#625: Consistency and Connection: The Keys to Boutique Success

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Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat, where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys. Welcome back to the podcast. This week I'm so happy, Ashton, that I ran into you at the Boutique Summit because I was like, girl, you've been in the Hub forever. I have loved watching your growth and just your brand's evolution and you've got to come on the podcast. So thanks for being here today.

Yes, thanks for asking me. I was so thrilled to see you to be there. I had, I hadn't seen you for.

A hot minute, but your brand, like you've been through all these things in the last couple of years. Your brand has been growing. You've got to take me back to like the evolution of how this all started. You're someone who got in business really young. Take me back to your origin story.

Yeah. Yeah. So back when I was a senior in high school, my mom and I really just wanted to do something that we could do together. We didn't know where it was going to go. We thought maybe it'd be really cool if that could be something that turned into career. But really we were just having fun doing it together, reaching out to other like mom and daughter duos, being like, hey, I'm wearing this, she's wearing that. So that's kind of where we started, just doing like pop ups. But I wasn't all in until 2019 when I graduated college. So honestly, all through that year we just started doing pop ups where we could. We moved into my grandma's basement because it was more of like a central location for people to come and shop one time a week with us. Which then grew my love for a storefront. I'm like, okay, I can do this. I want to have a storefront one day. And so then we opened up our very first storefront in the summer of 2020, which is crazy getting all that open, you know, Darren, the crazy time. And that's when we really saw our growth and the need for our community. We got to meet so many people and it helped grow our online too. And then we were pushing online for in our, in our store, which was really nice. And then from there an app live Selling. We really have been through it all from invoicing hundreds of people to be like, no comments, sold this comment, sold that to live selling and then pushing people to a website. Yeah, we've.

There's been a lot of iterations and evolutions of your brand for. Yeah. So just kind of for context, everybody knows like what percentage of your business right now is online versus your in store and what's the makeup of your team look like to support all that?

Yeah, so right now it's 50, 50, 50 online. A lot comes from Facebook and then Instagram and then straight to our website and then our storefront is 50%. We do have a full time that helps run the store. So she's there every day through our store hours. And then we have a lady who helps with shipping and intake which was just, that's like the first thing that we really gave up. We're like, okay, where can we spend our time? We're going to spend our time posting more, buying more, selling more and someone else can come in and do the shipping and do the intake. And then we have some part time girls that help with this store as well. I love that. Oh yes. And I'm getting ready to hire my second full time person, which I'm really excited about. I'm finally taking that leap of faith and investing in another person full time to help me do more of the social media. The things that I fall short on she's going to be helping me with which is mainly posting more like that. You stood out to some things to me at the Boutique Pet Summit. Like, you know, you said something and it just struck me hard. You're like, if someone pulls up your social media, let's say your Instagram feed, and they will they see all your new arrivals. And I was like, no they won't. Because you think in your head as a business owner that you're posting too much. You know, like, oh, I've already posted three times today. But yeah, if someone comes on your social media, are they even seeing like all your new arrivals? Everything that you posted last week? The answer is no unless you're posting enough. And so I love that you said that.

I think it's such a great exercise for everybody to do. And the question is like if you looked at everything you posted last week, if you sold a third of what you posted, would it pay your bills? Like where would a third of sell through actually get you? And most people are like, like they'd be like two items, you know, like it's just not enough. So I love that you said that because honestly, when I look at your brand from the outside, just, you know, I follow you on social media and everything. You're someone who I think has always done a great job with social and like brand building and photography. So I love that you're doubling down on that even further. I'm sure someone listening is saying, okay, well Ashton, break this down for me. How much are you posting on social media right now? And then what's your goal to get to.

Yes. So where we have our Facebook and that's huge. And then we have our Instagram. Lately I have been posting to both. So I'll make, when I make a post, I'm not scheduling like I should be. So kind of like on the fly, I'll post in the morning, I'll post when I get to work, and then I'll normally post in the evening. So that's about three times a day. I want it to be more like five. Also trying to put a reel in once a day. But what has been huge for us is making sure I'm posting it on all the platforms. So sometimes I get carried away and I'm like, oh, I posted on Instagram, I'm not going to post on Facebook. But taking that same content and making sure I'm going back to Facebook and posting it as well. And then to Instagram Stories and then to my VIP group. And it's all at different times. So it's hitting all those different people. Because I used to think, oh, I already put that out there. But no, it's like a whole new area of people that are seeing it at different times. And you know, people have to see things that seven times now before they buy it. And that's a lot of times. So reshowing it and just putting it everywhere that you can has really made a huge difference. So yeah, I'm posting about three, four times a day on Instagram and about five times on.

