#745: Why 15,000 Stores Closed in 2025 and What YOU Can Do About It

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 and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast this week. Welcome to the new year as well. We're rolling full steam ahead into 2026 and there's no better person to be joining me for this convo today than Sarah Burks. Hello. Yay.

I'm excited to be here.

Always wonderful to have you here. I love talking retail with you and just big picture industry conversations that I think a lot of retailers want to be having right now are really just revolving around what is business in the new year going to look like and what in the heck happened in 2025. The stats show over 15,000 stores close their doors this year, which is frightening, right? There's a lot of conversation about that and I think I saw a post a while ago in the group and it was, there was just a lot of fear about, you know, why did so many stores close? What is happening and what does that mean for the rest of us? I have a lot of thoughts and opinions on this, as I know you do as well. Give me your take. Like, what do you think went wrong in 2025? Why was that such a big number, man?

I, I also like to just say it's not just, I mean, for anybody thinking, oh, it's just small businesses. It's not, you know, it's some of these big stores. It's some of the stores that you grew up knowing and trusting and you know, you saw some really struggling numbers coming from the targets and the Walmarts of the world. And so, you know, there is such an interesting story out there and I'm, you know, I know you, you are as well. Just we're here for it. We're all in, diving in, looking and, you know, getting to the bottom of this story and what it means to our members, you know, here at the boutique of our small businesses. And you know, I think there's something to be said about trying to be something for everyone and there's something to be said about losing focus on that consumer, consumer and what they actually need and that psychology, right? Like the psychology behind what their, their actions, what they're buying, what they're saying yes to what they're saying yes to, to actually buy. But also with time, I think, I think we all realize the older we get and time is so limited, we're. It's valuable to us. And the younger generations, they're seeing that as well. And they're, they've got so many different things coming at them, where they're going to spend their time, who they're going to spend it with, whether it's, you know, a friend or a business really matters.

I totally agree. I think it kind of goes hand in hand as well with the idea of people being lonely. So they're limited on time, but I think people are extremely lonely, trapped behind a phone or a busy schedule or whatever. And I think that makes people just long to be seen and understood. And when they shop, yes, it has to be timely, but it has to do something emotionally for people too. And so I go back to, you know, you're saying don't be something to everyone. I think the riches are in the niches. You know, the days of the department store, the days of the big box that served a little bit of everybody, like that doesn't work anymore. Stats are showing it. I think that in the first quarter of 2026, we're going to see even more big box stores go down, go out of business. And I think that in marketing in the last couple of years, we've seen a lot of boutiques, specifically if I'm going to niche down to our, to our industry. So we saw a lot of boutiques come in with like the rise of live selling and with the rise of e commerce and with the boom of COVID and this is a very easy entry business. Online retail, brick and mortar retail, like pretty much anyone can get into it at any time. You can kind of find anything to sell. And with a really broad opportunity of organic reach on social media, it allowed a lot of people to be a little bit of something for everybody. But if I were to say what I think is changing is you've got a niche down. Like you can't be everybody's cup of tea, but you can be somebody's shot of whiskey.

Yeah.

And that's what I think is going to work in 2026.

I love it. And I think the one word that is coming to me as I, you know, I just got off the phone with, with some other retailers and it's like, do your customers trust you or is there so much noise coming at them that they've kind of drawn back and be like, I don't know. I don't trust you. And to your point, like, you know, user generated content, I know we're going to get into all these kind of things, but, you know, are you getting paid to tell me this? I think that is a big red flag. And you know, how do you know where. Let me see the results. And you know, people are becoming much less apt to just be like, yep, shop, pay it up, have it delivered to my door. I trust you. This random person, no they're not. They're asking some bigger questions going forward and I think we saw that for sure in what people resonated with in 2025.

Definitely. Well, let's take the conversation here. And you guys, as you're listening today, I would love to invite you to the conversation. Like, I think everyone has an opinion, everyone has thoughts, ideas. So we're going to be sharing this of course on our Facebook page at the Boutique Hub and in our emails of the Boutique Hub on Instagram. At the Boutique Hub, I would say come over to Instagram. That's an easy place. Like jump in the comments with us or if you're a member of the Boutique Hub, jump into the members only Facebook group when we share this in there or start your own post. But I would love to see your thoughts and opinions as well on, on what, what worked and what didn't in 2025. Why do we think over 15, 000 stores went out of business? And what are we going to learn from it? What are we going to do different in 2026? So, so jump into the conversation as you hear this. But Sarah, for today I would love to walk through, you know, we, we coach a lot in retail bootcamp on the six layers of retail. Every retail business, every boutique, every pet store, every home and gift store, every apparel store, like they all kind of break down in this six layer formula. So let's start from the ground up and talk about the things. Like if you're going to double down on something to make sure your business is solid in 2026, do these things in each of the six layers going forward.

