2018 in Review – Quite the year for ALSO Home
WHAT A YEAR 2018 WAS – AND HOW QUICKLY DID IT GO?!
We wanted to jot down some of our favourite memories from 2018 and achievements for the year to share with you, as you have all played a part in our success.
To the inspiration seekers: we see you, we appreciate you. Every image you like, share, regram, pin or send to your friends – it means a lot. We’ve never tried to be aspirational or inspirational, but it means a lot that you see us that way. It pushes us to continue to strive for perfection across our product design, photography and styling.
To the lovely people who buy from us: thank you. Without you there wouldn’t be an ALSO Home. We appreciate every single sale we get, from Anna herself, to the sales team, marketing and warehouse crew. Some days things get a little crazy with the amount of orders we have coming through vs the staff we have, but it’s you alone that gives us that buzz. Nothing pleases us more than a full DPD van heading off every day. Nothing makes us happier than seeing how you’ve styled your ALSO Home products in your home or at your events.
To our followers: We love talking to you. The contact we have with you all is so special. Whether it’s a ‘like’ or ‘share’ or just a comment saying how much you love something, it warms our cockles! We try to reply to everyone, but sometimes things get a little overwhelming. We will try harder, but please know we are so proud to have you follow us.
To our wholesale stockists: Hi! Thanks for sticking around. We know how hard retail can be, always chasing targets and hoping your customers like what you’re offering. We hope you’ve felt supported by us. Barry loves you all! We are proud to be stocked in over 150 shops all around the UK now, branching out into Europe is on the horizon. You make the trade show experience a pleasure.
We have put in so, so, so much work into ALSO Home to make it what it is now and are looking forward to what the future holds for us.
Here’s some of our 2018 absolute highlights:
TRADE SHOWS:
Showing our new collection three times a year, every trade show we go to not knowing what to expect. Each show this year was better than the one before, with our final show in September being our best ever. The days are long but it is so rewarding to see what everyone thinks of our new collection.
MID-SEASON:
To celebrate 10 years of being around, in Summer we launched our first ever mid-season collection, including some new styles and categories we’ve never done before. The take up was amazing, with instant sell outs across so many new lines. It’s always a gamble bringing in new product, but this really proved that you trust our quality and judgement!
Our furniture, Andas and Hikari ranges all sold out, some before the product even got online!
PRESS:
We’ve had so much support from the national and consumer press this year, an all-time high! There are so many stylists and editors who supported us throughout 2018 and we pinch ourselves every-time we pop up in magazines.
This year we achieved two things we didn’t think were possible. In June we had our first feature, an Interview with Anna, in Elle Deco. ELLE DECO. The magazine we constantly read, delving into their world and longing to be a part of it. Following on from publication, we sold out of everything they featured. We will never know the full extent that Elle Deco helped the business, but we know the impact was huge.
Then we closed the year with Living Etc. A title we never thought would know who we were. They called us ‘purveyor of all things understated’, and said “ALSO Home is the place to find inspiration for a less-is-more approach” which couldn’t sum us up any better.
SALES:
Our website sales have been going from strength to strength every month, which concluded with the best November & December we’ve ever had. In fact, our sales from 2018 were more than we had the two years previously combined! The business is growing at such a rate we are out of breath catching up!