Be a Better Buyer | The Boutique Hub

There we go.

Hi, guys.

Good to see you. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good night.

Good afternoon, Good night.

Good morning. Good afternoon. Good night. All right. Good to see you guys. You guys are here early. The early bird gets the worm. So if you're here, we would love to see your smiling faces. Feel free to turn those cameras on. Please jump in the chat. I would love to know who's here, introduce yourself, your store, where you're from, and as always, if this is the first time that you guys have been able to join us online on any kind of webinar or training, we'll introduce ourselves in a bit. But we like to make things as interactive as possible. We feel like that's how you guys get the most out of this. We'll have some fresh faces and some familiar faces. So I want to know who's here. Drop it in the chat. But if you want to unmute, if you're brave and you want to unmute and introduce yourself, that would be amazing. We'd love to get to know some of the stories here today. So you can raise your hand and I can call on you. Or if you want to just go rogue and unmute and say hi, tell us a little bit about your store. That would be incredible. We've got some home and gift stores here today. We've got some apparel stores, children's stores here, some specialty and unique stores here today. So again, jump on the chat, introduce yourself there, and if you're brave, unmute yourself and introduce yourself there as well. Yes. Any takers? Tara, yourself unmuted. Hello. Hello. Hi, I'm Tara. I'm in Lindale, Texas, like East Texas area. Amazing. Tell us about your store. Well, we're a full fledged full service flower shop since 1947. The only one in our town. And like 15 or so years ago, the previous owners started expanding that to home and gift and boutique clothing. Yeah. And I took it over a year and a half ago. And so I have to buy all of those things for everyone. And that's why I am joining this zoom, because I. That's a lot. That's a lot of kind of bullet points to hit to try to get something for everyone. It is a lot. I commend you for being here. Congrats. I mean, man, since 1947. Is that what you said? Yeah, yeah. The flower Shop since 1947. That's incredible. I, I think of we've got two amazing stores that are boutiques and flower shops that are in our mastermind. And same thing like you're, you're trying to fill a lot of different buckets at different times of the year. And you've got a lot of events going on, I'm sure, and lots of seasonality. So thanks for being here.

Tara, I have a flower shop question for you.

Yes?

Did you do corsages for Mother's Day? Is that a thing still in Texas or Universal? Is that just all went away?

Not really. For Mother's Day, no. We'll have, oh, gosh, maybe two or three. You know, one, you get a certain color to honor your living mother, and then a different color to honor your mother who's no longer living. It's like that, that tradition is still alive. We just don't see a lot of people asking for that, so.

Interesting. I just love to think about how everything, like, goes in cycles. And the floral industry has some really awesome traditions and regionally as well. So you guys do a lot down there that I think is really interesting. But anyway, nice to see you. Thanks for joining us today.

Yes, thanks. I love it. Thanks, Tara. All right. I see some familiar faces here as well. I see some brand new. Just gonna open my boutique. Some newbies here today. Welcome. Carrie Boutique and candle store. I love it. Katie, Children's boutique in Elkhorn, Nebraska. My gosh, you guys have been on a roller coaster recently, haven't you? Hopefully your town is building back. That's incredible. Like, amazing what you guys have gone through. Anyone else want to unmute and say hi? I'd love to see a few more introductions today.

Hi, everybody. I'm Lisa, Lisa Rivera from Longview, Texas. I own Toot Toots Boutique and we opened up in 2013.

Amazing boutique.

I love it. And it's called Toot Toots because I like to honk my horn.

So.

It's nice to meet everybody.

Welcome. Thanks for being here. It looks like you sell apparel online. I'm gonna guess I have.

Where we're located, we did not have access to Internet until three years ago. So three years ago is when we started our online. But it started all out with our brick and mortar.

Awesome. And now you've got two channels, it looks like. That's amazing.

Yes, ma'.

Am. Great. Thanks for being here. Yes, ma'. Am. Thank you, Sonia. I see you next. Unmuted. You're on my screen. Hi. Yes. Hi. How are you? I'm Sonia Hauser. I'm in Lincolnton, North Carolina, and I bought an existing boutique in October. This is a totally new career path for me. So I'm trying to get all the information from all the different channels. And I absolutely have enjoyed the boutique hub because I am on it pretty regularly. Grabbing some social media post like things that I can engage with my customers and my husband bought a restaurant in town a year ago. So we're, we're all in the, the business here, downtown Lincolnton. So it's been a fun adventure but definitely have a lot to learn. So we've, we've embraced 101 everything business. Right. There's always a lot to learn. There's always something new to learn. Absolutely. Always growing. And he still has his regular everyday 9 to 5. So yeah, we stay busy. But it's fun, it's good. We, our kids are involved and it's a good time. So glad you're here. Thank you. We're coming to Summit too. My daughter and I are coming to Summit so we're so excited. Very excited.

Who else is coming to Summit? I'm. If you're coming to Summit, drop it in the chat. I would love it. Gonna be a great time.

I love it. All right, one more introduction. Who else wants to say hi?

Leslie, you go.

Hi Leslie.

