THE move from finance to gifts has proved a success for Jane Gokgoz, who started her multi-million pound online retail business from her kitchen table with just £5.50.
Jane is the owner of Personalised Gifts Shop, an online retailer that can personalise almost anything. She started the company in 2011, first selling personalised vases and frames, and now runs it with her team of more than 30 staff from a 10,000 square foot warehouse in Wellingborough, achieving over £3m worth of sales by end of March 2017 and well over £4m by end of March 2018.
“I had a need to get busy,” said Jane, who was born in Camden. “We had moved to Northamptonshire to raise the family and our two children were nearing their teens and getting more independent, so it was time for me to get back into working full time.”
Having previously worked in publishing and finance, Jane spent some time looking into e-commerce options, coming back to personalised gifts each time, as her children both have unusual names.
“We sell anything – bestsellers have included hammers and underwear,” said Jane. “If it has a surface and can have a message on it, then we will sell it. As long as the message is not intended to offend.”
At first, business was slow but Jane’s turnover has increased by 40 per cent year on year for the last two years – ever since she took the decision to start producing her own products.
“It was stressful – I had to remortgage, borrow and spent weeks recreating everything, but it gave us complete autonomy and made our offering unique. I now have complete control over the product offering and quality,” she said.
Personalised Gifts Shop has its own team of in-house designers, who create the products from design to photo shooting. More than 30 high-tech machines are used at the warehouse, with all staff trained on all machinery to vary the workloads. Demand is now growing so quickly that Jane is planning to purchase further machinery and this, coupled with the need for more production area and storage space, is driving the expansion.
Jane and her team produce and dispatch within 24 hours, except at busy times like Christmas – although she is finding that peak time is now all year round.
“We are entering wedding season, having just finished Valentine’s and Mother’s Day, and then it is Father’s Day, then the new school year, then Halloween,” she said. “In between all that, people are having birthdays, anniversaries, moving home, having children – there is always an occasion and always a suitable gift.”
Current trends include baby scan picture frames, DIY items and gin products, but Jane is always keeping her eye on future trends, doing research at international trade shows to constantly refresh her product range, which includes more than 14,000 products.
With a high percentage of customers returning business and corporate clients including Manchester United, TSB, Vodafone and Marriott, Personalised Gifts Shop shows no signs of slowing. Jane even has plans to expand in other avenues as well as online retailing in the very near future.
“We are used by so many people all over the UK – but we want to become more of a household name,” said Jane. “By increasing our operation we can deliver even more unique gifts to even more people.”
Find out more at www.personalisedgiftsshop.co.uk
