RETAIL AND BUSINESS UPDATE Dear retailers and professionals, We know it is tough for you all right now and hope that you are coping as best you can. If you keep us informed about what you are doing we can help by sharing this information with the community on your behalf. We can also share any special offers, new products, additional services, or updated information so please keep us in the loop. The Trader Portal tab on our website will keep you abreast of current information relevant to businesses. This includes government packages, COVID-19 updates, and resources to support your business. Please check it regularly. You may also want to look into education workshops or local networking, either in person when allowed or via webinars. You’ll find details at camberwellbusiness.com.au On a positive note, confidence and support of the Camberwell Junction precinct is high. Many in the community are shopping locally and new stores are being leased. Some traders have taken the opportunity to move within the precinct or refurbish their stores. We urge you to take a fresh look at your stores as we reopen to ensure they look clean and inviting as customers return. To help, we are offering 10 stores $500 to put towards repainting or repairing shopfronts. We are also taking this time to refresh the branding and marketing direction of our precinct which will launch soon. Research shows a shift in demographics as new apartments are being built nearby. It has also become more important to identify as Camberwell Junction to better tie the two suburbs we straddle – Camberwell and Hawthorn East. Addresses feature more than ever in online searches and for delivery services, so the junction positions the entire precinct geographically. Our regular marketing continues to keep customers engaged and creating community activities builds on local loyalty. We’ll also incorporate cross-promotion with the Rotary Camberwell Sunday Market to attract
a more diverse audience, and develop opportunities with Boroondara Council’s placemaking team to find ways to improve the visual appeal of the area. Pending restrictions, our aim is to run the postponed CamberWELL-BEING event, to support the health and wellness category, in spring. Spring is also a focus for hair and beauty services, new season style, and floral displays. We’re preparing for Christmas – the biggest campaign in our yearly marketing calendar – which includes print and digital marketing, street decorations, and our popular Christmas Family Day. We continue to bolster our digital presence, with regular updates to the camberwellshopping.com.au website, including updating your individual trader pages. We publish regular SEO-driven articles to improve our performance in search engines and highlight individual traders, thereby increasing customer awareness of the diverse range of businesses in the precinct. This has become an important part of our marketing strategy as recent data shows that 70 per cent of our website traffic comes from organic search – people actively looking for your businesses. Reports show promising results for the marketing we have been running, including an annual increase of 78 per cent in unique users to our websites. In recent months, the Camberwell Shopping homepage has generated 12-15 per cent of overall website traffic, meaning people are actively searching for our brand rather than stumbling upon our content through other sources. This shows the importance of having strong brand awareness for our precinct, the value in having your business in this location, and supports why you should also promote your business as being part of the Camberwell Junction precinct. Please get in touch if there is anything else you need from the association. We are here for you. Take care and stay positive, Kerry Daly Manager, Camberwell Centre Traders Association
