![]() ![]() I knew that the bags were popular within the aspirational east london yummy mummy and daddy market. * I had a child myself and through this, had established a network of parents. * The designs could offer something fresh to the market due to the fact that they were designed as cycling bags not nursery bags and therefore be perceived as genuinely different * My cluelessness and naiveté could work in my favour from a business point of view, had i known what a huge intimidating industry it was, i may never have considered entering it * I didn't have any contacts in this industry *I knew nothing about the nursery market, competition, positioning and had never been to a nursery tradeshow *I could confuse and alienate my current customers who didn't want their bags to be associated with parents/families as they were cool hipster cyclists. *The products were not really made for parents, ie had no changing mat, or details details like bottle holders that make them in nursery bags *I had no photos or marketing material for this market, so it would be expensive to create as i would have to do new photoshoots I did, what every entrepreneur does probably on a daily basis and weighted up the pros and cons. How do i stay true to the DNA of the brand whilst also attempt to exploit a different market in which i saw potential? I found myself in a little bit of a dilemma. ![]() Not only were the bags designed to fit on bicycles, but my whole network of friends and fellow business owners were from the bike world. Having originally set out to solve a problem and fulfil a need in this market, i didn't want to abandon cycling as a niche area. The site is pretty basic and you can't really advertise or influence the readership, nor can you edit or control the reviews, so you couldn't really get more genuine than this in terms of gathering feedback.Īt this time all my Goodordering marketing collateral was geared around bikes (pardon the pun) as this was really the core DNA of the brand. The advantages of doing this was that a) it was free and b) it was able to give me real feedback on the bags. You can see some of the review posted here by clicking here -> Goodordering on Mumsnet It was then that i realised that i needed to begin thinking about the brand in the context of parents, so i asked some friends to review the bags on Mumsnet. I then went onto seed out the bags to friends who also had babies at the time to see what they thought. It was only when i started using the bags myself as a parent (hard to cycle with a 3 month old!) that i realised the potential that the brand might have within the nursery market. As a regular commuter cyclist, ie no lycra in sight, bicycles have always been my mode of transport of choice. The bags that i designed were always about cycling. As a sidepreneur, i was always so paranoid about mixing work with my business that i kept the two very separate. Contrary to popular perception, working there did not help Goodordering at all in terms of reaching out to retailers. I launched Goodordering whilst i was on maternity leave from my full time job at WGSN. The story begins 3 years ago when the business was in its first year of operation. As a big support of small businesses i can only hope that our story might help and inform other brands hoping to get into this and other similar retailers. Our market shopper and buggy bag, the two Goodordering best sellers are now part of the range people can see in the nursery department online on the John Lewis website.Īs the founder of Goodordering i thought i'd write a post about how we got in. We are obviously beyond excited have our bags stocked in John Lewis, probably the UK's most reputable retailer. This is the story of how we finally, after 3 years trying, got into John Lewis ![]()
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