Back to brick and mortar: Bridgnorth shop ditches website for the High Street
A business owner in Bridgnorth is scrapping its online presence to focus on the increasing need to deliver a "real life" experience.
A sign of the times might be to shut up shop and invest in a website to keep up with worldwide competition, but instead Livingbox, based in Listley Street, has installed a piano for live music and scented the premises with an array of candles upon entry.
Nina Best launched the business online in 2015, but having opened her own shop in the centre of town in September last year, she has now decided to stop operating the website and focus her efforts on the face-to-face approach.
The 29-year-old said despite being in the age bracket of those that might heavily use internet shopping, she believes Bridgnorth's footfall is strong enough to warrant a physical presence alone.
"We've had an online shop for a number of years," she said. "But we've had such a good reception from High Street trade that we want to plough all of our efforts into our bricks and mortar and go against the grain.
Lucky
"The shop prides itself on moving forward and providing new things for our regular customers, so I found I would take hours uploading items and maintaining our website for it to be out of date within a week.
"Bridgnorth is lucky in that it doesn't have many empty units and the town is incredible with its cracking support for independent shops.
"People want to pick things up, know that they're sustainable and know that they work."
The family-run business sells a mixture of kitchen items and contemporary gifts.
"I think there's an increasing need for a friendly, face-to-face shop that tries to do things differently," she added.
"I'm hoping that with the growing online competition businesses are having with each other, it'll go full circle and the High Street will flourish once again.
"It's been a hard decision to make as we make good money from our website and one that I probably wouldn't have made at first, but we're confident we can make it work.
"I strongly believe in the shop local, shop independent approach and I think others are starting to catch on – I think there's definitely a gap in the market."
