The Milligram store at Melbourne Central.
After celebrating 10 years of trading earlier this year, online stationery retailer NoteMaker has ventured offline with its first bricks-and-mortar store, a new name—Milligram—and a fresh new vision.
The store is owned by the Dymocks Group, which bought its parent company Telegram Group in 2015.
Milligram head of retail Kimberly Palmer said the rebrand from NoteMaker was necessary as the business had grown beyond stationery to include lifestyle accessories and homewares, and needed a name that reflected this.
“Milligram reflects our focus—and the focus of the brands we sell—on the smallest of details,” she told Retailbiz. “Paper is also still at the heart of what we sell, and this is measured in both milligrams and GSM (grams per square metre). It felt right for what our future holds and what we want to bring to our customers.”
The brand recently opened its first physical store, located in Melbourne Central, which Palmer said is something shoppers and the business’ founders have wanted for a long time.
“NoteMaker customers have been asking for this for many, many years. The founders Scott Druce and Matthew Harris have also long wanted to expand into physical retail, to really be able to deliver the expertise of the online store but with the experience of a physical store.”
Fifty stationery and lifestyle brands from across the globe are featured in the new store, including in-house label Milligram Studio along with Moleskine, LAMY, Rifle PaperCo., Rhodia, Delfonics, MT Washi Tape, Kawco, Pilot and MiGoals.
“We work with strong, growing and authentic brands from international and local stationery, bags and lifestyle accessories from across the globe and bring them to our customers in our virtual and now, physical Australian store,” said Palmer.
“We care, and our customers care, about craftsmanship, heritage, performance and impact. This will be a central theme to our Milligram business going forward.”
While Palmer said online will always be Milligram’s largest store, its bricks-and-mortar stores will offer a showroom experience with workshops, talks, customisation options and writing instrument repairs. The brand plans to open more stores in 2018, including in locations outside of Melbourne.
“We’ve always championed a customer-centric approach with our online store, with customer satisfaction being the bedrock of what we do. Our generous loyalty program coupled with our incredible range of brands has seen customers return time and time again.
“We will take the same approach with the physical store and believe it will deliver the same results. Our customers want a unique experience, so our store is created to share our passion and love of what we do.”
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