Local independent boutique Beyond Brooke Ltd, which was set up by Jan Hewitt in early 2012, has decided to close the doors of their retail unit in Douglas and focus purely on the online market.
The aim of the business was to fill a gap in the market for quality plus size fashion and initially it didn’t have any online presence at all. During the summer of 2012 Jan took the decision to develop a website for Beyond Brooke (www.beyondbrooke.co.uk) and quickly started to get enquiries, and sales, from that channel. As the year drew to a close it became more and more obvious the ‘online’ side of the business was the strongest performing one and was actually supporting the running costs of the shop. While incurring around 7% of the overall costs of the business sales via the website has risen to over 50% of the total business, and orders continue to grow month on month. Jan has even had an order from Australia and several from Europe!!
Jan said:
‘I am very upset to see my boutique close, and will miss the visits from the customers who loved our stock and became friends of Beyond Brooke. Beyond Brooke has grown from a simple idea to a thriving business in under a year and now we plan to source even more gorgeous plus size fashion while continuing to provide great service to customers old and new.
The sad fact though is for the business to survive and proposer I have no real option but to focus online (www.beyondbrooke.co.uk ). That said, I am already exploring options around Pop Up Shops and will be keeping in close contact with all my existing customers.’
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