Interview Present Time
Who is Present Time?
Present Time is a Dutch company with a Danish CEO, offering a unique combination of Dutch design and Scandi style! Present Time is specialized in home decorations, designer clocks, lighting, and smaller items of furniture.
Headquartered in the Dutch city of Almere, Present Time is active all over the world. You can also visit us during trade fairs in the Netherlands and abroad. All information can be found on our website: www.presenttime.com.
What will we find in your collection?
We have three brands in our collection:
An internationally renowned Dutch clock brand with clocks that stand out in terms of their shape, colour, and innovative designs.
This brand offers a unique collection of lighting and smaller items of furniture.
This brand designs home decoration items in the broadest sense of the word: each has a high ‘must-have’ factor and is suitable for different interior styles.
Which of Present Time’s products is a must-have item?
The ‘Flip Clock No Case’ has been an absolute favourite for years – it simply must be a part of your range! The current collection’s designs come in black with chrome, complete black, and white with gold. The colours CORAL PINK and COMPLETE WHITE will be added to the new collection.
Why do we have to buy Present Time?
Nobody has to buy from Present Time, but I’m assuming that few visitors will be able to resist the new collection!
The company launches a brand-new collection twice a year. Present Time has made a name for itself by using unexpected, eye-catching colours in the items in the three brand collections.
The new CORAL PINK, which takes centre stage in the new collection, is a statement colour for your interior.
However, there will also be more natural colours in brown tones such as ‘SAND BROWN,’ ‘CLAY BROWN,’ and ‘COGNAC’. Not to mention the pastel-esque SUN KISSED COLOURS! There’s really something for everyone.
Salone del Mobile 2019
Amazing Milan: discover the highlights of the Salone del Mobile 2019
This year’s inspiring Salone del Mobile in Milan has drawn to a close! During Design Week, the entire city of Milan lives and breathes interior design. For six whole days, the city is transformed into a major art and culture festival, a true feast for the eyes. We were definitely impressed! Our stylists Imke and Marloes headed into the city to visit the trendiest hotspots and catch a glimpse of the latest trends and highlights.
In this blog, we take you with us to the city and the furniture fair and show you what caught our eye in Milan:
from left to right | DUTCH INVERTUALS, ARPER, AND MASTERLY
There’s no escaping the circle in Milan! It’s the ultimate symbol of unity, perfection, and eternity. Rounded shapes are also in abundance, creating a sense of completeness that softens and relaxes any interior. There is an explosion of beautiful colour combinations, with lots of warm earthy shades, such as reddish-brown, terracotta, and dusty rose. And there’s no avoiding patterns and prints, such as the wallpaper designed by Melissa Peen at Masterly. Her latest range of wallpaper is inspired by the painter Rembrandt van Rijn.
Gucci
The Italian brand Gucci opened a pop-up store in the centre of Milan for the duration of the Salone del Mobile.
Gucci’s new interior collection reflects the eclectic, romantic style of the fashion house, and includes prints, bold colours, and lots of references to flora and fauna. It comprises beautiful porcelain dinnerware, rugs with fringing, embroidered velvet cushions in the shape of animals, and shell-shaped armchairs inspired by 1950s Hollywood.
from left to right | GUCCI, VITRA, AND DEDON
What makes an interior authentic? Not the large sofas, chairs, or trendy dining tables, but the small personal items, such as a work of art, framed photographs, and souvenirs from an unforgettable trip. Items purchased not only for aesthetic reasons but also for emotional reasons result in a rich collage of materials and styles that are personal and infused with an eccentric charm. This delightful house exudes a passion for craftsmanship and textiles.
from left to right | MAARTEN BAAS AND CARLOS AMORALES
Experience it! And last but certainly not least, we were filled with wonder at the exhibition of the designer Maarten Baas in Ventura Centrale and let’s not forget the exhibition displaying the work of Carlos Amorales. Hordes of black butterflies of various sizes and species cover the grand staircase, mirrors, walls, and doors of the Milan-based Fondazione Adolfo Pini. We had to queue for an hour and a half, but it was worth it!
