Quite a few friends and acquaintances know about my blog, although I tend to get a range of reactions when people hear about it for the first time. Amusement and shock are common, ‘you don’t look like the sort of person who would write about sex!’ (I had no idea a certain appearance was required) but more often than not they’re curious and will ask questions or actively send me things they think I might be interested in reading or writing about. It’s not unusual for me to turn up at someone’s house for a coffee and have news clippings about erotica or sex toys shoved into my hands the moment I sit down. Anyway, a couple of months ago a good friend of mine said to me: ‘A guy my husband knows is starting a sex shop for women. I showed him Chintz when we had supper the other night and he wants to talk to you’.

Now I’m massively interested in how sex toys are promoted and sold – even though the market has changed considerably in the past few years I still think we have a very long way to go – so there was absolutely no way I was going to turn down the chance to chat with someone about to enter what is fast becoming a space dominated by a few big players. Thus, on a very drizzly day last October I met a gentleman by the name of Mark Ashford for lunch in the wilds of Wiltshire and we spent nearly four hours discussing vibrators, butt plugs, nipple clamps and the rise of the eBook. We couldn’t seem to shut ourselves up. There was an awkward moment when the waitress arrived to ask if we wanted coffee and I was blathering loudly about dildos (poor woman) and some careful repositioning so that I could show Mark the eBook smut-fest on my iPad without traumatising the table of pensioners sitting behind us, but we generally had a great time talking to one another and swapping thoughts and ideas. Mark’s proposition? An online store for women offering a small – rather than overwhelmingly vast – selection of sex toys.

A few months went by and, just after New Year, I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with Mark again – this time down in Bristol – and to meet his wife and business partner, Lexi, as they headed ever-closer towards their launch date. It was fascinating to see everything coming together for them, to hear about some of the challenges they’d faced (who knew that banks were so averse to providing  business accounts to those wishing to sell sex toys?) and to witness just how far things had moved on since we’d last chatted. I also had the opportunity to meet Steph, who was working like a trooper writing descriptions for all the products on the site, and to take a sneaky peek inside Mark and Lexi’s stockroom. (You know you’re having a good day when you’re surrounding by things that can induce an orgasm.)

I’ve kept in touch with Mark, Lexi and Steph over the past few weeks as they’ve hurtled towards their go-live date and, last Friday, I received an email from them telling me that they were, after loads and loads of hard work, up and running.

Hooray!

So what’s their site’s name and where can you find it? Well, it’s called ohtique, and the web address is www.ohtique.com. If you have a moment, do go and check them out. Mark, Lexi and Steph are really keen for feedback on what they’ve created so if there are products they’re offering that you love (or even some you’re not so enamoured with), do let them know – they’d love to hear your thoughts.

Best of luck, guys, and congratulations on your launch!

* This is not a sponsored post and I have no commercial affiliation, stake or involvement in ohtique. Just a blatant curiosity about the trials and tribulations of setting up a sex toy store and a keen interest in the contents of Mark and Lexi’s stockroom :-).

 

 

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