I AM IN AWE OF THE MANY INCREDIBLE MUMS OUT THERE, DOING A FAB JOB OF RUNNING THEIR OWN SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES WHILST SIMULTANEOUSLY HOLDING DOWN THE FORT AT HOME. I’M FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE ‘MET’ MANY OF THESE LADIES ONLINE AND CAN’T WAIT TO INTRODUCE YOU TO SOME NEW FACES AND THEIR AWESOME ENTREPRENEURIAL ENDEAVOURS.  IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET INVOLVED AND HAVE YOUR BUSINESS FEATURED, PLEASE SAY HELLO!  MELISSA@THEBESTNEST.CO.NZ

When E was a bubba I absolutely despaired when it came to finding super cool clothes for him.  There.  Was.  Nothing.  A certain NZ startup (where everyone shopped for lack of other options) had huge stores and a massive range………that was 90% girls clothes with a small, token offering for the little guys.  Times have certainly changed {thank god!} and I’m having so much fun playing dress up with my little Nixie while I still can.

Making life easier for those of us with boys, Mama of two Andrea has firmly cornered the market with The Boys Store and created a definitive shopping destination that has little dudes covered from tip-to-toe as well as their rooms, their toys, accessories, books…………it’s all in one place and it’s all awesome.

After welcoming her own little bundle of dirt joy, eldest child Mackay, Andrea felt the boy+shopping frustration firsthand and decided to do something about it.  With Husband Andrew on board as designer, they created The Boys Store and sought to fill the online shelves with only the coolest and most fun products from the BEST brands around the world.  Some of my favorite local brands such as Little Flock of Horrors and Little Pop Studios are represented as well as big name international brands that I love such as Huxbaby and Aden + Anais.

So……..Let’s meet Andrea!

1.  Please, please give me the lowdown on your weekly work schedule as I’m on struggle street at the moment trying to fit in blogging work with the rest of my mum-life!  

Yup, I’m totally familiar with that juggling act, especially when children are younger!  Luckily it does start to get easier as the kids get older, my son has just started school and my daughter (3.5 years) is now in an awesome local kindy each day also.  Now that The Boy’s Store has been running approximately 6 months and I’m focusing less on the tasks that go with establishing the business and more on the tasks that are going to grow the business, I’ve got a bit more structure to the weeks ie. I allow a set time each week for social media planning, newsletter creation, product purchasing etc etc!  I absolutely need to structure my days those as otherwise before I know it, it’s kindy pickup time and I feel like I’ve got nothing done. 

2.  When I first heard about The Boys Store last year I thought WOW, then I thought wow, an online store JUST for boys?  Were you ever worried this was a risky move? (It seems pretty genius to me but then I’m a Mum to two boys!).  

Definitely not!  There is a huge amount of online stores out there for babies and kids and it would have been more risky doing just another online store without having a point of difference.  Focusing only on boys gives us that point of difference and given we don’t confine ourselves to just clothing, but include toys, décor and books, we’ve got a little something for everyone’s budget and requirements. I always found as a mum with a young boy that it was really hard to find quality, funky & affordable boy’s stuff out there, so it’s our goal to bring products that fit that bill together in one place!  

3.  What do you find most difficult about being an online retailer/ business owner?  

Getting that cut-through in the market.  We live in such an online world and that space is so crowded.  Getting consumers to take notice of your business when they see a zillion other business ads on Facebook and get hundreds of EDM newsletters in their inbox is really tricky.  It’s definitely one of our goals to create more than just an online store for boys, we want to create a community for mums of boys as well.  Building that relationship with our customers is key, we really want to hear what they want to see more of for their boys and customer service is a huge focus of ours also.

4.  What are your favourite items in stock right now?

We’re loving stocking some brands that aren’t so widely found in New Zealand, including the following:

Zuttion – this range of cool urban style clothing with a vintage wash is delivered by Australian designer Pete Zuttion.  Our son lives in his hoody from this range!

Anarkid – Anarkid Organic is a stunning collection of design inspired babywear for newborns up to 18 months. Made from 100% GOTS certified organic cotton it is also great value for money.

We’re also pretty proud to stock the Hape range of toys.  If you haven’t seen the Hape range you will want to check it out, made from wood or bamboo and painted with water-based paints, it’s perfectly safe for little ones!  Each Hape toy is designed to be open ended so there’s more than one way they can play with it – nothing worse than a toy that only engages a child for 5 minutes! 

Last, but not least, it wouldn’t be a boy’s store without a range of superhero decals, wall prints, clocks and other accessories!  I think one of our favourite items here would be the Batman Lego Clock. 

5.  What’s ahead for The Boys Store?

We’ve got loads of exciting things in the pipeline!  One of our focus will be building that community and we invite anyone who might want to be a contributor to get in touch with us.  Our range is always expanding also and in the next couple of months will extend up to around 8 years of age (in both clothing and toys), so if you have a older boy watch this space.  We’ve got some awesome summer ranges that are due to land in the next few months also that will include swimwear and loads of colour, just what we need after winter! We’re also working on things such as Layby programmes, Loyalty programmes and registry programmes (ie. For baby showers etc) – amongst other things!

Nixon wears Avenue. G Pullover – On Sale Now! $39.95  $32.95

Lovely Andrea is giving one of you the chance to win a $50 voucher to spend online at The Boys Store!  Head over to The Best Nest on Facebook and follow the instructions on the competition post.  Comp closes Sunday June 14th 10pm.