Kathryn Smith's Blog

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH Twitter 'fleets' update To help people feel more comfortable Twitter have been working on a lower pressure way for people to talk about what’s happening. This fleets feature allows users to produce a tweet that is only visible for 24 hours, this means that users feel less pressure to get retweets and likes. This is not however a feature i can see us using at Arabella as we don't use Twitter. Yet, if we were to the fleets feature could allow for more customer interaction and engagement with our business as people aren't too worried about their comments. I believe that Twitter establishing this feature does suggest that social media platforms are becoming too similar as it reflects the story feature on both Instagram and Facebook.

ARABELLA This week at Arabella, I became a fully fledged member of the team. I received a promotion to ‘Director’s assistant’ this means I will work with the senior team and contribute to decision making tasks. This ensures I am also able to work in several roles and see which suits me best as to if I want to progress further in the business and become more specialised in my role.

ARABELLA This week at Arabella following many new arrivals and new stock we had a large amount of orders to send out to customers. Hence we all came together as a team to ensure the quality of these didn’t change due to the quantity. As these are such high quality pieces we must ensure the customer is getting the standard they are paying for.

ARABELLA This week at Arabella, we continued with our buying appointments. Even though we are only now receiving Spring/Summer stock we are already making orders for our Autumn/Winter collections. Rundholz is one of our best selling brands and the brand we stock the most of, their buying appointment is hence the most important. When looking through the stock we must not only look thinking of our own taste but also the taste of our customers and our brand aesthetic. We struggled more with this buying appointment than any before, as this collection was abroad and due to travel restrictions we weren’t able to see the pieces in person. We instead had to view them online and make decisions purely on pictures of the garments. Hence we will have to wait until the arrival of these pieces in August to see how well this collection goes.

ARABELLA This week at Arabella, we have discovered that following Brexit customers abroad are ordering less as they are having to pay out customs fees to even receive their parcel. To try and win over these foreign customers we have introduced a campaign with the promotional code ‘Non VAT’ this can be claimed at checkout of anyone outside the UK to gain 20% off their order. They then aren’t paying the VAT for their pieces and can use what they are saving to go towards their customs fees. 

ARABELLA This week at Arabella, we have had many stock arrivals. Due to the unexpected Brexit deal which meant we left the EU without knowing what the circumstances that would follow, we were now facing issues with customs. This has meant that we are having to pay fees to get our deliveries and it is taking far longer to get to us. As the process is finally coming into place we are getting our deliveries all at once as they rush through customs. Hence, we must all be working together effectively and efficiently to get all the pieces online correctly. 

ARABELLA This week at Arabella, we have been organising and sorting stock. This is essential at the beginning of every season as we rapidly receive new stock. Although we have moved to a new larger store we made the decision to keep one smaller store to house old stock. This means I looked through the collections and decided what wasn’t selling well and was sale stock, to transfer into storage in the old store. This frees up space in our current stock room and has allowed for new stock to be hung as soon as they arrive meaning we can get them online quicker and more efficiently. 

ARABELLA This week at Arabella, we have all taken part in the design of our changing rooms. This has been a problem as we are trying to save as much space as possible for stock. We have used our smallest rooms to provide changing rooms hence, to enhance this we decided to create an expensive, luxury space. We have wallpapered with a beautiful classical portrait piece, heavy curtains and large eccentric mirrors. This is the place where the customer must make a final decision about the piece as to whether or not they wish to purchase it. This means lighting must be right and the customer must feel comfortable in the space meaning we have worked incredibly hard to try our best to fulfill this purpose.

ARABELLA This week at Arabella, we have been busy redesigning the new store as to prepare for our opening on the 12th April. This means we have prepared the signage with our logo, and website as this can direct even onlookers to shop with us in future through our online business. We have also rebranded our changing rooms and workspaces as to best reflect not only our business, but the brands we stock. This new opening will be our first time allowing customers to shop in our new facility, this means that we have to push boundaries and exceed our customers old expectations by providing something our old store didn’t. 

ARABELLA This week at Arabella I had to work hard to get to grips with the new stock arrivals that came in when I was on my college week. On top of this we also had more new arrivals. This large surge in stock means we have to be careful promoting the collections, as these brands are all very different we have to allow them to have their own style but also work with our brand aesthetic. Meaning the photoshoots, social media posts and email campaigns must be made cautiously.

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH The events of 2020 brought brand purpose to the forefront, with consumers increasingly expecting brands to speak out about important social issues. This can be a tricky thing to pull off and so it should be approached with caution.  Pepsi is a prime example of a brand that clumsily jumped on a social issue and fell flat on its face. In 2017, the company faced huge backlash over an ad starring Kendall Jenner that appeared to trivialise the Black Lives Matter movement. But while Pepsi widely missed the mark, it seems staying silent can also be damaging to brands, particularly when it comes to the issue of racial injustice. We at Arabella could look at having a stand on a less trivial issue like recycling and sustainable fashion as this is promoted in our packaging and Pre-Loved collection.

ARABELLA This week at Arabella me and Lydia (also a digital marketing apprentice) worked hard on our first campaign lead solely by ourselves. We tried to have fun and give an insight into our own style and personality. As at Arabella we promote a community feel we felt that letting the customers get to know us would make this campaign an interesting read without being a hard sell. We are thinking of pushing this as a regular monthly blog post after it’s success as an email campaign. 

ARABELLA This week at Arabella we are welcoming in the beginning of our Spring Summer 2021 stock! This is an exciting start to the season as our customers are thirsty for new arrivals and we are desperately trying to get our stock online faster than competitors. During this process I have been working hard to profile all of the products into our Shopify platform, so that these new arrivals can be purchased on our website. This part of the process is massively important, as it needs to provide the customer with all the information they need about the garment as well as having correct pricing and allowing the piece to be seen in all the correct collections.

This week at Arabella, I felt like a real part of the team as I was invited on my first buying trip. I went to London with the girls at Arabella, this was in preparation for the Autumn Winter seasons. We went to visit our Annette Görtz agent to pick out the pieces we want to sell from their new collection. I had a real insight into how large the process is and how long ahead we have to plan. These buying trips are fun and exiting getting a glimpse into next seasons trends, but we have to work extremely hard trying to factor in our brand aesthetic and the pieces our customers would gravitate towards.