Durham Designer Shares Her One Of A Kind Jewellery With The World

Sadé James was feeling uninspired in her corporate position when she started searching for an idea to stimulate the creative aspects of her personality. Countless bouts of daydreaming later, that idea manifested itself into Madeoneofakind by Sadé, an upscale boutique for one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry, as well as clothing and accessories in Durham, ON. James married her business skills from the corporate world with her many years of experience making jewellery for family and friends, eventually taking the plunge to open her business in 2013.

Over the years, between crafting her one-of-a-kind goods and running the day-to-day operations of her business, James found herself repeatedly setting aside the need to create a web presence for her brand. Coming from a background in Fashion Merchandising and Project Management, she certainly had the business acumen to navigate the waters of eCommerce, but she was short on time. With the increasing urgency to take her business online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, James knew it was finally time to take action. That’s when she enlisted the help of ShopHERE Powered by Google to introduce her products to an online audience.

“The ShopHERE Program allowed me to delegate the task of creating my website. Being a small business owner, I tend to have to do every task related to my business myself and it felt nice to have a resource to alleviate some of the weight off of my shoulders.”

With dozens of products in her lineup, each with their own pictures and descriptions, adding them all to a website seemed too insurmountable of a task for James’ busy workload. Her ShopHERE eCommerce Coordinator was able to support her in that initial hump so she could focus on all the other facets of her business.

The end result was a fully functional Square website set up from start to finish for her within a week. Her Coordinator translated her brand story: “you are made one of a kind and your jewelry should be too” into a minimalistic website that lets James’ expertly crafted handmade pieces do the talking.  

Immediately after pushing the website live, James also found value in the digital marketing assistance offered to her through ShopHERE. Once confined to selling her handmade products within the Durham area, James notes that “the biggest opportunity of having my business online is that I can sell to anyone in the world. It’s opened up my potential buyer market tremendously.” She credits ShopHERE with offering her guidance in the form of digital marketing webinars and providing her with resources to help her business succeed moving forward.

Having successfully graduated from the ShopHERE Powered by Google Program, what’s James’ advice for others struggling to navigate running a business throughout the COVID-19 pandemic?

“Be patient and flexible! Whether it’s offering curbside pickups, local delivery, or letting your clients know the extra precautions you’re taking with social distancing and packaging your products.”

If you’re interested in purchasing one of James’ handmade designs, you can do so at Madeoneofakind.com. And if you too could benefit from receiving free digital resources, head to Digital Main Street.