Betty's Boarding House was launched in 2006

Fancy being surrounded by the latest boardsports kit and clothing? That's how Alison Vikis spends her evenings and weekends with her online women's boardwear store Bettys Boarding House which you can find at www.bettysboardinghouse.co.uk .

Powderroom.net caught up with her in between orders to find out about shop life.

When and how did you start the site?

I started thinking about it round about the beginning of 2006 – I blagged my way into a trade show, having never done anything like that before, and got to speak to a lot of different suppliers and thought, I could do this! It took a while to get everything together and the site opened for business in October 2006.

How many other people are involved and what are their roles?

Friends and family! Me and my boyfriend Howard do most things, some friends have posed for photographs taken by other friends, the lad who used to live next door to us designed the logo – it’s mainly been a case of asking around my wonderful friends and family! I also got help from Business Links who helped me to find my website designer and gave me lots of advice.

What jobs/qualifications/training did you have previously which helped you launch and run the store?

Pretty much none, just enjoyed snowboarding. It just annoyed me that it seems to be so male dominated, I decided I would have a go. I knew I was a hard worker and was happy interacting with people and I thought I would learn the rest as I went along!

What's a typical day for you (if you have one!)

I still work as well as running the business, so I work mainly evenings and weekends. It involves lots of different things – Howard tends to do things with the site, while I sort out orders and contacting customers, and keep up with the paperwork side of things. I also get to do the ordering which involves meeting with suppliers and looking through next season’s stock, which is fun but also stressful trying to think what people will want to buy in six months time. It’s hard to think of what other people will like, but usually my judgment is fairly accurate though not always!

Alison and her family make time for snowboard trips

Do you still get enough time to go snowboarding?

I wouldn’t do this if I didn't still get to go snowboarding! It can be tricky to get away, but we need to have a life as well. Howard's son Daniel is getting just about old enough to cope with orders while we are away and we have been training him up with lots of bribery involved!

Which sports were your personal interests when you started it?

My interest is in snowboarding, although I do karate as well and go to the gym. Since starting snowboarding a few years ago I suppose it has had a big effect on my life, because it’s a case of getting away as often as possible and I've been all over to places I would never have gone otherwise, like Canada, Bulgaria, the Italian mountains…

What are the biggest challenges for you in your role?

It's been a big learning curve and I still have a lot to learn. I guess initially it was working out which things were going to be popular and I did make lots of mistakes along the way. Now it’s looking at how to grow and expand the business and increase our ranges, while on a tight budget.

What is your favourite part of your role?

I really like getting positive feedback from customers, and I must have been lucky because there have been so many nice comments and thank-you’s from girls who have bought from the shop and have been happy with the service.

Do you consider eBay and people buying their gear overseas as a big problem for your industry?

No in fact I use eBay as well, and a lot of other retailers seem to do the same. It's quite expensive to use but it just gives you another way to get out there. I think if people want to buy their stuff overseas that's fine, I've done that myself, but it's not always cheaper especially in Europe, and you can't always get the same things as you can here. We have even sold a few things to customers in Europe who don't seem to mind paying the extra postage, so it must work both ways.

What skills do you think are key for anyone looking to run an online store?

For me it's mainly been confidence and willingness to try new things. I'm also pretty comfortable with a computer which is obviously essential. I think also that it would be hard to do if I didn't snowboard myself on a regular basis, so I know what kind of things people are looking for and what’s out there.

Do you have much interaction with customers? Do you get much feedback?

I guess not as much as a bricks-and-mortar shop, but actually more than I expected through emails and phone calls. It's one of the aspects of the job that I like best so the more the better.

What's been your best moment working on the business?

Lots of things – when the lad next door designed our logo I loved it and thought it looked great and got really excited – that was when it all started seeming like it was really going to happen. Seeing our website for the first time, selling our first thing – all the nice feedback we get as well. Overall I enjoy pretty much everything about it, even though it's a lot of work it's not a hard slog at all.

Alison says checking out the new gear first is a major bonus

What's the best thing about running your store?

I love ordering stuff it's just like shopping on a bigger scale, and also getting to see next season's stock before anyone else.

Which elements of your job have had the steepest learning curve?

Working out which things were going to be popular to sell, and having to place orders so far in advance. I guess this will always be a learning curve as tastes change all the time.

What's the worst thing about your job?

At the moment it's doing my first tax return…

How do you decide what to sell? Do you test things out yourself? Do you buy stock based on what you like?

I’ve got an idea in the back of my mind what I’m looking for which is good quality products that I think people will want and that I like as well. I do buy things from my own shop and have given things as presents to my friends and family, but also I have chosen to work with what I know and companies whose products I used anyway before I started the business. I always ask myself – would I want that!

Do you find any reluctance amongst brands to work with online shops?

I have come across this but not as much as I thought I would initially. It’s an attitude I kind of understand but I think the world is changing, people like shopping online and if brands won't work with online shops they will miss out. I think as well now that we've got through our first year people realise that we're here to stay and are more willing to work with us. This is also good because it helps to show that there are enough female riders out there in the UK to be taken seriously by the industry.

Do you think the popularity of online shopping will continue to grow?

I think it will – sometimes people can be uncomfortable with online payments more than anything else, but I think that this will get better over time and I don't think it's any less secure than buying from a shop, just different. I think sometimes it's hard buying clothing when you've not tried things on, but with a lot of things we sell like shoes and t-shirts it's not so critical. Younger people as well have grown up with the internet and ecommerce and so are happy to shop online, whereas older people are more nervous. We get quite a few calls from parents just checking everything is OK which is fine if we can reassure them.

How do you think a site catering for female boardsports fans can and should differ from a regular one?

For me I wanted to concentrate on female only because the range in mixed gender shops always seems to be much broader for men than women. When a girl comes to our site they can use everything, it’s not just a case of finding the smaller women's section added on as an afterthought - although retailers generally seem a lot better now than they used to be. I've seen for myself now that suppliers are adding more and more women specific products but stores often I think are nervous to stock the full women's range. That was the main driver that inspired me to start up the site and it's still what I am aiming for as we are growing and expanding.

As far as the site itself goes, for me I think as long as we are offering a decent range and good service, that’s the same for any shop – I don't think women need anything particularly different from men in that regard. The links on the site are also probably more geared towards women than others might be. In terms of how it looks, I’m not a girly girl and wouldn’t want everything to look pink and fluffy and I think that would be pretty patronizing anyway, but it does look different from other boarding sites in terms of colours and graphics and we have had nice feedback from girls who like it. We also sell things to men and we don't want to put anyone off so it’s got to appeal to as many people as possible really.

Are sales very seasonal? Do you see any trends in what people buy when?

We have just come to the end of our first year and we have seen big variations, which we expected when we started. Even still, we kept on selling snow clothing throughout the year which surprised me, and the snow season also lasted up to the end of March which I thought would be over earlier, especially with the not brilliant snow record we had last winter in Europe. We sold loads of backpacks for the beginning of the school term which I hadn’t thought about until it happened!

Would you ever consider opening a real Betty's Boarding House store?

I would love to do this, I even have a vision in my mind of what it would look like! I would like a store to have a café at the back with music on so people could come and hang out as well as being a shop. At the moment that’s not going to happen because I’m working, but we’ll see what happens.

What plans have you got for developing the store in the future?

At the moment it's a case of building up sales so that I can increase the ranges we have got available, so that we can be the place that stocks the full range of products for women. I also want to be able to promote the sport for women as much as possible through links on the site and helping out with promotions for events and other things. It's been a good first year so I’m confident we will get there.

Visit the store at www.bettysboardinghouse.co.uk