Entrepreneur Colleen Imrie has a mission to help artisans follow their dreams and build successful businesses.
It’s why she created The Nooks concept which some people have described as an artisan retail business incubator. The Nooks is a creative space that allows Canadian artisans and entrepreneurs to sell their handmade products both in-store and online.
Imrie, owner and founder, launched the concept in 2016. She initially had an interior design, furniture store in Toronto based on consignment and her own designs.
“I had a lot of artists come through my doors a couple of months in and ask if I would sell their jewelry, their art work. I told them I do consignment and that didn’t seem to be the right fit,” she said. “I wasn’t carrying any artisan goods. It was like furniture and home decor stuff.
“Then I quickly looked around my 2,500-square-foot store and calculated well what if I just charged rent. It’s not a new model. Lawyers do it, hairdressers do it. People do this rent-based style of retail and I quickly pivoted six months later to opening my first full Nooks store under a brand new concept of rent-based retail and then building a lot of different back-end and resources to actually help these artisans be a business.
“I really see us as a retail incubator for handmade craft brands, taking people from their hobby to it being their full-time gig. We do that not only with the placement of the best locations in malls, high volume, downtown streets, but also with our business development. That’s where the incubator comes in because we have a lot of resources that I designed or my team collectively designed to help makers go through the journey of becoming an entrepreneur. Just because you make stuff doesn’t mean you’re a business owner or even an entrepreneur. So we kind of teach them those ropes of how to make this super sustainable because we’re putting them in front of thousands and thousands of people. So they’re going to have to level up and get to that mindset that this could be something so big in your life and we can help you.”
The stores came first and then about three years in Imrie took the basic retail model of rent-based and brought it online in a marketplace. Its own software was created where vendors can log in and upload their products, make full profit and pay The Nooks a monthly fee.
The company has 14 stores in Ontario and British Columbia.
It has also embarked in a partnership with Hudson’s Bay, launching a store within The Bay in Ottawa at CF Rideau Centre.
“Essentially they want to bring artisan goods into their store to get the customer base. Handmade’s all the rage,” said Imrie, who negotiated a rent-based model with the retail giant where the “nookies” can continue to earn full profit.
In that store, there are 68 vendors selling products in just under 2,000 square feet.
“We have a drop and go membership which is we merchandise on behalf of the vendors. In our regular stores, everyone has their own nook like a micro-store that they design. With Hudson’s Bay, given the space which our average store starts at 2,500 square feet, we had to shift to drop and go. We merchandise for the vendor,” said Imrie. “It looks like a regular retail setup.
“We’re looking at up to 10 stores across Canada. They shared with me kind of their hot list of top performers and we selected those. Every four months we’re looking to roll out a new location.”
The company, which has three stores in Vancouver (Kitsilano, North Vancouver and Gastown), is looking at two more stores in BC and one more store in Ontario.
“Then we’re going to start filling the gaps between BC and Ontario. We’re looking to do that with the Hudson’s Bay to start. Winnipeg, Alberta. Fill in the gaps of the country through the partnership,” said Imrie. “And that also helps us go about the malls and look for our own standalone store.”
The retailer’s growth also includes the launch of sub-brands The General Store and Hello Sunshine.
“Having six years of data, I’ve seen a huge rise in the popularity of artisan food and then also baby goods, especially through COVID. So I opened up sub-brand concepts. So we have four General Stores where we now represent artisan food producers. Originally, we had trinkle bits of it in our regular Nook stores besides ceramics and leather and all the other stuff, but I quickly realized when the food is bunched together it does better. So that’s when I thought let’s open up a food concept,” said Imrie. “Our General Store represents all handmade artisan food and drink.
“Our Hello Sunshine is our baby concept. People shop for baby better when it’s grouped together, not spread out throughout the store. It’s more of a destination. So then I created these baby stores. There are three Hello Sunshine stores which are all for baby vendors.
“We’re also going to be launching independent websites . . . because we want to start promoting and isolating those vendors because they need a different care in their business. They have different niches. I want to grow the sub-brands with the Nooks because the same people want to shop the stuff. It’s just better received in a more niched and curated environment over our regular Nook stores, those two categories.”
