On Wednesday night, our creative community of boutique owners descended on Trouva HQ in London for our annual summer party. Full of anticipation for the night ahead, our guests were welcomed into a relaxed and atmospheric setting with eucalyptus and tealights lining the window sills. As the prosecco and canapes circulated, conversations flowed. New and familiar faces introduced themselves, with talk turning to shared Trouva experiences.
“Trouva has completely changed online retail for us. We relied on footfall before we joined, with our own website generating little traffic. Due to the number of sales we make through Trouva, we’ve recently had to move our packaging facilities off site to accommodate for the extra space needed.” Lucy from The Scandinavian Shop.
The evening began with an exciting update from the management team at Trouva. They outlined our recent achievements and the key developments which will be taking place over the next few months. George, the Head of Tech revealed our ambitious plans to improve the experience on Trouva with the aim of closer aligning the online and offline shopping experience. Underpinning all of the updates from the team was the importance of a strong and collaborative relationship between the Trouva team and our boutique community. The beauty of our annual event is that it is a chance to strengthen these relationships.
“I truly believe in Trouva, its ambitions and its values. It is exciting to be a part of such a young company who are working with us to support our high streets.’ Richard from Carnill & Company.
After more canapes had been handed round and with bottles of beer courtesy of Freedom Brewery in hand, we welcomed Eva Pascoe onto the stage to talk about retail trends. An industry expert, Eva has had an illustrious career founding the world’s first internet café and working with some of the largest high street brands including Topshop. It was an honour to listen to Eva’s inspiring and entertaining speech focused on the future of the retail landscape and how independents can benefit:
“We’re seeing a collapse of trust in big brands. This presents an opportunity for independent bricks-and-mortar boutiques who can offer authenticity and buying truth.”
With the excitement building, it was finally time to announce the eagerly-awaited Trouva Boutique Awards, hosted by our Community Manager, Izzy. With an ever growing community of fantastic boutiques, the standard was incredibly high this year. We’d like to offer our congratulations to all of our nominees and winners who were selected for their stunning range of products, their engagement, excellent customer service and quick response to orders. Alongside an award to be displayed in their shops the winners will also receive a complimentary day of consultation with retail expert, Eva.
Gifts and Lifestyle:
The nominees were Resident Store, Darling & Gold, Oklahoma, After Noah, &Hobbs and Forest. Congratulations to the winners Oklahoma.
Homewares:
Nominated were Homage, Design Vintage, The Living Lounge, Printer & Tailor and A New Tribe. Well done to the winners, Homage.
Boutique of the Year:
The nominees were PAD Lifestyle, T&shop, Life Story, Wyld Home and The Scandinavian Shop. The Trouva Boutique of the Year 2017 is The Scandinavian Shop.
Other categories included the best kids boutique which was won by the Little Natural Co., the best womenswear boutique won by Maze, boutique engagement won by Room356, best menswear boutique won by Burrows & Hare and the best design boutique which was won by Coastal Scandi.
Thank you to all our attendees who travelled from far and wide to share this special evening with us. Without your dedication and hard work we wouldn’t be where we are today. Here’s to the next few months. We look forward to welcoming our community next year to celebrate our achievements, hopefully alongside some new faces. In the words of Eva Pascoe, ‘be positive, there’s everything to play for’.
Thank you to Freedom Brewery for the beer, to FunThyme for the delicious food and to Forest for the beautiful flower arrangements.
