–A digital solution to men’s shopping conundrum

SHOPPING for clothing can be a tedious task in Guyana, as most of the options are either drastically overpriced or otherwise severely limited to certain brands or types of style.
These options get even more limited for men, with the best clothing stores seemingly catering to men in a particular earning bracket. Now, with the crowd gravitating towards the Online shopping option to widen their horizons, it seems as though some of these problems have been solved, but here, still, comes the difficulties of shipping costs and waiting time.
And here is where Na-Mar Showroom comes in, a soon to be launched Online male clothing store that intends to merge the beauty of electronic shopping with a solution to the problem of limited clothing options for men in Guyana.

The brainchild of media personality, Mark Murray and business partner Namon Frank, Na-Mar Showroom will source clothing from a wide variety of international locations and have them available in Guyana.
Customers will be able to place orders via the Na-Mar Showroom Facebook page, and later through their website, which will be launched later on.
In an interview with The Buzz, Mark said that currently, only orders can be placed Online, while payment and pickup will be made in person.
“This will give people the option to buy right away and not have to wait on shipping. We knew when we were entering the local market, there would be a lot of competition, but we believe that we will have an advantage, given the Online platform,” he said. “And our stuff is immediately available, compared to other [Online shopping] places where you have long waiting time for shipping and so on.”

THE IDEA
Mark said that the idea for Na-Mar came about during a casual conversation with Namon as they discussed how difficult it was to find fashionable men’s clothing that are reasonably priced and easily accessible in Guyana. “So then, we threw the idea out to men to find out where they usually shop for their clothing, what difficulties they had, and whether they

would shop from an Online store that had the clothing available in Guyana and they said yes. So Na-Mar Showroom is a solution to the male clothing problem, basically,” he added.
He admitted that currently, the business will be focused on strictly filling the gap in the market rather than making a profit. This, he said, should therefore make prices affordable for the average man. “Of course, there will be high-end stuff if they are willing to pay, but for the most part, we are looking for affordable alternatives; something that may look fashionable and trendy… And we also won’t be flooding our store with a lot of the same items, so people don’t have to be scared of seeing others in the same item,” he said.

CASTING CALL
As the business gears to open its digital doors, an Online casting call will soon be held to select models for the site. Beginning this weekend, interested models can upload a professional headshot and a full-body photograph on the company’s Facebook page (NAMAR Showroom). Throughout the week, the followers of the page will be able to vote for their favourite model by liking/loving the picture of their choice.
On July 21, Na-Mar will select the Top Five voted models, and on July 23, there will be a pre-launch, after which the business will officially be launched on July 24.
For the next year, the business partners will be testing the market to see customer responses and preferences, after which, they will seek to look at having a physical location.
Mark said that they will also consider featuring the work of local designers in an aim to promote local talent. Following the launch of the website, young writers will also be given a chance to be contributors to a blog section available on the site.