So.

Sound good?

Yeah, I love it.

Okay, let's jump into it. Layer number one, why don't you kick us off, tell us what layer number one is and then what's like your one thing in layer number one where you're like, you've got to go all in on this.

Okay. So in retail boot camp, like, like Ashley said, we have that six layer proven strategy for retail. And you know, sometimes people are just like oh, give me the good, the good stuff. I want to hear the, you know, the one quick win one button I need to push, right, to make it all make sense. And that's why we teach real retail boot camp in this way. And when you pull the veil back, when you dig deep down and you're looking at what these successful retailers are really doing, not just doing once, they don't just do it on a Monday, they do it every day, all day. And they are, they, there's that's non negotiable in their business is they know who their customer is and everything they do is built around that. That is their foundation, right? They understand who am I serving, what do they need, right? Not just want, but what do they need from me and how can I consistently show up to and you know, going back in time about relationships this could be is, you know, everything we learn, we learn in kindergarten, right? Treat others the way you want to be treated. That whole deal retail, when you really boil it back down, it's like why do you trust the stores you trust? Why do you shop with the stores you shop with? Why did you fire the stores this year, last year that you know you're no longer going to shop with them? What happened? What did they not do? And so that's what we spend a lot of time in. Layer one of retail bootcamp talking about solid business foundations. And that says, you know, from knowing your why and your vision and all those kind of things and you know, getting that solid, you know, getting your ein numbers and getting right with the government, yes, that's part of that solid foundation. But for this conversation today, why some retailers are not making it, I think it really goes back and I, I'm on repeat about this every single year. But the stores that nailed out who their customer is and said that's who I'm serving, they're the ones that are still, they're, they're doing well right now.

I, I think about this like what did my kids get for Christmas that sent them over the moon? And you know what it was pink palm puff pajamas. Sarah, girls are too old for this. Thank God. Count your lucky stars. But the freaking pink palm puff pajamas and every girl that's a pre teen, that's what she wanted. She wanted those freaking hundred dollar pajamas. Now the reason I say this is Sarah, do you even know or care what the heck pink pom puff is?

Oh, I know that's a lot of peas. I don't know. I know, right?

You're like, what is she Actually saying, but it's important to note like that is someone, that is someone's shot of whiskey. Like that is someone's do or die. I have to have it. But to the rest of the world, nobody really knows because the riches are in the niches. So to your point, like you have to know your customer and create such like, I am on fire for this group of people and they have to know that about you. The days of like up new arrivals come get them. Like nobody cares. You've got to like really niche down and be that person's shot of whiskey. And I think user generated content like you said. We're going to talk about that later. But that goes hand in hand. So. Amen. I agree. I would take a different vertical of layer number one. That I think is really critical. That is critical. But also I'm going to say this because I think I also fell back into this trap. To me, layer one isn't just about new or established in the foundation, but it's about even if you're a high level business owner coming back to the foundation and rebuilding things. Like, are you being the CEO versus the entrepreneur? And there was a lot of burnout in the last year. And burnout, I think directly comes from us wearing too many hats. And we all do it. Every single person listening to this podcast, like, chances are you wear too many hats and so do I. So do what you do best and hire the rest. But where do you as the CEO need to focus in? Like, where is your gift? Where is your strength? Where are you the face of your business? Where are you doing the 20% of your list that gets you 80% of the results? Or are you just spread so thin trying to be everything to everyone and doing all the things yourself because no one can do them as good as you can, right? Is that your downfall and is that leading you to direct burnout? So I think that's another thing, second thing that we've got to fix and layer them.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. And, and that's just like stems from sitting down, pausing, having that hard conversation and here's a win, right? Go ahead and raise your hand and say, I'm not good at this. This is not my gift. Right? Instead of having that mentality, I can be all and do all and own all and win it all and all that kind of stuff. At the end of the day, there's some things that we're just not gifted in, but sometimes our pride gets in the way a little bit. Like, nope, I'm not Going to give that away. I'm still going to do that. And going ahead and just saying, man, there's just some freedom in passing that off to somebody else.

