Case Study: Vintage Love

22 July 2011

For the Love of it

Stacey Brierley opened her Smallfish store Vintage Love two years ago, after being made redundant from a job she loved. Initially upset, Stacey saw the silver lining: an opportunity to pursue a lifelong passion of designing, manufacturing and selling jewellery full time. Vintage Love specialises in funky boutique jewellery with the stock divided into categories like Affordable and Adorable and Found and Forgotten. With over 5,000 followers on Facebook, Stacey's shop is a model example of how passion and a bit of entrepreneurial flair can transform a hobby into a business into a lifestyle.

What's the philosophy behind Vintage Love?

I've always had an entrepreneurial nature and the very first thing that I can remember doing as a child is collecting shells on the beach at Christmas, decorating them with paint and stuff and selling them on to my family. From then on I've always been into creating art in all kinds of different ways.

I guess I've always been into affordability and getting the quality that you pay for. There's nothing worse than seeing something that you love but its way over your budget. For all of the cool things you've gotta pay the big bucks. My philosophy with Vintage Love is to offer something cool and desirable that is also affordable.

Why Smallfish?

I'm a one woman organisation. I didn't want to pay someone else to run the website for me and Smallfish was just the whole cigar, so to speak. Vintage Love jewellery goes straight from the studio to online so there's no middleman.

Their support staff are easy to get in touch with and they listen. I asked them to help get the 'Like boxes' for Facebook up and running for the site and that's been crucial to the success of my shop.

How do you advertise?

I do a load of networking with the fans and I arrange freebies and giveaways when I can. After the Christchurch earthquake we offered free shipping on all of our products for a time and donated the shipping costs to the earthquake trust. My dad actually went down to Christchurch for a couple of weeks. I really wanted to go and help out as well but I just wasn't able to get down there and this is a way that I've been able to help.

Interacting with customers via Facebook has worked really well for me too - people become a fan and get to see the new ranges as they are available because I load them into albums and add links straight to the website for them to view prices and details (it's a great way to get people to your site also) It's useful to post information in the status bar too. If you're spamming too much, people end up blocking you but if you're posting something interesting you're more inclined to get someone going to your page for a look.

Whenever I send out an order, I include with it, a gift bag and gift tag with my website details on it and also another card the size of a business card saying ' "the best compliment is a recommendation" (please give this to someone you think may like Vintage Love jewellery)'. I have always thought that if you feel like you are receiving more than what you expect, then you'll continue to shop with a store so that's where the gift bag and card come in. When you open a parcel from Vintage Love, it's like getting a really gorgeous present that didn't cost the earth and looks fabulous!

What's next for Vintage Love?

I've just launched a new Smallfish shop called My Vintage Love Shop and it's an extension of the Vintage Love brand. The tagline is "stuff for people who love stuff" and it follows the same formula for cool, desirable objects that are affordable, only this time it's not just limited to jewellery. I've sourced awesome never seen before giftware for the home from New Zealand and from all over - a lot of it handmade.