A Queensland-based husband and wife have teamed up to create a new online store selling organic bed linen they’ve designed themselves.
Steven and Debra Clifford-Ames came up with the idea over a marathon café session. They noticed a gap in the market for ethically produced manchester sold on the internet.
Sheets On The Line products are designed by Debra and made in India using Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified organic cotton.
Products on the site include a sheeting range, quilt covers, pillows and cushions. The duo plans to expand their offering later in the year with new colours and prints.
Inspiration for the designs comes from architecture and nature. “One of our styles is raindrops and it was inspired by the first big fat drops of rain you get on concrete in summer – especially in Queensland when it’s really, really hot – that sort of invokes quite a strong sense of summer and smell of the rain as it hits hot concrete or the road,” explains Steven.
While the store has only been live for a couple of months, Sheets On The Line is already attracting plenty of consumer interest.
“We’ve had a high number of return customers so for such a young business that is quite remarkable and we’ve had customers who have come to us for one specific product and then come back for the matching component so it has been really nice,” he adds.
Debra and Steven plan to grow their business with “an extensive advertising campaign across three states” while forming partnerships with like-minded companies such as hotels to complement their products.
The pair aims to offer a high level of customer service regardless of the store’s success. After finding too many online stores delivering their products in plain boxes or parcel bags with little attention to detail, Steven and Debra decided to set themselves apart with beautiful wrapping.
“The problem with a lot of online versus retail is it had no soul, it had no feeling to it and we’d buy things online and you’d get them two or three weeks later and by then you’d sort of lost the spark for them, because you’d been waiting for them and then you’d open them and they’d just be in a generic box and nothing around them,” says Steven.
Adds Debra, “they actually look like a gift,” she says. “Everything we send out looks like a present. It has wrapping and a logo sticker and beautifully printed ribbon and little cards with a hand written note on it so regardless of how busy or how big we get – which is what I hope will happen – we will always give that personal touch.
“That’s quite a sticking point with us we always want our product to arrive in someone’s home with lots of warmth and care, so that is something we want to maintain all the way through.”