And my store is Francis boutique. It's about 20 miles north of Boston. It's a little bit different than most of yours because it's an upscale resale boutique. So I don't have to worry about buying inventory as much as you. I've got more than enough coming in from people. But crazily enough, a lot of it is brand new because one woman came in and she's looking and she says, how do you sell Talbots? Because I had tags on it. She thinks I said it's a. She was thinking that I was a retail store with, you know, that I had a special access to getting new Talbots clothing.

She was, she was.

That was a blonde moment for her. But anyway, I'm, I'm consignment. But I also find a lot of good information from you with all the other types of marketing that you talk about as well as doing special events. I just had my 15th anniversary and I had a big party. So I've really made a goal of having, you know, a special customer event every quarter. And that's been really successful for me. And I have a rewards program, a point program that's really successful for me. I also buy giftwear because I have a gift side of the store. Cards, chocolate, home goods, home decor. So it's sort of a one stop shop. It's a lot of work, but I'm enjoying it.

I love the consignment side and then, of course, you know, obviously, the buying you're doing on gift. I have to ask, though, tell us about the dolls behind you. Oh, well, that I was.

Yeah. Well, Francis Boutique. I bought the business six years ago from the former owner who named it after fashionable grandmother Francie. And I kept the name because I had a good reputation since 2009. But on top of it, my first Barbie was Francie, so it was meant to be, so. And because I, you know, love Barbies. Anyway, even before the Barbie movie last year, I always had Barbies around, you know, my little fashion Barbie corner. So needless to say, last summer was big Barbie moment for me. And I. Even prior to that, I had women in their 70s giving me their Barbies and asking me to sell them for them.

And.

And I did that both in store and online on Mercari. So that was a nice little sideline business for me too.

Yeah, I bet. My gosh, over the last year, that was huge for you. That is so cool. That's something I'm sure so many of your customers can relate to. I was talking to somebody, so I don't know if you remember. Do you remember the Johnny west collection of bars? It was all, like, cowboys and stuff. My favorite time, like, playing Barbies growing up was all of my older siblings, and they're Johnny west and all these really old Barbies that they had. So what a cool moment. And goes right along with the consignment side of your business. Yeah.

And I have different themed rooms, too, since you mentioned that. I have an equestrian room, so I have some consignment of horse clothing and gear in there, as well as horse decor. I have a beach room, a hostess room, a baby room, so that's. And so it all is tied in nicely. But I got some cowboy Barbies, too, last year to did see. John. Thanks.

You know what?

That's it. We're going on a boutique tour.

Sarah. We're going around.

Yeah. That's one of my favorite parts about these Zooms is the opportunity to get to just sneak peek into your guys's daily life and to see just how different everyone's business is. That is just incredible. So thanks for sharing that so much. All right, well, let's get started here. I'm going to invite you guys. If you haven't muted yet, if you could please mute yourself, especially if you're on your phone. I don't know if everyone knows this. When you join Zoom on your phone, you're automatically unmuted, so in case you ever accidentally Bring your phone into the bathroom and you're on a webinar. Just know that's how accidents happen. So if you want to hit the mute button, that'd be great. And we'll get started. Sarah, I'll go ahead and share my screen. All right, so let's rock and roll. All right, for those of you guys who are asking in the chat, yes, we'll record for today so you guys can snag the replay. And as I mentioned, we love these trainings to be as interactive as possible. So everyone's store here is so different. That's the beautiful part. So if you have a question, please drop it in the chat. If Sarah or I are speaking, one of us will stop and say, hey, you know, let's go a little bit deeper on this topic. Obviously, there's so many things we can talk about when it comes to buying. We could literally be here for days and days. So we're going to hit on just a couple of common questions that we see today, a couple common solutions that we're sharing quite often. And just know there's. There's always ways to go way deeper into all the things we're going to talk about. And we'll discuss how in just a little bit. So to get started, just an introduction in case we haven't met yet. Again, let me know in the chat if you're already a member of the Boutique Hub, but my name is Ashley Alderson. I'm the founder of the Boutique Hub. We started the boutique hub 10 years ago, going on 11 years in July. And our purpose of the Boutique Hub and at hubventory, our wholesale platform is just to get you guys every resource we could possibly think of for you as a business owner. Together, under one roof, community is the most important thing to us and getting you connected to one another, which is why we need to go on a boutique tour. It looks like we've got to come to Leslie's store, and we also want to get you hooked up with quality wholesale and know how to manage the wholesale and inventory side of your business. And then just expert education is core of everything we do, too. Trying to get you guys to see the forest through the trees and just continue to learn and grow with your business. So, Sarah. Yeah.

Well, welcome, guys. If I have not, I had the opportunity to meet you yet. I'm Sarah Burks. I'm the director of partnerships and education here at the Hub. I came on here after I closed my store. I came on in 2017. I started in retail way back in the early 90s, 1990s. So, yeah, a while ago. But I am an open book. I always say that I love to help you guys, guys mitigate risk in your business and learn from the mistakes that I made that cost me a lot, a lot of money. And I. I really do. I like to speak truth into your business and, like, help you guys achieve whatever success really is to you. And I know that is defined in a lot of different ways, but I've coached at a collegiate level. I've taught entrepreneurship. I teach retail boot camp here at the Boutique Hub with Ashley, as well as a number of other classes and things. And my things I really like to geek out about are the inventory management side, the team management side, merchandising, all the things that really, you know, gel back into that more inventory, I guess, related experience here that you guys learn and want to move out your inventory and create cash in your business. I find a lot of fruit in that. That's the kind of stuff that gets me excited. So, anyway, I'm an open book, you guys. Please, if you have a question for me here in the webinar or offline, don't hesitate to reach out, you guys. I'm always available to you, so I'm so glad you guys are here.

