What a weekend we are coming down from!
Friday was a day to remember. We were surrounded by love and family as Eoin’s brother Neil got married to the lovely Jen at a fabulous city centre venue in Dublin. Of course, as Murphy’s law would have it - the wedding was on the same day as the Irish Ecommerce Awards where we were finalists in three categories!...
What to do??????
Luckily, the bride and groom were very understanding about us sneaking away for a few hours. In another stroke of luck, the awards venue was just around the corner at the Round Room in the Mansion House, a truly magical setting.
We were already loved-up and slightly giddy on champagne when we arrived and what a treat to find out we were amongst old friends at our table with all of my former workmates from Glanbia (now Tirlán), who took home the prize for Best B2B website for the Tirlán FarmLife website.
I can only describe the evening as surreal. We were cautiously optimistic of bringing home an award, as we were finalists in three categories. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that we would win all THREE of our categories, and also take home the overall prize for Best Ecommerce Website of the Year!
Our Awards Haul
- Beauty, Health & Wellbeing eCommerce Website of the Year
- B2C eCommerce Website of the Year *
- Sustainability Award
- Overall Irish eCommerce Website of the Year
See all the winners of the Irish Ecommerce Awards 2022, sponsored by AIB Merchant Services .
We were also reminded again that Faerly can be a bit of a tongue twister, if you haven't heard it out loud before - It’s pronounced ‘FAIR-ly’.
It was an amazing night, and it was so emotional. I can’t tell you how much of a boost of confidence for us it is to be in the running with so many Irish brands that we admire - like Meaghers, Kerrigans, Rily and Sampla Footwear. Let alone to be taking home awards.
Faerly is small. Really small! We don’t have departments, we have people, and very few people at that.
A massive thanks has to go to our colleague and amazing sister-in-law Nuria who often asks me what her title is and I tell her ‘take your pick’ - she’s the head of order fulfillment, our in house photographer and occasional office therapist! She’s a fiery Catalan and mad as a brush which is ideal as working in a startup definitely qualifies for the saying ‘you don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps!’.
Thanks to Donnacha, who worked with us this summer while Nuria was off getting her new hip and who (sadly for us) left us last week to start his college adventure.
Eoin is the busiest man in the world - he already has a full time job that he loves as a School Guidance Counsellor, he lectures and teaches other teachers part time and and he even writes newspaper articles on occasion. And yet somehow he finds time to do all of our local deliveries, which is why you might get your delivery at odd times of the day! And he helps out with all the unglamorous jobs like recycling, composting, stamping boxes and driving halfway around the country on various missions. He scrubs up well for the glamorous jobs too!
Faerly would be nowhere without the products we sell. We owe a massive thanks to all of our brands and makers, most of whom are small businesses just like ours. Every product we sell is made with love and designed in some way to make the world a little bit better. Whether that’s because they are made locally, made with upcycled materials or natural ingredients or because they give an alternative to single-use plastic and chemical filled products. They are all something special and when you buy from Faerly you are supporting this amazing network of makers and independent brands.
Thanks also to all of our friends, family and network who have helped us on this journey. All along our journey we have been helped so generously by those who have given us advice, shared their expertise and have sent so many orders our way. We're have received so much advice and support from other retailers through Retail Excellence Ireland and people like our friend Ger Keohane of StudioForty9 who won Ecommerce Personality of the Year - a truly deserving winner with a big heart and a big brain!
Just this last week we had friends helping to design ingenious spreadsheets to automate some of our admin, proofing changes on our website, testing batches of our in-house candles (coming soon!) and even sending us corporate orders from their workplaces.
And most of all, a big thank you to our customers. We are a small business and we need our virtual tills to ring so that we can continue to grow. When you shop with Faerly you are supporting other small Irish businesses and eco conscious brands, planting trees in Ireland and around the world and you're keeping our dream going!
And now, back to the grind.