From today Underlines Magazine examines the experiences of specialist pure play e-tailers during the COVID-19 crisis and the extended lockdown period in the UK. Beautifully Undressed is an online luxury lingerie and loungewear destination, offering a curated collection of lingerie, loungewear, and upscale boudoir accessories from UK and international brands.
Are you able to continue running your business at the moment?
Yes, as all our fulfilment has always been in-house. As a small business I can operate safely with one person, ensuring minimal contact. Where we have partnered with other independent brands on a made to order basis, they too have been able to continue operating as they have brought their distribution in house as well.
Have you noticed a change in sales through your site for the time of year?
Absolutely! Sales have gone down significantly especially on our high-ticket products. I think the uncertainty in the economy has made people think twice about spending on luxury items that are deemed as ‘non-essential’, unfortunately. However, as people are forced to work from home, we have been promoting more of our ‘loungewear’ items and these have been gaining more interest on our site.
How are you retaining your customer loyalty during this time?
We’ve continued to send out our weekly newsletters to our subscribers and currently have and offer of free shipping for UK customers for the foreseeable future. We also offer discounts on various lingerie and loungewear pieces with each newsletter. Finally, we now offer Gift Cards, which can be redeemed within a year of purchase, for those who are wishing to gift a loved one, but unsure what to buy them.
Do you use social media already to keep in touch with customers? Are you considering adding any new media such as Skype, Zoom to keep in touch and do online appointments?
We are active predominantly on Instagram – @bundressed, where we have our biggest following. I plan to make more use of Instagram stories as a vehicle to promote the business and the products. We also post to Facebook and Twitter. There are no plans to use other media platforms at this stage.
Do you think you are being well enough informed by national government?
Not really! I feel that more should be done for small businesses in general and especially small businesses that have recently launched. Currently the only option is to either go into further debt by taking an Interruption Loan or applying for UC.
What small businesses need are opportunities to access grants systems, which are extremely hard to come by in ‘normal’ times. I believe these initiatives are lacking substantially in the UK compared to Europe and the USA, which encourages and supports entrepreneurism with a plethora of funding and grant programmes.
We need to have access to finances that allow small businesses the opportunity to thrive without the pressure of having to pay back a huge debt. We need the support and guidance to weather the storm so we can all come back with stronger sales and opportunities to grow our collective businesses, which in turn will help and boost the economy. Small businesses are the true engines of any economy and we need to be recognised and supported especially at this challenging time.
Founder and Director – Annabelle Mu’azu
Have you had difficulties accessing or getting information on the Business Interruption Loan?
I have not applied for the Business Interruption Loan as I would rather not take on further debt, at this stage of my business journey. I think we need more clarity regarding expectations around repayments and interest that we will have to pay.
Can you take advantage for yourself and/or any full or part time staff of the Job Retention Scheme?
No, it doesn’t apply to me.
If you are still selling have you noticed any trends towards soft and unstructured garments (as opposed to fitted corsetry)?
As mentioned previously, we have been actively promoting our loungewear offering and this has led to some interest but not a huge amount, as we have relatively small selection of Pj’s etc on our site. However, I have been talking to some loungewear brands about increasing our existing products from them, so hope to be in a position to offer more to our customers very soon.
Where do you think independent stores and websites can put their energy to future-proof their business e.g. digital assets, niche products and your ‘public’ image to customers?
I don’t think it is possible to ‘future proof’ any business. However, I do believe as a small business one is able to navigate certain storms that bigger companies are not able to due to systems and red-tape and I really feel that this has been hugely beneficial. It has been extremely important to have an avenue to engage directly with our customers on a human level and that has been crucial to our success and will continue to do so as people are wanting to buy into authenticity. Beautifully Undressed always been about connection and I’ve also chosen to work with smaller and niche brands, that fit into this ethos.
Would you consider doing an online poll with your customers, running stories to keep them occupied and asking them what they would like to see in your store when it re-opens?
It is something we are considering at the moment, certainly when it comes to increasing our loungewear offering.
Have you been using your ‘face’ as the face of the business online?
I have in the past popped up on social media, but must admit have found being in front of the camera challenging! But I am considering beating my demons and presenting more of our collections via Instagram stories. Also, I now end our newsletters with a personal message and sign it from myself.
Has this crisis given you food for thought and inspired new creativity now you actually have more time to analyse?
At the beginning of this, it was difficult to comprehend what was happening and trying to traverse the impact financially was extremely emotional. However, as time goes on, I have been using this time to really focus on my other project – which is my own brand, and its first collection, which is due to launch this May. We were planning to shoot in an exotic location but that was brought to a halt.
This has given me the opportunity to think outside the box about how I wish to launch and market the collection, keeping in mind that people’s sensibilities have been impacted, especially on conscious and holistic way. Sustainability in luxury lingerie is something that I wish to imbibe within my own collection when we finally launch as well as the brands that we choose to sell and work with on Beautifully Undressed going forward.
Have you any initiatives for special deliveries to charity or to the medical profession?
Not at present, however when we launch our own collection, I will be looking to see how we can offer a discount to health professionals.
