Run by a trio of stylish sisters – Disha, Apee, and Yukti – Peckham boutique D.A.Y offers a handpicked selection of under-the-radar brands that are affordable, sustainable, and unique. Here co-founder Apee reveals the story behind the business and how using Vend’s intuitive POS has helped shape the business…
How did D.A.Y boutique start?
I was a regular customer of the previous boutique and got to know the woman running the store. Everything just aligned in the heavens and when the opportunity arose we took over the lease of the store and rebranded! We kept our favourite brands and brought on some new ones we personally love and it evolved from there.
What is the store about?
D.A.Y is very Scandi inspired and for us that means fashion for everybody across all age groups and genders. On a personal level, the Scandi style suits us. It’s the brands that we love to wear – they’re very clean and timeless styles that have detail and an edge to them. We want people to come here and invest in a piece and Scandinavian brands do that really well, you will want to wear the same piece years down the line — it’s not fast fashion. We also work with a lot of independent designers in South East London. It’s really important for us to contribute to the community.
Do you think consumers are growing more aware of the pitfalls of fast fashion?
People are realising that by consuming ethically they support their local community and independent shops, which will only exist if consumers shop there. If you go into a big chain store you’re not going to have the same type of experience. You’re buying something that will only be on trend for a few weeks, then suddenly everything will be different in the store. You end up wondering, how is that possible? And why would you invest in anything that doesn’t longer than one season? People are starting to realise what’s happening and down the line someone is paying the high-cost of fast-fashion. It’s cheap because workers are not being treated well or paid properly. But fast-fashion is not going to change overnight. We love working with ethical and sustainable Scandi brand and feel confident to keep stocking them. Our consumers are asking us all the time about the fabrics, brand, how it was made. We’re more aware and our customers are growing more aware.
How do you create an exceptional experience in D.A.Y Boutique?
Everything is really thought about and curated for our customers, and that’s something only independents can do. We curate, pick brands, pick styles, and do our buying based on what we know about our customers. Disha is a stylist and offers that service in-store which is an important part of the customer experience. We often get people coming in saying. “We don’t know where to start, I just had a baby and need help” and we can offer that. We also try on every single thing that we buy so we can give honest advice about how it fits. That’s been a really big thing for me because people want that, and expect it if you’re a small boutique.
Why did you choose Vend POS?
Luckily, there are a lot of boutiques in the area and a lot of people recommended Vend. We started off with iZettle’s point of sale system but needed a more thorough stock system with reporting and inventory management. I just love the reporting on Vend, it’s probably the feature I use the most. It’s just so thorough. You can do so many breakdowns and different reports. I also wanted a system I could use to send weekly and monthly reports to brands and suppliers, which is so professional and well-documented with Vend.
How has Vend had an impact on your business?
Vend has made a huge difference in our business, especially with customer experience. When we opened customers commented on how smooth everything was. They felt it was really professional, and that added to their experience. It made us feel like we really knew what we were doing and we had it together, even if inside it didn’t quite feel like that. Our customer experience was positive from day one because we had Vend. We also love that it looks so nice, it’s not a big machine. And we didn’t end up spending a lot of time at the point of sale annoying customers. With Vend, we could put through sales really quickly. Plus, it looks quite nice when it comes up, which impresses the customers, and we could email customers their receipts, everything was in our stock system and it was easy to find. It’s a really nice slick system.