Three Worcestershire-based female entrepreneurs have joined forces to curate a new eCommerce marketplace that showcases the best of British, independent brands.
Officially launched in August 2021, Hope and Story was originally inspired in spring 2020 when co-founder, Betsy Vickery, spent weeks searching online for 100% British-made gifts for her 7-year-old daughter’s birthday, and found there was no e-Commerce marketplace that offered ethical, sustainable, and truly British brands.
Determined to fly the flag for British-made lifestyle goods, Betsy enlisted the help of her childhood friends, Alison Larnder and Lizzy Waterhouse, and they set to work in developing the virtual British-made marketplace to offer conscious consumers the chance to find and support independent makers with a limited digital presence.
Betsy explained: “During the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic it became increasingly clear that millions of independent British brands were losing significant amounts of revenue due to high street closures, just as large and global online marketplaces were able to profiteer from being able to fulfil consumer demand – and quickly.
However, it’s clear that not only have consumers been more inspired to shop local and shop British since the outbreak of the pandemic, but consumers also associate 100% British made goods with increased product quality.
Therefore, in developing the concept for Hope and Story, Alison, Lizzy and I were committed to curating an online marketplace that both championed and showcased the best of British brands, whilst providing consumers with an enjoyable, online shopping experience. We are incredibly proud to launch Hope and Story and to already be working with over 100 British partners across 12 plus lifestyle product categories. Watch this space.”
With a clear vision to become the ‘go to’ online marketplace for British made brands, all products listed via the Hope and Story site are united in the same standard of quality to appeal to conscious consumers dedicated to shopping local, shopping sustainable and shopping British – with leading brands including Georgie Murton, Studio Arcform, Samuel Groves and Gungho to name a few.
For more information, please visit: https://hopeandstory.com
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