retail
BUMPSTART BABYSHOP
Bumpstart back to business This month we chat with Helen Hickman, owner of Bumpstart Babyshop and discuss the impact of lockdown, challenges that arose and business moving forward. Firstly how are you and the team? We are fine and well, and glad to be back working in our new “normal” environment. None of us have had Covid19 yet, which I guess is good news!
Did you manage to continue trading during lockdown while not being able to open your doors? I managed to trade on my own during lockdown with the help of one of my team who worked from home. Everyone else was put on furlough. We were able to take orders by phone, through our website and did WhatsApp and FaceTime consultations. We also operated a phone service 5 days per week between 10am and 4pm. We were able to operate a collection service by appointment. Customers were not able to access the shop, but they were able to park in our farmyard and I brought the goods out to their cars. Katie concentrated on putting a wider selection of products onto our website and coordinated the consultations and phone calls.
My biggest challenge was the two of us doing everything that a team of 5 usually does. We still had deliveries at the shop and, believe me, checking a 40 plus box delivery on your own and putting it away is not much fun. I found working on my own isolatary and lonely and I missed my team’s camaraderie and humour. I also got very tired.
Have you utilised social media during nursery today
We have utilised our social media as best we can, putting posts on daily (when we had something positive to share). It helped us keep our shop in customers’ minds, and to remind them that we were still working. We tried to do it with humour and some of the items sent to us fromour lovely suppliers as goods for giveaway competitions. We also used Facebook ads to advertise our reopening and to invite everyone to make appointments to see us. This worked extremely well.
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What would you say was your largest challenge during this time?
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lockdown, how important has this been for you?
Have you successfully re-opened your doors to customers?
We have reopened but on a strict “by appointment” basis, and it is working brilliantly. We made this decision as the shop is long and narrow, so it would have been impossible to implement a one way system, and because our customers don’t really come here to browse. They all want our time to go through the travel systems, car seat and furniture that we sell. We are a destination store. We don’t have shop hours as such at the moment, but are working according to when customers want appointments. We are working Tuesdays to Saturdays (late three nights a week) as well as Sundays. Our customers seem to like that they have the shop almost to themselves. All the customers have been very understanding about what we are doing here at the moment, and we have no plans to change in the near future.
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How clear have you found government guidelines and advice so far given to enable you to safely open your doors?
I frankly have been bemused by Government Advice and lack of guidelines. I was also deeply disappointed that we nursery retailers were classified as a “non-essential” business. I did double check with both my local MP and Bucks Health & Safety Executive, who both confirmed that I was a non-essential retailer. I feel that this was extremely short sighted, particularly when a car seat is a legal requirement, and babies need something to sleep in and a pram or pushchair when their parents need to exercise. It is ridiculous that one could go and buy a lamp or rug in a hardware shop, but not a car seat or pushchair. I was fortunate to have an online shop, many of my fellow retailers do not. It would be great if the Nursery Industry could approach the Government as a collective and get the nonessential label removed, particularly if there is a second spike of Coronavirus in the Autumn, and we have to go into lockdown again. I have spent a fortune on signage and PPE for my staff. It’s frustrating that I have now got to spend more money changing all the signage re social distancing from 2m to 1m after only two weeks.
Do you feel you may have any stock issues over the coming months? I am concerned about stock issues over the coming months. I guess that delays are gong to be inevitable due to border controls and staff shortages, because many still seem to be