VLOG: Marloes & Imke in Milan
Our stylists Imke and Marloes took a trip to Milan to attend the Salone del Mobile furniture fair. During Milan’s Design Week, the entire city lives and breathes interior design. For six whole days, the city is transformed into a major art and culture festival, a true feast for the eyes.
In this video, we take you with us to the city and the furniture fair and show you what caught our eye during Milan Design Week.
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Stylingvlog 3 Imke & Marloes
Vlog #3 by stylists Imke & Marloes
TICA Trends & Trade was given a summery makeover by our very own stylists Imke and Marloes! The big trend for this summer is Colourbomb, which can be found at various locations in the cash & carry’s.
This vlog gives you a glimpse behind the scenes, showing you exactly how the styling process goes. From painting to shopping, building, and the beautiful end result. Check out the vlog and find inspiration for ways of styling your shop and window displays!
Turnover-boosting tips
Every shop owner is always aiming for more and better. At TICA Trends & Trade, we’re also always on the lookout for improvements that we could make, and we often take a moment to think about how we can improve and maintain customer satisfaction and boost our turnover.
We’ve come up with a few essential tips to give your turnover boost – you won’t want to miss them!
Attention please: here come a few essential tips!
#1: Let’s start straight away with our top tip: maximize the average sales amount! Work out what it would mean for you if every customer spent two euros more. That’s a big chunk of extra turnover over the course of a year!
How can you do it? By encouraging impulse buying, for example. This can easily be done by placing a rack close to the till containing attractive jewellery or other accessories, for example. You don’t have to go searching for another wholesaler for this; you can simply buy jewellery from TICA Concept Store.
#2: Make your shop irresistible for a specific target group. Do this by targeting a specific target group, for instance ‘young thirty-plussers’ such as mothers of children at primary school. Find out where they spend their time and target that location! A good time and place to hand out flyers could be Monday lunchtimes outside the school playground. Link an attractive promotion to the flyer and draw attention to your shop!
#3: Employ a ‘runner’ at specific times. This is someone who is only job is topping up the product supply – empty shelves when your shop is full of customers will cripple your turnover. At appropriate times, you can invest in someone who refills the empty shelves as fast as the products disappear.
#4: An opportunity they won’t want to miss: the ‘last chance’ rack! When a customer realizes that an item is almost sold out, there is an extra stimulus to buy one. Women in particular are susceptible to this kind of encouragement and will want to have an item if it is selling well. For women like us, that’s the proof that an item is indispensable!
#5: Improve your shop’s brand familiarity. More customers means more turnover, of course. Utilize a range of social media channels and use hashtags with words that are related to the products you sell or to the target group you want to address. Spread the word to get your name known – in other words, to get more turnover!
#6: Working on the loyalty of existing customers is also very important, as well as acquiring new ones. A successful tip for this is using personal messages! An attractive way of doing it is to hang labels on the products giving a personal message from the shop owner. Create a card with your company name and a personal message and attach it to every item (or every item sold). This tag will create more empathy with your company and will make people feel good!
#7: Organize a pop-up sale. If you want to tempt your customers with discounts and draw in more people in a specific week – a quiet period, for instance – then a pop-up sale is a good idea: a sale that lasts no more than a day and draws attention to specific items (or to your entire range).
#8: Check your point-of-sale materials again. Do they project the right image? Are they focusing on the right target group? Is there a clear ‘call to action’? The right communication materials generate higher turnover.
#9: As well as encouraging turnover, your communication materials present an image of how friendly your shop is. Make sure the communication materials are friendly and interesting and generate enthusiasm in order to give your customers the desired feeling and make sure that they come back again!
#10: Let your customers touch the products. When a customer comes to a physical shop, it means that they want to see and feel the products. Otherwise they could simply make their purchases online. Make sure that the products are easy to get at and get rid of those ‘please do not touch’ signs immediately!
To be continued…
Liefs, Layla