Melbourne’s design best turned out last week to celebrate a five year milestone for online retailer Hunting for George. Founded in 2010 by Lucy Glade-Wright and Joanna Harris, the sister duo created Hunting for George with a simple and honest desire to ‘create an online space that offered more’.
“We wanted to create an online experience that was the same if not better than walking into a bricks and mortar. Our goal was to transfer so much of our energy and personality into our online space that by the time someone left our website they felt like they knew us. The Hunting for George shopping experience is based around how we like to shop and how we like to be treated and we believe, that realness is what our customers have responded to most.” says Lucy Glade-Wright, co-founder.
Founded in a time where independent online retailers were few, Hunting for George recognized the challenge of being a small fish in a big pond.
“We understood early on that if we wanted to be noticed in this industry, then everything we did had to matter. From the way we described our products; to the copywriting of our terms and conditions; the way we spoke to our customers; to how beautifully gift wrapped our orders were. We didn’t have big budgets to spend on marketing so we focused our attention on all the little details that we could control and made them so different, so clever and so memorable that people would be forced to take notice.” Lucy Glade-Wright, co-founder.
Since operation Hunting for George has undergone many evolutions. Starting with a mix of fashion and homeware, the founders soon focused their attention on the growing homeware industry and in 2014 introduced their own signature range of homeware products. This confident step towards product manufacture rapidly increased the profile of Hunting for George and the success of their subsequent collections has firmly secured Hunting for George a place amongst the homeware elite.
The latest highlight for Hunting for George was their recent nomination as a finalist for the ORIA Best Small Online Retailer 2015. Recognising their commitment to the industry and their ambition for big ideas.
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Big shout out and thank you’s go to:
Nathan and the boys at Botherambo for catering the night with wicked banh mi and ice creams. Go check them out if you’re in Richmond (after you visit us of course). The crew at Sample brew. We were thrilled to have Sample beer involved, they are a local brewery based just up the road in Collingwood and the Gold Ale is a great drinker. Alex from Blackhearts and Sparrows cheers for providing the bubbles. You can’t have a celebration without champagne so thank you very much for helping us out. Matt Skinner from The Drinks List thank you for selecting the three gorgeous wines. There are plenty of exciting times ahead for you and the Drinks List and we look forward to watching it all unfold. Thank you to Jordon from Capi for keeping us all hydrated! Gwenda and Shaun from Yamaha, thank you so much providing all of the sound equipment for the DJ as well as your rad new MusicCast speakers that we had dotted around the studio.
Our favourite DJ in the world Kieran, thanks for providing the beats well into the night. Jem from Like Butter for all your hard work in putting together the final pieces for our space, thank you for bringing our visions to life. Paul from Glasshaus. You know we love you. You always help us out when we are in desperate need of plants. And last but not least a special thanks to the team at Haymes Paint for helping us transform our old dirty warehouse space into a beautiful one.
View the full photo gallery on facebook, here.
