Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - March/April 2021

RETAILER INTERVIEW 113 Alluring attire Retailer Alluring Boutique explains how catering to an older demographic was the catalyst for launch, and how a strong location helps their footfall Tell us a bit about your store and how you came to open the business. Our store is a women’s fashion boutique focusing mainly on Scandinavian and British fashion and accessories. I opened this business after I turned 40 when my dad died very suddenly from lung cancer. This event had a huge impact on me and made me reassess my life. I learnt life is far too short and it’s so important to follow your dreams and live for the now. Is the location important to the success of your store? We live in the North East of Scotland in Elgin, which is situated between Inverness and Aberdeen. We don’t have many large store departments apart from us so smaller independents like ours are crucial to the local economy. We are fortunate enough to be situated in a street just off the main street, which is full of small independents such as florists, cafes, hairdressers, butchers, a pub, and a post office, etc so our street always has a great footfall. What challenges were overcome when the company was starting out? We were the first independent women’s fashion boutique in a long time in our area. We took the plunge to sell fashion and accessories that appealed to women over the age of 25. Many people hadn’t heard of the brands before our opening, so I was apprehensive of the reaction coupled with a higher price point in a smaller town. This, at times, can still be worrying when you don’t live in a big city. We now have people travelling from the city to visit us and our street, but it takes time to build up a good reputation for this to happen so we feel very fortunate. What is your customer base? When I initially started this business, I was fed up of looking locally for good quality fashion and style for my age group. There was so many fast fashion shops that my younger daughter was shopping in and I certainly didn’t want to compete with a teenager! Women appreciate good quality, well-made clothing so my market when I started this journey was 25+. Saying that, we now have a wide range of accessories such as jewellery, candles, ByEloise bangle bands and Chilly’s bottles, which appeal to many youngsters, so they like to come in and browse also. We also have many mothers and daughters come in to shop together, What’s your USP? As mentioned before, it would be good quality clothing that fits well. A lot of our brands have a fantastic sustainability factor, which is also a plus point in today’s market. I am also very particular about providing a good customer service. I want our customers to feel special and give them that extra confidence to wear something that may be out of their comfort zone. However, once they try on one of our items they feel a 