Championing Sustainable Fashion: Q&A with Nobody’s Child Founder & Chairman, Andrew Xeni

Andrew Xeni is a visionary technology and retail entrepreneur. After building a successful manufacturing business supplying the UK high street, Xeni went on to create eco conscious brand, Nobody’s Child, named 2023 Drapers Retailer of the Year (<£100m), of which Marks & Spencer is a strategic investor and shareholder. Merging both retail and technology, Xeni founded award-winning retail tech companies, Fabacus and Soreto. As CEO of Fabacus, a DaaS (Data-as-a-Service) technology business servicing the licensing and retail industries, Xeni has top tier clients including NBC Universal, Hasbro, Paramount, Fanatics, UFC, Epic Games and IMG, part of Endeavor. In 2023, Fabacus launched a Digital Product Passport solution driven by compliant product catalogues in preparation for developing legislation around the world set to shake up the retail landscape. Xeni is backed by several leading financial institutions, including iNovia Partners, led by former Google CFO Patrick Pichette and New Look founder Tom Singh. In addition to managing a diverse portfolio of businesses and sitting as Chairman for Nobody’s Child and Soreto, Xeni is an active angel investor.

 

 

Following his appearance at Pure London, we sat down with Nobody’s Child Founder & Chairman, Andrew Xeni, to discuss his experience in retail, his thoughts on the current and emerging landscape, his advice to new retail brands, and to learn more about the introduction of Digital Product Passports into legislation.

 

What inspired you to start Nobody's Child, and how did you identify the market need for your brand?

 

Our family manufacturing business owned factories in Moldova and London, so with commercial benefits and agility, plus my brother’s eye for product aside, we knew we could produce ethically because we had full control of most of our supply chain. We were passionate to pursue and deliver this proposition, whilst maintaining an affordable price point. We wanted to challenge the traditional value fashion retailers, to deliver beautiful fashion that was producing, to be both ethical and affordable. At the time, there wasn’t anyone doing this with any conviction, and those positioning themselves that way were charging a premium price.

 

What are the biggest challenges you have faced as a founder in retail, and how did you overcome them?

 

The entire value chain of a traditional pure play model is challenged and broken. We faced a fast-evolving retail landscape where customer acquisition was the focus at any cost, so significant capital was the key ingredient to success. In addition, cost of product, production costs, transport, P&P, and customer acquisition were squeezing the model, whilst also facing returns. Building a commercially viable e-commerce value brand didn’t seem possible and our resources and capital were limited. The first step to remedying this was to think creatively, so we needed to think about ways to alleviate pressure from our biggest cost centre, customer acquisition. This led to the thought process of exploring potential strategic partners and ultimately to our partnership with M&S, that would amplify our reach and drive down our blended customer acquisition cost. Concurrently, the team worked extremely hard to elevate the brand. It became apparent that our customer was comfortable paying a little more for eco-conscious, honest, better quality, and beautiful fashion, finally making our model more viable and scalable.

 

How do you foresee the retail landscape evolving in the next few years? And what would you say is the biggest evolution you have already seen play out during your time working within fashion retail?

 

I have only really operated as a retailer for the last 10 years and the biggest influence has been social media and leveraging social media through influencers as a strategy. Followed in quick succession by the introduction of social commerce, traditional retailers have been playing catch up. The pandemic forced an acceleration but there is still a gap that retailers are trying to address, whilst being challenged by an emergence of more ecommerce giants, winning through capability. Of course, AI and personalisation will also have an impact but the biggest change we are witnessing is the evolution and introduction of real governance focused on sustainability, circularity, and transparency. Thankfully, a global trend, although it appears we’re trailing in the UK!

 

How do you foresee consumer behaviour and desires evolving in the next few years?

 

Whilst I believe consumers will still buy based on price point, design, and quality, I also feel that once these boxes are ticked, consumers will start to evaluate and align with brands that share their values. This also makes their eco-credentials a more crucial factor than ever before. We are already seeing a growing trend of conscious consumers, and the younger demographic is better equipped with tools to research and measure, which is helping them form more informed opinions about the brands they choose. Brand equity will be key, the incoming legislation is creating the perfect foundation to drive brand accountability and governance. Through the partnership with Fabacus, Nobody’s Child launched Digital Product Passports last Summer. The perfect opportunity to publicly demonstrate all the work we are doing behind the scenes, to practice what we preach, and at the same time, deliver an experience to the consumer that has already yielded a great return. The brand halo effect from this execution has been huge and now we turn our focus to scaling DPP’s across all products, because we believe consumers will demand this level of transparency, and we are ready.

 

What strategies do you recommend brands could implement to effectively reach and engage with their target audience, particularly in the online retail space?

 

Given the data available and tools accessible, brands have the perfect opportunity to truly understand and serve their customers. Through more robust processes and higher-quality data, brands can ensure every touch point delivers the best brand experience to consumers. This can range from adding Digital Product Passports to the product, through to the packaging, customer service and online or in-store experience. Every channel, whether social or email, must be consistent and high quality. There is no longer any room for error because consumers have ample options to choose from, so an obsession of customer experience and knowing their consumer is essential.

 

Tell us more about how you feel technology and data will be instrumental in impacting both consumers and the retail industry as a whole?

 

There are far too many technologies to call out. I would highlight the impact and importance of data integrity at each point, from AI to personalisation and Digital Product Passports. Consumers appreciate great service and experience, whether it’s improving search functionality to helping inform their buying decisions, a brand can impact how the customer feels, so any tools focused on improving customer experience (CX) seem to be a priority, and this is one true application for AI. Lastly, it is worth noting that traceability tools will help retailers make more informed, efficient buying and sourcing decisions, and this will lead to more consumer benefits too.

 

Do you feel brands are effectively leveraging the possibilities of social media for retail?

 

No, I feel on average, as an industry, we respond to trends too late; as a result, our execution is not authentic. The social media natives can see through generic campaigns and standard content. However, I do feel we are learning a lot faster in this domain, given the real-time feedback we get from consumers, to optimise and evolve faster. That said, brands do not get this opportunity offline, so between websites and social media channels, we need a whole array of activity to amplify reach and improve funnels. We also need to understand our customer base to establish the best channel and style of communication that works best for them, so we don’t alienate core customers whilst acquiring new ones, that’s where better quality data comes in. Social media is a powerful tool for raising awareness, but the core proposition must still be compelling to achieve the desired results. Personally, we have additionally found success through our referral technology, Soreto, leveraging our customers loyalty, and rewarding them for referring over social. This is a hugely under-utilised tool by retailers that can directly lead to more effective social media strategies.

 

What advice would you give to emerging fashion brands looking to establish themselves in a competitive market?

 

In the current climate, authenticity and a clear proposition are the first things they need to establish before going to market. If they are not offering anything better than what exists, it’s a tough journey. I also challenge early-stage brands to really understand the value chain end-to-end, so they know which KPIs to focus on and when. They must know the impact of product cost, through to customer acquisition and the subsequent returns. Consumers are bombarded by brands and retailers all day, across every different channel, so getting their attention, trust, and loyalty, is becoming an extremely expensive exercise. This needs to be studied and proven before scaling a brand, or it escalates to a point that is no longer sustainable and too late scale back. Not enough early-stage brands take advantage of the time before attempting to scale, because they are keen to grow quickly, which I do understand, but the short-term loss of time will yield exponential returns mid- long term, if the analysis is conducted thoroughly enough. Lastly, amidst adversity and all the headwinds, I will say to emerging brands, there is hope it can be done.