Saint and Sofia CEO: Make shopping a social experience

Dessi Bell is the co-founder and co-CEO of womenswear brand Saint and Sofia.

She and her husband founded their fashion business in 2020, originally only selling online. Prior to that, Bell had launched the online fitness brand Zaggora, which specialises in fitness wear for women. Last year, Saint and Sofia reported annual revenues of £25m.

The brand opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Covent Garden, London, in November last year. This has led Bell to see her customers from a new perspective, by observing their behaviour in person.

“One thing we have learned by opening our first boutique is the importance of delivering a great social shopping experience for the customer,” says Bell.

“We noticed customers coming and shopping with their friends, coming with their family members, or maybe they're in London to see a theatre show or go for dinner or for lunch. So, coming to shop in a physical boutique really needs to be special and much more of an experience.”

In response to this, Bell and her team set up events like champagne receptions for customers on Thursdays and at weekends.

This is all quite different to the online shopping that Bell was used to observing, where people typically shop on their own on their computers, at times that suit them. This might be at times like 11pm at night, explains Bell.

But the boutique experience is very different. “We really want shopping to be a joy and the discovery of something really special a wonderful experience,” says Bell.