Following on from an earlier virtual ‘retailer round table’ at the beginning of April, GiftsandHome.net invited a new group of independent gift retailers to Zoom in to share their lockdown survival strategies and how they will be adapting to a ‘new normal’ once non-essential shops are allowed to re-open.
The retailer conference took place on Tuesday (April 28), hosted by Progressive Gifts & Home/GiftsandHome.net’s editor Sue Marks.
The ‘round tablers’ were (in alphabetical order): Bill Nettlefield, owner of Bill & Bert’s in Colchester; David Lorimer and Keiron Cockley, owners of Brocante in Fowey, Mevagissey and St Ives; Claire O’Donnell, owner of The Herbary in Troon; Harriet and Adam de Wolff, owners of Indigo Tree in Crystal Palace and Streatham; Helen Crawford, co-owner of The Old School Beauly in Beauly and Alison Chapman, owner of Wonder Stuff in Treorchy.
For Helen Crawford, co-owner of The Old School Beauly, having a website has been a saviour during lockdown. “Before we closed our shop on March 23 we had 3,000 products online. We had been plugging away at the website for three years but it had never been significant in terms of sales. However, since we closed, we have uploaded a further 2,000 products, and our website sales have increased by 500% over the last 30 day period in comparison with the same period last year,” confirmed Helen, who owns the business with her husband William. “Although we have a fair amount of fashion that isn’t moving, gift products are doing well.” Adds Helen: “For us, it’s also very much about social media in terms of content, blogging and emailing. We have been capturing VIP email addresses over the past four years and it’s enabled us to contact all our customers by email every week with direct links to the website. The lockdown has really re-inforced how important capturing customer data is.”
Although Harriet and Adam de Wolff, co-owners of The Indigo Tree in Crystal Palace and Streatham, didn’t have a website before lockdown, they have spent much of the past five weeks creating one. “We’re hoping to start generating sales this week,” confirmed Adam.
Bill Nettlefield, owner of Bill and Bert’s in Colchester, admits that having only opened the shop last August, he was so busy that he didn’t make time for the website, leaving only one page open that directs people to a Facebook page as well as to Instagram. “If we had known what was going to happen we would have made more effort to have a transactional website. We do pick up some sales from social media but not enough to make a difference. So, like everyone else, we’re sitting here with a pile of stock in the shop with the front door shut.”
David Lorimer and Kieron Cockley, co-owners of Brocante, who have four shops based in Fowey, Mevagissey and St Ives, admit to being non-techie. “However, we do have a website, and having never done a sale before in 15 years of trading, we are now offering customers 20% off. We’re sending parcels from home, and doing everything we can to make the best of things,” explains Keiron.
Alison Chapman, owner of Wonder Stuff in Treorchy, had a website in the past that didn’t generate many sales so is not looking to build one. “However, I’m changing the shop windows regularly because there is still a lot of footfall in Treorchy, and if people see something they want to buy they contact me on Facebook and I do a local delivery,” confirmed Alison.
Although she doesn’t have a website either, Claire O’Donnell, owner of The Herbary in Troon, has been very pro-active on social media since closing the shop. “Thanks to a box of samples that a supplier gifted to me – linked to a new range that was due to launch in April – I was able to run a promotion on social media asking people to nominate their NHS hero so that we could send a gift to that person as a way to say thank you. It was very well received because people ‘liked’ and shared the post. Also, because I have been doing a lot of local deliveries, I’ve teamed up with the local food bank, making it clear to our customers that we are able to collect for the food bank while we are delivering. They leave food parcels our on their doorsteps and I collect them while I’m dropping off their gifts. The efforts our customer have made have been phenomenal.”
A third initiative has been buying hand sanitisers and surface sprays from Wax Lyrical.“I’ve been giving some of them away to key workers such as teachers, postmen and carers, with many of them buying small gifts in return, so it’s been working both ways, and again, has the feelgood factor,” points out Claire. “Plus, I’ve been doing Facetime virtual personal shopping with several customers. It’s the closest to browsing, and I’ve found that many people feel obliged to buy.”
David Lorimer says that the lockdown has made him realise how difficult it is to be a seasonal business. “As our shops are in tourist areas where we don’t get a huge amount of business at Christmas, we therefore depend on trade from Easter up until September/October. As Easter didn’t happen for us, we’ve left ourselves more exposed than we would have liked. However, we held a virtual evening for a French customer recently, who brought along eight friends, with each one spending around £50. We also did a virtual walk round the shop with one of our customers, who bought a lot of Easter gifts and cards for her grandchildren, so we’ve found it’s worth doing.”
Claire O’Donnell highlights that the lockdown has taught her how resourceful she can be. “We’re actually turning over a fair amount of money at the moment. For example, we had an exceptional Monday this week, probably taking three times the amount that we would have taken on a normal Monday. It made me realise that the items we are doing best with are the core priced items, so the lockdown has taught me that I need to have a good look at the product mix going forward.”
