16 Retail Lessons I learned from Liberty of London

Britain’s great iconic retail emporium, Liberty of London, and it's staff were the stars of a fascinating documentary giving a unique insight into modern retail.

Blue Eyed Sun’s designer and co-founder, Jo, had her very first job was at Liberty. At fifteen, she joined the Norwich branch as a Saturday girl on work experience and was later a sales & display assistant at Liberty in York. She advised customers in the dress fabric department and cultivated her love of fabrics and craft that influence her work to this day.

Arthur Stuart Liberty opened the shop in 1875 and changed Britain’s shopping landscape forever pioneering cutting edge designs and textiles. Operating from a unique grade II listed Tudor Building on London’s Great Marlborough Street, Liberty of London has always been famous for its oriental rugs, eclectic antiques and liberty print fabrics.

Over the years the store had shrunk back down from a chain and struggled to turn a profit from it’s London site, despite having 5 million customers coming through the doors each year out of 220 million annual visitors to the Oxford Circus shopping area. Managing Director, Ed Burstell, joined Liberty from New York’s luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in 2008 tasked with turning around the historic store’s fortunes. Since he arrived, Liberty have experienced continued double digit growth and sales are now up to £60 million per year with £2 million in profit.

Here are some lessons I learnt about retailing by watching Ed Burstell and his team in this documentary.

1. Christmas is Major

Christmas is a 365 day a year job for retailers and is the most important thing they do. Liberty take 20% of their annual sales in the six weeks leading up to Christmas and their Christmas shop attracts 250,000 people each year. They constantly monitor how things are selling, reorder best sellers and make sure the displays stay full so as to not lose any sales.

2. Train Your Team Well

The Liberty staff regularly meet to show products to each other and talk through what makes them special with a focus on the story of the gift items they sell. The team know what is expected of them and that they will be tested by mystery shoppers. Their focus is on being friendly, helpful and having good knowledge of the products they are selling.

3. Retail Staff are Sales People

Liberty track sales on a daily basis and involve their staff in hitting the targets. Everyone within the store that was customer facing had been taught how to sell. The company offers sales commission for shop floor staff and everyone is focussed on maximising sales. When it got busy at Christmas, the whole team got involved on the shop floor and at tills including the Head Buyer, Julie Hassan, and receptionist, Judy.

4. Value your team

Ed regularly asks his team what they think. I was interested to see how many negative responses he had for ideas he liked. Even the idea of a Liberty Bear (which Liberty actually sold 20 years ago - ‘like hot cakes’ according to Jo) was dismissed by Kate Bridley, Liberty’s marketing manager, as ‘a bit Harrods.’ What’s important is that staff feel involved and valued as team members. Ed personally writes Birthday cards to every member of staff and holds quarterly meetings to celebrate new and long standing members of Liberty’s team.

5. Know your Numbers

You have to know what’s selling well and what’s not so that you can maximise your sales and profits. As Ed notes, “You’re ruled by sales. There’s a report I get every Monday, that tells me, by department, how much business we are doing per square foot. What it does though, is make you think every single week, am I maximising every single foot that’s in this building.”

6. Shop Windows are Key

If customers are not in your store then you have to drive them in off your street. “Windows are a stores’ number one vehicle for advertising. So in terms of enticing people to come into the shop. It’s your biggest priority,” says Ed.

7. Watch your Margins

Don’t stock items just because they are nice, they must make margin. As Ed points out to his team, “The building’s finite. Pretty soon we’re going to be out of space. Other than just taking price points up and hoping that we keep on increasing footfall, I think we have to look at the margin line. We need to prioritise what’s going to give us the biggest return. If there’s something that would be nice to stock, it probably won’t happen unless it comes with the return on the investment attached to it.”

8. Maximise Your Selling Space

Liberty cannot grow their London site any larger than it is, although Ed has cleverly maximised the space available to him by expanding his selling area from 70,000 to 78,000 square feet. There’s no large swanky office for the MD as office space is taken for sales and even stock rooms and unused toilets have been remodelled into retail space.

9. Be Selective with your Buying

Liberty focus on presenting what is perfect within their space and have ditched a lot of the clutter that covered the real gems within the store. As Ed says, “We won’t launch something unless it’s right. Our customers love our edit (product selection) and they love our focus. It’s choosing the right stuff that is the entire trick to this business.”

10. What makes you Unique?

Although the Tudor building Liberty occupies is a disadvantage because of it’s size and shape, it’s also what makes it special and a unique place to visit. Ed has also focussed on making exclusive deals with designers like Manola Blahnik to set themselves apart from other stores and give consumers more reason to come to them.

11. Maximise Other Revenue Streams

Liberty art fabrics are still the company’s biggest money spinner, accounting for two thirds of their profits. Over two and a half million metres of Liberty fabric is sold in over thirty countries worldwide. The company still designs 40 new print designs per year from their small London studio and has over 40,000 hand painted originals on archive. This Intellectual Property is a valuable asset that can grow income without requiring further retail space to do so.

12. Retail is an Experience

If bricks and mortar retailers are to stand any chance against internet retail, they have to offer a unique experience for their customers. As Liberty’s General Manager Lee says, “It’s the service you get from the person who’s talking to you about it. ‘Does it look great? Do you feel great in it?’ Then when you’ve got the product, it’s how it’s wrapped. You can’t just throw it in a bag. You’ve got to wrap it to perfection. You walk out with pride. When you get it home you open it again. It’s all part of that experience.”

13. Understand your customers

Liberty has a range of customers, some who have shopped there for years. As Ed states, “You inherit the customer. You don’t want to alienate that customer. Give them something they want and maintain their needs. Then focus your efforts on the next one that is going to explode, like the younger more fashionable customer.”

14. Look after your Biggest Customers

Liberty’s top 50 VIP customers spend on average £40,000 a year each in the store. To thank them they are given a luxury hamper worth £700 and a gold loyalty card. They’re also all known by name by the team. The rug department will drive ranges of rugs to key clients’ houses to help them choose. Liberty staff even call their key clients to let them know when new stock arrives that they might like.

15. Marketing Events Matter

Liberty had several marketing events including a Christmas launch for journalists, a celebrity book signing and the reveal of their Christmas window. These were great for involving the press and inviting VIPs in to drive PR and sales for the business.

16. Organisation is Vital

Liberty’s team run their store like a military operation to ensure stocks don’t run out and they maximise sales. The buyers also plan their buying before they attend buying events. They know who they want to see, they are up to date on the key trends and have a plan for what they want to achieve whilst attending shows.

Liberty of London is one of our favourite stores in the UK and Blue Eyed Sun have been lucky enough to supply them on various occasions over the years. It’s a real privilege to get an insight into what goes on behind the scenes of this iconic British brand and see it doing so well.

What I learnt about selling from Liberty's top sales staff

Watch the Liberty of London Documentaries online

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