Jenny Maxwell – the owner and creative mind behind UK-based Nordic Muse – has the unique perspective of using Faire as both a brand and as a retailer. As a brand, she sells her range of carefully crafted wholesale jewellery including bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Her shop in Manchester also sells a diverse selection of products made by Faire brands alongside her own merchandise, from perfume to socks to home decor and more. 

Jenny founded her jewellery brand in 2014. After studying design management, she had worked in retail head office roles then as head of e-commerce for a large global distributor, which she ultimately felt lacked a personal touch. “Having always worked in retail alongside my studies, from the stockroom to the shop floor, I was really missing that personal communication and that face-to-face service that had come with what I’d had before,” she says. This is part of what inspired Jenny to start her own brand, selling at local craft markets while setting up a team. 

“After a while, I had the confidence and thought, I’ve got something here – people really love me as well as the products,” Jenny says.

I thought, I’ve got something here—people love me as well as the products …then I thought, to take on a retail space, we need more.”

Eventually she left her job to design and develop jewellery full-time. “Then I thought, to take on a retail space, we need more,” Jenny says. “I’d travelled and studied a lot around Scandinavian countries so, from there, Nordic Muse was born
as a joint love of the products and my passion for Scandinavian design.”

Nordic Muse was founded as a brick-and-mortar in 2018. The business started out small but quickly garnered positive attention, winning the Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday Award in 2018 and the Innovative Retail Store of the Year by the Corporate Livewire Manchester Prestige Awards in 2019. And, when pandemic lockdowns changed the retail landscape in 2020, Nordic Muse managed to have one of its biggest trading years as Jenny jumped on the opportunity to wrap products with personalised messages for remote gifting. “I think, because I’d done so many years in front of people at markets, we just had this huge community support,” Jenny says, adding that customers started using their live chat and other digital tools just to connect with them. “I think for us, having a shop within a community, it’s not just about the product solving a problem – we’re therapists. The word ‘community’ is so literal for us.”

Nordic Muse became a Faire retailer in February 2021, which has helped the business grow thanks to Faire’s streamlined product discovery, risk-free terms and an always refreshing assortment of unique products perfectly matched to her shop. Jenny says 80% of her shop’s inventory is now sourced through Faire, allowing her to save time and focus on her customers. She’s found some surprise best-sellers through Faire as well, such as Norfolk Natural Living, which performs especially well thanks to the large influx of Londoners moving to Manchester who recognise the brand from its brick-and-mortar in London. “The customers are like, ‘I know that brand, I’ve seen it, I’ve been to their shop,’ so it’s been nice to see other brands that have their own physical shops but sell their products on Faire as well,” she adds.

Jenny also appreciates how Faire creates value at every touchpoint with key tools that help her business become more efficient. The global pandemic was a turning point as she was no longer able to host in-person pop-up markets and turned to serving her community online. And, when she needed to source inventory for her shop without access to the trade shows she had once attended, Faire made it easy to discover local and global brands. “I’d always attended physical trade fairs before that but, with the world being closed down, we didn’t have that option and needed a solution to sourcing stock,” Jenny says. 

She may have been inspired to start using Faire as a result of the pandemic, but her experience since then has kept her coming back. Having all the accounts in one place and knowing that any member of her team can jump on and place an order without her are two of the biggest selling points. “We were able to discover new brands but also keep everything in one place,” she says. “Even when the world opened up, we stuck with it, and we don’t go to any actual physical trade fairs anymore.”

Jenny’s experience as a Top Shop selling on Faire has also helped her find brands and products that work well for her business. “We present our products on Faire with high-res imagery that’s ready to transfer to customers the minute they buy with us – we want to give them the best possible chance of selling our products,” she says. “And vice versa – when I’m selecting products on Faire, what stands out for me is high-quality imagery.” She also says that the process of discovering new brands has become easier over time as the algorithm learns her preferences and she uses all the tools that Faire has to offer.

When we take a brand on for the first time and it arrives…there’s always a beautiful little note, and it feels like we know the person already.”

Jenny feels that the genuine relationships she’s built with brands on Faire make all the difference, as evidenced by the wall of personalised notes that she’s received from most of the brands she works with on Faire. She also loves meeting and working with some of those same brands directly in her neighbourhood. 

“When we take a brand on for the first time and it arrives in the shop and we unpack it, there’s always a beautiful little note, and it feels like we know the person already,” Jenny says. “We didn’t expect that at the beginning. We thought it would be a very faceless transaction, and it doesn’t feel like that at all.”