time-consuming; we decided we would focus on what we do best, and that is having imaginative stock in beautiful premises run by an excellent, helpful staff. We have a website to give an idea of what our shop is like and the type and variety of stock we carry, and we use Facebook and Instagram to promote new stock and offers.
Q: What’s selling well right now? Which are your best-selling footwear brands – and why? A: Our best-selling brand at the moment is Pikolinos in men’s and ladies’ footwear. The boots are the best-selling item in our store. The Spanish brand offers superb shoemaking in fabulous leathers in beautiful fashionable styles that meet our customers’ high expectations. The comfort and fit is second-to-none. I can quite often fit up a
customer who has a very difficult foot with an attractive shoe that makes her feel good and look good. The men’s shoes from Pikolinos are equally attractive and comfortable and often feature a contrasting trim in an accent colour that gives them shelf appeal. The soft, supple leather
definitely makes them a winner every time! Other leading brands in our store include Tamaris, Gabor, Jana and Joseph Seibel.
Q. How important is shoe fitting to your business? A: It’s so important; our staff have been trained by Start-Rite or by me and the brands and styles of shoes we stock offer good shoe fitting properties. We can offer many styles that can accommodate orthotics and give good support.
Q: Do you sell other items besides footwear, such as bags, gloves tights, socks, and similar products? A: Our store has grown over the years to offer a wide range of products to reflect changing trends and fashions. Accessories are a very important part of our business in many ways, and we have expanded our ranges and collections over the years – something to complement an item of clothing or footwear, a gift, or an item to enhance a display or window dressing. Accessories can account for up to 20 per cent of our turnover. Our
ever-changing range of accessories include socks, tights, fashion jewellery handbags slippers, hats, scarves, wallets, purses, shoe cleaning products, weekend bags, gloves etc. Rowallan supplies us with quality leather handbags that reflect the rural situation of our store on the edge of the Peak District using rustic grained leathers in rich tans and browns. Nordika has supplied us with men’s and ladies’ leather slippers for over 25 years which offer super comfort.
Q: How do you buy your footwear? A: We mainly do our footwear buying from the shop, which works very well as we have the space, and the staff can get involved and learn about the product and help choose styles and colours. We can all build up a relationship with our suppliers which helps when we need to contact them about an issue. We have no set formula for buying; we buy instinctively and what feels right and what we can envisage our customers wearing, yet always allowing for new trends and fashions and marrying it up with our ladies’ fashion. We usually buy the fashion from our agents at a showroom, and we tend to buy accessories at a trade fair.
Q: Which footwear trade events do you attend? A: I used to attend trade fairs in Europe, which were always exciting, but it’s easy to get carried away! These days I attend Spring Fair and Autumn Fair; Moda used to meet our needs but everyone tells me how expensive it is to exhibit, so that makes it difficult for many suppliers and some of the leading brands refuse to exhibit there, which means a trip to London.
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