The first Accent Fashion location opened its doors in Bruges in 2016. A year later, it was followed by stores in Kortrijk and Ghent.

Stores as laboratories

Pieterjan explains the success of Accent Fashion: ‘We offer more sizes than you usually find—up to and including size 54. Plus, we work hard to ensure good fits. The larger the size, the more the pattern of your design tends to deviate. That’s why we make 3 prototypes for every design. And thanks to our stores, we get excellent feedback. We now know what sells well and what doesn’t, and we continuously collect input from customers.’

‘If the staff in our stores get feedback about a material or a certain fit,’ continues Pieterjan, ‘they know that they need to pass the information through to the designers. On top of that, 2 stylists regularly visit the stores. They learn an exceptional amount from conversations there. You could say that we also use our stores as laboratories.’

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Tunify is part of it all

Tunify has been a part of every store since day 1. ‘Early on, we searched for a suitable music solution,’ says Pieterjan. ‘This is how we discovered Tunify. The possibility of playing music that was suited to the time of day was especially interesting.’

Lemmens Confectie is investing in every area that will lead to the optimal shopping experience. ‘Beautiful store presentation, pleasant music, a cup of coffee, free alterations ... They’re all part of it,’ explains Pieterjan. ‘Service like this pays for itself through word-of-mouth advertising.’

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Shopping agendas live up to their name

Thanks to the music agendas, you only have to press ‘play’ once to have the right music all week long. That was also a decisive argument according to Pieterjan: ‘We didn’t want to hunt around for music ourselves. There are always employees who are happy to put playlists together, but then you hear the same music 5 times a day. Tunify is a lot more efficient.’

‘The staff in the stores have the freedom to choose music agendas in Tunify Green,’ continues Pieterjan. ‘But the shopping agendas live up to their names. In the morning, ‘Cosy Shopping’ is played most frequently, while in the afternoon we usually switch to ‘Happy Shopping’. Every now and then, the staff in the stores also venture across to other music agendas as well.’

If the staff really want to go on a musical adventure, we recommend the category ‘Fashion & Style’. It includes 7 new ‘fashionable’ music agendas that are waiting to be discovered. And if you want to go on a shopping adventure? Take a look at the Accent Fashion collection online!