I think that's so helpful for people to hear because you're right, we, we always get in our own head about I'm posting too much or this is old. People have seen it. And when you look back, if you actually looked at all of your inventory and said, okay, well how many times has this piece actually been posted anywhere? I bet you'd find a lot of zeros in your inventory.

Oh yes.

And that screams opportunity, right? People aren't going to see all of it. Yes.

Even, yeah, old try ons. I used to only post those in the beginning when I was getting ready to, like, launch them, but three weeks later, I'm posting them again with a new link and a new thing, and people are seeing for the first time. I had no idea you had that. I'm like, yeah, because they're probably new followers or maybe they didn't get on social media that day and saw those new arrivals. That's so helpful.

So something else I know that you do really well is just your launch strategy. And I know you've been kind of working on revamping this and optimizing it to fit your lifestyle and just how traffic is working for you right now. So talk to me about that. How do you build up your launch strategy? And, like, what's your inventory flow for both, like, in store and online? How do you make sure it maximizes in both places?

Yes. I love this question because, like you said, we had to play with it over time. And I think comparison got me bad because at one time, I remember thinking I was seeing all these huge boutiques. They were launching your rebels every day. And I was like, I got to do that. I got to do that every day. But that did not work for me, and that did not work for my customer. It was too much for my customer. They didn't want to buy every day like that. It was too much for me trying to get all that content. So then I'm like, okay, well, I'll try one big launch a week. I still want to have all. All that inventory launched. Well, then it was too much. It was like my customers were like, no, no, no. I cannot buy 50 things on one Sunday. I need you to break it down for me. So I'm like, okay, I'll try three. Well, you know, I'm all over the place. I'm like, okay, well, I'll do three separate ones. And so finally, I found that two is a sweet spot for me and my customer. We were still releasing the same amount of inventory, but we were just breaking it into two. So I think my goal was 60 things a week. So I was doing 30 one day, 30 another. We've had to play around with different days as well, being consistent. Once. Once we found out what worked, we stayed consistent. And that's something huge. You can't just, you know, on a win, like, oh, new rolls on a Wednesday. Like, no, everybody has to know, Tuesday morning, 7:00am we're launching. Every Friday, 7:00am we're launching. We try. We order all of our inventory ahead. So then I try to, like, put it all out so I can see it on a rack.

And.

And then we shoot new arrivals the week before or two weeks before. And that's when we start our first initial sneak peeks. And that has been huge for us. I used to be like, oh, it's too early. I don't want to spoil it for people. I don't want people asking me about it. But when they ask you, it helps your engagement, and it helps that fomo, and it helps them be like, I want that. And it helps me too. It makes me excited. So that's when we started. Our imagery is the same. So we have the same inventory for our storefront and for our website. That just works for us for now. And for our storefront, the girls will still pull, like, one small or two small of every size and put it on the floor the day that we launch it. And we keep all the rest of the back, and we always pull from the back first for our online sales.

Okay, so break that down for me one more time. So everything stays in the back. You just pull up one or two smalls and put those in the storefront. And then your sales team in the store knows that if someone's looking at something, hey, we may have more sizes in the back, but if you like something, let me know and I'll go look for you.

Yes, yes. And we started doing restock sheets. So if in a few days, you know, we still have sizes in the back from online, then we put them in the storefront. One thing I would love to say to people, if you have a storefront, I just say we serve the customer in the storefront first. So if, you know, there's only one left and they want it, we think it might sell online. We're going to give it to the person in the store. Those people are there. They're tangible. They want that extra treatment. And so we really take a lot of pride in our storefront girls and our online girls. But we'll give the inventory to the storefront first.

Yes. Makes sense. Okay, that's really helpful to know. So then how else are you building up? Like, tell me more about your process of building up FOMO into these launches. Because I think a lot of people miss. This is a really important step in the process. A lot of people miss it and overlook it and think like, oh, it's just too much, but you've got to build that fomo. That's how women work.

Yes. So unboxings are huge for us. If I can video me unboxing something, and I say, this is launching in two weeks, and then I Show it again when I'm doing the pictures and I'm like, okay, now it's launching in a week, and then I make a reel and I show it four days before. And. And it's launched in four days. I mean, the people who are messaging us is just crazy. And I feel like that's what I've really done the last month or two. And it's just been amazing. Like, we're selling out stuff again. And it is just making my heart. So that's so good.

