Celebrating an #IndieXmas @bodandted

This guest blog was written by the team from bod & ted. bod & ted is a family owned and run business with boutiques in Tunbridge Wells and Brighton. They specialise in providing a personal shopping experience and mixing well-established brands with up-and-coming designers. bod and ted was established in September 2008 by mother & daughter team Yvonne and Sophie Brown. In this blog they talk a little about their plans to make Christmas special for their local shoppers.

About bod & ted

All of us at bod & ted are passionate about independent retail and we believe that unless people continue to shop locally the number of independent retailers on the high street will decline dramatically. Whilst larger stores can offer more sizes and styles, often at discounted prices, nothing beats shopping independent for customer service and the personal touch! At bod & ted we offer free personal styling sessions, we regularly call customers when their favourite brands have arrived so that they don’t miss out and we hold fantastic events where all our customers can get together and catch up…as well as taking part in several charity events throughout the year. We introduce new brands on a regular basis to keep the brand mix fresh and make sure our customers are getting something unique and exciting!

Christmas Shopping in Tunbridge Wells

bod & ted, along with another independent retailer in Tunbridge Wells, Payne & Son, are organising a Late Night Shopping Event on Thursday 5t December. Whilst not strictly for independents, we do feel the evening will do a great deal to promote the Tunbridge Wells High Street and encourage people to shop local, whilst raising lots of much needed cash for the Kent & Sussex Air Ambulance.

As well as this, there will other offers and fun stuff happening at bod & ted throughout December as part of the Celebrate an Independent Christmas campaign events.

This is the first time in many years the retailers on Tunbridge Wells High Street have come together for an event like this. Not only does it benefit a local charity but it gives a real sense of community back to us all – helps us all get to know our neighbours and hopefully ensure that more customers realise that we have so much more to offer than just what they see on the shop floor!

About Clare Bailey

Clare Bailey, The Retail Champion (formerly Clare Rayner), is one of the most well-known and respected retail experts in the UK. With unrivalled knowledge in retail, high streets and consumer matters, she offers unbiased, independent content – whether engaged as a professional speaker, for broadcast media, or for a written feature. Clare is a business woman, entrepreneur and founder of several small businesses. Having been born into a family of successful business owners, it was inevitable that she’d eventually jump off the corporate treadmill and step out on her own! Today her brand portfolio includes The Retail Champion, The Retail Conference, the Future High Street Summit and the Support for Independent Retail campaign. In addition, she is co-founder of Mobaro Retail UK and a non-exec director of Beed Virtual Assistant Services. Having started her career as a fast-track store management trainee for McDonalds, she went on to work with leading retailers such as M&S, Dixons and Argos. She moved swiftly into management roles before being headhunted into senior consulting roles with global software giant SAP, and international management consulting brand, Accenture. Her corporate background in senior retail, consulting and technology roles, coupled with her experience of creating and running her own business, has enabled her to be equally capable whether consulting to global brands or micro businesses. This unique blend has not only positioned her as a leading expert in all things retail, but has enabled her to add meaningful commentary and insight to the debate around the future of the high street, and, how technology is driving fundamental change in the way consumers, and businesses, interact. Clare has become an influential voice in her field, which has resulted in her becoming a regular media contributor and sought-after conference speaker. Often seen on Good Morning Britain, BBC Breakfast, Sky News, and Chanel 5 (to name a few), Clare speaks on a myriad of retail, high street and consumer issues – but is particular adept when it comes to explaining the context behind retail trading results, newly released data, and government stats, in a palatable and informative manner. In addition to broadcast and conference speaking, Clare is the proud author of two best-selling business books published by Kogan Page - The Retail Champion: 10 Steps to Retail Success, published July 2012 and How to Sell to Retail: The Secrets of Getting Your Product to Market, published February 2013. She has provided contributions to various academic texts, including Retail Marketing Management (published by Pearson). With an engaging, conversational yet informative style, Clare writes for press and content agencies, providing features, articles, blogs and opinion pieces as well as contributions to white papers and reports. However, when the situation demands a more serious style, Clare can deliver - In 2016 she wrote an extensive report for a major insurance and risk law firm, as a retail expert witness, to support a public liability suit. She found that project particularly enjoyable as it played well to her strengths – assimilating large amounts of data and information, identifying the key points and articulating that in an understandable manner. When not on TV or speaking at conferences, Clare’s “day job” sees her supporting consumer-facing businesses through her consultancy services. When asked to describe what she most loves about retail consulting it is typically the opportunity to “dig deep”, getting “under the bonnet”, in order to leverage the business data to uncover the insights that lead to “lightbulb moments”. She also loves working on business change programmes that centre on improving the processes and systems to increase profitability by supporting more rapid, better informed decision making, improving the customer experience, or simply by become more efficient and streamlined. In this respect she considers herself a “business engineer” with a brain that works like a relational database! Due to her years of experience, her logical, objective approach, her quick, rational thinking, she is known for being able to cut through complexity, seeing right through to the crux of issues, finding creative solutions that others may have overlooked. As if all that wasn’t enough, Clare is a working mum, juggling a home life in rural Lincolnshire with her partner, their 5 kids, 4 cats, and geriatric Labrador! For all enquiries, contact Clare directly on 01727 238890 or email champion@retailchampion.co.uk.

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