Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - November/December 2020

86 A YEAR OF DATES T: +44 (0)7707 075505 or +44 (0)7971 406 169 www.ayearofdates.co.uk proving popular as well – probably for the same reasons. Our most recent box was something we talked about for a long time but didn’t know how to approach. When we saw the effects of the global pandemic taking hold earlier this year we released it needed to be prioritised. The box is called A Year of Strength and aims to help people who are recovering from a lifechanging event or illness. We’re very proud of this box, and it’s launch over the summer was well received. 10% of each sale of this box goes to NHS Charities Together and we’ve also sent boxes to Marie Curie charity as part of a promise to donate one box for each one sold. How do you keep your designs fresh and current? Do you follow trends? We don’t follow trends as such but with the ability to print our own boxes inhouse we can quickly trial and add new designs. For example, we added a ‘hearts edition’ of the date box for Valentine’s Day, which saw us add red hearts to the box lid. This proved popular so we added some additional colours and specified the message on the bottom of the box to create new versions. Sometimes a customer will request something specific, which will give us an idea, we’ll create it for them and develop the idea into a new box – this is how our Best Mates date box and Anniversary box were developed. What sets you apart from your competitors? All our cards are sealed in colourful envelopes. Other date boxes simply contain cards and the couple can sort through to easily find their favourite. When they’re sealed there is the big element of surprise, which we find makes people more inclined to try new things and make the effort. It also keeps their interest longer and as the cards are kept quite open you can interpret them to suit your lifestyle, budget and fit into your schedule. How are you finding the current economic climate in the UK? Is it affecting business? As we are predominantly online, during lockdown we saw our business thrive. People turned to online and as a husband and wife team we managed to carry on without service being affected. We added a gift wrap option as we saw a rise in people sending direct to the recipient. Our plans to grow the wholesale side of things were obviously put on hold and this is something we are looking forward to picking up again moving into 2021. Are you active on social media? How is this important for the business? We find social media a really effective way to get feedback from customers and gauge new ideas. We’re really lucky that people take our date cards on their dates to get photos of the experience, which we can then share. It also helps us see how the cards are interpreted and we love seeing the things people get up to on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We get a lot of repeat customers and friends of those sharing images then buying for us, it’s a very important part of our strategy. Do you have any advice for new businesses starting out in the world of gifts? Do your research, check there isn’t something already established in the same arena and if not then check why – ask friends and family if they’d buy it, how much they’d spend. Listen to what they say and do just do what you think. Start small, don’t invest in lots of stock and spend a fortune until you have seen sales, it isn’t easy to get seen so give yourself time to build up an audience. Social media is great for this but you have to put time in. Don’t copy what is out there, it will come back to haunt you – carve your own path. What can we expect in the future from the company? Once we are past the peak of sales (March) we start to look at new products – we have a white board in the office with ideas on. We’ll start there and look at developing new products. Weddings will be a big focus in 2021 as we recently took over another online brand - Bride To Be Boxes – there is so much synergy between the brands we’re excited to see what we can create. Anything else you’d like to add? In four years we’ve gone from working in our spare room around our careers, to both of us being full time in the business and it taking over the house. In July 2019 we took the leap and moved into an office, which we outgrew within five months, and now have a space 10 times the size of the first office. This has allowed us to take on staff and really start to grow the business. Last year we won Theo Paphitis’ Small Business Sunday competition, which saw us invited to Autumn Fair where we were one of 12 small businesses making up the SBS Pavilion. We were named Ecommerce Business of the Year for the North West in the Chamber of Commerce Awards 2019 and in 2020 received two Highly Commended trophies from the Gift of the Year Awards.