Covid 19 coronavirus: Wellington boutique thrives despite pandemic

The owner of a small luxury boutique in Wellington says Covid-19 has been “strangely” a huge boost to her business.

Rachael Caughley said July was her best month for sales in the five years since the small store, Caughley, opened on Wellington’s Ghuznee St, and credits the pandemic as the catalyst for growth.

She was “terribly scared” when the coronavirus hit the shores of New Zealand and she had to close her store, not knowing what would happen, but during the closure she experienced a 400 percent growth in her online sales.

Since the closing ended, sales have continued to grow at the store, giving it the highest figures it has ever experienced.

“When we first closed, most of our sales … came from the store, so it was very scary to close our store for a month. During that time, it gave me some space to sit and focus online. “

Caughley had always had an online platform for the store, but being a small business she hadn’t invested a lot of resources in it, instead focused on the in-person experience that she and her staff could provide.

But with Covid-19 prompting her to take another look at her online presence, she found there was huge growth.

He started interacting with potential customers on social media just like he would in person. One day he made a post about how to wear some of the belts he had in stock, and within three hours of posting, the belts were sold out.

However, online growth was not enough to offset the negative effects of the lockdown, as Caughley’s sales fell by roughly 50 percent.

Still, he said the engagement with his online marketing was “phenomenal” and gave him access to the Auckland market.

When the stores reopened, growth in stores began to pick up.

Caughley believes it had to do in part with his push for online marketing and in part with people’s changing habits surrounding the pandemic.

“People are definitely in favor of supporting locals, and I definitely think that for a lot of my clients, they were potentially going abroad and not going abroad anymore, so they have a little more disposable income for something like beautiful clothes.” .

Caughley said that beautiful clothing could be a form of “escapism” for some, and wearing a large fabric or a well-fitting blazer gave many women a sense of empowerment, which was something that people wanted right now.

However, now was not the time to “rest on our laurels,” as fashion was a “fickle business,” he said.

By now it was making the most of the momentum in the business, which also left it with its second-highest number of sales in August.