Interview with Joyce, the owner of an online store Succubus

Succubus is a shop I stumbled upon by “the accident” while searching for vintage/retro clothes and accessories.

I say by accident because my reasearch was focused on Belgium not The Netherlands, where Succubus is based. When I saw the range they had I coudln’t resist myself and ordered few items.

The thing you must know about me is: I hate shopping online! My body, though I love it dearly, is “difficult” for most of the modern designs, so I need to try something on before I buy it. You can imagine how amazed I was that I overcame that fear of money badly spent

My first order was very small (one cardigan- Voodoo Vixen Cocktail and Collectif Deborah 40’s Vintage Top). Additionally I got another sweater from my partner as a Saint Nicolas gift (Voodoo Vixen Fan Cardigan) You can see them all below.

I was so happy with the speed that the order was handled, quality of the packaging and colthes. This made me decide to continue shopping at Succubus!

Like I mentioned above I like to try on things before I buy them and Succubus is only online store, so once I found out that they had Open Days every month, where the whole collection is presented, I knew I had to go!

Last month I had the opportunity to travel over 200km to finally take part in this event and purchase clothing with the certainty it will fit me.

I was impressed by the organization, amount of choice and amazing help and advices of the ladies working at Succubus !

After few hours (Yes, I spent hours there!) of fantastic fun I finished my shopping and had a quick chat with the shop owner-Joyce.

Once I stepped out through the door I was the happy owner of 5 new dresses and got a promise that Joyce will answer few questions for Pin-up Magazine, telling us a little bit more about this amazing place that she has created for every retro lover!

So ladies and gentlemen I give you the lady responsible for making women happy!

Joyce: Hi, my name Joyce, 28 years old and live in Holland. Since 2005 Succubus has been my life, so I am glad that my partner joined me! I studied International Management. So nothing fashion related, but it does teach you how to run a business. I find fashion fascinating, but have no interest in following the trends. Nothing more personal than your own style!

Cherry Bee: Could you please tell me how you came up with the idea of your shop?
J:Actually for an old school project I needed to set up a business. Just in words off course, but I saw potential and thought: why not? So with a loan from mother dearest we carefully selected our first collection and headed to our first fair. Even though we meant to sell only online, the first 6 years we mainly sold on fairs and learn a great deal about what the customer really needs. Only after I graduated I focussed fulltime on the webshop.

ChB:Are you interested in the retro style? What is your favourite era in fashion?
J:What I love about vintage and retro is that there are so many styles involved. For daytime I love the fifties look, while for a party I prefer the sixties look (up with that hemline!). I also think that the eighties look can be rocked at any time. But like most of our ladies, I like to mix it up.

ChB:Where did the name of your shop- Succubus come from?
J:A Succubus is a female demon that feeds of the life energy of others. Sounds a bit dark, but what we see is female empowerment. And that is exactly what great clothing does to a girl. We have seen wallflowers become confident woman because of a great fitting dress. And this counts for woman in all sizes!

ChB:Your shop is only an online shop. Did you think about opening a regular shop? If not, why?
J:It’s true, we only sell online. We did play with the idea of opening a shop, but we see this as a totally different business. We have our hands full with our online shop! That is why we have our Open Day events, so that you can still visit and try and shop everything that you like.

ChB:All the clothes I bought in your shop are top quality. Even after washing they are still perfect. How do you choose brands that you work with?
J:We wouldn’t expect anything less! When scouting for new brands we look for elements that we know are important to us and our customers. Off course the quality has to be great, also the size range. We are proud to say that our collections goes up to size 9XL! And also, we have to be amazed by our own collection. One can only have so many polkadot dresses right?

ChB:Once a month you organize Succubus Open Day. Could you please tell us what we can expect during this event? Are there any special promotions?
J:Sometimes we do, but noticed that our customers didn’t really pay attention to them. They are on a mission (even if the mission is just to look great) and really listen to what our ladies recommend to them! That is why we have up to 9 ladies to help with the perfect look.

ChB: I felt really taken care of during the Open Day. A lady, Janet as I recall, should get a prize for the seller of a month. She could judge my size just by looking at me, she chose the right colours and in the end I went out dressed from head to toe and everything matches perfectly. Are the ladies that we see during this event volunteers or regular workers of yours?
J: Janet really has a special talent! But don’t underestimate my other ladies, they work customer care like nobody else can, making great many people happy each and every day. We all have our own role in the company and happen to be very good at it J Janet and some others only work during our monthly Open Day, while I have my diehard ladies that work both fulltime both the webshop as events.

ChB:Can we meet you during other events except for the Open Day? Where is the next event you are going to?
J:At the moment we don’t have any outside events, just our Open Day each month. This way we can offer our entire collection instead of having to choose what to bring.

ChB:During Open Day in October you mentioned that you know about Polish Brit Style online shop. How did you find out about them?
The great world wide web! Google is a great way to find just about anything and to be found.

ChB: I am sure our Polish readers would love to know this: do you have any promotions/ discounts for the new clients with their first order? What are the payment methods that you accept when shipping abroad?
J: Worldwide we accept bank transfer, Paypal and creditcard and you can select ‘English’ to get the site fully in English. We are looking forward to seeing you at www.succubus.nl !