And what an opportunity for customer service you have because you can come back and be like, hey, Jenna, I know you were looking for this. I know you messaged it. Guess what? It just launched. Here it is. And make people feel so special. You could also do suggestive selling at the same time. Like, hey, I know you love this. And by the way, did you also see X, Y and Z? Like, what an opportunity online?

Yes. And we started like a little kind of like a text list, which makes people feel even better if they are in the store. They're like, yes, I'll give you my phone number. And then either me or girl at the store is personally texting them. Like you said, hey, Lisa, this just restock. Do you want to hurry before it sells out again? And they are just.

That's so good. So you've clearly, for the last several years, to get you to this point where your brand can, like, iterate and do all these things. I mean, you've really focused on building relationships and building community. Has that always been, like, a focus or a strategy or how would you go back and like, reverse engineer the way that you've built your community?

Yes, because we've always showed up on social media. I think it actually helped us having social media first and then bringing in the store. We didn't have another option where I was in high school and I was going to college and we didn't have money to go buy a storefront yet or rent from a storefront. And so just really showing up on social media with lives with my face. I think you being in the picture and you're showing up daily is just huge. People trust you. They build those relationships. And that has followed us. Like, that is just something I'm super proud of that we've always done. And it has paid off. People know who they're shopping with, and they get to see me be excited about the clothes. And that is one thing I think that is so funny too. My mom was saying, you can tell when you don't like it. Looks, I'm like, you're right. So we really shifted our mindset to we're only buying things that we love. Used to once again a comparison game. We thought we had to buy things that other people were selling and other people were going to like instead of staying true to our customer. And our customer is me. It's what I love. It's what my friends love. It's what people in our community love. We're a small town girl, a small town girl who loves to look cute chasing kids or going to work or a date night out with her husband. And so once we hit that, it has just been game changer too because then I'm excited about the clothes. I'm going to show the clothes more, I'm going to hide them up more and people can tell.

You know what's funny? I think that like what you just said is my favorite part of what's happening to the boutique industry right now. Because I think we went through a period of time and I mean you've been around, you know this, you've probably, probably seen this where I felt like everybody wanted to be like who they thought the big boutiques were and everyone started to do the same thing and buy the same thing and post the same way and do the exact same live sale or not do the live sale. But everyone just became kind of like robots looking like one another. And what I see happening in our industry right now is there's a lot of shift and there's, there's challenge for the first time. And that has caused everybody to really like reevaluate. Who am I? Who's my customer, who do I want to be, how do I want this to feel and what does success look like for me? And that's where the success is coming from. And I know you had mentioned to me that you've been through some highs and lows. You've had some tough years recently and now you're in a year that's going to be a record setting year for you. Do you feel like it's because of what you just said, like you've doubled down on who you are and who you want your brand to be?

Yes, 100%. I know some people say sometimes you have to like ignore the hard stuff and it's not really that you're ignoring it, it's that you're taking it and you're saying, okay, what can I do next? What can I do to make this better? You know, my customers maybe not becoming in the store. So then I'm Going to blast it all over social media for them and on every social media platform because there are people that don't have Instagram, that don't have Facebook. You know, that's why we think it's important to have an app. You have your website people and then you have your app people. We were just talking yesterday, like, you know, all these different apps. I am a website person, I'm not an app person. I still go to Safari and I still type in the website. But then I know I have friends. They're like, yes, I'm getting on the app, Target app or you know, Chick Fil, a app, Starbucks app. Like that's where they're ordering from. And I'm like, I'm just gonna type it in. But yeah, staying true to what our customers want, what we want, what makes us happy, our poor brands like that has been, that's what's we can tell. We can tell, you know, the surrounding towns and everything that's what set us apart is that we've just stayed in our lane, just pushed forward to what we love and what our customers love. So good, it's here, it's time.

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Yes. Well, thank you. I wish we had some big, grand, like, place to do pictures. We never have. We've never had a studio, so we have always went to. It's really been my house. I've done a lot of pictures on my front porch. So I'm taking all the photo shoot stuff, putting it in my car and I'm bringing it to my front porch and we shoot all of our stuff as far out as we can. It takes us about four to five hours. And I do everything on my iPhone. I do have the iPhone for. I want to make sure I have cinematic video too. That's been huge for us, really quality, like videos. But then I'm just using portrait mode and a self timer and then lightroom to edit.

Perfect.

And it works.

And then what about the merchandising? Like you said, I think you pull everything two weeks ahead of time so you kind of know what's coming. And then do you find yourself also pulling like an aging report and looking at. Okay, I've got this, but it hasn't moved to a certain percentage. What do I pull and reshoot at that same time?

