Q&A
Heath branch in 2007. (We did a lot of homework beforehand by visiting MODA on several occasions, and we ‘picked the brains’ of many sales reps!)
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(s), the local area, your customers and their requirements? We currently work out of our Haywards Heath shop only. We sold the lease to our Hove shop in November 2019 after a family bereavement. In hindsight it was a very good move to make with a pandemic just around the corner.
There are now four employees including ourselves, and during the 16 years we have been trading we have been very lucky to have had employees who have remained with us for a long time. Our longest serving member of staff worked for us for 10 years until she retired and moved to Spain. As in any type of business you need to keep your best staff. All the training involved, their fitting skills, knowledge and expertise is so important as it’s what you build your business on. Customers need to have confidence in you as a professional, skilled fitter who knows their products.
We are located in a secondary shopping area within Haywards Heath where the parking is relatively good. A lot of our customers are local to the town, but we do have a large number of regular customers who travel to us from the outlying villages. Many of our Hove, Shoreham-by-sea, and Worthing customers still shop with us which is really good. We like to think that we must be doing a good job if they are prepared to travel further to remain our customers.
There’s a huge amount of housing development going on in and around Haywards Heath with more and more families moving up from Brighton & Hove or down from London, because they are being squeezed out by property prices or they simply want to get more for their money. So the potential for new business is very positive for a niche market such as children’s shoes.
How has Covid-19 impacted your business? Do you have an online shop/website and do you use social networking for business? Was this active during the lockdown? Tell us about your experiences, the difficulties you have encountered and how you have managed/are managing/trying to overcome these?
Covid-19 had a big impact on our business as we’re sure it has had on every small family-owned independent business, particularly one classified as ‘non-essential’ by the Government and therefore forced to close for half of our trading year. Fortunately, we already had our own online shop and we were also established on eBay and Amazon, so when everyone got locked down yet still wanted to spend, we were prepared for lots of sales. The first couple of weeks were awful, not knowing whether we would survive, but when the online sales started to come in and the Government financial assistance was announced then we knew that we would get through it. We had a routine during lockdown whereby we would go into the shop to pick, pack and wrap our online orders, and we also introduced WhatsApp video fittings which we were able to advertise on our social media channels. Customers would book a time slot for these fittings and if they were relatively local to the shop, then we would deliver the shoes to them by the end of the day as we made our way home. It’s all about being creative and ‘thinking outside the box’ as most small business owners have had to do to keep their business afloat during a global pandemic.
Needless to say, our Facebook, Instagram and Mailchimp networking with our customers was a lot more active during each of the lockdowns. We were able to keep in touch, relay all the covid regulations for when we re-opened, and announced new stock deliveries (which we diverted to our home address in order to guarantee delivery – and if we weren’t at home then we had very kind neighbours who received the cartons of stock on our behalf!)
What’s selling well? Any particular trends? Which are your best selling footwear brands – and why?
We sell a huge amount of Crocs every spring/summer season, and there
has been a big rise in the popularity of Crocs this summer as a lot of celebrities have been seen wearing them. (The musician Questlove was seen rocking a pair of Crocs at the Oscars!)
Bobux is our preferred ‘go to’ brand for pre and first walkers. In fact, we love Bobux at Klodhoppers – in the winter we love their little ankle boots and trainers and in the summer we love their cute little retro-style sandals. Ricosta, Geox, Froddo and Ecco are our top school shoe brands currently, although we have some Start Rite styles on order for this Back to School season too.
Our Start Rite canvas has been a big hit this season though. Our customers like the designs and the fact that this range of canvas is machine washable is a big bonus.
Hummel and Joma are our most popular trainer brands. Customers love Hummel as it is such a good quality product and the Joma brand is really popular for their bright colours and competitive price point. In spite of the erratic summer weather we have sold a lot of Havaianas and Ipanema flip flops to both children and mums. Talking of inclement weather, we also sell a lot of Hatley and Chipmunks wellies. The former are very stylish with some great designs, and the latter are excellent quality and good value for money.
How important is shoe fitting to your business? Are you or any of your staff members of the Society Of Shoe Fitters?
Shoe fitting is paramount to our business. It’s a crucial key skill for a small independent business like ours and along with our brand knowledge it is
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