4 minute read
Retail Advice
John Dyer The way ahead
Henri Davis considers how her card-buying clientele has changed in her Cornish village shop, as Covid has brought more people to live permanently by the sea
The Heart of The Garden
Ihave been thinking about my customers and the ranges they want to buy. What has changed over the past two Covid years and what has stayed the same?
My shop is in a very small Cornish village [Coverack] by the sea; we are at the end of the Lizard, 10 miles from the nearest town and supermarket. We have a significant number of visitors in the village each day, either on a day out, passing through as they walk the coast path, or staying a bit longer.
I still have two very distinct groups of shoppers - village residents and visitors - and two very different types of cards; ‘safe’ imagery with captions and art-based cards by local artists or with imagery relevant to the area. It would be tempting to think that nothing has changed, but the boundaries of the two groups are definitely merging.
Local residents, many of whom are older and still really value sending and receiving cards, like cards to have messages; price is very relevant to them; Get Well and Sympathy cards are good sellers and variety is important. They like to buy safe images that they feel comfortable with - but that doesn’t mean they have to be boring.
I have been really lucky to re-establish a connection with Martin Gaunt at The Heart of the Garden, a publisher based in Cornwall who I worked with for many years when I was the card buyer at the National Trust. It has a really diverse range of cards that suit my customers wonderfully.
But this group of ‘residents’ has broadened, thanks to Covid. We have a lot of new people arriving in the village who are in their mid-50s and have moved to Cornwall earlier than they expected because they can now work from anywhere. They want more contemporary cards and love blank cards by local artists such as those by Jenny Field, who lives in Coverack.
The second group is our visitors. They buy mainly from the more arty range of blank cards; like the stunning image by Manda Beeching (above right) published by the Eco Friendly Card Company, which is also based in the West Country. I have worked with the founder Sue Morrish for more than 15 years now! For this group, cards are bought often as a memory of their visit or to send to someone special. John Dyer is a Cornish artist whose work is popular, so the fact that he has created a number of images of Coverack is a real bonus.
If visitors need an occasion card, particularly for children, they tend to shop from our captioned range. What has changed with this group is that they are in the village all year round, whereas five years ago it would only have been from April to the end of September.
There is also a limited seasonal opportunity with Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and Father’s Day. However, Christmas is a big purchasing opportunity, but in Coverack it’s all about cards that support the RNLI. Our local RNLI shop closes in October, so we sell the cards on their behalf with all proceeds going back to the RNLI. To supplement, we stock a small range of Christmas card packs at key price points, which offer more traditional imagery and therefore choice.
But remember I run a food shop, so the majority of my customers are not coming in to buy cards; they are very much a sideline in terms of space. I have 28 pockets for captioned cards and 36 pockets for local/blank cards so the space works incredibly hard to deliver the choice I feel I need to offer my customers.
Manda Beeching
Henri Davis is an independent retail advisor to businesses in the cards, gifts, stationery and heritage industries with more than 35 years of retail experience. She worked for Habitat, Next, WHSmith and the National Trust and now advises retailers, visitor attractions, manufacturers and suppliers. A past chairman of the Giftware Association, during lockdown she has taken over a village stores and moved to Cornwall. For more information visit
www.henridavis.co.uk
Friday 1st July 2022
2004 - 2022
