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Can’t Beat the High Street
Listed under: Interviews
Published: Friday, August 31, 2007
With online spending up 80% on last year and virtual shoppers shelling out £4.2billion this July alone, is it time to abandon the high street and take to the web? I Knit London owner Craig Carruthers believes that bricks and mortar are still the future
How did it all start?
I Knit London actually began when my partner Gerard started a knitting group every Wednesday. We couldn't ever find any good yarns so we set up a stall at a Sunday market where we met lots of knitters and found out what they were looking for. We opened the shop last September and it's known as a shop and sanctuary now. We show films and we've also got a license so we can serve beer and wine. The knitting group is still running two years on and we hold them in either the shop or the pub.
How crucial are your online facilities?
Massively important. We've got Facebook and Myspace and I'm also waiting to get an account with ravelry.com, which is a bit like Facebook for knitters. For us, the sites are a way of getting out there. It's worked brilliantly as advertising; we haven't paid for any magazine adverts at all, it has all been word of mouth. But I think buying from a shop is always preferable. You just can't get the same idea about colours or feel of textures from a website and when your yarn is delivered it's never the same as what you thought it would be.
What do you think your business does well that other knitting shops could learn from?
Well, I don't think we're really like any other knitting shop! For a start, two men running the shop has been quite a big deal for people but we never really considered it until others pointed it out. But I'd say that's definitely helped us; the fact that we're quite different and kooky has played to our advantage.
We're open until nine o'clock so people can come in after work and I think that they really appreciate that. It also helps that we're not the usual knitting shop owners; most people seem to expect a really old posh lady and I think they can be intimidated by that. Instead, we're quite quirky and everything is geared to be really accessible for people.
My advice is to always keep on top with what's new and also what people want. I'd say half of our current range is made up of what our customers have requested. Don't be afraid of getting in cheap stuff either; I think some places are scared of getting in really basic yarns. We've got our really expensive yarns but we've also got our budget stuff. We're also always there to help if people get stuck; they come in and end up having a few drinks and staying for a couple of hours.
I Knit London actually began when my partner Gerard started a knitting group every Wednesday. We couldn't ever find any good yarns so we set up a stall at a Sunday market where we met lots of knitters and found out what they were looking for. We opened the shop last September and it's known as a shop and sanctuary now. We show films and we've also got a license so we can serve beer and wine. The knitting group is still running two years on and we hold them in either the shop or the pub.
How crucial are your online facilities?
Massively important. We've got Facebook and Myspace and I'm also waiting to get an account with ravelry.com, which is a bit like Facebook for knitters. For us, the sites are a way of getting out there. It's worked brilliantly as advertising; we haven't paid for any magazine adverts at all, it has all been word of mouth. But I think buying from a shop is always preferable. You just can't get the same idea about colours or feel of textures from a website and when your yarn is delivered it's never the same as what you thought it would be.
What do you think your business does well that other knitting shops could learn from?
Well, I don't think we're really like any other knitting shop! For a start, two men running the shop has been quite a big deal for people but we never really considered it until others pointed it out. But I'd say that's definitely helped us; the fact that we're quite different and kooky has played to our advantage.
We're open until nine o'clock so people can come in after work and I think that they really appreciate that. It also helps that we're not the usual knitting shop owners; most people seem to expect a really old posh lady and I think they can be intimidated by that. Instead, we're quite quirky and everything is geared to be really accessible for people.
My advice is to always keep on top with what's new and also what people want. I'd say half of our current range is made up of what our customers have requested. Don't be afraid of getting in cheap stuff either; I think some places are scared of getting in really basic yarns. We've got our really expensive yarns but we've also got our budget stuff. We're also always there to help if people get stuck; they come in and end up having a few drinks and staying for a couple of hours.
