This week Underlines speaks with Jan Morton, owner of Busy Body’s lingerie shop for the last 16 years (first in Churchtown and latterly in Birkdale Village). It is a family run business as her daughter, Lucy, who worked as Saturday help has now been a full member of the fitting team for over 6 years.
So how are you working upon re-opening?
We have re-opened the shop, taking into consideration Covid-19 guidelines and we are working on an appointment basis, whilst this isn’t essential for ladies to make an appointment we do advise it. Of course if our lingerie stylists are free and a lady walks by for an appointment she is more than welcome.
Your relationship with your suppliers?
We are so lucky to work with brands which have supported us during the pandemic and adjusted their way of working so that we can all work well together. Orders have been transferred to be delivered to our home address whilst the shop is closed to allow us to work from home and showcase our new arrivals to our customers.
We have recently taken on a new brand during the pandemic which is called Pretty You (a loungewear/ pyjamas range) that has been selling really well. Due to the pandemic we have found that people are working from home and want to be comfortable so loungewear has really taken off for us. This has also encouraged a younger clientele to purchase from us.
We have also restocked a beautiful brand called Eberjey which sells loungewear and pyjamas – this is a brand we have stocked previously and after a sell-out it was time to replenish our stock again!
How did you manage your business during the prolonged lockdowns?
During lockdown we used all of our social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, our email data base… to showcase to ladies new products that were still arriving with us which they could purchase. During lockdown we offered free local delivery, click and collect from the shop once a week or a Royal Mail postal service.
We left a sign in the shop window and on the shop door letting customers know how we were operating during lockdown. We also shared videos which we had done ourselves to talk to our customers and show them our products and update them on what we were up to during the time of the pandemic. In addition we went through our customer database and called our customers just to touch base and see how they were managing during the difficult times.
There have been challenges: not only was England in lockdown over Christmas but Brexit was of course finalised. This did initially delay products arriving with us like it did to many others, however we are pleased to say that although the process is different, everything is now back up and running and beautiful spring/summer stock is arriving daily.
And what are your hopes for the business going forward?
I think that our business will progress with people shopping locally and supporting their local high street/village. I think that it has made people realise how important it is and how much we like to see things in person/touch/feel them before we buy.
I also believe that people have realised it is important to make time for themselves and look after themselves, especially ladies who are always on this sort of treadmill of life and are so busy. Before the April re-opening we unsealed our appointment diary and were overwhelmed by the amount of bookings we received by ladies wanting to book in for a fitting in advance.
Within our village we are all working together and supporting each other, offering a local service to everyone who visits us. There is a real sense of community spirit where everyone understands how difficult it has been and are now ensuring that we work together to safely revive our thriving village life.
