When I first started my label, I focused almost entirely on making things. I spent months designing collections, sourcing parts, and burying myself in my studio honing sewing and leather skills. I did this for the first year, selling my creations at markets. It was not until I started selling online and later in a physical shop that I became deeply fascinated with the psychology of selling. Or more importantly, what drives people to buy things.
Living without possessions
To kickstart my business venture, my husband and I took a bold leap from stable good jobs to selling everything we owned. We travelled around, making on the road and doing markets across all of Australia. It was one of the most liberating things I have ever done – selling all of my lifes possessions. There have been a few times, we almost regretted selling particular pieces. But they are long gone now, sold at a garage sale for basically peanuts, four years ago. We moved on. After all it is just stuff. I lived for the good part of a year with a handful of clothes, and all our worldly possessions inside a campervan. Staying in remote bush locations, removed from that constant consumerist message, we focused on our time, experiences and simpler things. I did not miss my old house full of stuff.
Fast track another three years and I have a home again, filled with stuff. I also have a large shop, filled with stuff that people buy. When I started my label, I wanted to be different. I focused on slow fashion, ethically sourced materials, recycling and providing consumers with honest, authentic, transparent craftsmanship. I wanted to be the difference, live the difference and contribute to a solution for the planets health. But it is still stuff. And for the most part, stuff that is not essential to lifes survival.
Appealing to desires
For the four days a week that my shop is open, I watch peoples buying behaviour. For example, 90% of my customers turn left when they first enter my shop. Certain locations are prime selling real estate. It doesn't matter what I put there, it will sell faster. People are attracted to themes of design and colour. They respond to ambience – set your music, burn a beautiful essential oil and turn on some extra lighting. I watch customers settle in for a shopping experience. These days in a world of mass produced conformity, people will choose to buy something handmade or vintage because of the story behind it. Set out a story, tell it with colour, signs, placement and you communicate to customers, without saying a word.
The dichotamy
This is not a post about how to improve your marketting or sell a brand. This is about narratives, the stories we tell ourselves. In my industry of handmade and vintage, buying is an emotional experience. Most purchases are not based on practical needs. Rather people buy based on their internal narrative. Be it nostalgic fond memories, the joy of pretty things or a sense of belonging. Products resonate with desires and are a perceived bridge to fulfilling them. Some buy to decorate a home, pick clothes and jewellery to reflect their personality or to help save the environment. The most powerful driving reasons behind a purchase is intangible and difficult to articulate.
Naturally as a shop owner, I want people to buy things. I have spent years reading about marketting strategies and learning how to tell my customers story. But there is a dichotamy that exists, between wanting to make a positive difference in this world and being part of a system that promotes wasteful, mindless consumption.
The stuff I sell is beautiful. Quality made items, most crafted within a 50 mile radius of my shop. I fill in spaces with divinely unique vintage pieces, built in a era of talented design and durability. My products are either made using recycled materials or was not new to begin with. I have saved a bunch of stuff from landfil, giving it a new life.
I try to inspire people to use existing resources and encourage thoughtful consumerism. I sell a lifestyle. You can create a home with up-cycled furniture, surround yourself with beauty, quality accessories and eco green solutions. I ask questions about provenance, research hidden costs, impart value. People leave with a bag of things, and a great story to tell. My shop is not all about buying either. I have a free craft materials room, host workshops where people come to learn a new craft and open my space to community events.
People are going to buy things regardless of whether my shop exists or not. I feel happy knowing that I can provide a real alternative. But it is still stuff.
Creating a new narrative
I love what I do, I love the vintage pieces I collect and the handmade designs I sell and make. But what I am coming to realise is that people buy my stuff, not so much for the gorgeous item in their hands but for the narrative it confirms. Their lifes narrative. If I can write a new narrative, a positive one I can make a difference in this world, for the better. And make a living at the same time. Stop focusing on selling and instead look at the narrative of your products and make it a worthy one.
Until next time
xx Isabella
a touch of class, on steemit, yes dear, let's have some tea
Yes we shall :)
Isabella, you made my day! So happy to find this post on steemit :) As a personal stylist I have become very aware of the sad fact that the textile and fashion industry is the second most pollution industry in the world...My goal as a personal shopper is to help people by more clothes that suits them to last longer then a fashion season and of quality that will last longer. Slow fashion in all aspects of lifestyle is really the new black! I live in Norway, but wish I could have stopped by your shop. You just inspired me to write a post here on steemit about slow fashion. Leneg
Oh how lovely to meet you @leneg. Thanks for taking the time to read. Awesome to hear that the 'new black' is thriving in Norway too! I am following you now, so looking forward to reading your take on this new movement.
Thank you! Looking forward to reading more of your posts as well :)
Here it is, my first post about slow fashion on steemit https://steemit.com/business/@leneg/your-choice-of-what-to-wear-has-a-big-impact-on-the-environmental-challenges
The value of stuff is defined by the owner, current of future. One mans trash is another mans treasure.
Very true @mrosenquist - I usually try to find treasure in most trash :)
I love nostalgia. nice
I want to visit your shop haha, but i'm far far away (Venezuela). Maybe one day...
Oh you will love it! It is unique, beautiful and full of my heart and soul. Maybe one day indeed. Australia is an awesome place to visit. But I am bound to post more photo's up here on Steemit, my shop is one of my babies :) So you can live vicariously.
Everything can be taught and learned, what a person need to is to find a way.
A beautiful insight @juvyjabian.
Your strength and spirit of freedom is inspirational as a 45 year old women almost at the empty nest stage of my life...oh the possibilities. A great big world is out there just waiting for someone like me.
I agree. Very little of what we own is actually essential to us. And this has boggled my mind for quite a while now.
Thank you Isabella for the great story
I would love to see your store; I loved to go to estate sales in the U.S. I too experienced getting rid of almost everything I owned. It definitely changes one's view of stuff. I'm still a packrat at heart, but I buy used whenever possible and purge with each international move.