Here is a live example, and the reasons it worked. A fortnight ago I spent a day in Cambridge with Meena and Mahera, the mother-and-daughter team behind AuraLai. Last week their nursing cover was featured in CWB. That is what building brand awareness actually looks like: unglamorous groundwork you do yourself, a real product decision underneath it, and then the recognition follows.

The best market research is not a spreadsheet, it is a day on the shop floor. After a day in Cambridge with the mother-and-daughter founders of maternity brand AuraLai, studying packaging and merchandising and talking to genuinely helpful store staff, here is why in-store market research is invaluable for ecommerce brands, how to do it well, and why a gap in a city's maternity, baby and children's retail could be someone's opportunity.