Despite the challenging retail scene, Taiwanese fashion label Iroo Singapore plans to continue its expansion with its sixth boutique by the end of this year.

This follows the opening of its fifth boutique in Singapore last month.

“We know the retail market is not doing well, but for us now is a good opportunity to expand,” says COO Emily Huang.

“Some malls in Orchard Rd are having higher vacancies, and that gives us the opportunity to pick and choose a good unit. A crisis can translate into a chance.”

Also, Iroo has had encouraging sales figures since it entered Singapore in 2010 with a store at Marina Bay Sands, introducing its no discount policy.

“We are not so affected by the downturn in part because we never have discounts,” says Huang. “Whenever customers come, it will always be the same price so there’s no need for them to wait until the year-end sale season to buy something.

“Meanwhile, our in-house design team makes sure we have new stock arrivals every week.”

As well as considering expanding into other Southeast Asian markets, Iroo plans to “test the waters” with an eCommerce platform next year. Huang says the company’s experience in Singapore for the past six years will make it easier and more efficient for Iroo to expand into other markets. At the moment, it has a distributor with two stores in Jakarta.

“Given that Iroo is not exactly a mass-market brand, we will try to separate our in-store merchandise with those online,” says Huang. “Online shoppers are younger and price-sensitive, so we will provide the online store with our jeans collection.”

In the meantime, the 17-year-old label, which has more than 80 outlets globally, is sprucing up its store designs. An all-white minimalist design is planned for one of its Taipei outlets, and the design may be replicated in Singapore soon.