81 PROFILE MERCI MAMAN E: contact@mercimamanboutique.com www.mercimamanboutique.com How are you finding the current climate in the UK? Is it affecting business? We sell across Europe and the UK represents a quarter of our sales. I have to say the current climate is affecting us everywhere, but it is especially the case in the UK. We had a concession within Selfridges that we decided to stop in March and our sales are declining for the first time in our 15 year history. We are adapting, continuing to innovate, to invest, to have a strong bond with our community and it will bounce back one day. I’m down to earth but optimistic – a realistic optimist. How do you view the future of independent retail post-pandemic? There are various trends happening now: global marketplaces and global brands are huge but at the same time, shoppers are looking for authentic, local, small independent brands and retailers. Purchasing power is declining and we need to adapt but keep our long-term vision and, what is very important to me, remain true to our values and corporate social responsibility. Looking after our customers, ensuring they are satisfied and become back are more important than ever. Are you active on social media? How is this important for the business? Yes, we are very active on social media. We have four Instagram pages (English, French, German, Italian) with over 350,000 followers on aggregate and this is very important to us. We use our social media platforms daily: engaging with our customers, working with organic influencers and brand ambassadors, and promoting new/existing products. Instagram is one of our key market drivers. This space also allows us to build personal relationships with customers/ influencers and helps to shape our brand identity, ultimately building a sense of community around Merci Maman. We are also active on Facebook and more recently on Pinterest and TikTok. Do you have any advice for new businesses starting out in the world of gifts? My key advice for any business would be to focus on customers and work hard to satisfy them. Your idea does not need to be amazing or a technological breakthrough but it needs to satisfy a need and we need to bring a ‘Unique Selling Proposition’ to stand out the crowd. What can we expect in the future from the company? More of the same! We have excellent feedback from our clients but lots of people still haven’t heard about us. We continue to innovate, launch new designs, but at the end of the day, we will remain true to who we are and to our ‘Key Success Factors’: have great personalised pieces of jewellery to satisfying our customers, and then deliver within days and continue to build our brand.
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