Our social media has given us a personal connection and the business is booming
When jewellery designer Laura Bond launched her business in late 2019 she had no idea the whole country would soon be locked down for months on end – and our pandemic shopping habits would lead to a boom in sales for her fledgling business.
Specialising in affordable solid gold jewellery, Bond started her eponymous brand alongside her husband, Doug, with an initial investment of just £5,000.
Despite what the 38-year-old calls “a myriad of challenges” – not least the pandemic and Brexit
– their business has grown in value by more than 29,000% and is now worth £1.5 million, according to a third party valuator.
Achieving such success within just three years, she admits, has largely been driven by the rapid shift towards online shopping, as well as social media providing the opportunity to interact with customers.
“On a basic level we saw our web traffic increase substantially all across the world as places went into lockdown and people spent more time online,” said Bond, who recently held her first retail pop-up at St James Quarter, Edinburgh. “Social media has always been really important for our business and in the early days it was where almost all of our customers first discovered us.
“As we have become more established, repeat custom and positive online reviews have played an increasing role but social media is still very important to us.
“And we definitely notice sales are impacted by what people interact with – for example when we first started, we didn’t sell many white gold pieces then a new member of the team, Chloe, made some Instagram posts featuring white gold, and a lot of people shared and commented on them. Since then we’ve sold almost as many white gold as yellow pieces.
“I always wanted people to feel a real personal connection with the brand, so we are always so active on social media. We’ve always encouraged people to feel they could get in touch, and we always aim to respond to messages and comments in a genuine, personal way rather than as some faceless corporate business.”
With over eight years’ experience working in the luxury jewellery market, including dealing with brands like Cartier and Rolex, Bond believes customers are no longer looking for just luxury or fast fashion pieces, but affordable mid-range designs that can be bought as self-gifts.
She said: “For a long time the jewellery market was split between luxury pieces that you hoped someone would buy you as a present, and inexpensive, fast fashion. A number of brands have filled that middle ground offering jewellery that is lovely to receive as a gift but that you can also justify buying for yourself as a treat.
“There were brands that I admired doing this for rings and necklaces but I couldn’t find anyone offering dainty earrings at this quality or price point, so that’s what motivated me to launch Laura Bond.”
Alongside her growing customer base, Bond’s delicate earrings and septum jewellery have attracted celebrity fans such as Michelle Visage and Jessie J, while Game Of Thrones actress Nathalie Emmanuel, wore her designs to the Oscars earlier this year.
Bond said: “I always believed in the brand and hoped that one day I would be able to leave my job and work on it fulltime. But I never imagined that within three years I’d be working with four other people full-time, with our own office and planning to open our own store. It’s been a brilliant journey.”