It’s interesting you mentioned that there was a certain level of growth you wanted to achieve that one single brick & mortar location couldn’t serve. Have things worked out relatively smoothly? As I see it, organic growth and sustainable growth can be used intermittently and for any new initiative, it’s this “slow & steady” growth that ensures the inevitable mistakes you make along the way are minimal in their impact. This allows you to slowly explore new angles and directions in a careful manner. Do you think that the previous online retail landscape before you allowed you to effectively pick and choose the best approaches and features to running a proper retailer with a good online presence?

Daniel: Have things worked out relatively smoothly? I would say so. I mean there have been some bumps in the road here and there but we learned quickly from any mistakes we made but the entire business is a big learning process for the both of us I think. I think you’re right in the “slow and steady” growth ensures the impact of any mistakes are kept to a minimum. Especially in economic times like this, I think that businesses should be on the more cautious side and stick to good fundamentals. In regards to the online retail landscape before we came along, I think things were a bit of a mixed bag. There were some good online retailers that we definitely looked up to and borrowed some ideas from, but at the same time there were some pretty bad ones that we didn’t want to be like. So in a way, we were learning from the mistakes of others as well. Shops need to realize that in order to do successful online retail, you need to put a lot of thought and resources into it. It’s basically its own business in addition to your physical retail business and you should treat it as such.

I know that you guys took a trip to Japan earlier this year I believe and were blown away by the workings of Japan as a culture and in the realm of retail. How have these experiences translated into HAVEN post-trip? Do you feel that it sort of altered HAVEN’s identity?

Arthur: Ya, I’ve been travelling back and forth from Japan a couple times this past season. It is definitely an eye opening experience no doubt. The culture, the politeness, the attention to detail… it’s all very inspiring. I personally think nothing comes close to what some of the Japanese brands are putting out. The level of detail and quality is completely unmatched by anything coming out of North America. I’m not sure if it has really altered our Canadian identity, we will always be proud of our Canadian identity, but we definitely adopted some ways of doing business the way they do in Japan. Retail in Japan is a lot about consumption but it is also about the whole experience. They go above and beyond. We are also becoming known somewhat for our hard to find selection of exclusive Japanese brands. I will continue to travel back and forth to Japan a few times a year as we are doing quite a large amount of business out there. Japanese are very cautious with who they do business with and relationships need to develop over time.

Seeing your brand roster change over such a short period, would you say that the influx of Japanese influence was by no means planned and sort of evolved naturally into that path? Has a strong Japanese currency made you re-think buying and the items you stock?

Arthur: Our brands have definitely evolved over time for the better no doubt, but from the get go of us conceiving the shop this was always the direction that we wanted. It just took a little time to build up and develop relationships and contacts to the point that they are now. We’ve always been huge fans of many of the brands we carry so it is definitely a natural progression. Customers are also becoming more knowledgeable and are looking for new things that aren’t as accessible so we try to get the best stuff for them. I also find some of the things that are coming out of the North American market are kind of stale, so we have really focused and concentrated most of our resources now on bringing in overseas brands that still have exclusive cache to differentiate ourselves. The Japanese currency has been quite strong as of late, but the good thing is the Canadian currency is also rebounding. We are not too worried about it.

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