Yes. So that is something that we really started last fall is a markdown strategy. So every four weeks we restyle. Every six weeks we make a hard markdown. And that has been huge for us to be able to get that stuff out and then have money to get new stuff in. Our customers are all about the new. They don't even care most of the time if we run any sales. So ads has really helped with getting rid of our sales stuff, which is really interesting to us, our new customers. And like the people who love sales are from ads. Our loyal customers are the girlies who love the new stuff. They always are looking forward to the next thing. And then. Yeah. So we buy out what works for us. And really now with our vendors is we have to buy out pretty far ahead. So right now we probably have, oh man, like 200 styles of fall inventory right now, which is awesome for me looking ahead because I already know what's going to be my next new arrivals for the next month or two. And so now I will take that and I will make my collections and get all the pieces together, the jeans, doing jewelry now the shoes, what models will wear, what, and that's how we will style it and merchandise it.

That's so helpful to hear. And I think that's, that's also another way our, our industry has kind of been changing. You know, you used to get immediates and immediates were so easy to come by and anymore it's really not like you've got to be a better planner and you have to know how to budget your money for those future investments otherwise you're going to miss out on the good stuff. Yeah, it's all going to be gone and you're going to be left with the leftovers. So I mean the money management, the inventory management. Talk to me about that process for you.

Yes. So now that we're working with management one, we noticed we weren't buying enough and I think that's something that you do have to switch. So if you don't, if you are not numbers savvy, I think it's okay. But I think you have to find someone who is, you know, you can be great at doing other things. But then like you've always said, you have to hire the rest. You've got to hire someone to tell you what you need to know, help you keep up with your money, tell you to buy more, tell you it's okay to buy more. Love management one, because sometimes you just need someone to tell you that you're doing a good job and that you're ready to take the next step. And that was our first meeting and they were like, you all got it, you can do this, you can invest your money in this to be able to, you know, sell that much more. And so that's what we've been doing. We've got our categories, we've got our classes. Dresses was huge. So they're like, okay, let's go heavy in dresses this fall. These pants that you guys are selling. Let's go heavy in these pants that you're selling. We really worked in with our ads. So I mean, crazy enough if you're going to run an ad on something, you need the inventory for it. Who knew? You know? And so we had these like best selling pants and we kept selling out and we were running ads on them and they were like, okay, then go deeper in your ads because really you're just hurting yourself when you're spending money and you're getting people there and then it's gone. And so we, that has been game changer for us. We've got these Pants. And we're selling every color that we can and all the styles, and we just keep that ad. We just update the pictures with the new colors, and, you know, if it's a different season now, we're just switching out those pictures, and we're just pushing that really hard.

Yeah. So smart. And honestly, that's a common mistake. So when you say that, like, don't feel bad, because I hear a lot of people going, oh, I didn't even think about that. But it is.

It's a huge.

It's a huge loss if you are running ads to things you just don't have.

Yes.

So you have been through so many different seasons, from starting in high school to being through college to having your first child and then your second child and opening a storefront. Like, there's been all these different seasons, and now, I mean, I look at you, and you're a mom of two, and you're balancing all these things. What's your best advice to others listening about? Just how to do all the things. How to. How do you keep the things juggling that you do?

Yeah. I am so thankful this job allows you to do things that you love, and so finding someone that you can trust with some of those responsibilities has been huge. So about three years ago, I hired my right hand girl, and she has just been game changer for me. It's allowed me to step back from the storefront, and my customers love her, too. And I think it takes time. You know, you might have to go through some people that aren't going to be that right hand person, but if you can take the time to find who that's going to be and then allow yourself to step back, and then what happens is then you're more motivated and you're more excited to do the things that you love because you can let those things that you don't love go to someone else and just really hone in on what you're excited about. And that's what I did. I was able to enjoy a new baby and have a storefront and run online because I was taking that time to do the things that I loved and gave everything else away.

Yeah. All my retail bootcampers are going, do what you do best and hire the rest. It's like a broken record.

I heard that. Yes. From you. And I've always said that. It's just right there.

Yeah. Perfect. You're doing it well. Good job.

Yes.

All right, let's do some lightning round questions. All right.

Okay.

All right, so first question, I give you two hours back in your day for you to focus on just income generating activity. What do you choose to focus on?

Videos, making video content. Yes. Yes.

Huge. All right. What. What are the unsexiest processes in your business that have the biggest impact on your business.

Expenses and knowing where your money is going and how you're spending it?

Yes. How about, like, are there tools or apps you feel like the things that you're like day to day back into the business that you're like, oh, these have made my life so much easier.

