Top 5 Independent Retailers in Nottingham
Nottingham is well-known for its hustle and bustle and with the beautiful architecture and a range of popular high street stores on the surface, it’s understandable why.
To celebrate Independent Retailer Month in July, we have delved a little deeper into the heart of the city.
Whether you’re looking for fashion, food or gifts, Nottingham’s range of independent shops and boutiques have it all. Here are our top 5 ranked independent retailers in the city:
https://www.fairlytrading.com/
https://www.fairlytrading.com/our-shops/
Iguazu is a family-owned business first established in 2003. Being based in Beeston, near the University of Nottingham campus, Iguazu brings the world to our doorsteps with fair trade products from all around the globe.
As soon as you walk through the shop doors, you feel like you’ve been transported to a small boutique shop in another country.
What about their online presence?
Iguazu’s online presence was definitely vital for an independent business with an online store, social media and an emailing list, but there are definitely areas where they could be stronger in order to attract more visitors.
Online Store
The Iguazu eCommerce website is simple to navigate around, being a simple WooCommerce template. However, there is a large amount of category and product data missing. There is little to no description for most products and almost no reviews across the website either.
Product information is extremely valuable and can ultimately make your customer decide whether they go through to convert or go to a competitor.
From an SEO point of view, their product pages are missing individual meta descriptions. This can impact their organic click-through rate as the customer may not feel like they are clicking onto a page which is highly relevant to their original search query.
Social Media
Iguazu showcases many of its products via its social media profiles, however, they don’t post regular content. At the time of review, the last post is at the start of February 2019, almost 4 months ago, this could give the impression that they were no longer in business.
In terms of the content, Iguazu is missing out on relevant national days and holidays which they could harness to promote themselves. National days are a powerful tool, especially with social media and you can find our https://remarkable.net/blog/use-national-days-in-your-marketing-calendar/.
https://www.carolyncodd.com/collections/engagement-rings
https://www.instagram.com/carolyncodd/
If you’re interested in the luxurious things in life, then Carolyn Codd is for you. Make those special moments count with their fine jewellery.
The diamonds that they source are conflict-free and if you cannot see a piece of jewellery that you like in the store, Carolyn Codd offers a bespoke service where there is no extra design charge.
What about their online presence?
Carolyn Codd’s Shopify website has a sophisticated feel as soon as you arrive on it. Product content and brand stories are well represented, with their product collections and services also detailed well.
When navigating around the website, the product listing pages were missing a range of filters for the customer to use. This is likely an eCommerce platform choice or restriction they have, as filters are used mainly to improve the customer experience. As Carolyn Codd offers a diverse range of precious metals, stones, cuts and prices, this would enable their online customers to find exactly what they want with ease rather than having to troll through 4 pages of products every visit.
We recently noticed they changed the URL for the engagement ring page and left the old page live without redirecting to the new one. Errors like this can make a user leave the site if they land on a seemingly broken page.
Social Media
Though this was not clear through the website, Carolyn Codd does indeed have Facebook and Instagram. A simple recommendation would be to add their social buttons to the footer of their website as this would help promote their social channels and keep customers interacting with them on a regular basis.
https://www.thetreatkitchen.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/thetreatkitchen/
The Treat Kitchen is infamous in Nottingham for its innovative sweets. From their Radioactive Sours to their many flavours of Party Rings and Vegan-friendly sweets, they have something for every sweet tooth.
Though their flagship store in Nottingham has now closed down, they are still in Nottingham and their product is available in Harrods and The Vegan Kind Supermarket.
What about their online presence?
With no stores physical stores, The Treat Kitchen has a limited reach to its audience. Though you can buy their product online via Harrods and The Vegan Kind website, they may find that their brand expansion is restricted due to not having their own eCommerce store.
Brands such as hancocks.co.uk offer a strong eCommerce proposition will be selling confectionary to customers all across the UK and will be taking market share away from The Treat Kitchen.
Other than eCommerce, The Treat Kitchen is posting regular and relevant content on social media to keep up interaction with their customers.
https://www.dukkigifts.co.uk/http://dukkigifts.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/dukkigifts/
DUKKI is an independent store which celebrates every aspect of Nottingham. Personalised gifts using the local dialect are the perfect gift for anybody. They not only cater for locals, but with their website and worldwide delivery, you can have a piece of Nottingham no matter where you are in the world.
What about their online presence?
DUKKI have a great online presence with a constant tone of voice and style, but a website which falls behind and is in need of a revamp. On the other hand, their social media content is regular and fun.
With a professional website, Dukki could easily increase its website traffic and online sales as its current Shopify platform is difficult to navigate and lacks key content.
https://wearecow.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wearecow/
Last but not least, our number 1 and most popular independent retailer in Nottingham is We Are Cow. If you like vintage clothing, then this is the retailer for you.
We Are Cow is an independent store based near the Lace Market in Nottingham. They take vintage clothes and either resell them or rework them to give them an edgy new breath of life. Either way, it takes vintage to a whole new level.
Their entire fashion range features brands such as Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Levi’s as well as their own branded clothing.
With a greater push from fashion retailers to have more sustainable processes within the near future, We Are Cow is already half of the way there. With a no-waste ethos already in place, their design teams rework ‘tired’ fabrics and clothing items, into new designs and the latest must-haves for every gender.
What about their online presence?
We Are Cow truly rocks their online presence and they are definitely not shy about using colours. With a strong social media following on both their main account and the Nottingham one, they can’t go far wrong.
Their eCommerce site is quirky, loud and very much on-brand. Their site has powerful functionality such as a listing page quick-view, yet their product data is under-optimised, with most categories listing long, incorrectly ranked and irrelevant size-filters.
Get in touch today
If you’re a retailer looking to up your game online, visit our https://remarkable.net/ and get in touch with our eCommerce experts. Call us on 0800 222 9845 or email mailto:contact@remarkable.net to arrange a chat.