Gift Focus - Jan/Feb 2019 (Issue 111)

for a smart stick but are unable to find what they want in their local town or even across their county. They call us to complain that our stockists don’t have enough choice, but when we call said stockist, they insist they have plenty of stock, which is frustrating. Often they just don’t have the cashflow they would have had a decade ago, which makes it hard for them to hold the depth of stock they need to prevent their customers defecting to the internet. The ridiculously high levels of business rates that high street retailers are expected to pay and 20 per cent VAT on goods really do not help; we would address both immediately if we were ever elected chancellor. Amazon is very much a double- edged sword; while its reach is unparalleled, it causes a lot of problems for bricks-and- mortar customers, and we have seen many Amazon-sellers come and go, citing poor profit margins as their reason for giving up. Are you active on social media? How important do you feel this is for marketing the business? We are active on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook seems to have more appeal for our stockists, and Instagram seems better for the end users and the export stockists. So far it is not as important part of our marketing mix as we would like, but probably this will evolve as more and more baby-boomers become stick users. Do you have any tips for new traders? Your suppliers are your allies. Make friends with them, learn from them and work with them. We have supplied many thousands of retailers over the years, and the ones that have done the best have listened to our advice on what to stock and how to display it, paid on time and been a pleasure to work with. Paying suppliers late is very much a false economy; they won’t be there to help you when you need it. A great book to read on retail is Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. He is very good on display and merchandising. What can we expect from Classic Canes in the years to come? Already most of our product range cannot be bought anywhere else, and this will intensify as we develop more new products that are exclusive to us. There is a lot of cheap competition in the market, and joining the race to the bottom does not appeal. Classic Canes will exist to serve those retailers and members of the public who care about style and quality instead. We hope to obtain planning permission for a new warehouse soon, which will enable us to expand our range and stock levels further. We already export a sizeable proportion of our sales and expect this will continue to grow although, at the time of writing, we have no idea what effect Brexit will have on our future. However, Classic Canes has traded since 1982 and survived several bad recessions, so we are confident we will weather whatever the future brings – and do it in style. 192 giftfocus