About us
Article by Filips Birzulis
Pieminot Jugla - in the eastern outskirts of Riga, most Rigan residents would rather imagine monotonous Soviet apartment blocks than a clothing store. More than ten years ago, Ivars Bitmets decided that it would be a challenge to sell quality clothing at an affordable price in this neighborhood where he grew up, rather than further overcrowding the city center.
Focusing on high-quality yet affordable and stylish men's trousers, and later offering products for women as well, the store Bikšu Bāze gradually gained a loyal customer base from Riga and other places in Latvia, as well as from other countries.
The striking wall painting, excellently advertising the store and enhancing the urban environment of the area, became a local landmark for both new customers and bike orienteering participants, as well as selfie-takers. 😊
When the world suddenly turned upside down in March 2020, during the spring pandemic phase, Latvian stores were allowed to remain open, but people were very afraid of getting sick and the number of visitors critically decreased. "Since we assign the highest value in business to knowledgeable and skilled employees, we were forced to think about how to pay salaries and rent," store owners Ivars and Beata revamped their existing website into a full-fledged online business.
"Anyone who has ordered clothing online knows that the biggest problem is determining the right size. Here, the specialists at Bikšu Bāze used the experience accumulated over several years. In the early days of the store's operation, it was necessary to understand sizing and create their own universal system, as they were selling"
"Factory rejected models without size labels, as well as any marked model size, can vary significantly depending on the manufacturer. The store owners became experts in the search for the perfect fit."
"To measure and read sizes, the task is to be able to recognize the peculiarities of the human body and develop a methodology ourselves, rather than relying on what is written down. Then, together with colleagues, we understood that the process can be recorded and divided into data," says Ivars.
Several different Facebook videos have been recorded in which Ivars invites men to simply mark their height and weight in a questionnaire (no jokes😊) and choose their style. As a response, the client receives links to suitable models of pants and jeans - products on the Pants Base website, and the client can conveniently place an order, receive the products by courier mail, or possibly pick them up at the Jugla store.
"Video became widely spread, and Ivars says that strangers jokingly tend to add advertising opening words: 'Hello, Gentlemen!'"
"By supplementing this formula with the advantages of artificial intelligence, it undoubtedly continues to work both in customer service and in the training of new employees. The Bitmet team takes particular pride in the fact that they can often correctly fulfill requests and orders from very large or small individuals or persons with special needs."
"We always ask for honest feedback, and people are happy to respond," says Beata, "this way we can measure the accuracy of our methods and improve them even further. It should be noted that in 95-97% of cases, clients say it is excellent. However, there is a small number of discrepancies. Sometimes they have to be acknowledged as our mistakes, from which we learn, and sometimes they arise because people have carelessly indicated their data, or the wife has ordered for her husband and made a slight mistake because she sees her husband as even more handsome😊"
Ivars says that Bikšu Bāze has overcome several major and minor crises, and is currently doing well, as they have managed to find new great employees and attract clients not only from all over Latvia but also from other countries.
"We are for non-standard solutions because each of us is unique. A person is not just data to be loaded into an Excel spreadsheet," says Beata. "After several months or years, we will still be talking about pants — even more styles, models, shapes, and more diverse colors!"