Harriet de Wolff agrees that people are buying lower priced items. “Customers are spending £20 on a gift but they want the card included. So that’s the price range we’re looking it which is great if you’re selling trinket dishes or small ceramic items in the shop, but selling from a website they are not easy to post out. We are therefore looking at different types of items that you can sell online to minimise having to deal with damages, breakages etc.”
Adds Adam de Wolff: “What’s really helped us have been the government grants which have enabled us to create the website and to revisit the shops to make them more customer friendly when we re-open.”
At The Old School Beauly, Helen Crawford says that she has been caught out by B2C orders and how big brand fashion suppliers have been treating her as a small independent retailer. “There’s been no negotiation, no sharing of the burden at all,” she points out. “However, gift suppliers have been much more open in dealing with us, and in a more positive way, as have greeting card companies.”
Keiron Cockley agrees, confirming that suppliers have been treating them fairly and vice versa. “We’ve stayed in touch with them and paid them as much as we can which they’ve appreciated. After all, when we re-open we still want to have the best suppliers possible.”
As Adam de Wolff points out, “we are all in a cash flow situation and people will do what they can to get money in. We have just had one of our grants in, and have paid a lot of people today, so that is a good, positive thing going forward.”
Claire admits that she’s had a few difficult conversations with suppliers about higher end pre-Christmas products, “and if I’m honest, I can’t see that getting any better,” she states. “Plus, I also get extremely annoyed with extreme marketing and promotional activity on websites by our suppliers. I deal with a couple of big brands who have started promoting really aggressively on their websites. We always try to price match, but when things are going to 30% off and then 50% off – and we’re still closed – it makes it really difficult. I’m worried that if I don’t start moving the stock at 30%, by the time we re-open it is going to be down at 70%, with no margin at all.”
As for post-lockdown, Keiron Cockley said that from Brocante’s perspective, they will have to wait until B&B’s and hotels get the go ahead to open from the government. “Even if we’re allowed to open in mid-June we’re not sure if it’s the right time for us. No-one is allowed to travel, so there is no-one down here on holiday. Also, being a small shop, if we can only have one person in at a time, and if they only buy a greeting card, is it really worth us re-opening? We will therefore have to make a difficult decision.” Adds David: “We also want the shop to re-open as ‘our’ shop, not the shop we’re being told to have, although we’d be happy to wear gloves and masks. We simply haven’t got enough staff to have someone standing at the door to police things. Additionally, we’ve been very lucky with the weather up to now, but how will customers feel about standing outside in the pouring rain?”
Claire O’Donnell admits that she’s nervous about re-opening. “During lockdown I’m working alone from home and don’t have to deal with anyone. But even if I have Plexiglass at the counter, and someone at the door to stop people coming in, plus masks, visors and gloves, it means relying on other people’s behaviour. We sell a huge amount of jewellery, and I can’t begin to imagine how I would let someone try on a necklace for example. People want our help and advice. We’re a very interactive shop, and I’m going to have to get over it if I want to re-open. Also, I worry about losing browsers. Will people wait outside just to have a look round?”
At Wonder Stuff, Alison Chapman says that she is looking into buying signage and 2 metre distancing, as well as visors. “I’m a bit afraid of opening, so it’s important to get my mindset ready as to when we do re-open. We also have a tearoom selling homemade cakes, so I’m looking into turning it into a takeway. On the positive side, I think we will see a lot of new types of gift product launching.”
Adam de Wolff says that with most people already exposed to social distancing and one way systems in supermarkets, the best way forward is to let three people into the shop and to police it. “People have become used to waiting to go in,” he points out. “I hope that customers will understand what we as retailers will have to do to trade.”
As Helen Crawford highlights, “social distancing is the opposite of customer experience which is what good retail is all about. Therefore we are in no hurry to re-open, and if we can survive on our web sales for the rest of the year then we will do it. I can’t imagine us opening the shop with signage and 2 metre distancing and people wearing masks. We are an ‘experience’ bricks and mortar store.” Bill Nettleton concurred: “The experience is what an independent gives to its customers.”
Nevertheless, Bill says he’s looking forward to re-opening the shop as soon as he can. “We closed the doors at 4pm on Saturday March 21, having done 30-40% of what we should have done for Mother’s Day. So for us, it isn’t only about losing business in April, May and half of June, but also losing a big chunk of our March business. However, I think we will all have a better chance when we come out of lockdown because people will want to go outside and breathe fresh air and will therefore shop locally as opposed to malls. There will be a push to buy local and shop local. There will be a return to shopping with independents and we need to be ready for it, although when we don’t know.”
Top: The gift independents who Zoomed in to talk about life in lockdown.
