Reaching online customers

Marisol

More and more businesses are setting up shop in the cyberspace and fighting for your clicks, so competition is cut-throat, especially at this time of year when there is big money to be made.

But with such endless choice, how do online shops get people to buy from them rather than a competitor? Well, your potential customers will have to find you in the first place, so hopefully your marketingstrategy, including good SEO tactics, will ‘bring in the punters’.

The n [...]

Lunch break? Shopping time!

Marisol

Lunchtime is usually one of the busiest times of the day for any online shop, especially if the weather is bad or it's the run up to Christmas.

Between the hours of 12 noon and 2pm approximately, people in offices all around the country take out their tupperwares, sandwiches and credit cards and go shopping (without leaving their desks!) to the biggest shopping centre in the world: the internet.

Most of us buy online because it saves time and effort - it takes me just fiv [...]

From working girl to working mum!

Marisol

It was just after 11am on 13th September when my beautiful baby girl, Frieda, was born.

My due date was actually 1st September and my husband and I had been hoping that Frieda would arrive after 5th September for schooling purposes. But little did we know that she was going to take her time ... In the end I had to be induced at 41 weeks plus three days but things couldn't really have gone moresmoothly. In fact, a good thing about being induced is that you are already in the hospita [...]

Bumpy ride

Marisol

One of the first things that I began looking into when I found out that I was pregnant earlier this year was clothes (quelle surprise!). I had noticed a few maternity brands in fashion magazines and friends of mine gladly recommended a few places too, so I typed a few names in Google and started bookmarking those with potential. However, that little exercise didn't last long because it turned out that actually I couldn't find that many clothes I liked the look of! Oh dear.....

Caradiaz in Red Direct

Marisol

The Caradiaz team was recently had a busy time checking and packing a wholesale delivery for Red Direct, the mail-order shopping arm of the UK fashion magazine Red.

Negotiations started back in April this year, when we met with Red Direct's jewellery buying at theirhead office in London to show them our new arrivals and discuss the possibility of introducing some of these items in their catalogue for the following season. The meeting went well and ultimately the [...]

Lunch at Claridge's

Marisol

A few weeks ago I treated my husband (who also happens to be the Caradiaz IT Manager) to a posh meal for his birthday. The chosen venue: Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's.

We hadn't been there before and upon making that admission our waiter asked 'Are you exicted to be here?', a comment that we actually thought a bit on the arrogant side... Once at our table, our waiter quickly proceeded to enquire about the special occasion that led to our visit - surely there could be no [...]

Mary Portas strikes back

Marisol

The new series of Mary Queen of Shops kicked off on Monday, 9th June, on BBC2. The target: a womenswear boutique in Ascot (Berkshire) specialising in large sizes.

The script was as simple as usual: shop owner doesn't know her business, therefore doesn't make any money and Mary Portas comes to the rescue. It's the same formula as Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares really- but without the continuous swearing...

Some of the morning after tv reviews described Ms. [...]

Yves Saint-Laurent pases away

Marisol

Almost a year to the day of the death of Gianfranco Ferré, another legendary name from the fashion industry, Yves Saint-Laurent, passed away on Sunday evening in his Paris residence after a year-long battle with brain cancer.

Yves Saint-Laurent's contribution to the fashion industry has been essential. Apart from creating iconic pieces such as the safari jacket and the tuxedofor women, he was the first 'couturier' to democratise designer fashion with the introductio [...]

The Italian Job

Marisol

One great thing about running an on-line business is the potential to have anybody from pretty much anywhere in the world visiting your shop and placing an order. It just feels great when people thousands of miles away find your products exciting enough to actually want to have them shipped over from another corner of the globe.

One of Caradiaz's international orders last year came from Italy. It was a straight forward order for a Tawy necklace so we checked the item as usual, pa [...]

Business Ethics

Marisol

You may have noticed from our collections that at Caradiaz we work mostly with Spanish jewellery designers and manufacturers. At the end of the day, I come from Spain so there is no language barrier and I'm familiar enough with the 'mañana, mañana' syndrome to know how to handle it. But it was also important tobe close enough to our sources to develop a good business relationship and have as much control as possible on the production of our products.

More and [...]

The weight of fashion

Marisol

A London paper recently featured an article on the use of skinny models in fashion and how the French have just passed new legislation to try and tackle the issue, which I think it's great. There is a big difference between naturally petite girls whose weight is perfectly healthy for their size and body built, like Kate Moss, and those who starve themselves to death to work in fashion, be sociallyaccepted, or simply to emulate some celebrity without considering whether their bodies will b [...]

Blog Entries for Marisol

Reaching online customers

Lunch break? Shopping time!

From working girl to working mum!

Bumpy ride

Caradiaz in Red Direct

Lunch at Claridge's

Mary Portas strikes back

Yves Saint-Laurent pases away

The Italian Job

Business Ethics

The weight of fashion