Notonthehighstreet.com is an original concept that offers original products
By Naomi Davis
In a fiercely competitive industry worth millions of pounds, successfully creating something truly innovative is not an easy task. Particularly when new businesses are faced with a plethora of established high street and online retailers. Yet Sophie Cornish and Holly Tucker have managed just this. Their business Notonthehighstreet.com, which brings small gift and housewares businesses together, has picked up award after award and is growing at a phenomenal rate. Gifts & Housewares magazine spoke to the entrepreneurs to find out just what makes it such a brilliant concept.
As consumers we are somewhat spoilt for choice when it comes to shopping for gifts and housewares products; a fact that I am made acutely aware of at this time of year. Whether it be high street chains, department stores, boutiques or online stores, the chance to buy thousands of products is never far away. Yet because of this, setting up a small business is increasingly difficult. Furthermore, as shoppers we begin to take such choice for granted and thus demand a wider selection of unusual products. Sophie Cornish and Holly Tucker are two entrepreneurs that perceived these issues as a chance to set up a business that solves both. As Tucker explains, “It started in 2005 when I was running ‘Your Local Fair’, an event that brings small businesses together and offers an outlet to sell their products. I noticed a lack of support for small businesses.” She continues, “With so few resources they had little to no chance against big high street brands. Sophie and I set up notonthehighstreet.com to provide a platform for hundreds of the UK’s small businesses to sell through.” The business was also inspired by the pair’s love of original and charming products, as Cornish enthuses, “Once in a while, we’d hit upon a really special little business, hidden away somewhere at an urban market, country fair, or in a tiny village lane. We’d buy up half of the products for our homes and families, then want the whole world to know about them. There’s often no room for small businesses on the high street; big retailers don’t stock small brands, yet they’re utterly fabulous.” And so Notonthehighstreet.com was born as a marketplace for such companies.
Cornish and Tucker began with 100 small businesses and four staff, collating each brand’s products and showcasing them through a catalogue and website. Rather than sell items directly, Notonthehighstreet.com presented products from different brands, then once an order was placed, the brand would be notified to prepare and dispatch the order. To make revenue, partner brands would pay a joining fee and a commission on orders. It is a business model that has taken off, and which they still use today. Cornish explains how the company has grown, “We now work with more than 1000 small businesses and employ 30 staff. From publishing one catalogue a year, we now produce three and hope to do six next year.” The company is on track to turnover £6 million by the end of the year and if such success in the face of a recession isn’t enough of a feat, it has won so many awards the pair have had to devote a separate section of the website to them. So far it has been named as one of The Independent’s 50 Best E-Boutiques, added to the Startups 100 list of the UK’s best new businesses, and received awards including an HSBC Start-Up Stars award, an ECMOD Business Excellence Award for the catalogue and a Swift Customer Service Award. Cornish and Tucker themselves have received accolade upon accolade. They have been featured by Marie Claire in a piece on women shaping Greater Britain, won the Grazia 02 X Award for London’s brightest new female entrepreneurs, a Young Guns award for inspiring creative professionals under 35, a Barclays Startups Women in Business Award and a BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur Award. This is in addition to being highly commended for the First Women Awards, and most recently winning Specsavers’ everywoman in Retail Entrepreneur of the Year award. Cornish says of the latter, “We believe that we deserved to win as we have created something unique – a whole community who support one another – so winning means recognition for over 2,000 women.”
Perhaps one factor in their success is a careful approach as to who works with the company, as Tucker relates, “We carefully select each company that sells with us to ensure we maintain the quality of our offering. We receive hundreds of applications to sell with us a month but have to decline approximately 95% of these. We also visit the major, trade, retail and designer-maker shows and invite companies and designer-makers to sell with us.” She continues, “To qualify they must consider themselves to be a small business, their products must have a feeling of being low volume or handmade or have a clever take on a traditional theme, for example Reiko Kaneko’s soldier egg cup.” The website itself is certainly a homage to everything chic and homely. Ranges offer a luxurious yet organic feel. Products are crafted from materials such as semi-precious stones, glass, silk, and soft organic cottons and wools, whilst natural textures, shapes and motifs are popular. Everything offers a feeling of exclusivity, and care in its creation. It is also a hub of personalised gifts; a trend which Tucker says has “skyrocketed”. The range is clearly popular with customers, as the entrepreneurs report that Notonthehighstreet.com already has a dedicated fan-base on facebook and twitter, as well as a number of customers that email directly to express their enjoyment of purchases.
Whilst maintaining a selective mantra, the company works hard to support those brands whose applications are successful, as Tucker outlines, “Some companies are just starting out, so we also help them select a range that we believe will work well on our site and maximize their sales. It’s always really rewarding to see one of our partners grow. We have had many success stories where a partner has gone from having a few hundred of pounds worth of sales a year to hundreds of thousands after joining us.” To ensure the business runs smoothly, the staff are divided into teams; the new business team, who are dedicated to resourcing new and innovative partners, the customer service team, the marketing/design team, the technical team, the catalogue team, the partner team and two wedding consultants. The pair’s shrewd approach has steered the company clear of the disasters faced by many new businesses throughout the downtown, “We’ve been fortunate in seeing continued growth. In 2007 the business grew by 600 per cent year on year and in 2008 grew 150 per cent year on year – an incredible achievement given the economic conditions. It is on target for the same growth in 2009,” says Cornish. Receiving positive feedback from customers is something that drives Cornish and Tucker to continue and they agree that growing Notonthehighstreet.com, building recognition for partners and “breaking down barriers for small businesses” remain the most important goals for the future.
For more information visit www.notonthehighstreet.com