Everywhere you look, there are fairy lights twinkling and glitter-coated baubles sparkling as they embellish the towering Christmas trees that have each been decorated to suit a variety of colour schemes.
You can’t help but smile at the festive sight.
Julie Kenwell, who runs the seasonally-led, family-run business with her sister-in-law Elaine Godfrey, was also smiling as she proudly explained that the store was merchandised entirely by their all-female team.
“For us to say that it was four women who created all that, whilst doing your online shop and your regular day-to-day bricks and mortar [store] tasks, I’m really, really proud of that,” she said.
Recently celebrating five years in business, Julie believes that Osborne & Co.’s success is down to this strong teamwork and providing a high-quality customer service.
“The past five years, for any business, have been an absolute rollercoaster and when you think that a lot of maybe larger businesses haven’t survived, it is a big deal for a small business that is still relatively new to still be here.
“It means a lot,” she said, adding: “I suppose I would put that down to our team. We are exceptionally lucky to have the team that we do, and it’s kind of got to the stage now where we’ve all self-set our own wee roles.
“For example, Attracta is the creative genius in our store. Many of the displays have been created by her.
“So many people come in and comment that our displays are incredible, and it is down to her.
‘Strengths and weaknesses’
“We all recognise our own strengths and weaknesses and without actually having to outline them to any of us, we already know them, and we all just come in on a day and we know what we need to do.”
In regards to their customer service, Julie noted that as a family business, Osborne & Co. can offer a “much more personalised touch compared to the likes of Amazon”.
She said: “We know many of our customers by name and have formed incredible relationships with many of them too.
“Even for our online customers, who have never stepped foot through our door, we try our best to make a meaningful connection with them and provide the same customer service that they would receive if they came to the till point.”
She explained that one particular customer lives in an apartment above ground floor and maybe isn’t as mobile as some.
“Our team member, Monica, always makes a point of writing on the box to ask the courier to deliver direct to her door.
“We often find ourselves answering customer messages at 9pm or later in the evening,” said Julie, giving examples of how the business goes above and beyond.
“As a small business too, we continually make donations to local charities on our doorstep, particularly The Aisling Centre.
“‘Mr. Amazon’ won’t be doing the same for any of our local charities in Enniskillen!”
Since opening a physical store at High Street, Enniskillen on October 24, 2018, Julie noted how “so much has changed” at Osborne & Co. over the past five years.
“When we began, we had no online presence, and our social media presence was minimal,” she explained, adding: “In the first half of our first year in business, I was personally wondering whether we would survive at all.”
Saying that in some ways she thinks that the pandemic was a “significant turning point” for the business, she said: “I find it hard to say this, particularly since so many people really went through heartbreaking times during Covid-19, but for us, it really was the making of our business.
“We made a conscious decision after the first lockdown to come in to the shop with the shutters down and do our very best to sell as much as we could via our online shop, knowing that no one was able to come through our door.
“They say the first year and a half of any business is the most difficult. For us, when the first year and a half was over, Covid-19 arrived, and brought a whole new kind of hurdle for us to jump over.
“What I couldn’t believe though, was the overwhelming support that we received from customers during that time,” said Julie.
“I think that a lot of this was down to a strong emphasis across the board on the idea of ‘shopping local’; however, for our own business, I feel we had nurtured and created a special bond with our core customer by showing up every day on social media and showing different aspects of our own families’ ‘lockdown life’.
“A lot of our customers have said that we were their company through the isolating times of lockdown.
“And I feel that as the online retail space is evolving, we are seeing more and more that people aren’t just buying into the product that you are selling – they want to buy into the person selling the product also,” said Julie.
This is evident in the number of followers Julie and Elaine have racked up on the Osborne & Co. Instagram page with the help of the humorous video content they produce to use as an additional marketing tool for their brand.
What does the future look like for Osborne & Co.?
“I think it’s important to be realistic about growth for any kind of business in the world we live in now,” said Julie, explaining that it is “very hard to predict” what lies ahead for any business, either short-term or long-term, particularly with so much talk about the rise of AI.
“For us, I think our key goal is to continue to try and reach more customers who don’t know anything about our business so far, and we believe we can achieve this best through our social media presence.”
She added: “One of my personal goals is to maintain our bricks and mortar business here at No. 22 High Street.
‘Customer service’
“I realise that online shopping is becoming the preference for many, but to me, nothing beats coming into a shop and receiving one-to-one customer service.”
At the heart of the family-run business is Julie and Elaine’s relationship.
“Elaine is a really outgoing person, whereas I am very much an introvert, but I think that’s why it works,” noted Julie, commenting that they are “lucky to have each other to bounce off “.
“I think, especially over the pandemic times, we were so lucky to have each other.
“I sometimes think if we didn’t have each other back then, we probably wouldn’t have a business now. Like I needed her probably just as much as she needed me to try and keep this place going.
“Not everybody is lucky enough to be able to have somebody else to kind of lean on.
“I do recognise that we’re exceptionally lucky to have each other. And maybe there’s days that you don’t feel like coming on to social media and things like that, at least you know that there’s somebody else that you can lean on for that too,” added Julie.