Overall, I have mixed feelings about my time working with AX Paris.
While it did involve some new and exciting things I had never done before in my work or industry placement experiences like helping on a photoshoot and being given the responsibility of using a company's Instagram account to comment and like posts by the consumer and really get to speak to the customers of the company, the whole experience left me slightly disappointed.
The majority of the time I felt bored, since I was sat at a desk asking for things to do and there genuinely being nothing for me to do or help anyone with.
I repeated the same tasks every day to no effect, for example searching for style steals or similar AX Paris product from Daily Mail articles, which I sent off to a pr company but nothing really happened with them.
I feel like I was expecting a lot more from the placement. Realising how slow moving and quiet a day in the office is, made me realise it would not be the kind of company I have any interest in working for in the future. A lot of the senior staff didn't quite realise the impact of social media, bloggers (free advertising and PR!) and I think in this day and age, where a blogger or celebrity can be seen in something and it then sell out within hours, it's really important to understand the world of online retail and just how hugely important having a strong online presense can be to a business.
Having studied the fashion industry and retail trends for the past two years at University, has truly made me understand how retail works, and I don't think AX Paris are hitting many boxes to have a successful business. While sales are okay, I know that by changing their image slightly - and pushing for those PR connections really would increase sales for them.
AX Paris are slightly different in style to other Manchester online competitors like Missguided and Boohoo, they have a more girly and younger vibe while competitors are slightly grungier and can be more high-fashion. However they do have a lot of overlap in terms of consumers and who buys the products - young girls who like to get dressed up and party - and Missguided and Boohoo are storming ahead in both sales and online presence.
Simple things like lack of health and safety or induction, and obviously things like reviews meant it did not feel like a job or experience, I just sat in an office for a few weeks.
I wasn't shown where fire exits were, fire procedures or any tour of the building. At one point, a warehouse worker was even smoking in a shared toilet on the top floor of the building and this knocked me as something that no serious business would happily allow and let slide.
I did leave the business after only 4 weeks instead of 6 since I didn't think it was a productive use of my time away from university and I wanted to pick up more hours in my part time job to save up for the next year of university - as I would rather have a few extra pennies to spend on my dissertation than two extra weeks in the industry.
Since I left, AX Paris have done a bloggers photoshoot and 'takeover' - styling bloggers that I suggested to them in different outfits and doing creative photoshoots around Manchester which I do believe will give them a few extra sales, but I also think they should be constantly sending samples to magazines, celebrities and bloggers to thoroughly increase these numbers.
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