I love it. Something that Sarah and I love so much about coaching and doing these things together is that we both know, and I'm sure you guys all know and recognize this in yourself, that in order to be successful, there's definitely two sides of the retail brain. There's the retail art side of the brain, and there's the retail science side of the brain. And each one of us excels in something a little bit different. So like Sarah said, when it comes to numbers and team and the strategy and the analytical side of your business, we can dig super deep. There's. But I love the marketing and kind of the arts here side of the brain, the social media, the driving traffic, all those ways that you can grow your business today with so many new opportunities and different channels to market on. So we'll sprinkle some of that in as we go. All right. As we get started today, one of the main reasons we're together and we're hosting this webinar this week is it's a big week for us here at the Boutique Hub. A year ago, actually a little more than a year ago now, we built our very own wholesale marketplace called hubventoryventory.com and this week on hubventory.com it's our fall Market week, so many of the vendors who are selling on the platform are sharing specials. We have some double rewards points for anyone who is a member of the Boutique Hub on the platform, even though anyone can buy on it. And so we're doing a little giveaway today for those of you who are here, if you want to snap a picture anytime throughout this webinar and jump over and drop it on Instagram and your story and just tag Hub. And Tory, if you'll tag us, we're giving away $250 or 250 rewards points, which translate into dollars for you guys to spend right away on the platform. So don't forget, snag a picture. Tag us on Instagram as we go, anytime today. All right, a little bit more about kind of behind the scenes. So, again, our belief at the Boutique Hub when it comes to buying inventory is omnichannel is absolutely critical. So your relationships, and when I say relationships, I mean you've got to know your vendors, you've got to know your reps. Building relationships with, with those people and with those brands comes in two forms. It comes going to market, which we believe is critical, getting to know people, getting to touch and feel and understand, you know, what's really happening in the marketplace. But we also believe that in between going to market, there's a huge opportunity to buy online. And that's why we built Hubventory a year and a half ago. Not only did we want to have a wholesale marketplace, it was online for you guys. But we wanted to do something different than we've seen before in the space. We wanted to have better pricing for the brands who are selling on the platform so they didn't feel like they were giving away the entire farm with every order they were taking online. But we also wanted to build some intuitive tools that were built by retailers for retailers. So we're going to show you some of those as we go today. But we also want to give you that Omni Channel experience of brands that we curated that are just for you. These are not distributors. These are not direct from China brands. These are brands that we've handpicked because we know they do really well in all types of retail situations. So we're going to get to know Hub and Tori a little bit as we go throughout our time together today. But this is the theme of our training today, is the common struggles that we're seeing in buyers and how you can definitely battle and overcome these with some strategies. So, Sarah, you want to kick our first question off?

Yeah, I just want to reiterate what you're saying there. You know, getting involved in this business and starting the business, the buying part is. Is usually the fun part. And I, I know that there's so many times that people are just super excited. Like, this is. I can't wait to go to market. I can't wait to do this. I can't. Whatever that might be for you to fill in the blank, but, you know, to source those fun products. But over time, certain problems arise and certain, like, issues happen, and we, we hear these, we see these things consistently inside our community. So we wanted to just kind of shed some light on this today and to help us be the better buyers. Right. Overall, that's what we really want to do. So here's the one, one thing that we hear a lot. I'm cutting costs, but I can't afford much new inventory. How do I source what's best?

Right?

Like, who's found themselves in that situation?

They know they need inventory.

They know they need inventory, but they just don't have.

They.

They're wondering where that cash is coming from. I. I'm trying to cut costs in my business. I. I'm really struggling bringing in the new things. So this is what we want to kind of tackle first. This is what we want to tackle first. All right, so let's. First of all, let's look at one of the big things that is, you know, kind of quiet in the industry. We don't typically talk about what it really costs to go to market. So I'm curious if you guys have done this yourself and put the pencil to the paper to, you know, quote my dad, to say, like, sarah, how much is it going to cost you to make this trip, this investment trip?

Right?

Like, what is that going to look like? And what is. How much are you going to have to sell to make your money back? So let's just walk through this exercise first, right? Like, how much does it cost to actually go to market? Because we can say we're going to go to market, but we have to do it responsibly. So this is just a very. And to actually message me this morning, she's like, I actually think these numbers are quite conservative. And, you know, depending on where you live, you know, what your flights look like, these may differ for you, but let's just kind of say if we're going to go two nights and three days out of the office, we're going to have a Hotel. Yep, 350 probably sounds conservative, especially if you're Going to Las Vegas, right? We got flights at 450 bucks. Payroll. This is 24 hours at $15 an hour. If you, if maybe you're the one man show this is, we still need to look at this like this could be that loss of productivity. I have to maybe pay somebody else or whatever this might look like when I'm gone. I'm going to be eating. So we're just going to put in 150 bucks for meals. And we know that's probably very, very conservative for this amount of time, miscellaneous expenses. Maybe you have a babysitter, maybe you have a dog sitter, who knows what it is, you know, but just add in another 250 bucks. So we look at that right then and there before you have really done anything, you already need to kind of earmark say 1560 bucks to just go to market. So it, it, you have spend money to make money. I, I 100% believe this. I'm not saying that, you know, oh, pump the brakes, don't ever go to market. That's not what we're doing. We're just trying to, you know, pull the veil back a little bit on these numbers of when you are taking time out of your business and you're investing in new inventory. What all is involved there?

