57 | Southern Enterprise Awards 2022 Aug22375 Best Retail Merchandising Specialists 2022 Bringing big business merchandising to smaller retailers, Flourish Retail (Flourish) is all about helping small and medium businesses to understand, and utilise, the merchandising that bigger brands have at their fingertips. Set up by Sarah Johnson in 2018, the firm’s aim is to enable every business to access the power of merchandising. “What springs to mind when I say ‘merchandising’? Window dressing? Eyecatching displays? Organising stock on shelves? You wouldn’t be the only one. Lots of people think that this type of visual promotion is what we do,” she states. “And while ‘visual merchandising’ is really important in the world of retail, it seems that the other, crucial side of merchandising is a well-kept secret, the kind that generates sales and profit. It’s all a matter of scale.” Sarah left ASOS in 2017, after her second maternity leave, due to needing more flexibility around her daughters. She set up a creative small business, designing, creating, and selling baby mobiles and bunting. It was during that time that she spotted a gap for helping small, growing businesses with their merchandising. Flourish was born. “I realised that there were a lot of creatives on platforms such as Etsy, who were selling beautiful products at low prices,” she elaborates. “My concern was that they weren’t factoring in their time or any profit percentage, within their retail pricing and I wanted to help.” Sarah decided to create templates which could be used by those businesses, to check and set pricing, to track their sales and identify opportunities, all supported by free resources explaining the how and why. This allowed her to go back to the career that she loved, in a flexible way, something which she couldn’t do within a large retail business. By making merchandising affordable and accessible to all businesses, wherever they are on their journey, Flourish adds a supportive structure. By becoming a key part of their team which drives their profitability, it allows them the time and space to focus on creating products and delighting customers. “We are unique as we provide a flexible way of accessingmerchandising regardless of size,” Sarah explains, speaking of the firm’s USPs. “Most ‘big’ retailers have full time merchandising teams, as they are so integral to the business. Where smaller retailers don’t have that need or budget, we can provide free resources, affordable tools, become part of the team when required, or provide structure for the brand to then continue their journey.” One main point of difference is where Flourish offers its reporting tools. These are built to run in Excel so that they are accessible and affordable, combining the raw data from businesses to provide meaningful reporting. Using this, brands can see analysis and make profitable trading decisions, allowing them to manage sales and stocks more effectively. Often once the tools are built, brands can see the benefits and insights which Flourish can bring. As with any business, there have been challenges for Sarah. Initially, the main obstacle was spreading the word about how beneficial merchandising is. And then, as we all know, the Covid-19 pandemic hit and retail was badly impacted by closures and stock which they were unable to sell. Now, as the UK moves into the cost-of-living crisis, there are huge impacts on spending and increasing costs. “Merchandising becomes crucial at this point and many retailers will rely heavily on their teams to plan and then trade through the seasons to potentialize profit,” says Sarah. “Increasing the awareness of merchandising and how it can be used flexibly through us, means that we should be able to help more businesses survive this next period and ideally, thrive.” Recently, Flourish Retail gained recognition in the Southern Enterprise Awards 2022 and was bestowed with the prestigious title of Best Retail Merchandising Specialists and the firm that started out with Sarah being the only official employee has gone from strength-to-strength. “My goal with Flourish continues to be raising the profile of merchandising and its intrinsic benefits to small businesses,” she says, speaking of the future. “By upskilling, supporting, and scaling brands in a profitable way, we play a key role in their success, enabling the continuity of the uniqueness and diversity of retail in the UK and beyond”. Contact: Sarah Johnson Company: Flourish Retail Limited Web Address: www.flourishretail.com Flourish Retail is a merchandising consultancy, helping SME retail businesses to grow sales and profit. With more than two decades of merchandising experience across the high street and online, Founder and Owner, Sarah Johnson, was perfectly placed to help businesses to thrive. We find out more in the wake of the company being recognised in the Southern Enterprise Awards 2022.
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