Rachel has achieved the retail success that many brands dream of. She built a successful textiles and homeware brand with a large and loyal social following, and plenty of ecommerce sales. She received tons of inbound wholesale requests from retailers, and launched a successful local retail store with her best friend.
But for Rachel, life as a shop and brand owner turned out to not be a lifetime calling.
We caught up with Rachel to learn the story behind her retail success, why she eventually decided to shut up shop, and how her experience running a brand has helped her in the next phase of her career. Thank you so much for all you shared with us, Rachel!
A brand is born: how it all started
Rachel’s brand, started as many do; a fun side project which organically snowballed into something more.
With no background in design, but a keen creative eye, Rachel started designing bold geometric prints which she eventually used to create products for kids (muslin blankets, quilts, and clothing), and later table linen and bed linen for adults, too.
“It started in kids and then kind of expanded into homewares across like the whole house”, explained Rachel.
“But a key factor was always that the designs weren't ‘kiddy’ or babyish. At the time there weren’t really any kids clothes around that were geometric and used these kinds of muted, grown up colours and tones. So that’s what my brand was”.
Her brand was an ecommerce-only store at this stage. But the brand’s successful social accounts, and Rachel’s unique prints, quickly caught the attention of stockists.
“I had a lot of shops contact me through Instagram, and it kind of went from there”, said Rachel. “A big shop would take my products in, and then I’d get lots more enquiries as soon as they spoke about the launch. There’s definitely something in the community of it, and that’s why I think it’s so important to get your products into stores that align with your brand where possible.”
And as Rachel’s products launched in more stores, her own sales grew notably, too.
“I definitely did see a big growth in my own sales from my products being in other shops. I think wholesaling can be such a great way to kind of expand not only revenue but also your customer base, because you obviously get your brand in front of so many eyes.”
Growing pains: the challenge of outsourcing
Rachel had previously made all her items by hand. But with both wholesale and retail sales growing steadily, she experimented with outsourcing to a manufacturer for support. With high expectations for quality, sustainability and working conditions, this turned out to be a less than simple part of the journey — further complicated by the COVID pandemic.
“That was a really long long process. I ended up getting a recommendation from another business who worked in a similar industry to me. I think that's something else that's really important as a brand; to have kind of a network around you of other businesses doing similar things so support each other.”
But it wasn’t smooth sailing, with part of the challenge being the volume that was required. Rachel found herself caught between a rock and a hard place; most factories had minimum orders far higher than what she needed, but she was stretched making all the orders on her own.
“If I were ever to do anything again, I would make sure that you actually visit the factory, have contracts in place, all that kind of stuff. It’s something that I guess you don't know until you know that you've done the wrong thing.”
A golden opportunity: opening a retail shop
Rachel created her products from a small studio in her hometown. But after three years, the contract came up, and she started looking for a new local studio space. The new one she found had a shop window, and the shop next door was also vacant.
“So a friend who has a kitchenware business that was all online, we kind of got together and were like, should we take on this space together? And so I had my shop in one side of it, and then they had their shop in the other side of it. So it was nice and complementary. And I also printed and designed and made in the shop as well.”
Opening a new shop for the first time is always a steep learning curve. And because Rachel decided to bring in products from other brands to sell alongside her own, this added another layer of learning.
“Obviously you have to buy so much stuff — like you can't have a shelf with one candle on it, you have to have a collection of at least five candles or you know a collection of books rather than one book. So I definitely hadn't really considered that and I hadn't considered the upfront cost of all of that because you can't start with an empty physical shop”, Rachel explained, when we asked what had surprised her about the process of opening a shop.
“Online is very different. You can have things running low, but a physical shop needs to look good and needs to be full and abundant and people need to come in and feel like wanting to buy. So that was definitely a learning curve.”
Fitting out the shop also proved to be more expensive than Rachel and her friend had hoped, but totally worth it to get the shop looking how they wanted — and to be able to support another local maker in the process.
“Rather than just going to Ikea and getting basic stuff, we committed to supporting another local maker, so it was really nice and handmade and bespoke. There's lots of drive-by traffic, so we really wanted to get it looking great from the outside.”
Life after retail: choosing to shut up shop
There was lots to love about running a shop. Rachel got to speak to new mums venturing out of the house for the first time, or grandparents driving up to meet their baby grandchild.
But as much as she loved those moments with customers, and although the shop was a success, eventually Rachel decided to close up.
“I closed the shop because I had two little kids at the time, and I just personally found it wasn't the right fit for me. I wanted to focus on the brand, and I realised I actually didn’t want to sit in a shop every day.”
“It was a physically small shop so you couldn't really have more than one person in there, and then because I was also using it as a studio space, I needed to be in doing my design stuff. In hindsight, I should have opened a bigger shop with more space so that I could have stepped away from actually running it.”
Rachel continued to run the brand successfully online for another three years, before choosing to step back entirely.
We were curious to know how she feels her experience of running a brand and a shop feeds into her attitude and work today.
“I've always kind of worked in retail or hospitality or customer facing jobs. And I do think that understanding and empathising with the customer is so important, and being face to face with them really does make you remember that we're all people, and we're all trying our best. And, you know, if it's not, it's nothing personal.”
