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Hayley Chalmers
Herts
I have many years experience of business management, now I am starting an online business to create fashion for short/petite ladies over 30. ShortCouture.com
Recent activity
Comments (4)
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Comment on: UK manufacturing is reborn
Many UK factories did close but some remained and they are always busy. I disagree with Anonymous' comments and I thinkthey are out of date. I am starting a business - everything will be UK manufactured and I won't be charging £300 a piece. Of course I won't be making the incredible markups that designer labels make but I am not doing it purely for the money. I am doing it to serve a niche market (petites) and to support british industry. UK production means that I can control quality myself and vastly reduce production problems. It was very hard to find a factory to make small quantities at an affordable price - but I did. As sales grow so will quantities and I can use more factories. They are affordable (if you're prepared to accept less than 70% margin at startup) and the quality is excellent. There are many advantages to UK production - the reason that more is not made inthe UKis no longer quality but price. The moment that Eastern Europe/China/wherever becomes cheaper and more reliable - the big retailers will move their production offshore again. This won't change until the consumer demands UK made products. To a great extent that won't change because the customer has been taught to expect cheap throw away clothing, and becuase most of the high street is aimed at the younger consumer that wants up-to-the-minute fashion that they will wear for only one or two seasons. All my garments have a 'Made In England' label sewn in to them. My own research tells me that this will be popular. Look at a garment that cost £300 - does it have a big label that declares 'Made in India/China/Taiwan......'.No. because no-one is proud of that - not the manuf not the customer. I would be very happy to discuss my journey & experiences with Georgina Davies. You can contact me at hayley @littleun.com
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Comment on: Let everyone see who’s still making it in the UK
Excellent - this is just what I need. I am looking for UK factories that can make small quantities for my new fashion business. I know that there are factories in the UK but it's not easy to find them
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Comment on: Are you happy with your e-commerce platform?
The key to this is candour and honesty on both sides. Frequently the business people will not understand the IT (why should they, it's not their area of expertise) so they are not aware of all the things that they should tell the platform vendor to enable them to create/sell the best solution. Or indeed to allow the vendor to say 'we can't do that'. The vendor will likely not know the details of the customer's business, and equally does not know what they are not being told. Unless both sides take the time to question and explain candidly their information and plans then there will be issues. Retailer must be open about their expectations and vendor must manage them. I would like to see vendors being open about what they cannot do. The customer will appreciate this a lot more than sales bluff. How many vendors would walk away from a deal because they really can't deliver what the customer wants, rather than sign anyway and hope it will be OK? Long and happy relationships happen when both sides tell each other more. The vendor has to make the effort to really understand the customer's business, only the vendor can know how their product can help the business - and that's their job. If during the relationship they can keep going to the customer saying 'hey we can do this extra thing for your business, it fits here and gives you this benefit', the customer would be buying them the beer.
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Comment on: Asositis; Excessive preoccupation with acquiring the qualities of ASOS
No, it's not right for everyone. As with everything, you have to use what works for you. Unless you are aiming at exactly the same market, with an identical product offering, they why get hung up on trying to be the same? Absolutely copy what they do that will work for you. Never forget that different customers react differently and want different things. Let ASOS blaze a trail, it's great, they are helping to build the online high street and get it into the lives of a whole generation. Let them spend their marketing budget trying stuff, then we'll copy what works for us. As their customers age, they need to get new ones and everyone else can pick up the Internet savvy ones that just grew up.