So Ash, I unmute it then it's just. Catherine, if you've got a question, I want you to drop it in the chat or just raise your hand, we'll call on you at the end. All right, go ahead there.

All right, so when we look at that, all right, so we just said it's going to cost us about 1560 bucks to go to market. So then let's go ahead and just run some quick numbers and say what do I actually have to sell? Just sell to get that 1560 back. So I kind of, I put a couple different examples out here. You know, maybe you're a Vervette gene store, maybe you're a trucker hat store. And, but just kind of take a look at this. If I went to market and invested in 40 units of Revett Jeans and I did, I had a real nice markup. You know, I had this three time markup, gets me to their regular, their, their recommended retail price comes that 7990, that's what they're asking you to sell them for. So you look at what my investment is and then if I look at my sell through to sell all 40 units to make that 1543 back, which doesn't even get me to 1560, that's a lot of investment and time and energy and effort to sell through 40 units of jeans. Who's sitting here thinking 40 units of jeans super fast, no problem, right? Well, a lot of times we, we do have to mark our products down to actually get them to move. So I like to look at it as like worst case scenario, I sell through at the rule of threes, the rule of thirds. So basically like 33% a third of my inventory, that whole 40 units is going to sell at full price, right? That's 13 of those. Then to do the math and get it to come out, it goes to 34%. But maybe I have to do a 25% off discount on those and then the next group of thirds like the last 33%, maybe I have to move those at 30% to get those to be gone.

Right?

That's the rule of thirds. That's just a, when you do an overall math of, of how your sell through go often the calculations come out to be about a rule of thirds at a, at full price, then at a 20 at a 30% discount, something similar to that. And if you sell through 100% of those items, you still haven't paid for going to market at that vervet gene with that 3.1 markup. So it's a kind of scary, it's just, I mean I'm not saying that to be like oh my gosh, don't go to market. I just we want to identify what it really costs us to be gone. So then let's jump over the second. The second example here is trucker hats. Trucker hats are really, really big right now. Say you go ahead and source, source some trucker hats at, at 1250 a unit. We're going to have to buy 100 of those, right? So that's our investment of 1250 bucks right there. That three time markup. We're going to aim to sell those hats at $37 and 50 cents. Now if we go and use that, where I'm taking this from, we're going to get to in a second is a tool inside Hubventory. It's called the ROI calculator. So that allows you to play with the percentages of if I, I sell, if I sold, you know, 33 of this, this pack at 30 off or 50 off or 20 off, what is my ROI look like? So when I played around with these numbers and I did use that general rules of thirds that we coach on here at the boutique hub and inside the boutique, inside the retail boot camp right there at that with this breakdown of percentages, I, I've earned my money back. I've actually, you know, profited two bucks. $2.50. I'm going to market and look how many units I sold. Look how much I had to invest. That's just to break even on the time and the money it cost me to be gone for my business. So I, again, we're not saying don't go to market. I'm just saying this is to be a responsible business owner, to be a responsible retailer. We have to take this into account. This is a whole nother video, but it goes back to pricing for profit. So you guys make a note. Price for profit. Because these numbers look totally different if I go with a keystone two time markup. Totally different.

Right.

All right, let's move on. All right, sorry, Go ahead. Ash. There. Was there a question you wanted me to answer? I remembered.

No, I think that's it. I think.

All right. So when you're, when you're jumping in and we're looking at, you know, that's why Hub and Tory was really created because we know there's going to be times in your life that you need inventory, but you just can't get on the plane. You take time away, you know, Johnny's got a ball tournament or whatever it might be that is keeping you home. Maybe it's just the lack of that extra 15, 60 bucks sitting in your bank account that you want to, you want to go back and reinvest that inventory but not pay American Airlines and, you know, whatever else. So here we've created the Hub and Tory platform. We have, we have put a lot of love and attention into this based off of your feedback as business owners of what you're looking for in a platform. So cost effective brands, you know, we are, we're looking to put products in front of you that really, really help you stand out in your business. We're going to reach or talk about that here in a little bit. A wide variety of products. We vet all of the brands that are on Hubventory. So, you know, you're doing business with business owners that have the stamp of approval of the boutique Hub, which is very important. So we know what kind of a risk it is to go in and put a credit card in online and buy.

Right.

And we want to make sure that you are protecting your assets, your business and your time when you buy on Hubventory.

Yep. Really quick, what's the name of the video just referenced? And I don't know that there was a video she just referenced. But going back to making sure, you know, the rule of thirds just really in pricing for profit. I think you said that could be its own video. So, Deidre, if you have a question about that, we can come back and answer those as well. All right, go ahead.

You want to hit on some of the features?