Totally agree. All right. Layer number two is all about products and profitability. It's the engine of our business. So what do you think people did wrong or where do we need to double down in layer number two?

Gosh, I again, you know, I been having conversations with retailers and a lot of them are focused on, you know, they want to get the sales up. But at the end of the day, we really kind of go back and look and like, what was your sell through? How fast are you selling through your products and learning from those products that are still sitting there right now today? What is it? Why is it sitting there? What did you not do to move it? But ultimately, I think it comes down to a lot of times retailers think I need to go wider in my product selection. I need to offer a little bit of everything to people. And we'll talk more about this as we go through what we teach in retail bootcamp. But ultimately, if you are the Walmart of the world world, think about how many different products you need to be marketing to a consumer. And letting them know you have it, letting them know you're a resource for it, right? That's exhausting. Physically, mentally, financially, logistically, all the things. So you know, where Ashley said the riches are really in the niches. Those stores that got laser focused on who their customer is and giving them the very best product to solve said issue they're having or need. They have your warehouse space, your floor space, your E commerce space. It's, it's dialed in. It's very obvious who you are and how you're serving your customer. And you're going to have a higher sell through on those products because the people coming there looking for it, they're wanting it. Whereas I see a lot of small business owners dabble in a little bit of everything. But you know, marketing shoes is a lot different than promoting and saying, hey, I have men's jeans or I have candles or I have, you know, I have teeth whitening or whatever, whatever it might be. All those things take energy, effort, time, dollars, warehouse space, all of those things. So that product assortment for your business is something that when I look at stores that are really doing well, I think it's. Those are the stores that got narrowed down and said no to certain products and said hell yes to others. Give it to me and I'm gonna, I'm going to go deeper in those type of products to raise my industry voice, which ultimately builds trust with the consumer. And you become the be all, end all for those type of products.

Especially if you're running ads. You know, you've got to be so strategic. Like if you're going to run ads, you better have enough to really go deep with those ads as well. Yeah. I would say for me, an issue that I saw in layer two, and this is interesting, with the rise of AI and everyone's comfort level with AI is to me, there's no excuse to not know the numbers driving your business.

Yeah.

Like there's no longer a I, you know, I'm unfamiliar, I'm uncomfortable. I don't know, I, I, I, whatever. There's no excuse anymore. Like AI can decode it, make it easy for you. Shopify's AI can, can help just like make any kind of report that you wanted to make. Like, there's literally no excuse because it is so easy with AI. So especially some of the bigger boutiques, I would say that I've watched struggle over the years, didn't have a great handle on how much inventory they had. They didn't know how aged their inventory was. They didn't have a great solid markdown strategy for what wasn't selling right. Like not knowing your turn rate, not knowing how fast it needed to be moved through. And they found themselves just underwater with too much inventory that really wasn't being managed. So I think that inventory management piece gets a lot easier going forward. I think AI decodes everything you needed to decode and there's no excuse not to be the CEO of your business and to dive into those numbers.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. That, that is. I love that you brought up AI because we have a ton of new AI stuff coming in.

Yeah.

You know, which I'm pumped about.

It's, it's going to make life so much easier.

Yeah. The world is changing. Tech is changing, Your resources are changing. And we as small business owners, we need to jump on and, and ride that train.

Right.

Use our resources that we have because, you know, the big guys are doing it and. Yeah, I'm excited about it.

Absolutely. All right, layer number three, Sarah is all about the people. Right. You can't scale a business just by yourself. You might start one by yourself, but eventually you're gonna need some help. And so how do you think in layer three? You know, we heard a lot of feedback in 2025 about hiring the younger generation and struggles finding employees and, and that's always been an issue. I don't think that's just unique to this year. The younger generations are definitely different, but how we lead and manage then has to be different. So what worked and what didn't work in terms of layer three and people this year, Gosh.

All right, I'm going to go back to what you said in layer one about how the successful retailers are building out systems, they're building up processes, they're building out a strategy, and they're kind of owning, you know, instead of wearing a thousand different hats and trying to be the bottleneck. You know, I also said the consumer is looking for somebody that they can trust and somebody that they can lean on. I think your employees are in the same boat.

Right.

