Market Research - Shop or Home?

Hi All, i love weddings so much i am thinking about setting up my own mobile bridal wear shop.  Simple concept really, I come to your house at your convenience and you try on dresses in the comfort of your own home.  I thought it could be a bit like a bridal shower with all the girls (bridesmaids) mother of the bride, nibbles and champagne and try on some dresses.  I would like to know other brides thoughts on this or whether they would prefer to go to a shop?  Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Fiona

I like the idea - but probably not in practice.  My house is a bit too small for it so I wouldn't go for it myself.  Also, would you be able to carry round a big enough range?  The good thing about shops is they have huge stock space, plenty of open space for trying on and of course - lots of mirrors!! 

Hmmmmmm....I love the idea of it (relaxing in your own home, get your friends round etc) but wonder how well it would actually work.

In a shop you have rails and rails of dresses to look at, thats the best bit having a look around at everything - would you be able to take a large variety of dresses to peoples homes? 

Also in a shop you usually have quite a big space, lots of big mirrors etc, so brides might not be able to see themselves very well at home...they might only have a full length mirror upstairs so they'l be going up and down the stairs when they try on each dress!

Sorry I hate to be negative, I personally would probably just go to a shop as you can still take your friends there with you and its quite a nice day out!!  Good luck though if you decide to do it!! x

GeordieBarbie - we pretty much said the same thing! I didnt see ur post til after Id sent mine! x

In theory it sounds nice but in practice I wouldn't choose that option. I have an averaged sized house but by the time I had my mum, bm, myself, you, all the dresses, 2 cats and only a full length mirror upstairs it sounds a bit too stressful for me. I have massive windows in my living room so couldn't just stand and get changed there and even if I didn't I wouldn't want to get changed in front of my mum and bm and wouldn't want to be up and down stairs constantly with every dress. In one shop I tried on over 20 dresses and that was fantastic because it really narrowed the styles I liked down so could you transport that many?

I'd be worrying that I'd need to entertain people with cups of tea etc etc so I just wouldn't enjoy the experience from that angle either. I booked a few appts for the one day so I went into town and blasted the shops in a day and it was good to get it over and down with.

I also find that if people come to the house I feel obliged to order so another reason that it would be a no from me.

Sorry to be so negative but I can't think of any reason I'd choose a home trying on session.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

What everyone else said, plus.......

Following on from PG's post - she has cats. What about the dresses around pet hair? What if you go to a smokers house?

I would also be concerned that your dresses would get grubby as they would be taken from house to house and not kept in a nice clean shop.

Also, you mention nibbles, champers etc..... again, you prob wouldnt want this around your dresses.

It could work for jewlery, tiaras shoes etc but I dont think for dresss

Zippy27:

What everyone else said, plus.......

 

Following on from PG's post - she has cats. What about the dresses around pet hair? What if you go to a smokers house?

 

and they just love long dresses because it means they can jump on the train and be pulled around!

this would be a great service (in an ideal world) if you could "order in" the dresses you'd like to try on (for someone as picky as me who went to the wedding show at nec this weekend and didn't see ONE dress that i liked, i would love this!!)

for example i'd order the ones i'd like to try on out of your catalogue or something first - so i like the look of dress W, X, Y and Z in the catalogue and then you bring those particular 4 dresses to my house. you then get either a flat fee or a cut if i order said dress from you and i guess without the overheads of a shop to run your prices would mean a saving even with your commission.

realistically this may not work in the real world just trying to be a little bit constructive! but this would be one hell of a bespoke niche-y service!! xx

Definitely shop! Home seems like a bit of a nightmare! What would you do with your OH!?

following on from my earlier post - you could do something ultra-specialist in this field...for example i haven't been able to try on one dress in my actual size in any bridal shops i've been to (i'm a UK8) as they just dont have them, they have all been a size 16 + which obvious caters for everyone....but for me it's not the most glamorous thing to have a sponge shoved down your back and to try on a dress with acres more fabric on it than you actually want! i would love if there was a shop/service who actually had dress samples in my size to try on.

this would also work equally well for plus sizes as i've seen some posts on here about dresses not being available in larger sizes too.

just an idea! xx

Hi all, thank you all so much for your input it has been very much appreciated good and bad.  It has given me a lot to think about and given me some really good ideas.  I wish you all the best with your weddings it really will be the best day of your life, it goes so quickly after all that planning so take in as much as you can.

Good luck

xxxxx