Independent childrenswear retailers discuss their plans for the spring/summer 2024 buying season. 

 

Hayley Girardier, owner, Jellyrolls Kidswear, Leicester

“Our main focus for next season’s buying will be on babywear for 0-3 years as well as introducing more accessories, soft toys and gifting. Although our focus for the last few years has been on designer brands, we have seen a slight move away from this to more traditional collections. Our customers have definitely been more price-conscious, too. So, we will be looking for new brands together with more traditional styles, which is where we are seeing the most growth this summer season. Our bestselling brands have been Pretty Originals, A*Dee, Boss and Moschino. However, a new brand for us called Deolinda has been the winner − great prices, designs and quality. We celebrated 25 years of trading in May and for the first time we are reducing our footwear selection. We feel the trend is more for branded trainers, so going forward we are stopping at a size 35 and will be putting more budget towards baby footwear. Baby accessories, bottles, dummies and gifts for baby showers are still very popular for us, and we have also introduced a wonderful collection of ride-on toys from Little Bird Told Me. We’re attending INDX Kids in July, which we loved last year, so we will now be spending a whole day at the show to see A*Dee, Patachou, Beau Kid and Pretty Originals, as well as being on the lookout for new brands. We are wanting to do more in-season buying and keep our showroom spend tight, so we anticipate a forward order/in-season ratio of around 70/30. In terms of the business as a whole, we will be placing more focus and budget on our website.”
www.jellyrollskidswear.com

 

Annette Evans, owner, Doodlebug, Wetherby, Leeds

“This year we have extended our age range and have started to introduce new brands. We stock tried and tested brands and smaller UK labels together with artisan makers, which are integral to provide something different for our customers. At the heart of what we offer are sustainable, ethical and organic ranges. It’s wonderful to know that we have a quality product, the person who made it has a fair wage, and that it hasn’t cost the earth to make. We explain this to our customers who are also keen to do the right thing and buy a quality product. Sustainable packaging is important to us, too. I want to be able to recycle or compost as much of our packaging as possible and know that I haven’t contributed to the plastic problem. As a small independent business, we love flexibility. Being able to pre-order is great, but in this ever-changing retail environment we love to be able to order in-season when we need top-ups, or have the flexibility to just order something different and know that it will arrive quickly. I love it when a brand contacts us directly and is happy to send a brochure, images and even samples so that we can look at the products in our environment, see whether they fit with our existing stock and how they feel in our shop. Since Covid, I am less likely to travel to events, and with a young child I prefer to spend my time at home. If a brand is prepared to send information or come and see us it shows that they want to be in partnership.”
www.doodlebugkids.co.uk

 

Robyn Duncan, owner, Adora Childrenswear, Bootle, Liverpool

“The key focus for our s/s 24 buying will be, as always, what our customers ask for. We ask customers every season what ranges and brands they would love us to stock, and we try our best to add them to the store. Since Covid, I have noticed a huge change in buying habits for summer compared to winter, so we will be looking to add more affordable ranges whilst remaining in keeping with our ethos of sustainably made and ethically sourced. Over 80% of what we currently have in-store are sustainable brands, handmade in Europe, and this remains very important to us. We will be looking to change up some brands next summer. We are currently in contact with two new European brands that are not currently stocked anywhere in the UK, which I believe would fit in perfectly with what we already offer. We always forward order for the forthcoming season. We will rebuy throughout the season if there is demand, although this is not always possible due to our brands only sourcing fabrics in the quantities needed at the time of the original order. We sometimes attend the INDX Kids trade show, which is always fun, but as we like to source new brands not readily available here in the UK, we often do our buying online and through online trade shows.”
www.adorachildrenswear.co.uk 

 

 

Simon Wilson, owner, Piccola, Epping, Essex

“Things are tough out there and they are only going to get more challenging. So, for us, it’s going to be about consolidation and continuity, with our focus firmly on the brands with whom we have a long-term relationship and whose products we know are popular with our customers. We have been very proactive in trying new brands in the past, but it’s just not possible to roll the dice in the current climate, which is not good for us or for companies beginning their journeys in the childrenswear industry – but until we see a change in the economic landscape it’s going to have to be a caution first approach. We’ve taken out the higher sizes in our collections as we found that these were the ones that we were always putting into the sales at the end of the season. In infant clothes, we’ve found that once children get past seven years, they have very firm ideas of what they will and won’t wear. Boys, in
particular, are hard to sell to at that age, when football tops and sportswear often become the wardrobe items of choice. We forward buy all the collections we stock and while, where possible, we have repeat bought mid-season quite aggressively in the past, we’ve stopped doing this now and work very hard on making the best initial order possible. This often means reviewing the order time and time again against past sales and trends using our stock management systems, before we ask our sales agent to confirm it with suppliers. As one of the longest-standing children’s retailers in the country − this is our 57th year − like many other shops, we get up-and-coming brands contacting us quite often, so we are usually able to see what’s new in the industry.”
www.piccola.co.uk

 

Mary-Jane Higginson, owner, Buttercup, Whitstable, Kent

“As an independent boutique we like to be responsive to our customers but also enjoy the buzz of presenting new styles as the seasons change. We primarily stock wooden toys and books at Buttercup but we do have some clothing, mainly gift-led for new babies. Our key focus for s/s 24, as always, is on quality clothing that has minimal effect on the environment. We have a beautiful hand-knit collection that we carry all year round and for s/s our knitter introduces natural and organic cotton yarns in gorgeous soft, spring tones. We also stock babywear from the French company Moulin Roty and baby accessories from the Danish company Fabelab, all ordered pretty much in-season. Alongside this, we have a gorgeous Liberty print hair accessory collection by Runaround Retro, which we forward order as the fabrics change seasonally. We love the brand Amy & Ivor and have sold its baby shoes since we opened over 11 years ago, mostly to order, as they can be monogrammed to create a very special gift for a new baby. We love discovering new brands and probably spend way too much time sourcing in our favourite place – Instagram.”
www.buttercupwhitstable.co.uk

 

Jan Coupe, owner, My First Steps, Lee on the Solent, Gosport

“This season I’ll be sticking with my tried and tested brands that I know have the quality I expect. We currently stock organic clothing and sustainable toys from birth to age four years, but we will be looking to introduce premature baby clothes in the autumn. I will be attending INDX Kids in July and will split my buying across forward order and in-season top-ups.”
www.myfirststeps.co.uk