Redlane Boutique which opened in Tramore in 2005 will close its physical location later this month and transition to online-only at redlane.ie
The fashion boutique was Ireland’s first independent fashion retailer to launch an e-commerce website back in 2008 and has since seen many of the nation’s fashion retailers follow suit, particularly over the last year.
In a statement, owner Catherine Keighery says, “It was extremely hard to close the doors of Redlane Boutique last March and to remain completely closed for the best part of a year now. I am grateful for the fact that redlane.ie was already established and we were able to move our focus entirely to online sales and for the support, we’ve received from our customers. However, social distancing restrictions, rules, complying with health-and-safety regulations and the complete elimination of the joy of experiential shopping for the customer has seen the rulebook of retail completely re-written almost overnight.
"The Irish E-commerce report of 2021 is showing that Covid has revolutionized retail in two specific ways, firstly the sector grew by 159% in 2020, this compares to average growth of 32% in the previous 2 years and secondly, people who had never shopped online before have now changed their behaviour and they are now doing so.
"All of the consumer research is showing that a reverse in this behaviour will be very slow if it even happens at all. Consumers are now more likely to keep the behaviours they’ve adopted amid lockdowns, such as more online shopping and fewer shop visits; and unfortunately, with continual ‘High Street’ overheads and restriction uncertainty, retailers simply cannot afford to be in a ‘wait-and-see mode’. So for those reasons I have decided to continue to focus on maintaining and growing the business online. While Redlane will no longer be at The Cross in Tramore I intend to keep Redlane.ie HQ in Tramore and hopefully grow the business further.
"I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to run a business in such a beautiful building in my hometown with an exceptional team for the past 16 years. The walls of Redlane have been filled with fun and friendship (as well as a lot of hard work and many a meltdown!) and it is an era that will stay in the hearts of many for years to come, and for all that I’m eternally grateful. It’s the end of an era and it’s sad but we have to move with the times and transition our business online for it to weather the storm.
"We’ve proven over the past year that we can still deliver excellent customer service online and with our focus now 100% on our online boutique, we can continue to improve on that service for which we’re known.
"Everything will remain as it has been for the past year, just from a new location. Gift vouchers, credit notes etc will always be valid and as soon as restrictions allow, we really look forward to seeing you all when we resume our click and collect service.
"I would also like to encourage everyone who is shopping online to try to buy Irish. Even if it’s not from Redlane.ie please support Irish businesses and Irish retailers, the more money that stays in the country the sooner we can get out of this mess. There are a lot of people out of work at the moment and we need to put everything we can back into our communities as much as is possible.” Catherine concluded.
