Last week our Manager, Afuwa Granger, departed from the Circle Craft Store. She left behind a group of dedicated staff (including Alexandra, a newly trained inventory specialist). Afuwa was always very supportive of her staff and I know they will miss her. We will too.

Last week the Board shared with Staff the findings from Dig 360’s Retail Health Check. As you will gather from the following summary, while our task ahead is formidable - it is doable. We have every confidence that, with your active assistance, we can build our store into a profitable retail destination for fine craft. Considering a year of closures, a cancelled market and no tourists, we have done well, but we can do better.

On this premise, we recently hired Dig 360 to give us a comprehensive view of our cooperative’s retail practice, seeking guidance around how to increase our retail revenue to, at the very minimum, a ‘break even’ point by 2022. We also sought insight into how the Board might return to a Governance vs General Manager function.  

In April, Dig 360 started examining the retail health of our ‘home’, our Granville Island store, after which they shared their Retail Health Check report with the Board May 19th.

They first interviewed staff, members and customers, examined our books, location and neighbours, visited our store and then compiled a comprehensive analysis as to how we compare to similar retail stores. Well aware that we are not a ‘normal store’ (since our shareholders are also the suppliers and the “client” is both the customer and the owner), nor a strict ‘gallery’ (where exhibits and displays are invited and the art is managed by a separate owner), they realized that we would need a special arrangement to honour all three clients in our Mission - Members, Craft, Customers.

This is a big task for our Staff who oversees Sales, Inventory, Marketing, Website Maintenance, Merchandizing, Makers, and Administration. How will our staff manifest a cohesive story that serves Customer/Craft/Member?

In the store setting alone, we have realized that to serve this triad of the Customer/ Members/ Craft, we must curate a customer experience that invites them into an active sensory engagement with both the artist’s stories and the craft’s story through the physical connection to the actual craft. To serve our Members in our collective ‘home’, our retail store, we need to invite the curious customer into a sense driven experience that engages them physically, visually and thematically; encouraging them, much like a museum or aquarium, to take a piece of the experience home with them.

The story of the artists’ work, the artists’ process and the craft itself needs to be experienced as a holistic experience of our Circle Craft Mission.

The Circle Craft Granville Island Store needs to be a beautiful, exciting, provocative and engaging journey into B.C. Craft on every level. Our merchandising, sales staff, social media and website must tell a unified, compelling story of our artisans, their stories, their process and their craft. Our Mission needs to be inclusive in its scope and accurate in its delivery.

Observations and Recommendations from Dig 360

• Debt-free, healthy cash position

• 50-year Legacy (perseverance)

• Staff passion for the Co-op

• Source of quality unique fine craft

• Christmas Market brand recognition

• Members with tremendous stories

• Supportive Landlord

• Look beyond our 50-year Legacy (focus on 2023 and beyond)

• Emerge Covid with a strong emphasis on increasing sales to bring the store into profitability; target a 300% increase by the end of 2022

• Begin a strong program of data metrics to inform us about our customer count, conversion rate, customer requests, number of repeat purchasers

• Begin an ongoing retail sales training program for staff and store management

• Begin a strong program of cohesive and planned product merchandising in the store; beautiful displays that tell a story, leading the customer through a curated experience

• Reduce the store’s reliance on income from the lease of the Christmas Market in case Signatures is negatively impacted by Covid

• Explore improving store signage on the Island to clearly identify us as “the” place to shop for high craft

• Explore a strong marketing plan to draw traffic, create buzz and improve online engagement

• Focus on the shoppers’ in store experience; the staff become the connection between the craft itself and the artist/artist story/co-op story and the customer; very powerful opportunity

• Set up a program to collect data so we can contact our customers with emails, newsletters and exhibit invitations

• Look to emerging young artists to become members so we can expand our demographic audience and co-operative vision

• Every member can be a co-op ambassador by engaging with and encouraging artists they meet to apply to become a member

 

Circle Craft Co-op has the potential to be a world class Fine Craft Store - one that builds lasting and profitable relationships between its Craft, Staff, Members and Customers. 

PLEASE JOIN US to make this vision reality. WE NEED ALL OF YOU IN BIG AND LITTLE WAYS.

Contact wendyvanriesen@gmail.com or Wendy @ 604 789-5848.

Humbly,

Wendy Van Riesen