Lace gloves are off as luxury bridal boutiques blackball home traders

Some top-end wedding retailers are battling the rise in companies selling dresses from home by boycotting their suppliers. Two owners square up

A gaping rift has appeared in the wedding industry. Traders that sell wedding dresses from their homes have come under fire from traditional bridal boutiques, who accuse them of undercutting them and providing a poor service. Some have gone even further. Ellie Sanderson, owner of Ellie Sanderson Bridal Boutique in Buckinghamshire, says luxury bridal shops such as hers are boycotting suppliers that deal with home traders. “The UK independent retail bodies, together with retailers, have joined forces to blackball any label that sells to these ‘home traders’,” she says. However home traders argue that they are running professional businesses that provide great customer service.

Here two bridal businesses argue their opposing views:

Jana Svalbe, owner of Mode Bridal

Mode Bridal is a small luxury bridal studio in Hove, East Sussex. Based in part of the family home, it sells designer bridal gowns handmade to each bride’s measurements, with prices ranging from £1,000-£3,950.

We focus on delivering excellent service, offering relaxed private appointments where each bride receives great styling advice.

The bridal industry, however, seems to be neither interested in the quality of our offering nor in the opinion of our customers, preferring instead to brand all home traders as bad for the industry.

Influential industry voices are going out of their way to stop entrepreneurs selling wedding dresses from home. They are calling for designers to stop dealing with businesses trading from home, for respectable industry award bodies to exclude us, for the media to deny us any coverage and for trade shows and large wedding fairs to refuse us entry.

What really is behind all of this? A false perception is being peddled that all businesses trading from home have an overwhelming and unfair competitive advantage as they are “paying little or no rent and rates” and are therefore able to undercut any shop-based retailer on price, all while delivering “inferior service” to the customer.

As someone who has set up my own business from home, I hope to dispel these myths.

The bridal industry faces many challenges, from increasing rents and rates that make it difficult to run a viable “traditional” bridal business, to an influx of cheap products from China and elsewhere making it difficult for quality European suppliers to compete for cash-strapped consumers.

There is a growing volume of counterfeit products deluging the market, barely resembling the gowns brides thought they were purchasing online.

Caught in this bridal industry panic are talented entrepreneurs who have great plans to produce beautiful products but aren’t willing to risk signing up to long, punitive rental and other contracts before being certain they will succeed in those first make-or-break 18 months.

This supposed advantage of home traders is tempered by very clear disadvantages. Without a beautiful shop window located in an area of high footfall, attracting potential customers requires much more effort, determination and a significantly higher percentage of marketing expenses.

Most home traders do not generate greater sales volumes than high street retailers, or the supposedly “superior profits”. And, in my experience, most home traders do pay business rates - it is a government requirement.

Don't tell the bride, but grooms are big business

Home traders are choosing a model that balances the risks and expenses of launching and running a small business with the greater flexibility that suits their own particular circumstances (having small children, for example).

The argument that “all home traders offer poor service” and “all high street retailers are professionals” is disingenuous, misleading and highly simplistic.

It is time for the industry to remove its head from the sand and accept the reality of the 21st century. Home trading is a legitimate and viable business model and can offer an equal, if not better, service to high street retailers. The view that it should be prevented is preposterous.

If the industry really wants to improve both the trading environment and delivery to our customers, we should focus our energy on promoting enforceable quality standards, lobbying the government to take tougher measures against counterfeiters and providing small businesses with better support to stay competitive, not wasting time and effort on pointless insular fighting that offers zero value for the consumer.

Stephanie Hank, secretary of the Retail Bridalwear Association and managing director of Bride to Be boutique

The recent hype around weddings, with non-stop television programmes such as Say Yes To the Dress, has seen an increase in bridal home traders. Naive householders think it is an easy and tax-free way to earn an income.

High street stores invest huge amounts of money in premises, business rates, insurance, stock, staff wages, staff training, and marketing …. the list goes on. High street bridal stores are serious businesses run by commercially aware, professional people. These stores support the local community by employing local staff and paying rates to local councils.

Most people who run bridal businesses from home are startup businesses with little or no experience in what can be a very challenging industry. They therefore have very little advice and guidance to pass onto a bride. In addition, it is likely they are not paying business rates and are possibly not insured.

Shops have to have public liability insurance to protect their customers. Most home traders, however, are trading from bedrooms. What if a customer tripped on their stairs while carrying their wedding gown? Shops also have insurance for their stock and their brides dresses. A home trader may not have either of these in place and if their house burnt down or flooded the brides could all lose their gowns.

If a bride has a dispute with a home trader, the law might not protect them in the same way that it would had she purchased a gown from a proper high street store. If the home trader is selling as a private seller and not a business, there are key parts of the Consumer Rights Act that won’t apply.

Home traders are unable to offer the bride a large selection of desirable designer gowns as the top manufacturers and designers won’t supply them. A bride can feel that she is under immense pressure to purchase her gown when she has been made welcome into someone’s home but would not feel the same obligation to buy from a high street store.

Buying a wedding dress is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and coming into a beautiful shop is all part of that. It is probably the most expensive piece of clothing most brides will ever buy and should be left in the hands of professionals.

The premium RBA stores offer a reassuring guarantee to all of the brides who purchase their gown from the store, whereby they underwrite the 50% deposit that a bride pays for her dress at the time of ordering. This is something that, unfortunately, no home trader will ever be able to offer.