They are inundated with new opportunities, and it looks like the grass is greener on the other side of the fence with every swipe and, oh, I might want to go do that. Well, we can provide that space for them in our stores as well in our businesses. We just have to make sure we're. We're presenting it in a way and communicating in a way that builds trust, helps them feel that they belong here, gives them ideas on how they can advance here. So the old. The old school, show up, do your job, get a paycheck, go home. That's boring. And it's also quite scary. It makes the person feel like, do they know me? Do they like me? Do they hear me? Do they believe in me? Am I doing a good job? Do I have an opportunity to advance here? Is this ceiling? Is this it? Is this what I get to look forward to every single day? No. This generation is used to change. They're used to, like, excitement and new opportunity and the idea of travel and the new. And the idea of, you know, just give me new, new landscape every so often. But let me know. Like, I don't want to say, just dangle the carrot. Like, you achieve this, you get that. But think about it. How monotonous is it to just show up and say, all right, you do emails. All right, you do graphics. Thanks for doing those.

See you later.

And it's like, all right, now what? So I think this is a big issue with. With employees right now is we get so busy as the business owner that we're going and going, and sometimes we assume they know how much we appreciate them or that we think they're doing a good job or whatever it is. And the time that you come out and really talk to them is the time that you gotta chew some butter, say, hey, no, you dropped the ball. Here or I need you to do this.

Yeah.

And we can't assume these kind of things. And the reality is staffing is hard, and especially when you're getting into remote work. And I know the. The more retail is advancing, we're hiring remotely virtual assistants. We're hiring people to do graphics. We're all these things. And when you start thinking about the disconnect and communication in. In one under one building, that happens. You're passing by, you're doing all the things, and you don't stop to talk to that person face to face, that's tough. But remotely, it's even multiplied by thousands. Right. Because things come across different in a text message. You might not have a strategy to communicate with your staff on, you know, hey, Sarah, got done with this. Now, Ashley, you need to do this with this product and blah, blah, blah. Like what? The chain of command. So all of that to be said as 2026 is not going to slow down. We're not going to start moving slower.

Right?

It is. It's one of those things that we got to look at our people and realize, hey, we need to raise these people as leaders. We want them to be mini me's. We want them to do the same job that I can do and do it better with passion. The same passion I have. This all sounds like people are like, sarah, that's never going to happen. But it does. It does. But it come. It comes through pausing, stopping, communicating, really building a relationship with your team members and expectations.

Right.

And then follow through. And that is hard. That is really hard. Where I know a lot of people are just going to sit back and say, screw that. I'm doing it myself. That sounds like a lot. And the example I always give in retail bootcamp is I will never forget the struggles of being a young mom. Right. You hear me say this a lot. And sitting on those steps out there with my girls, like, come on, tie your shoes. Let's go. And I'd be like, screw it. I could just do it myself. I just tie their shoes myself, and then we're out the door. But the freedom and the all. All the. All the doors that open when they learn to do those little bitty things by themselves.

Right.

And I know that's what we need to do in retail.

Yeah.

I hope that all made sense. But I. I see a lot of store owners that pretty much just throw the towel and say, I don't want to train people, or that's exhausting, and I don't have the time. And so they're like, take it all back themselves and up to your point of the burnout.

Yeah, okay, so good. I'm going to piggyback on that because I agree with all of that. And I just want to highlight this thing to ponder. Point to ponder is I would bet the majority of people that are listening, not all, but the majority of you listening, are, I'm going to say, older than 35. If you are older than 35, you are the last group of people who remember what life was like without a cell phone. You remember what life was like when you were a kid and mom was like, okay, like, see you at dark. Just, like, go outside. Don't. Don't die. Don't get bit by a rattlesnake and come back. And you had a lot of freedom.

To figure things out as a girl from North Dakota. Now, not many of you were able to go outside without the fear of being bit by a rattlesnake. Now, I will just say, being a girl, growing up on Rattlesnake Road myself, the two of us, this was a life. Yeah, this was an issue.

