Seekd is a new curated marketplace for jewellery and accessories, celebrating beautiful design by ethical and sustainable designers.
Transcribed interview:
Y: Hey Fay, thanks for sitting down for #YemziDiscovered. Can you tell us about SEEKD?
F: It's an online platform for designer-makers with a focus on jewellery and accessories. Selected designer-makers who have interesting stories, very much hearing about their products and what's unique about them. They might use specific techniques or might have a really interesting story about how it links with their background or heritage skills. I really want to focus on businesses that have provenance around what they do, so either they really care about the materials they are using or use sustainable practises and are very transparent about how their products are made and also focus on businesses that have a very strong social ethic and are investing in communities in some way. Whether that is that they just want to invest in taking on local people or it could be something more hard hitting like working in harder to help communities and supporting disadvantaged people and just giving back to society in some way. There is so many examples of social enterprises out there that their main ethos is around environmental and social good so I’m really keen to tap into that.
Y: How are you finding these products and artists, how are you curating your content?
F: Loads of ways! So out there speaking to lots of contacts I’ve either gathered through my career or have sourced over the last year through attending lots of events, networking, partnerships and recommendations from contacts. As Seekd now has a growing on line presence its also really great to be getting lots of direct interest from designers and artisans contacting directly. In terms ofcontent, I work directly with the designers to tap into the essence of their brands and showcase their product ranges and influences, I want to further evolve the content to highlight more storytelling and curate compelling content around the ethical issues the community represents.
Y: Are there any particular crafters or designers that you are excited to launch?
F: We’ll have to wait and see on that one because I don’t want to give preferential treatment to anyone:) I’m excited about the range of different designs styles and the causes they support - its been really inspiring to see women designers also giving back to other women.
Y: Do you have a target customers?
F: Probably women but it’s probably going to be fairly wide. Conscious consumers who really do want to know about the product their buying and the the designers, just looking for something different. That could be women any age really, Gen X, Y and Z! I think there is a specific population of Gen X customers who have been buying products with provenance for years and as we know millennials are now more concerned about the background of their products and aligning their buying power with the values. 70% of millennial are buying more consciously. Also there is a big trend of buy less, buy better so ultimately its saving customers money. Customers a bit like me, that have gathered a much loved collection over the last 20 years and bring out certain products again and again, 10 years on those loved pieces are still going strong.
Y: Yemzi readers are far spread, is SEEKD available to customers worldwide?
F: Good questions! At the moment I’m going to focus on the UK however there is the option for overseas customers to buy from the website. The long-term goal is to focus on building SEEKD communities all over the world, so So SEEKD UK, SEEKD America, SEEKD China, Brazil, all over!
Y: Would these be physical stores or like the online boutique curated to customers in those countries?
F: Yes, exactly, the focus would be on curating an on line boutique that supports local economies, finding and buying from quality local designers and knowing who and where your local home produced talent and designers are.
Y: That’s really cool! Nice, so to summarise SEEKD is a concious online marketplace boutique, would you have any pop-ups so customers can touch the products or meet you or the designers or any kind of physical meet-ups or anything like that planned?
F: Yea defiantly, so as I start to get sales and see what customers like then I will absolutely work with designers to do pop-ups in and around London. I do a lot of work locally in Hackney and various other bouroughs so maybe start there showcasing some of those local designers and collaborating with some of the local partners. A lot of the suppliers I’m speaking to are used to doing pop-ups so being able to form a collective is really impactful way of generating more awareness and demand for this amazing community.
Y Why are you so passionate about SEEKD, the cause?
F: It’s a mixture of loves, supporting and learning about local businesses doing genuine and beautiful work, loving style and loving curating stuff. I always like the process of getting ready deciding on my jewellery and accessories, and I always remember where I’ve bought something and if I have a conversation with a designer I remember why I bought the piece I did and what stood out about it. Through all my years working in community impact it has been amazing helping and learning about small businesses. Working on projects that really help support skills growth and capacity building people and businesses, seeing the impact of collaborative working, partnerships and promotion. I want to bring all that together with Seekd:)
"Sustainably made, Seekd style...welcome to a new alternative market place to find ethically made jewellery and accessories".
Seekd is now live Seekd.co.uk
Contact Fay fay@seekd.co.uk
Instagram: @seekdfashion #seekdfashion
