Order of Style founder and director Lana Coppel details how her eTailer has been impacted by the pandemic and how she keeps her team, and herself, motivated.
What are your top tips for WFH?
Schedule everything.
I tend to be a chaotic worker and my brain likes to jump around from task to task - which isn't the most efficient way to work.
Especially if you are trying to achieve harmony with team members across projects.
As a result I find setting a time frame for each task or breaking up the day into blocks of focus's helps me stay on task and be more productive.
Do you have any advice on how to stay focused and to keep a balance?
Breaks are important and staying motivated can be challenging.
I saw some advice on work motivation - if you can commit to doing five minutes to start off on a project or task you have little desire to work on you are very likely to continue working on it.
It's a great little trick for those boring admin or data entry type jobs.
Keeping a balance is harder - some people are all work and no play and others need someone to chain them to their desks in order to stay on task.
In these instances it might be good to offer yourself a reward system.
30 mins of work equates to a five minute ball throwing session with the dog.
A good three hour block - head out for a leisurely stroll and pick up your favorite hot beverage.
What have been the main challenges for your business that you have overcome?
Last year was a real struggle for us - particularly as we have such a large group of Victoria customers.
During the long lockdown we saw a lot of our customers go into hibernation.
However the rest of the country had largely returned to normal.
This was challenging as suppliers had stock to ship and we had bills to pay regardless of how sales had slumped.
I am still feeling the pinch 12 months on.
We were fortunate to be able to hold our annual warehouse sale this year - just before Melbourne's fourth lockdown and that was a great opportunity for us to clear some older products and introduce ourselves to some new customers too.
What are the challenges you are facing now and how are you getting through these?
Planning our buying has been a challenge.
We've been on a wild roller coaster ride and this year has proven that there doesn't seem to be an end to what will get thrown at us.
It's hard to predict what customers are going to buy when the 'road to recovery' is basically a minefield. Are we going to need party dresses or more matching sweat sets?
How do you keep yourself and your team motivated?
We have been fortunate that we have been able to stay open and operational during the lockdowns as we are online only - meaning most of our work is fulfillment and not customer facing.
We are a small team so we could stagger working times to accommodate social distancing measures and while it was quite monotonous last year not being able to go anywhere or do anything - being able to come into the office and warehouse has helped break up the weeks.
We've also tried to have fun with it as much as possible - focusing a lot on pop culture trends, coming up with fun social media engagement projects and keeping it light.
Have you noticed any changes in customer behaviour?
Aside from a change in product type - we've previously seen a spike in dress and denim sales - it's moved back into more comforwear - luxe knits and sweatshirts have again picked up traction.
I've also seen a definite slowing down from NSW customers over the last few weeks.