This was a lesson. You don't get bit by a rattlesnake. Just come back alive. Anyway, every time we have a podcast together, this happens. Last time it was wiener dogs, and now it's going to be rattlesnakes. Okay, comment, rattlesnake. If you hear this. Anyway, you get the point. Like, we had a lot of freedom, right? Life before cell phones gave you a lot of freedom to make mistakes, to figure things out. Our parents were much more trusting. But then if you think about, like, the people that you were hiring, right? Like, these first generation, they're in high school, they're in college. Like, this is some of their first jobs. They don't know what that was like. They have always had a cell phone. They've always had somebody who had life360 on them. Mom was always checking in, always knew exactly where they were. They were micromanaged, right? Because helicopter parents are the parents that parented this generation. And so when that comes to transition into the workplace, this generation really struggles with failure. They struggle with knowing how to try something and not succeed at it and either take the feedback or be brave enough to just go out on a limb and try to figure something out on their own. Like, they're expecting for you to tell them what to do, how to do it, positively reinforce them, and then redirect them in another way if possible. That's exhausting for you. I understand that. But there is. There is a Give and take. Where you're gonna have to learn how to communicate the way they need you to communicate in order to build the trust and the reassurance and kind of, you know, like take the training wheels off for them, so to speak. So like the tying shoes analogy, right? Like you might have to help them tie their shoes for a little bit so that they can learn eventually how to do it on their own. So understanding where they're coming from, giving them grace, I think also makes you a better leader in the long run. Hey, are you on the list yet? I know you want to be on this list. You don't want to miss this list because we are deep diving into your business college style. Not 101 style, not 301 style, 501 style. And that is inside of our college level course for boutique owners called retail Bootcamp. Now, many of you may have already taken retail bootcamp because the cool part about this course is not only do you get to watch it at your leisure, but then join us for for 14 weeks of live group coaching twice a year. That's 28 weeks of live group coaching every single year. Once you're inside a retail bootcamp, you're always inside. So you get that same two semesters of group coaching every single year for as long as you want to join us this year inside of retail Bootcamp. I can't wait to go back to deep dive into the six layers of your business strategically, step by step. What do you need to grow before you're ready for the Facebook ads and digital traffic, which we do definitely cover? First we have to make sure, how's your pricing, how's your profit? How's your inventory? How's your team management? We're going into literally every single topic of your business throughout retail boot Camp. So it only opens twice a year, January and June. Make sure you're on the wait list again. Once you get in, you're in for life. Why didn't college allow us to do that? Right? Whatever happened to all that college debt we had? That was silly. I can make way better use of your time inside of retail Bootcamp. So I hope you're on the list. Get on the waitlist right now so you're the first to know. I can't wait to see you inside of retail Bootcamp. Layer number four is all about sales and sales strategy. No matter what channel you're on. Brick and mortar live selling, e commerce pop ups. There's so many different ways to sell things today. And so in layer four, we really double down on how to sell things. What do you think worked and what do you think didn't work in the last year?

Okay, so some of the stores that I've worked with that, you know, through the boutique hub, and if they're saying I'm really struggling, I need more sales is typically the message that I get.

Right?

So we jump on a call or we're in a zoom room together in a one of our coaching calls, whatever it might be. It's like, okay, I need more sales. But you go back and you look and it's like, do you need more sales or is the problem you're fixing you need to fix first is how people are shopping with you. You. What is that consumer experience that you're giving them? If I'm. If I'm shopping online, and for those of you guys that are boutique hub members or, you know, real boutique shoppers, you know, you get served plenty of options on social media for shopping.

Right.

You're not out there digging to try to find a boutique to shop from anymore. There's lots of them coming at you. However, not all of them are good. Not all of them have good user experience. So I'm a brick and mortar girly. I love to go into a brick and mortar store and have somebody and I, when I had my store. This is what we like to do, is you're looking at something. I'm going to quickly show you, you know, supporting characters to that jacket or that dress. I'm going to show you the necklace and the shoes and the whatever it might be. I'm going to give you options. I'm going to talk through to you, like how you're going to wear it, where you're going to wear it, all the different things. Yeah, I like that. It builds my trust for buying this product. It encourages me. I don't have that remorse or that regret right away thinking, I don't know, is it gonna work? But online, I see store owners still not providing that. And that's why, you know, I. I'm so. It's so important to give me all the photos, the front, the back, the side, the life, the movement video. I want to know. I want to see other pockets or not. I want to see what that looks like. I really want to know if it's home decor and gift, how big is this thing I'm looking at or how small, right? Who's ordered something online and they got it, and all of a sudden they're like, okay, this is for a baby dollhouse. This is not for My dining table.

Right.

