Gift Focus - Jan/Feb 2020 (Issue 117)

181 RETAILER INTERVIEW creatives who come here to work or just for inspiration. We often find when we collaborate with illustrators or designers, they have a love for the building. They’ll have a favourite spot or place to visit. It’s great to be able to work with people who have a passion for the place, creating exclusive product for us. Which suppliers do you use and how do you find them? We have a lot of suppliers from big brands to smaller individual makers, but way too many to mention! The retail buyer will find them through all sorts of avenues; trade shows, shopping trips, browsing Instagram, design fairs – they’re always on the lookout. Which trade shows do you attend and why? Maison & Objet is an important one and also huge! Where possible, the team will attend UK trade shows – Top Drawer is a useful one. They don’t always yield results in terms of sourcing new products, but can be an opportunity to see a large number of your existing suppliers all under one roof. Do you do much on social network sites, and if so, how do you use them? What works best for you? We work closely with our marketing team to provide content for the Barbican Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Sometimes we’re promoting a new product or introducing a new range, occasionally we might want to highlight a maker. How do your dress your window displays? How often do you change them? We’re located inside the building, so don’t have a view out to the street, however we do have shop windows. We will plan our window displays about six to nine months in advance, changing them approximately every three months. How we dress them can vary, depending on the product we have planned to use inside them. Props, colour and the use of text and vinyl on the window is all taken in consideration. Do you ever hold events or promotional evenings in your store? How have they been successful? We regularly have special members shopping events, offering our Barbican Members a chance to shop with us and get 20 per cent discount. These are normally closed events, and we will shut the shop to the public, sometimes offering refreshments or entertainment to those attending. We always find these are really popular and worthwhile in terms of sales generation, especially at Christmas. Do you have any exciting plans for the future? We’re always developing new product and have two new ranges launching very soon, both are Barbican branded and use the building as inspiration, but both are very different from each other. For further information, visit shop.barbican.org.uk