One of the favourites on the Hidden Art E-Shop, Susan Bradley, had time to let us know how she takes advantages of the opportunities presented online for designer-makers. She discussed new products, her own online buying habits and her links with Hidden Art.
How does the E-Shop help you?
As one person selling online, it can be quite hard to get featured in the press and pull an audience. On the E-Shop you are lined up next to a group of people who are doing similar work to you, so people are more likely to find you by accident; they can go and look for something they have seen in the press and through the shop they find you as well, because you are on the shop with people who have similar styles of products. I have been approached by other online shops, ones which don’t have the caliber of work that the Hidden Art E-Shop does, and I have had to turn them down. You have to choose ones that fit and Hidden Art does fit for all of those reasons; the pricing, the quality of the work and the fact that it is a London and UK range, which adds strength. Other online shops have work I don’t want to be seen with, or that mine would seem expensive next to. The Hidden Art E-Shop also has a great PR firm, PR Girl, working for them. Being on the shop can help you to get the press coverage you need as a designer.
How many products do you have on the E-Shop?
I have between five and six at the moment; a couple of new ones went up very recently. These are versions of a drip shelf, which I took to Milan as a prototype with Hidden Art. The final version has now been around for several months, but I have just got everything together to retail it. It’s nice that the product was shown with Hidden Art in Milan in 2006 and is now on the Hidden Art E-Shop.
What does Hidden Art give you?
I try to get involved as much as I can; I was in Milan last year, I do Open Studios, I come to a few networking meetings. The Zetter showcase run through the Hidden Art E-Shop is another great advantage of selling there.
What is your view of online shopping?
I think it is probably about where you live. If you live in London, or a city that has good retail, you will prefer to buy it from physical shops because you can pay for a tangible product. But if you live somewhere more remote it is not so much the case. Because Hidden Art members are primarily based in London, most of their stockists are in London too. So if you were to live in Scotland for example, you either have to make a trip to London for that product or you can buy it on the Hidden Art E-Shop. I think that for the people who don’t have access to those cities with a good design presence, the online shopping phenomenon will just get bigger and bigger.
How many showrooms in London are dealing with your products at the moment?
Five real, tangible stockists have my work in London. I only have one other stockist, and they are in Paris – I don’t have any others in the UK. Because my business is in London I pretty much have to rely on the internet to generate sales outside of that area.
How much online shopping do you do?
Loads; There is something about being at home and not having to leave the house that is great. I used to work in an online agency so I was always aware of online shopping, and things like online security never bothered me. Because I used to work in that field, I knew what to look for and what was safe. I buy books and CDs, which are easy because you know what you want. I often buy from other designers, because I see their work anyway because of what I do. You can get much newer and fresher ideas online than you can in the established high street retailers. It feels like there is more of a connection with the designer through an E-Shop like Hidden Art: it is more personal. On the Hidden Art website (separate to the E-Shop) you get great exposure, because you get your own designer-maker page to link your products to. Also if I was in a small Hidden Art run exhibition, say like in the Zetter, it gets mentioned on the Hidden Art E-Shop and on the hiddenartlondon.co.uk website, so it is a good mix of the online and the bricks and mortar sales avenues. The other great thing about the E-Shop is that they have set up their credit card facilities, which helps impulse buying. Often designer-makers, especially when just starting out, will only be able to offer mail-order facilities, with cheques and money orders, which doesn’t encourage impulse buys.