Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - September/October 2020

BUSINESS 141 Retail masterclass Priya Nobbs, co-founder of Lark lifestyle boutiques, gives Gift Focus readers a masterclass in marketing, Instagram shopping functions, and how to embed yourselves within the local community to boost visibility Tell us a bit about your store and how you came to open the business. Lark, formerly known as Bunka, was started in 2002. We are a family- run business that loves supporting local people, products and places. We identified a gap in the market in providing a local retail experience selling products that the local clientele would want. Our ranges of plus size velour tracksuits and neon netted tops flew off the rails and the shop was an immediate success. Over the next two years the demographic of the area changed significantly and so did our business strategy. We introduced gifts, jewellery and homeware and were one of the first ‘lifestyle boutiques’ in London, long before the term became commonplace. We decided to rebrand as Lark as the name sounded softer, represented our playful side and was easy to remember. We began to expand the business and Lark currently has six stores and a transactional website. Is the location important to the success of your store? All stores are in South London and the current locations are Balham, Earlsfield, Tooting, Wimbledon, Herne Hill and Streatham. As we are a family-run business we have created a rule that we won’t open a shop more then 20 minutes away from the house, as owning shops means what can go wrong will go wrong, so we must be close at all times! We also have a love for South London being based here for nearly 25 years, so it seemed only natural to open shops where we live. What challenges were overcome when the company was starting out? With funding from the Princes Trust and a grant from the local council’s regeneration fund, we opened in Forest Hill, an area we knew and felt was on the up. We started without a shop brand and identity and it took two years to truly find out who we wanted to be and what we wanted to sell. We came into this profession without any prior experience and opened a shop blind. What is your customer base? Inclusivity is possibly the most important area in which Lark is different. We provide more design-led, on-trend gifts at lower price points than most boutiques and more in line with high street prices. This has been made possible by economies of scale. As we have opened new shops our buying power has increased, and we are now able to lower our buying costs. Instead of keeping the profit for ourselves we pass the lower costs on to our customers, which has increased sales as the average customer