Local luxury goods retailer Gump’s will this evening be hosting Charlotte Moss, who will be giving us an illustrated lecture about her notions of design and style. As well as interior design, Moss has been in the lifestyle boutique business for nearly 20 years. While some come and some go, that she has survived, and that Gump’s has, too, for that matter, is saying something.
Glib but not lightly meant, as staying in business while maintaining a freshness that impels the customer to return is the most difficult of difficult balancing acts, requiring the careful reinvention of one’s style and aesthetic balanced with the right degree of constancy. While one builds a loyal cadre of buyers, not all buyers buy all the time, with a goodly number dropping right off the twig. But the secret is to add new buyers at a greater rate than normal attrition, and not enhance that attrition the result of unpleasant changes in presentation or product mix. And not just the wrong products, mind, but items that do not quite articulate with one’s core business. Even in our own little English antiques sphere, we’ve felt our way along gingerly, finding it essential to mix in 20th century items, both artwork and furniture, and even going so far as to offer our own range of bespoke modern pieces. For us, this has mercifully proven a successful blend, attracting new private and interior design clients who seem to like our look, while not putting off the existing clients whose purchases are almost exclusively period material.
With all that, what has been difficult for Keith and me to get our heads around, venal souls that we are, is that a lifestyle boutique will only appeal to those who share the vendor’s aesthetic vision, and that will amount to only a fraction of those who darken the front door- or browse the virtual store online. And of those, fractionally fewer will actually make a purchase. The temptation, I suppose, is to broaden the appeal of one’s merchandise, but that’s about the riskiest proposition there is. An overly broad mix of products dilutes the impact of one’s signature merchandise. Also, the broader the range of products, the broader the number of competitors, and we all seek to stand out.
No question, Charlotte Moss seems to have got it right. By the way, another prominent guest this evening at Gump’s will be my good friend Diane Dorrans Saeks. With her own lifestyle blog Style Saloniste, Diane does an exemplary job keeping San Francisans up to the mark.