Yeah, I can do that. We want to get into a few more formulas, but a few more hub and toy features that we're going to hit on today that I think are really helpful as we're talking about planning inventory is first. Our. Our boards. We built hub and toy to be a little bit like wholesale meets Pinterest. So as we're buying and investing in new inventory, we are just adding everything to cart and hoping that it works out for the best. But we can actually use the ROI tracker and calculator, our budget planning tool. And we can pin all of our inventory into boards so we can see when things are coming based on collection or by arrival date. And then once those things are actually in your cart and you purchase them, if you're on Shopify, there's a direct Shopify integration. So these all become draft products immediately, hopefully saving you guys some payroll time along the way. All right, so let's get back to the numbers and talk about, as Sarah said, knowing how you are investing and not just buying is really critical. So here's how to use some of these budget tools and our ROI calculator.

Yeah. So one of the big things when you do go to market, whether you're. You're going to market physically or you're sitting at your computer and you're sourcing products, is looking at what your return on investment is going to be looking at, you know, establishing these budgets and staying inside the budget zone.

Right.

Because we all know it's really, really easy to see, oh, my gosh, that's so cute. Or oh, my gosh, I've never seen that before. No, I don't have money for it, but I think I still have room on my credit card, and I think I can sell it because it's really, really cute. We all rationalize this purchase in our head. And one of the things that we have built into Hub and Tory is the buying budget. So you can go in and we're going to get into the, you know, how much inventory do I actually need here? In a second. But you can run these calculations and come back in and establish budgets. That is basically going to be like bumpers for you in your buying plan. So it is going to say, all Right. This is how much money you have remaining. This is what you've spent.

Right.

This is how much money you have remaining for your specific budgets. Whether that is in jeans, it is in layering tops, it's in casual tops, it's in, you know, sandals or sportswear, whatever it might be. So when you go in and you start identifying like, what are your big, your big classes of inventory that you need to be sourcing right now as you're going into this particular season, you can go in and establish budgets for that. And I like this idea because, you know, I'm a pen and paper girl, old school. But this does the math for you. Even though I like the what, the what numbers, give me the story. I'm not the best at mathematician out there. So I love the idea of the built in calculators. Now with that, this ROI calculator, this is what I was just speaking to a second ago. So what you can do is you can go in and establish what your markup's going to be or what you think your markup is going to be. And then you can play around to say, okay, best case scenario, I sell all of this, I sell my whole pack of this, whatever I'm investing in at 100% at full retail.

Right, Great.

We can do the quick math on that. But let's be honest, you give employee discounts, you have, you know, you're going to have, you're going to have some flash sales, you're going to have some different things that, that go into all of this. So you want to make sure that the investment of time, energy and product that you're putting out there is actually going to pay some bills at the end of the day. So that's why this little slider calculator, the ROI calculator, is, is really easy to use. It's very fun and it's very, very eye opening. Ashley, do you want to speak to the delivery calculator?

Sorry, Back here. There you go.

Do you want to speak to the delivery calculator calendar and shopify integration a little bit?

Yeah, well, I mentioned shopify integration already, but to the delivery calendar point, I think one of the biggest stressors that we see across all types of retailers is ordering things and not understanding when they're coming or saying, I ordered Christmas socks, they better not freaking arrive in January. Right. And so something else that's really important to note when you're using these tools is there's automatic canceled buy dates when you order and you say, hey, this has to arrive by X or the order automatically cancels for you. So that's something that's built in that no other platform has built in currently and you can't obviously get when you order in person or maybe they don't always follow through. When you make that stipulation in person, it doesn't mean that it automatically happens. The other thing I think is really important to know is the delivery calendar. So knowing kind of like the Pinterest boards, when you're planning your inventory on the back side, once you've actually purchased your inventory, it all lays out for you in a calendar based on what those shipping dates are. So if you're somebody who's launching in collections or you're planning out what are my new arrivals going to be? I really want to re merchandise my window. I really want to, you know, re merchandise the homepage of my website. What's that going to look like? I can easily look at the delivery calendar and note when things are going to be arriving. And then the last thing is rewards. This is something that's brand new on inventory. Again, it's double rewards all week when it's fall market week. So that's a huge helpful piece to help you get more bang for your buck when ordering inventory as well. All right, Sarah, we talked about, you know, going to market, obviously sourcing on online marketplaces. But this has also become a really important point in the year, especially going into a J month when we're thinking about trying to order more inventory and not having enough cash. Making sure you guys are a part of exchange programs or buying groups like the Inventory Exchange. I know there's a number of them out there. The inventory exchange is one way to sell extra inventory or to pick up fillers that you need for immediate ships that are a great way. You don't have to buy the full minimum, you don't have to buy the full run. But you can pick up pieces to help fill your store as well along the way.

Yeah, I just want to, I want to just echo that. As far as the inventory exchange goes, that is a perk to membership here at the Boutique Hub. And there is so much value to, you know, as an inventory buyer, what works for me here in Wisconsin, what I think is going to work for some reason may not whether spring decided to come super, super late. Well, maybe in other places in the country you guys have had spring going forever and you want some fill ins on something. Right. Or your vendors can't source it for you. But go to that inventory exchange group and I might be over here late, waving the white mercy flag like, somebody take this inventory from me. It's amazing. But mother nature in Wisconsin is mad and it's still 40 degrees in May, so I can't sell it.

Right.