And so I want to, I want that encouragement and that confidence. And this is one of the things when it comes to sales in layer four that we really try to hammer home. It can be boiled down to your merchandising. And for merchandising kind of conversations. I know a lot of people think, oh, Sarah's only talking brick and mortar. I am 100%. Not just brick and mortar. I'm talking about, how are you merchandising your photos, how are you merchandising your website design, your consumer experience? When I move from one, your site. Yes. Your collections to another, am I picking up the scarf to go with the jacket and can I easily grab the mittens too? Or do I actually have to go into three completely separate rooms to find us?

Right.

Like if you think about it, in a brick and mortar store, I'm going to walk in, my coat's going to be on a mannequin. The, the hats, the gloves, the scarves, all those things are put right neck in a nesting table or baskets or something.

Right.

Or on the mannequin itself. But weirdly enough, online I'm still seeing stores that have the coat on one page. Then I gotta click five different times to try to find a collection or try to find the, the, the page that has the gloves and then the scarves. And by this time my husband's texted me, something else has happened. I've gotten five different notifications on my phone and I'm, I've not jumped off. So that I can say is when we look at 2026, we have got to do a better job of keeping people's attention span in their online consumer behavior, their shopping. And that is we, we talk so deep about this in retail. In layer four and retail boot camp, it's become more of a passion of mine because like Ashley knows I, I am a brick and mortar girl. But the way the world that I shop online all the time now and I'm quick to voice my frustrations when it's when I don't have a good experience.

It's so true. And I, I think that's a common frustration point we see with retailers. Sarah, I know you do all the time is especially brick and mortar stores that are wanting to launch an online business. And so they build the website and they're like, okay, great, here's my products on a website. Go buy them. And it's not the field of dreams, it's the Kevin Costner's not going to appear. People aren't just going to start buying, you have to turn the lights on. You got to put the key in the door, you got to open it up, you have to merchandise it and market it every single day. And what I would pick out of layer four, sales strategy is live video has to be a component of that. Whether you're brick and mortar, whether you're pop up, whether you're E comm only, like, whatever you are, live video humanizes your brand. And, you know, the. The older generation, we had all the home shopping on TV, right? The younger generation has all the lives on TikTok. And then we had like the boom of COVID and, you know, the comments sold days, like, kind of in between. It's not going anywhere. It's not changing. If you're like, oh, man, do I have to go live? I really think it's really, really critical for you to go live in the future because that's how you merchandise. That's how you talk about fit. That's how you twist and turn and show all the angles and put things together and demonstrate and you build trust and you build relationships and community and everything else in between. So I think it's got to be a piece of the process.

I love that you brought up live selling. It's the year 2026. If you're not live selling yet, if you're not doing live video yet, this is your year, y'. All. It is time.

Yes. All right. Layer five, I think, is a really important one because when we're about to get to marketing, right, like we build the six layers of retail, like the six layers of lasagna. You gotta start with a little bit of meat and cottage cheese and some noodles. Everybody wants to get to the cheesy layer on top, but the cheese isn't good without the rest of the pieces that come before it. Right? So we're getting into the cheesy layer. Email marketing, traditional marketing, paid ads, that's all. Layer six, like, traditional marketing and social. But layer five is we first have to lay the groundwork with the strategy. How do you do it? We can't just show up on a random Thursday and post some crap on Instagram and think that it's going to work. So where do you think the. The industry shifted in the last year and what. What worked and what didn't?

Relatable content. Again, this goes all the. I. I won't spend a lot of time here because, yeah, I. I'm just gonna. I'm gonna say, watch what you're putting out there and think, who cares? Who cares about this?

What is it doing?

And, and am I. All the energy, effort, dollars, all the things I'm putting out here, like, is it relatable? Are people going to think, man, they're talking to me. Am I building my trust with this, this business or with this customer or not? And I think when I look at, when I look at videos and I look at content that's been put out there that's really worked, it's like speaking to the person's problem or their heart, that's for sure.

