Scan Magazine | Design Profile | By Asbæk
Online fashion with a human face By Asbæk is the online fashion shop that puts customer satisfaction first and shows its human face. In fact, one of the owners appears on the website, modelling all the clothes. By Thomas Bech Hansen | Photo: By Asbæk
It is January and there is a long, long way until next Christmas. But why should this stop us unwrapping presents? When shopping with Danish online fashion shop By Asbæk, all items come gift-wrapped – it is just part of the idea. “We want to give customers a great experience,” says Natasja Asbæk, who co-owns the company together with Anders Schelde.
‘We always find a solution’
shopping on the internet. “I think we had experienced that sort of indifference you often encounter as a customer. Some companies just do not seem to care, and it is almost a positive surprise if the service is good – and it should never be that way. Of course, there are bound to be problems along the way; we all make mistakes. But this should never be the customer’s problem. We always find a solution,” says Schelde.
In 2014, the pair decided to launch the women’s fashion web shop from scratch as the antithesis to large-scale global
Asbæk echoes his sentiment: “We wanted more intimacy, better service.” Hence
16 | Issue 96 | January 2017
the year-round gift-wrapping. “Regardless of whether people are actually ordering something as a present, we put a nice gift wrap on it. It is just that feeling of there being someone at the other end, and it does matter to us whether customers are happy shopping with us or not.”
Owner is the model Keeping true to the pledge of showing a human face, By Asbæk is not only a web shop. Every Wednesday afternoon and the first Saturday of every month, the shop opens its physical showroom in Slagelse. “People should have the chance to come and feel the clothes, and meet us,” says Asbæk. She is often recognised by customers who visit the shop, and this is no coincidence. If By Asbæk has a face, she is it. She is the lady on the