Those are great. This is a huge perk of membership at the Botique Hub and that is one of our most utilized groups. So just another touch point on that. But let's talk about how your inventory is flowing through the business and why, why new matters, right? We, we often find, you know, we're saying, I know I need to bring in new inventory. I'm tying up some cash and old inventory, whatever this might be. But before you get stuck in the. I have inventory, right? I have inventory. And by dang it, people are just better buy it, right? We want to kind of look at some things and help, help turn that back into cash as fast as, as fast as we possibly can. So showing your inventory on hand, inventory so important never assume that people have seen it. Always be showing it. We want to know what's on order, right? What have we already committed to? I, I'm telling you, I see this happen all the time. I do a lot of one on one coaching calls. I, I work with a lot of different clients inside our courses and when I ask how much inventory they own, they'll say, okay, I think I have this much inventory here. And I'm like, have you committed to any inventory coming in already? Like, yep, yep, I already got all my fall orders done. Okay, well you need to know how much that is. Oh, okay. I don't track that. Well, you know who does? Citibank Capital One. They're coming, they want their money, they have tracked it and they're going to get it really, really fast.

Right?

We, we need to make sure that we have that plan. So understanding your purchase orders and, and documenting those, this really helps in the whole idea of cash flow, aging, inventory. Oh, go ahead.

I just want to pause. I want to just, just take a poll of the room really quick in the chat. Number one, making sure everyone knows. Do you know where to go find how much inventory you have on hand in your point of sale drop, what is your point of sale? And like, yes, I've got that report. I know what my inventory on hand is. And then second drop in the chat, do I know how much inventory I currently have on order? So some ways that you might get there. Faves is a really great tool that might help you track where you've purchased inventory at market and on several online marketplaces. And you know, what's actually coming in. Some people love to run spreadsheets. Some people have management. One. Yes. I just want to make sure everyone here is committed that all these things that we're going to talk about, you know where to go find them. Perfect. I'm seeing lots of yeses, so that's very positive.

This is honestly, you guys, good job. I don't. We don't normally see yeses. Retail pro. Perfect. All the things.

So good.

Now, no shame in the game if you do not know where it is, but I would really encourage you. The first thing you do when you get off this webinar is go to the help center of your point of sale system and just ask, find out. Or you, you know, there's quick YouTube videos or if you're a Hub member, jump in the hub, in the Boutique Hub chat and, and just say, I have X platform program. How do I find my inventory report? How do I know what I have on order?

Those of you who are on Shopify, like, there's several Shopify apps that are going to help get you there. So better reports, delirious profit, understanding where those numbers are coming from, ask. And anyone on our team or anyone in the community could definitely help.

Yeah, I see Megan in the chat right now answering some of those. Megan is a member here at the Boutique Hub and she does a lot of Shopify videos inside our community. So very, very helpful. Awesome. Thanks. Thanks, Megan, for dropping that. All right, so another report that is really important is your aging report. So again, just because you have a full store doesn't mean that that is inventory of interest to people, right? Nobody's coming into your store and saying, hey, show me what was brand new. February of 2023. I cannot wait. I need it like, show me that. We're going to get to like the hype and the trends and things like that and what people are really looking for. But nobody's coming in, asking you what was new a year ago and wanting that. So it's really important that you guys are analyzing the age of your inventory and getting aggressive with a markdown strategy, not allowing things to have birthdays. Inventory should never have a birthday, right? They should. You're not celebrating their anniversary or whatever it might be at your store. So as things are aging, we need to recognize that and we need to, you know, move that front and center. We need to, you know, restyle it, reshoot it. This number four, this whole re merchandise it, make it new again, right? Get that, give it more love and attention. A lot of times what happens? One of the biggest issues with buying, where I say people are not a better buyer, is they do not pay attention to their delivery dates and they have everything delivered at one time. UPS brings this huge, massive amount of orders in and they don't have necessarily the love and attention to give to each one of those products. So they start hanging, steaming, putting things out, whatever it might be. And maybe 20% of it actually has gotten a photo. Less than 20% of it's actually gotten a fit video. The, the product descriptions really turn into. That's where it turns into black dress, you know, in, in the copy. So because you're just trying to get it out as fast as you can, all of a sudden your whole idea of really serving your customer with what you're presenting them has gone because you're just wore the smooth out. You don't have time to do it. So that's where this number four comes in. A lot of times when you look at your aged inventory report, I bet if you got real honest, you might be able to say, oh my gosh, did we even do a fit video with that? That's been here for three months. Did anybody do a lot at it in a live sale? Did we do a photo shoot with it? Has it been literally in the back corner of our, of our brick and mortar store this entire time? Has it never made it to the store window? Have we never put it this on Facebook at all or insta, whatever it might be? So number four, so important. All the reads, restyle, reshoot, repost, re merchandise, all of those things, give it another try, help energize this product. Heck, you were excited about it when you bought it. When you went to Hub and Tory, you went to, you know, Magic or wherever it was, something made you excited about getting it. So if you are excited about buying it, be excited about selling it. That whole flow through your business is super, super important. Then this number five, review it, you know, is it working? What, what, what's up with it? Why is it not there? Why is it not? Why is it not hitting with our customers? What did I maybe not do? How, how is the conversation I'm having with our clients online or in store just not working? Maybe it's the wrong fit, the wrong feel, the wrong function. I talk about this a lot inside retail boot camp, but nonetheless, this whole inventory flow, if you're wondering why you're not getting cash back out of your products, a lot of times this whole one through six, there's a breakdown in the system. So this whole how to be a better buyer webinar today is not just about going and swiping the credit card and walking away and be like, whoo, I'm a great buyer. Look at all the stuff I got. This whole buying system has to turn back into cash so you can go back and do it again and do it again. So then that brings.