That's what they're doing. I will echo that a hundred percent because I had this call with a dear boutique owner friend who's been in the hub a long time a while ago, and she was like, ashley, nothing's working. My content, my marketing, Like, I'm not getting traffic, I'm not getting sales. Like, what's going on? And she was an elder millennial. I will say I've talked a lot about age. I don't know why in this podcast, but it was, you know, she, she was somebody who came on board when Instagram was first hot. And so in her mind, she was still kind of marketing. Like it was 2018 and the Instagram feed was beautiful and her photos were beautiful, but there was no video and there was no behind the scenes and there was no user generated content and there was no relatable content. It was just beautiful photos of products she wanted you to buy. And, and I told her, I was like, gosh, this, this is great. And it worked great however many years ago, but anymore, this is not the strategy, I think that retailers have to build, dare I say, personal brands. Like, it's gotta feel like this is lifestyle content. And I don't care if you're telling me about toothpaste or the salad you had for lunch or what your dog did last night, mix all that in with the products you're selling because that's what's relatable. People want to do business with people, not with companies and definitely not with companies that appear to be perfect. Because I think we're far past the, you know, the glazed over fake social media that we've had of yesteryear. And people just want to relate to other people. So the content strategy has to account for all of that. We look at that like the content recipe in retail Bootcamp where there's, yes, there's the sales content and then there's the engagement content, the relatable piece that's just, you know, Brussels sprouts, question mark. And then Watch everyone's heads explode. But then the third piece is branded content. So tell me more about behind the scenes, behind the business. Show me a day in the life. What does it look like? You shipping packages. Show me your customers. You know, walk me through the highs and lows of being a business owner. It's not just about what you're selling, but it's about the brand that you're building.

All right, I totally relate with that. Yes.

100. All right, layer six leading right into it. So it's laying the groundwork and having the plan in layer five. And then layer six is the marketing itself. What channels are we marketing on? What's shifting, what's working and what's not? Layer six.

Layer six. Okay, so emails it within the last number of months. I don't know how many emails I have gotten. Right. I. I get a thousands as you probably listening get thousands as well. Emails are great. Emails have a purpose and emails take a long time to put together. Now, yes, with AI, there's new ways of doing things. We can speed this process up. We're going to dive into that in retail boot camp. But it ultimately frustrates me, it makes me sad when a store owner going to do all of that to build out this amazing email, but then they give zero thought to the subject line. That is the thing. I just want to say, stop what you're doing. Pause. Let's think about the subject line first and then, then build out an amazing email. Right? But oh, my gosh, if you don't have a good subject line, y'.

All.

It gets that little check mark in my inbox every time, every time. And I think there's so many different ways to. To do this anymore. But I, I'll just say I, I feel like people put out emails, but they don't put any thought into their subject lines. There's no like, capture, like, just like it. There's no, there's nothing that's reaching out in that whole page of inbox emails that's getting my attention to say, hold on, Sarah, don't click so fast. You're going to want to read this. So I think there's an art to it and I think there's. There's a strategy, obviously, and we teach about that inside Retail Bootcamp. I just think that's a huge miss. It is a huge miss when it comes to marketing and gets big. There's a lot of emails I've never read and I'm not sorry for it. I just, I'm not, I not Sorry for it. I'm sure there's things that I've missed that would have been great had I actually got. Got my attention to open. To actually open it up.

That's so true. Okay, layer six. For me, this is a big one. This year, 2025 is when Andromeda, the new Facebook algorithm, launched, and this impacted everyone, whether you knew what was impacting you or not. Like, maybe all of a sudden this fall, you were like, whoa, my reach has gone to crap. I am seeing a bunch of weird stuff in my newsfeed, both on Instagram and on Facebook, and you're like, what is happening? Or my ads quit working, and Andromeda shifted that. So Andromeda kind of took targeting from a broad sense of I could target different groups of people, and then I would have top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel ads to target, like, broad groups of people. This, like, took it down to the individual level. So Sarah Burks really loves cats, and she's been looking at all kinds of cat videos and, oh, my God, I'm gonna show her all the cat scratchers and the cat toys. And your face right now is killing me.

If I get an ad for this.

Yeah. I hope your phone is right next to you and you start getting cat content.

It is. Of course it is. No, I don't do cats. No.

Yeah, cats and rattlesnakes.

Oh, my God.

