Helping a Shop Survive The Lockdown
8th November 2020
by SAMWare UK
Kayleigh was always creative and resourceful, creating something from nothing. She had a flair for making and restoring furniture.
In 2019, with the encouragement of her friends, family and boyfriend, Kayleigh opened her shop. Selling striking pieces of unique furniture.
Kayleigh’s new shop started out attracting a few curious customers. But understanding the power of social media, Kayleigh posted regularly on Facebook and Instagram.
Kayleigh’s shop was rapidly becoming a success, it even got a mention in the local newspaper.
Then in 2020, for many businesses including Kayleigh’s, things took a disastrous turn. A global pandemic and a government shutdown of all nonessential businesses meant Kayleigh had to close the doors of her shop, with no real knowledge of when she’d be able to open them again.
When businesses were allowed to reopen, Kayleigh found that it was hard to get customers back into her shop, many people were still cautious about going out again. She had managed to survive the closure, but with the bills mounting up, she might have to close the shop permanently.
Turning again to social media, Kayleigh tried to advertise many of the new pieces of furniture she had made while stuck at home.
But things didn’t seem to be working out how she expected, only a few pieces were getting attention. She then realised that, that people weren’t seeing everything she was posting, social media algorithms were just highlighting a few.
Kayleigh decided she needed somewhere she could show everything she had available in the shop, and could direct customers to with one advertisement on social media. So Kayleigh set out to get a website.
Kayleigh’s new website acted not just as a gallery showing what was in her bricks and mortar shop but as an online shop, she could now sell direct to customers that still didn’t feel safe venturing out. Soon business started to pick up.
When the second lockdown came in November, Kayleigh was able to keep her business going with online sales through her new website. She was even able to offer click and collect from her shop.