Oh, go ahead.

Sorry.

Oh, Sarah, I was just going to say this entire webinar could just be on this slide alone. I just analyzing each one of these in great, great detail alone. Yep.

So then that gets into this number six, the markdown cycle. There's a lot of different things, theories out here about when to mark things down. And you know, we can say that general, general rule of thumb, the six to eight weeks, the first cut is the deepest, the first cut, city best. Which means don't murder the price tag. Just if it's not working and it's been sitting there, price it to make it move, price it to get some excitement to make it move. Because cash is king.

Right?

We need that cash to go back and reinvest. But I will tell you my number one like rule breaker here and the number six guide of the six to eight weeks is if you got it in and you know it's not right, sister, get it out of there today. Whatever you have to do, if it immediately, if it's not your brand, if it's not your, your, you know, really selling exactly what your store is supposed to be presenting out into the community, make it disappear. Throw it in a grab bag, put it on a five dollar rack, take a loss, make a note everywhere you can that you're not ordering whatever that might be. Again, that type, maybe it's a fabric, maybe it's from a vendor, maybe it's the type of fit, whatever it might be. But don't wait, do not wait, don't confuse your customers, don't tie up your cash. And something you know is just, you're gonna, you are sitting there thinking, I would rather get a margin out of it and I'm gonna wait for six to eight weeks in hope of right. No, don't go ahead and just learn from it, Learn from that mistake, discount it and move on. Or, or like I said, make it go away in a grab bag. Like so I'm talking about some of those things you get in, you're like, I did not know we ordered this. I didn't do my research. Or it came in and I, I know this is just not on brand for us.

Yeah. So True. You know, Sarah, I didn't even tell you this. Yesterday I had an opportunity to go visit a boutique near me that's in with a local salon that our girls get their hair cut at. And when I think about like cash being tied up in their business, one of the experiences I had as I was shopping the boutique was as I was going through racks, it would be like the cutest top, but there was four smalls left still on the main rack or I would go on a rack and there was stuff I know I saw last March, a year ago. Last April, a year ago, still on the rack. The inventory does not get better with age. So I love that we're digging into aging reports and the restyling and then just get it out. There's so much cash that's hiding on our rack that's old. We just need to get it off the hanger and into our pockets. So true. We've got to dig into the reports in order to get there. Yep.

Yeah. And this because this is one of those things that, let's be honest, maybe you aren't in the store every day and there's other people on your staff that, that are working the floor every day. Part of this whole flow is asking them like, what's working right? What's not number five? What, what hasn't moved? What are people taking in the dressing room and never bringing out? Like that stuff goes in there and they're like, I'm not going to show it to you on me and I'm not buying it. We got to learn from those things. But this is something that you can immediately, you can get your, your staff involved with also.

I love it. I've got to just highlight in the comments. Michelle's comment. I started forcing myself to say if I say the discount amount in an email subject line, would I open it and be ready to shop if I wasn't looking to shop? And if that's a no, then it's not a big enough markdown. And again, a markdown is not a storewide sale. For those of you who are new, do not be tempted with, oh, it's 30% off site wide. No, it's not. Because then you're going to sell the diamonds with the dirt. You're going to sell your brand new full priced items that you just got in with the aging things. Your dirt. Right. That needs to go out the door at 50 to 60% off. Huge difference in getting cash out of your business.

Yeah, I want to speak to Jen. She said, what do you do about damage inventory. Okay, first, all this is one of those things that, you know, we have, we have some stores that don't do quality control. They're pushing out so many orders so fast, when stuff comes in, they don't even unsleeve it. They don't take it out of the plastic. They, that goes in a bin, the order gets filled, they pull it from the bin, it gets filled, and it gets out to the customer. And the customer is the one that does the damage control.

Right.

They're the ones that might open it up and find there's a hole in it. I have other stores that they inspect everything, whatever that situation is, just know that that's your cash, that's your 20 bucks into the wholesale cost, into that shirt, it's your 30 bucks, it's your $5, whatever it is, have a system in place. I personally, I personally love to have somebody that goes through and does the quality control. And as soon as we find an error, whether it is stitching, it's buttons, it's, you know, whatever that might be, I, I, we have a form inside the training library for how to return damaged goods. And basically like, what a vendor is going to ask of you now, I will say if you're super nitpicky and you file a claim on every order, a lot of vendors will just be like, not sure this customer is worth it anymore.

Right.

However, I, I, it drives me crazy when I see store after store after store absorb those costs themselves and never go back to the vendor and raise the flag and say, y' all need to do better, because we have a lot of errors. Because if you don't report that, they go back to their sales meetings. Life is roses. Everything's great. People are loving it, and they just keep pushing out the same damaged stuff. Or they're not asking more of their manufacturers, they're not asking more of their seamstresses. And those things continue season over season. So please, be a voice, be a voice to the vendors. Don't be rude, but be helpful. Be helpful. And then request a return, a return authorization. The worst thing they're going to say is no.

