Their clothing blogshop may have started out as a hobby, but the sisters behind The Closet Lover have turned it into a full-fledged business with four brick-and-mortar stores in Singapore.

The company opened its fourth and largest store at Takashimaya Shopping Centre last November. Overseas, it operates two stores in Malaysia and another two in Cambodia.

"To be very frank, we started the company purely as a hobby when we were still students. The thought of having extra pocket money got us excited too," co-founder Brianna Wong quips.

In 2007, Brianna and her sister Bertilla, then 21 and 17, started the venture using all of Brianna's savings, which was about S$3,000.

The sum was used to purchase clothes, which they would then sell on a free-to-use platform. Meanwhile, the sisters took turns as model, photographer, customer service officer and packer.

"We were basically a two-man team with no overhead costs. These days, it would be hard to start out with the same amount," co-founder Bertilla adds.

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The business was formally registered about nine years ago, as demand grew. Today, it generates profit margins within the industry's range of 7 to 15 per cent, says Bertilla.

The sisters say the support of long-time customers and their team are what has propelled them thus far.

They tell more about challenges faced during the pandemic and what's next for the company.

What were the experiences that shaped your thinking as bosses and founders?

We are both very sincere and straightforward individuals, and we have kept it that way, be it on social media or in building personal relationships with our team and our customers. What you see is what you get.

On social media, where we, as well as The Closet Lover, started out on very early, we keep it unfiltered and openly share both our personal and work experiences. Despite getting nasty comments sometimes, we have not stopped doing that as we love connecting with our customers, some of whom have turned into friends as well.

Also, we don't forget to count our blessings as founders - we are still in contact with our earliest suppliers as they really helped us grow our business at the beginning.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how did you overcome it?

The Covid-19 pandemic has definitely been one of our greatest challenges. We would have never imagined needing to close our stores for months and living with not knowing when we could resume operations while still paying rent.

At the start of the "circuit breaker" last year, we also had to make the tough decision of whether to continue running our e-commerce store or not. There was nothing stopping us, but was it worth it?

Operating the e-commerce store meant more revenue and minimising our losses, but it also meant that our logistics team would have to return to the office to fulfil orders. That would have put them at risk of contacting the virus as most of them take the public transport to work.

Ultimately, we decided that the health of our staff mattered more than the revenue of the company, and so, paused all operations for a month. It meant scrapping all our campaign ideas and finding other ways to continue engaging with our customers despite being unable to interact with them in person.

What do you think was your best bet for the company?

When we wanted to open our first physical retail store, everyone told us to reconsider it due to the high retail costs involved. But we decided to go ahead, as we believed in having a space where customers could see and feel the fabrics and quality of our products for themselves.

It has been a key step to building our community of customers and building the omnichannel experience we envisioned for our brand.

And the worst?

Cliche as it may be, we don't think we have made any bad bets for the company. There may have been low moments, but every situation has been a learning experience for us.

What's next for the company?

Our plan had been to expand our retail presence in the last two to three years. We believe we have achieved that goal. We started out with just one retail store and now have four, all of which are at strategic locations that we wanted and planned for.

Moving forward, our goal is to improve The Closet Lover's omnichannel experience. We want to create a convenient, fuss-free and exciting shopping experience for customers.

We also want to strengthen and grow our community. Our brand has always been about growing through the seasons with our customers and journeying through life with them, and we want to do more of that.

When you are not working in the office, where are you to be found?

We used to travel once a month for work, to source for prints and fabrics, and meet our manufacturers. As a result of the pandemic, we haven't travelled since January last year - but that doesn't mean we haven't been working!

We do most of the work from home now, from sourcing for materials virtually to having meetings online. We have also adjusted to a new way of communicating with our manufacturers, which is working. So, new designs are being launched as usual.