Q&A
Independent Footwear Retailer of the Month
Cheryl Taylor talks to Rachel Berkache of Champley Shoes, North Yorkshire Q&A
Name: Rachel Berkache Shop: Champley Shoes
Brands: Marco Tozzi, Tamaris, Jana , Caprice, Heavenly Feet, Lunar, Mustang, Gabor, Pikolinos, Hey Dude, Rieker, Remonte, Waldlaufer
Home town: Pickering, North Yorkshire
Q: How did you get into footwear? Tell us about your background and your current business? A: Getting into footwear was an opportunity we took when the shop became available to rent in 2004. I have always loved shoes and the only shoe shop in Pickering had just closed, so we took the opportunity to open as the location and time seemed right for us to open Champley Shoes. We had a young family when we first opened, and it just really felt like the right time to launch our own business.
Q: Where are your premises located and how many people do you employ? Do you have a high turnover of staff? Tell us about your shop, the local area, your customers, and their requirements? A: We are lucky to have our shop in the beautiful market town of Pickering in North Yorkshire – it’s a very busy town and we have lots of local trade as well as visitors to the area. So, we do really benefit from that mix in our shop of both valued local customers and visitors. The customer service we give is a huge part of why our customers come back. We always listen to what the customer is looking for on that day. I always like to have a little consultation with each customer as we are finding the prefect shoe for their requirements – this helps me to get to know about the plans their have for their shoes – if it’s something for a wedding they’re looking for, or a holiday, for everyday or for work. I love getting to know our customers and it’s my favourite part of the business – getting to know about each customer personally. It’s what makes small businesses different and it’s so important. I’m always full of questions about if they live locally or if they’re visiting, where they are staying. I tell them about the best places to visit and things to see – I love this area and love the chance to chat to visitors about it. I think when you have a business in a beautiful place like Pickering, you’re always an ambassador for the area as well as running your business – it makes me feel proud that customers come back, especially when they come back for our shop.
Q: Tell us about your experiences and any difficulties you have encountered in recent times, and how you have managed/are managing/trying to overcome these? A: Thankfully our customers were keen to return to us after the COVID lockdowns. I think I speak for everyone when I say we’d just rather forget that whole time ever happened! Bringing customers back to the high
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street is an ongoing challenge we face each day; I would say the pandemic had a huge impact on the changes in the ways people shop in general. Trends emerged quite quickly of buying products online, trends of shopping in Instagram hotspots and only buying the brand from their own store – it all impacts on the high street.
There is a constant battle to get the balance of retail right and we work hard to stay focussed on always offering that point of difference in our store.
Q: Do you have an online shop/website, and do you use social networking for business? Was this active during the lockdown? A: We have an online shop which opened in 2020 with the help of our son, who assisted me in the workings of trying to build a website. I had very little knowledge of this area and was reluctant to learn, but I’m so glad we did it and I can proudly say we are a multi-channel retailer. We are very much focussed on the face-to-face customer, but it’s also really handy to have the online shop and it means that our visiting customers who don’t live locally can continue to shop with us.
Q: What’s selling well for you right now? What are the big trends right now? Which are your best-selling footwear brands, and why? A: Lots of our sales come from the comfort and fit of trainers still. Everyone loves the trend of bright colours – both in the Summer and the Winter. All the brands we stock are our best sellers; after nearly 20 years of buying for Champley Shoes, we have managed to filter out brands and keep focussed on our best-selling brands for our area and I hope we’ve really worked out what our customer wants to see.
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