Gift Focus - Jan/Feb 2018 (Issue 105)

with pop up shops though, we were always mindful of not giving too much away until we opened. It’s important to remain business savvy and remember that whilst it’s a great marketing tool to set up a pop up shop, other retailers could steal your ideas before you open your full time shop. Also find something that will make you stand out in the market place, which could go on to gain you great local press coverage. Has the current economic climate affected business? If so in what way? It’s difficult to tell as we are still trying to become an established brand in Bridgnorth and there’s insufficient data. What we do know is that we’ve had steady growth each year over the past four years that we have been trading, but it’s still too early to say. Do you have a lot of competition from other gift shops? How do you stand out? When we first opened in Bridgnorth there wasn’t a great deal in the town apart from one or two but now there are many more lifestyle gift shops, but that helps us keep us on our toes. Competition is healthy and raises the profile of our local high street. Please describe your product offering. On a number of levels we try to be good citizens with good business practice. Many of our suppliers are Fairtrade certified and we always like to hear what they’re doing with the people and families they work with. We’ve just started working with a company making woollens from Nepal, an amazing product with a great story to tell. Our skin care range, Big Green Tree is organic, one of the very few that is and it makes a huge difference to our ability to talk about the product with our customers. Our company supports a charity in Africa that houses street children and we’re passionate about it and will always try to promote the wonderful work Confident Children Out Of Conflict UK do. Which suppliers do you use? We use an array of suppliers from this country and from abroad. We do a lot of leg work to find the right product and have come across some great items. Big Green Tree skincare has been a great find for us as it’s organic and a 100 per cent natural product. Another is a great quirky product from Bertie Girl called ‘Shit Happens’ which are poo bags in Harris Tweed, another great talking point for our many dog-loving customers. What’s your current best-seller? We’re very considered with our product and think very carefully before we stock it, so we very rarely buy anything that doesn’t work for us. What’s your USP? What makes you stand out? We take great pride in curating products for Roobarb and always try to stock something a little different to everyone else and we get great satisfaction when we hear customers say, I’ve never seen that before. Do you do much on social network sites, and if so how do you use them? i.e. competitions, promotions, etc. What works best for you? We have our brand registered on most of them, and you do that as a matter of course, as someone will be quick to register it if you don’t. You never know which one is the next big one. Our main social media site is Facebook, that’s where most of customers and potential customers live and we boost our presence by advertising with them, which seems to work well for us. We use Instagram a lot too. Our product works well in photos. We haven’t tried competitions on social media yet, maybe that’s for the future. Which trade shows do you attend? We go to all the main ones but we also go to the smaller ones around the country, where you might find that little something that gives you the edge, plus it gives a new start-up a helping hand. How do you choose what to stock with so much choice out there? We like to take our time when considering our lines of stock. We don’t make rash decisions and we rarely make a choice at a trade show. It’s easy to get carried away with the glitz and glamour of a trade show. We both take our thoughts home with us to give them further careful consideration and pass it through our filter. You’ve recently won an exciting award, please tell us more Yes we won the Bira (British Independent Retailer Association) Team of the Year Award, which we were so pleased to win. To receive a national award and have it judged by your peers is just amazing, we were knocked out when we won. We believe we have an obligation to help bring on our team and train them as best we can, we believe we should try to include them in many of our decisions that we make, and we believe it makes them feel part of our team. The award sits on our cash desk and it’s a great conversation piece with our customers. What does the future hold for Roobarb? We have just opened shop number two in Shrewsbury, which has taken up much of our time in recent months. Planning, raising the finance and dealing with solicitors and commercial agents. It’s not an ideal time to open another store just before Christmas, as if you’re not busy enough! But then to add to that another shop, we’re obviously addicted to hard work. We’ve always believed that this business is about volume and the new Shrewsbury store will give us an opportunity to increase that volume. Roobarb: +44 (0)1746 761 061 loveroobarb.co.uk 3, Waterloo Terrace, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, WV16 4EG 68 giftfocus