Fancy Dress Magic
Fancy Dress Magic Limited, based in Freetown Business Park on Hudcar Lane, is now sending items of fancy dress all over the world.
Joanne McCulloch, 31, and Andrea Procter, 39, started the business after seeing a gap in the local market for retailing rather than hiring out fancy dress items. However, they have been surprised by the demand from further afield.
The two directors are using a new e-commerce website, www.fancydressmagic.co.uk, built by local web developers, Bamboo Solutions, in Bury, to sell more than 10,000 different fancy dress outfits and costumes across the UK and to countries including Ireland, Malta, Spain, Italy, Canada and Australia.
“We can send out up to 800 items a day some days,” said Andrea.
“Locally, customers seem to favour hippy outfits for themed parties held at local hotels and outfits for hen nights,” says Joanne.
“We have also sold a lot of outfits, recently, for festivals to customers in Spain and Italy.”
Joanne and Andrea say that their customers are very cost conscious and most of their outfits are priced between £10 and £18, although items range from 50 pence for an eye patch to £600 for a Star Wars costume.
Said Joanne: “Customers are finding that it is often cheaper to buy an outfit which can be worn several times rather than hire one and then have to return it. Customers also seem to like the idea that all bought outfits have not previously been worn by other people. From our side, retailing rather than hiring means we don’t have the expense of buying high-priced costumes and then having the cost of cleaning costumes before hiring them out again.”
Next month, Joanne is off to a trade show in Chicago in order to source new product lines and meet potential new suppliers.
Simon Nolan, of Bamboo Solutions, said: “Fancy Dress Magic’s website is an example of two local companies working together to produce an affordable but very effective e-commerce site. The fact that the site is already attracting lots of customers and orders is really pleasing to us and Fancy Dress Magic.”
For further information about Fancy Dress Magic Limited, please visit www.fancydressmagic.co.uk.
-ENDS-
Date: 9th March 2010
Caption (left to right): Andrea Procter (from Fancy Dress Magic) is pictured with Mark Butler (from Bamboo Solutions), Joanne McCulloch (from Fancy Dress Magic), and Simon Nolan (from Bamboo Solutions), with some of the fancy dress costumes that the company sells.
Issued by Red Flame Marketing on behalf of Fancy Dress Magic Limited.
For further information, please contact Richard Boyd at Red Flame Marketing on 0161 212 1113 or 07792 819 059.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
