Here, the partners explain the
reasons behind this organic growth and
the challenges they faced in breaking
down stigmas when it came to selling
on eBay.
How did the business first
come about?
Clare: The business started in 2009
from home, where I bought £15,000
worth of Triumph lingerie. They didn’t
want to sell it to me at first – it took
them three months to sell it to me.
Later on, I took four palettes of stock
from Gossard and some more stock
from other brands. Within a year, I got
a small premises, which was a really big
move for me, and I took on a member of
staff. Within two years I moved here
and we had a bricks and mortar shop.
It’s grown very quickly and organically.
We had a 2,500ft 2 warehouse space and
now we have 10,000ft 2 .
Melissa came in one Sunday to help
me sort some stock out. We started
talking about her joining the business
and in August 2014 we became equal
partners. What she brings is all the
finance and operational expertise.
Melissa: I’ve always worked for blue
chip companies and I had just left a
telecoms company. So what we did then
is take a step back and look at our
buying strategy, our operations and
cash flow. And then we decided to build
our foundations for growth. We
overhauled all of our software systems
so now, in every sense, apart from
having robots, we are state of the art.
You have to do that to succeed in
internet selling because your customer
feedback is in your face, so we ship on
time, we dispatch on time and we deal
with customers on time. So although
there was a little bit of trepidation from
some of the manufacturers originally
around selling on platforms like eBay,
they do appreciate that we have
excellent customer feedback.
Why did you launch on eBay and
not your own website?
Clare: Because eBay give you all the
tools you need and all you need to do is
follow their rules. I’d worked in
advertising before and so I understood
the construction of putting together an
advert or a listing. But what I didn’t
understand was all the marketing that
goes with it. They do the marketing for
you and they get the customers for you
– you don’t have to go out and find your
customers. That comes later, when
you’ve learned how to do this. So it’s
just about climbing the ladder and it’s a
learning curve that you go through very
organically. They also only give you a
visibility that you can accommodate. price and we don’t sell clearance
for everybody.
Melissa: Our accountant said that you
are going into a bottomless pit when you
launch a website because you could
throw as much money as you like at
Google ads, but when you are up against
Bravissimo and Figleaves, who do you
think has a bigger advertising budget?
It’s not easy to differentiate yourself and
make a name for yourself in lingerie. We
are doing that now but that’s because
we’ve got the business. But without
eBay, where do you get seen? How did brands react when you
first started selling clearance?
Clare: That’s a really interesting
question because it took all my 20 years
of sales experience to really sell to
Triumph because nobody at that point
wanted you to sell on eBay. So in the very,
very early days it was difficult, and that’s
why we opened the bricks and mortar
shop – that was the only way we could get
Freya and Fantasie at that time.
Where did the idea come from to
start selling lingerie?
Clare: I was in sales first and I was
always the best sales person wherever I
went. At one point I was selling to lots
of businesses who didn’t have the first
clue about business and realised that I
should be running my own company. I
decided to take the summer off, as I’d
saved a bit of money, and then
Woolworths went bust, so I bought
some Woolworths stock and other bits
and pieces. But I wasn’t making the
margins, so I thought, why am I buying
from clearance companies? They are
making the cut. So I literally picked up
the Yellow Pages and searched for
manufacturers in Swindon and
Triumph came up.
At the time, it was the recession so
I thought I’d buy clearance. I wasn’t
even thinking about buying full-price
stock. So I asked them if they had any
clearance and was absolutely shocked
when they said yes because why would
you clear a bra? So that’s why I got into
it and it was one of those moments
where I thought ‘there’s something
in this’.
Melissa: Now, we sell as much full
price as we sell clearance. For every
single one of our brands we sell full
48 | Issue 1 | January-March 2020 | Beauty Aesthetics International
When did you launch your
own website?
Melissa: Within the first year. The
website has been around a long time,
but it has been updated every year. One
of the reasons why we took quite a lot of
staff on this summer is to have people
working full time on the website.
Melissa: The shop was beautiful. You
can still see where we used to hang
everything. We’ve always been upfront
and honest about selling on platforms
and the big revelation for the brands was
that other companies weren’t – they
were selling on platforms but not being
honest about it. Most weeks we will get a
manufacturer telling us that somebody
is buying our stuff and selling it without
being honest about it. We have never
lied to our customers. Some brands have
one name on eBay and another on their
website, but we are Lingerie Outlet Store
on all platforms. There was a stigma
about eBay, but not anymore.
Did you ever think about
opening another bricks and
mortar store?
Clare: The best thing about having a
bricks and mortar store was the people
and getting them into the right size.
That was the brilliant side of it –
making people smile – but
unfortunately that wasn’t the money
making side of it at that time. Would I
go back into it? Yes, 100%.
There’s a unit just opposite Swindon
train station and I had my eye on it for
a long time. It wouldn’t be big enough
for us now, but I loved the idea of it. The
stock would come from the warehouse,
people could buy full-price stock and
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