Business surgery: Decorator’s Notebook

Company name: Decorator’s Notebook

Sector:  Retail

Number of staff: 2 full-time (plus fulfillment outsourced to a third-party)

Company owners: Siblings Bethan John and Joe John

Key clients: Members of the public through online shop and local markets

Company overview

Decorator’s Notebook is an online homeware and gift shop where design, quality and ethics go hand-in-hand. They scour the globe to source beautiful pieces from fair trade groups, social enterprises and artisan co-operatives to offer our customers a collection of handcrafted products, which all have an inspirational social story to tell.

The company is run by siblings Bethan John, who was formerly an interior design journalist, and Joe John, who previously worked in e-commerce development. Combining their skills, the online shop opened its virtual doors in October 2013. Since then, the brand has gone from strength to strength and now offers design-led products made by ethical producer groups in nine countries, including Bangladesh, Kenya, Peru, India and Tunisia. The collection began exclusively selling homeware, but has now expanded to include unique gifts, fair trade jewellery, fashion accessories and, most recently, handmade fair trade furniture.

The mission is to show ethically conscious shoppers that they can discover unique pieces to decorate their home without compromising on style or quality. Their dream is to make Decorator’s Notebook the go-to place to buy ethically produced homeware and gifts, while helping talented artisans around the world build a brighter future for themselves and their families.

The challenge

Should we expand from online selling to a bricks-and-mortar shop? The majority of Decorator’s Notebook sales (85 per cent) are currently made online through our own online shop, shipping to customers mainly within the UK, as well as Europe and the USA. Selling at local events such as the monthly Frome Independent Market accounts for around 15 per cent of sales. We’ve always dreamed of opening our own shop in Bristol but we’re concerned it’s high-risk. How can we test the market to avoid pitfalls and how do we go about finding the right premises?

FEEDBACK

Martin Bloom, Managing director at Insight Retail Consulting

“Developing a retail business where a customer can have access to your product both online and in-store is nowadays key to developing a consistent customer experience. Understanding when a business is ready to make that leap into a store is never easy.

In the case of Bethan and Joe, it is evident that there is a good level of demand for their ethical home and lifestyle product range, which clearly has an established online and social media presence, whilst there are positive trading tones from their one-day-a-month selling at Frome’s Indie Market. However, to evolve the business to include a high street presence requires one to be sure about their market as well as the business having suitable funds available for initial set-up costs required.

The best approach to finding a location is to walk the target areas and streets assessing the local scene so as to build a customer profile of who is shopping in the area and whether other retailers in the area complement you. Having identified where your customer base resides, I would suggest piloting a pop-up style of retail outlet and keeping store fit-out costs to a set budget.

Keep any agreement with the landlord flexible so that you can walk away from it should the venture not work out. The accessories, home and lifestyle sector is an appealing one where trialling a store format on a pop-up basis will give you good insight as to whether the Decorator’s Notebook is scalable outside of being an online business.”

Fiona Fraser, Marketing Advisor at Get Set for Growth West of England

“As so many retailers now start out life as online outfits, the uncertainty of whether to take the plunge and invest in a physical ‘bricks-and-mortar’ shop is a common dilemma.

As a means of testing the market,  before making that investment, pop-up shops are becoming an increasingly popular option in the UK. It would allow you to test the demand for your products in a retail setting, whilst also trying different locations to see where would be the best fit for your target customers.

With such an established customer base, I’d also suggest reaching out to your existing customers via a survey. Where do they like to shop? Do they prefer a town centre location or an out-of-town retail park? Would they be interested in a click and collect service? Surveys can be quick to set up and can give you some valuable insights to help make your decision.”

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