We're really gonna mix it up. So Andromeda knows, like, instantly the second you talk about something, obviously, because you guys know your microphone's listening to you on your phone, but the second you search something, talk about something, whatever it is, it's instant. And it's like the next several pieces of content you see are all that thing. So when you're running ads, you know, the old days of. And I'm living this nightmare a little bit right now at the Boutique Hub, the old days of, we would create, you know, you and I, a couple of videos for something and be like, okay, great. Like, we're good for the next month. No, now we have drilled it down. Like, we're creating, like, 28 new ads every Monday. I mean, it's that much more content, which sounds a little crazy and scary. There is a method. There is a strategy. You can do it, but it just requires much more content because the algorithm is testing and going through things so fast. And once somebody sees, you know, your company for the first time, Cat lovers Anonymous. Sarah, now you're getting, like, 10 different versions of that ad in the next 48 hours. So that has definitely shifted how we market. And yes, we talk about that a lot in Retail Bootcamp and then we, once you go through Retail Bootcamp then we kind of shift you like, okay, you got the solid foundation. Now let's put you in boutique black. You work with a one on one ads coach and we optimize all that process for you. So huge shift.

Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I, it's like when you look at tech and you think how fast it advances and where we're at today versus just 12 months ago. And you know, that's why Retail Bootcamp really got a complete overhaul this year because there's, that's why in Retail Bootcamp we give you lifetime access as well once you invest in the course. Because we just what doesn't matter what we taught in 2022. There's some of those strategies in 2022 that we want to say, hey, actually don't do those now. Yeah, right. That's not going to give you, that's not going to produce sales for you. That's not going to be productive for you. And we want this, we want the course to continue. You to grow with the, with the courses as retail adapts. And so I'm excited about all the AI stuff and Andromeda and I'm excited about, I'm just excited about some of the new sales trainings that we're installing inside Retail Bootcamp this year. And yeah, it's. Retail is. I, I say this, I, and it's, it's kind of a joke, but it's, it's so true. We are not teaching history. It is constantly changing. Retail is changing very, very fast. And it, and to be able to stay competitive, you know, as this whole, you know, podcast is about what we saw working, what we are seeing not working, where we need to go in the future. We have got to be nimble, we have got to be quick. And that is one of the things in big box retailer. Yeah, nimble and quick.

Jack, jump over the candlestick.

Right?

There you go.

Thank you. That's one of the things with big box retailers that the targets and the Walmarts, they're, they're going to be struggling and oh my gosh, you guys, if you haven't really started to pay attention to, you know, some of those internal struggles are like right now the battle with Walmart versus Aldi Foods and just like who, how Walmart lost some of that market share to Aldi versus, you know, for, for specific reasons that, you know, buyers don't have to Go into a store and spend 45 minutes. They can go in and get out. They can, they're. They're. Then they can come more often. And the floor space and the employees and the utilities and the overhead, oh, my God. I could geek out of it and talk about it forever, but there's. There's so much to learn from that to back to your small business.

I love that it's always changing, and that's excitement of it. I think you know every small business, no matter what, but especially retail, like, this is a business of highs and lows, and it's a business of changes. And so if you're listening and I, I hope you're encouraged as you're listening today by this conversation, I hope you feel hopeful, like, okay, yes, these changes, I can make them happen. I really hope you're not discouraged because wherever you're at, whether this year was great or it was terrible, like, there's hope for tomorrow because this business has waves. And so if you're riding one right now, like, hold on, baby, we've got you, you're gonna get to the other side of it, and we can make something really, really great out of the new year and we can do it together. So I hope you guys are encouraged. You're in the right place. If you're here listening to this podcast, you're in the right place. If you're a member of the Boutique hub, and if you're in retail boot camp or Boutique A Black, like, I can guarantee you, every single person on our team, with Sarah at the helm of leading education, every single person is so invested in making sure this business works for you and bringing you the latest strategy that we've got your back no matter where you're at.

I love it. I'm happy to be here with everybody.

This is.

It's exciting. It's go time, guys. This is like, regroup, re reassess, and let's move forward.

Yeah, it's going to be a great year. Well, you guys, please jump in. If you have not already planned to join us during the Best Here yet challenge, or if you're catching this after the best area challenge, you can still sign up and get the replays. So I want to make sure you have everything from Sarah and I and our team as we're talking about retail in 2026, and then please jump and join us. We open retail boot camp in June and in January. Every year, we coach live together for 14 weeks. Plus, you get all of the digital modules and the videos and all the updates that we launched this year, plus our our workbook as well. So please come join us, you guys. We would love to work with you this year. Thanks for listening again. Go back, let us know what you think, what worked and what didn't in 2025. Why did so many stores go out of business? And let's keep the conversation going. Sarah, thanks for being here today. I appreciate you.

Thanks for having me. We'll see you guys inside Retail Boot Camp.

Bye, guys.

Bye.

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'd love to hear your feedback. 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.