Australian label Rae26 founder and designer Emma Johns details how her small business has operated through the pandemic.
As Rae26 only launched in November last year, a lot of what we know has stemmed from operating throughout COVID.
What we have found is that during the pandemic customers are spending more time online and are re-visiting the same products over and over; which we've tried to capitalise on by ramping up the focus on our unique selling point - the "limited edition" aspect of the brand - as a way to show the extra value that our products can offer in a potential sea of sameness.
A unique selling point of our brand is that we only create 26 items of each style, limiting our overall environmental impact and making each piece almost bespoke.
Being a small business trying to navigate through a global pandemic, we have just been trying to stay consistent and drive traffic to the site.
We have seen our average order value increase by 84% in the July – October period when compared to the previous, averaging out at $323 per customer.
Another aspect of the business we have also focused on is growing our social media presence.
Investing time and energy into creating content and engaging with our customers on Instagram has paid off as we have seen online store sessions from Instagram increase by 640% from the previous three months.
Our physical stockists have also focused on pushing our brightest and most optimistic styles, as they've found customers are drawn to bright, happy colour and playful design.
And coming out of lockdown in Victoria, our customers are (more than ever before) ready to celebrate and are looking for special pieces for the events that are able to take place over the next few months.
The most popular piece in the current collection is our dressiest style, the Farrah Dress, which has been our best-selling garment recently.
The top landing pages per session figures reflect that traffic has increased on the Farrah Dress in Peach Silhouette Floral product page by 12,500%.
Meanwhile, online store sessions are up 240% over the last 30 days, indicating there is a growing appetite for dressier pieces as we can start to socialise more, and look forward to a busy event season this summer.