The CEO of one of the world’s first Chinese fashion consultancies, Yunqi Qiang spoke to us about SSOMO – A fashion consultancy company which provides international buying and bespoke PR services to the UK and China. Yunqi Qiang is photographed below and the picture was taken by Wang Weixiao.
1. Tell us about SSMO.
SSOMO is one of the first and most experienced fashion consulting companies working between China and the UK, operating as a bridge between the two markets. We provide International Buying, PR and Fashion Events Management services along with providing guidance to fashion businesses regarding Design Development, Private Label Product Development and more to support emerging and established designers.
We are a team of international professionals dedicated to fashion industry and qualified in business development and marketing services.
2. How do you cope with your British and Chinese clients? Any cultural shock?
Establishing relationships and bringing together businesses from such a culturally and historically diverse backgrounds is very interesting part of the job.
When it comes to business, there are few differences between the cultures, particularly, when closing deals and establishing professional relationships. I have noticed that while British clients tend to be more direct by devoting most of attention to legal paperwork and written agreements, Chinese clients tend to invest more time in firstly establishing firm business relationships without these it is difficult for Chinese clients to move forward with securing legal ties.
When it comes to communication, our British clients are again focused on the direct approach to any business matters while Chinese clients tend to be less direct and more personally recognizing.
3. Where do you see SSMO in 5 years?
As a company we are growing very fast and we chose London as the location where we currently operate from most of the time. However, within next few years we are planning to open an exclusive showroom in Mainland China to introduce even more local clients to our selected UK and European designers products.
Moreover, we are planning to open an office in Paris, which would ease our travel schedule to the many designer showrooms.
4. Are you looking at breaking into other countries in future?
We represent talented designers who manufacture their high quality products strictly in EU. We have our eyes set on expansion more widely in Asia as we see a great potential for Chinese and European businesses working together. Demand is big and being able to predict the industry development in both continents makes us believe we will be extremely busy in the future covering China alone.
Of course, for future plans we take North America into consideration.
It was very nice speaking with Yunqi, SSOMO is the future.