Georgian customers’ favorite children’s clothing store ‘Bebe +’ plans to expand in Georgia and make its latest collections available in all corners of the country through online sales and opening new stores, which is “on the list of our future plans”, Director of Bebe+ Nana Chitava told Golden Brand.
As of today there are eight Bebe+ locations in Tbilisi, two in Batumi, and two in the third largest city of Georgia, Kutaisi.
Bebe+ provides clothes for children from 0 to 15 years old, and in 2022 the company added a line for men and women. Clothes for men and women are currently available only in the Bebe+ Gallery located on Aghmashenebeli Avenue in Tbilisi.
Today all leading brands that produce children’s clothes can be found under the roof of a single store, Bebe+, which has cemented itself as the leading children’s clothing store in Georgia.
During the lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, Bebe+ started selling online via Facebook. This was its solution to surviving the crisis, Chitava says.
The dynamic development of Bebe+, recognized today as the number one brand in its segment by the Golden Brand awards, started about 20 years ago when two sisters Nana and Inga Chitava launched the business with a seven square metre store in Bazroba, a large open air market in Tbilisi.
In that little space there was everything – a trading table, colored laminate walls, bubbles, a logo. The space was decorated in such a way as to catch the eyes of children.
“Even today when Bebe+ is represented by several stores I still am involved in every small detail. This might be related to the decoration of the shop window or the music that is played at our stores,” Chitava believes.
Success in the childrenswear market means understanding the industry and your place in it, Chitava says, and that “hard work” and an “honest approach to the most sincere customers”, children, will never escape attention. In her words, it is exactly this that has brought the Golden Brand award to the company.
“The main advantage of Bebe+ is that we are a customer-oriented brand. We try to make all of our offers, products and campaigns tailored to customers. Bebe+ is a network of stores that represents numerous children’s clothing brands. Thanks to our sincere policy and niche, we have gained a lot of love from our customers,” Chitava says.
While talking about the success of her brand, Chitava does not forget about the cohesive team of Bebe+.
“They are very loyal. They love the brand, their work, children, and everything that they do. I appreciate their attitude towards my business, which has become our business,” she says.
Q. Golden Brand is given to companies for successful operations in the previous year. 2022 was important for Bebe+ as the company completed rebranding and launched a new line for men and women. How have all these developments affected the brand’s operations?
A. Bebe+ has been offering high-quality clothing and accessories to society for over 20 years, although it was primarily represented by a line of children’s clothing. After the pandemic we were able to add new branches and offer the consumer a collection of women’s and men’s clothing, which is frequently updated and, as of today, includes several hundred brands.
Being on the market for over 20 years and maintaining the leading position is not an easy task and is impossible to achieve without constant development. You should always look for opportunities around you, always think about what to offer your customers and how to attract the new ones. You should build a strong company to be able not only survive but to manage and take the leading position in the market, which is saturated with many similar businesses.
So last year’s activities were part of our main agenda — to keep the position of number one children’s clothing retailer on the market. Of course this helped us attract more customers, increase sales and strengthen our position on the market.
We did face some lingering post-pandemic problems — stores were closed, which had a direct impact on the decline in sales. But we managed to switch to online sales and started to deliver products to customers smoothly. And for the post-pandemic period, we were able to fulfil almost all the planned goals, open new branches, expand staff, add new brands and more.
Q. The fact is that Bebe + enjoyed more successful developments which resulted in the Golden Brand award. What do you think, how does the company manage to keep this award and the title of N1 favourite brand of the customers?
A. Our company is constantly focused on innovations and reforms, but at the same time it is very important not to lose the quality that customers have become accustomed to over the years. We believe this balance is precisely the reason why we have retained the Golden Brand Award.
Q. Have online sales increased at the company?
A. We evaluate online sales very objectively and at the same time critically, although it must be said that our website is in an active phase of development — the design has been changed and rebranded completely. The updated version of the website has met our expectations, as awareness and demand for online shopping have increased.
Through the website we were able to deliver our products to the regions as well, and to send orders outside the country. I think this is a very good result achieved in this short period of time the website has been in operation.
Q. Bebe+ offers very affordable prices to customers. How do you manage to keep prices low despite such high inflation rates?
A. Stable prices for the consumer has been and remains one of our primary goals. Our team works tirelessly, and luckily we have managed to maintain the existing customers and even attracted the new ones in this competitive environment in the market.
In order to ensure stable prices we are in constant communication with our partners outside of Georgia. Negotiations with suppliers are non-stop, and we try our best to keep prices low for our customers.