My mom, I'm sorry, but that's the truth. She was like, you know, if you didn't have me, you'd have to have a bookkeeper, you know, and a cpa. I'm like, you're right. Because I. I'm still learning that stuff. I gave that stuff up. She. She does all that well.

I think that's the beautiful part about. Just like you said, if you don't know the numbers, you have to find somebody who does. Right. So every retailer has the creative side of your brain and then the analytical and we're strong in one and generally probably not both. So you've got to find somebody who balances you out. So, so good. Everyone needs a mom like that.

Yes.

All right. What's the hardest business lesson you've had to learn?

That not everyone is for you. Honestly, like, you know, if you're trying to cater to other people, then you're going to fail. Like, you have to stay true to your customer and to you in a moment. That's when bad buys happen. You know, you're buying inventory to suit someone that isn't your customer. And just because you saw someone else doing it, and then here you are. We've had the bad box we bought the really expensive shoes we thought we could sell, and we're still paying for it. That was a hard lesson for me is just, I can't be everybody's cup of tea. Yeah.

Oh, so good. One of my good friends always says this, and she goes, you know, Ashley, I can't be everyone's cup of tea, but I can be somebody's shot of whiskey.

Yes. I'm like, oh, yeah.

And she truly is a shot of whiskey. If you. So good. Okay. How do you set boundaries for yourself and for your family?

Yes. Boundaries has been leaving the store at three or four every single day that I can coming home, me being able to go pick up my kids, come home, make dinner has been huge for me. I had to sacrifice that time at the store. But ultimately Just being transparent with my customers. They understood that, and they were like, you know what? You go, girl. Like, you're a mom first, then you're a business owner. I'm a wife first, a mom first, and then I'm a business owner, and my customers get that, and they wouldn't expect anything else. And that is a huge blessing.

Yeah. Oh, that's so powerful. That's so powerful. We can all take that away for sure. Okay. What is one metric in business that you live by? A metric that you always have to know what that metric is.

I want to say sales.

We have.

Because we're so, like, numbers driven. I'm checking, like, every day, like, our daily sales. But that also goes, like, making sure I'm launching enough new arrivals. Sorry, I don't know. This is a hard question because it kind of like, it all kind of goes, like, to hit this, you have to have this, this, and this and this.

Yeah, Sales work when you have all the other metrics that work into it. So. So totally makes sense. So I'm going to flip the question then and just say, what's one metric that you are committed to learning more about that's not there yet? What's the metric you want to know more about?

Yeah, I want to know more about probably our conversion rates. Yeah, our conversion rates to our website. Because through our ads, we actually realized that our search engine was a huge, huge tool that we could be using and seeing why we weren't getting those conversions. Because people were searching for things and not finding them, and we might have had them, but, like, we didn't have the right tags. Like, if they search. Like this is an example. If they search Buddy Love and they separated it. But in our title, we had it together, then they weren't finding it at all. And they're like, well, they don't have it. Then I saw that picture, and I thought that was what he loved. But. And they weren't checking out, and we had a ton of things like that, and now we're switching them and tightening them different. So when people type in one thing, they might, you know, they're definitely going to find the answer. But that was really big for us.

That is really big. And that's an easy, quick win for anyone who's listening to be able to go in and just look at that and look in your analytics to see what are people searching for and not finding. So that's. That's really helpful. All right, last quick question. What's your best advice for retailers who are listening?

Find out who your customer is and run with it. I mean, I think because you find your brand, you find your customer, you find what makes you happy, it all goes in together with who your customer is, and that's going to make your business shine and stand out and thrive. Yeah.

Oh, that is it for sure. That is what. That's what the most successful stores right now have in common. Common for sure. So, well, well done. All right, well, this time has flown by. I just have to say thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I do have one last question, of course, before we wrap up, because this is always the big question, right? Like, you've been in this business for eight years, which is incredible. Like, I love the story and all the evolutions of your brand so far. But let's fast forward 30 years down the road and you've got these beautiful kids. Maybe you've got grandbabies, and you're still sitting on the front porch with all of them and, you know, going through just how you've lived this life so far and the journey you've been on and the businesses you've built. What's the thing that you want them to remember the most about you?

I want them to look at my life and say, man, she loved her job, she loved her kids, she loved the Lord, and through all that, she loved people. I love people and I hope that one day people remember me for that.

So good. Ashton, thanks so much for your time. It's so good to see you. Thank you. I can't wait to hear where everything goes next. Congrats on all your success so far.

Thank you so much. This has been such an honor.

Thanks for listening, guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.