Right?

But then that's on you to make the decision, do I want to invest again with these guys in the future? It's okay to fire vendors. They're going to, it's okay. They're going to fire some, some customers.

Right?

But it's, it's business. And at the end of the day, that's your money. And you want to be the very best investor of that money that you possibly can be and wise and. And disciplined. And there's going to be some times that maybe this line was super freaking cute three years ago, but their quality control has went out the window, and you're going to find something else. And let me tell you, there's thousands, tens of thousands of options out there. You'll find something that's going to work for your store better.

Sarah, talk to me about this. This is Tiffany's question in the chat, talking about reports you need preparing, like the data you need preparing for market or preparing for your buy. Her question is, what about, I'm at market. I take pics to gauge interest. Everyone loves it and I order it. And then it comes in and it just sits. Everyone loved it when I posted it. What happened?

Yeah, so did you let those people. Here's my one thing anymore in 2024, when you came home and you posted it, if I saw it and you went live at market and I knew you were at market and I was following your journey, I was see every single day. Then pause. You come home, you take a few days off to kind of get regrouped. Your group sits idle. You're not doing your stories, you're not doing your reels, and all of a sudden you come back with a blast of this is here. Now. Guess what? I haven't went to your page or onto your group for a few days now, so I'm not necessarily seeing it. So one of the big things I always say is if I said I liked it when I was at. When you were at market and you want to put it out there, tag me, message me, drop in a DM to me, hey, Sarah, I know you love this. We've got it here. Let me know what size you want me to hold for you. Maybe sounds a little pushy, but nothing pisses me off more than when all of a sudden I'm like, wait, what do you mean you got that in and I. And you sold it out? I said I wanted it, right? I mean, that happened. That's happened a lot. So just be aggressive, right? If somebody's going to say, oh, my gosh, I want that in green, then you said you wanted it. Here you go. Try that. Versus, like, there it is, I posted about it. And I'm gonna sit back and think, oh, that's so mean. Why is she not coming and buying it for me? Because I'm telling you, Mark Zuckerberg's not making sure. He's not making that connection. He's not making sure Sarah sees it the second time.

That is such a love hate relationship with the algorithm. Because you're right, nobody sees anything. So that could definitely be part of it. But it's also like the strategy of understanding, okay, what is the data telling me about my customer ahead of time? Who is my customer? What are her problems that I'm trying to solve right now? What are my proven winners? What are my proven brands? What are my proven fabrics? What are my proven categories? And let the data also help you because there are times where there's a one off thing where your customers are like, well, Sarah, if you would have had that in green, I would have bought it. But that's not always the case. Right. Sometimes customers are liars and they wouldn't have bought it if you would have had it in green. So how you know it and how you leverage your data beforehand also makes a huge impact.

Yeah, I also love to run my customer reports and I like to run those customer reports, like who are my full price customers and who's showing up on the day after Thanksgiving on Black Friday or my end of year inventory clearance sale? And I, those, I'm committing those people to memory, right? Because then when I see them comment on certain things, I'm like, yeah, probably not going to happen from Susie, right? She's probably actually not the, she's not my aunt, she's not my UPS chasers that are running down the UPS truck waiting to see what I have new because she's ready to get it before I even get it out of the plastic, right. She's gonna, that particular person that says, yes, I want that is going to be the one that's going to come nickel and dime me the day, you know, I have the biggest sale of the year. So definitely run those sales reports by your customer. That's super important to know.

Right.

But it's also, you know, looking at that like, what is my budget? What am I, where am I at when I said I wanted to, you know, I had a budget for $10,000 worth of jeans and I have already committed to $12,000 worth of jeans. And now all of a sudden I make a post or I, I'm at market and people are like, you need those two? Like, then I have a decision to make. Do I need to go back and reassess and say, all right, I'm actually going to cut this product from somebody else so I can make room for this in my budget, or am I just going to do my very best to, to connect the dots to and just Say, hey, this is actually a better option and really sell and serve my customer on that. Maybe the features and benefits of this other item. So just because they say they want it doesn't mean they necessarily do. Yeah, I will say that is. That is probably the biggest golden rule in all of it. Or they're going to get they wanted it.

Yeah. All right, last question before we go on to the next slide. I want to be mindful of everyone's time. Brooke, I've got to call you out on this. Brooke. She says, I feel like the reason I shy away from discounts and markdowns is because of embarrassment. I feel like it makes them seem. Makes it seem like I don't have enough confidence in my own product to not to sell it, not at a discount, and also makes my followers think that no one is buying it from me and to just sit and wait for a sale. Does that make sense? Brooke, you're so spot on and you're not alone in this. Right. You don't want to train your customers for us sale. But like we said, there's a huge difference in having a sale and having a discount. And right now, for you, it's a mindset of am I discounting this because I failed or by discounting this because it was in such demand in certain. In certain sizes or in certain styles or in certain variants or colors, whatever, that I've got to just move it down, make cash for something new. It was in such demand versus nobody wanted it. That's a mindset shift when you're looking at your own own inventory. But discounting is a part of retail. It's got to be a part of the process. We can't sit on everything forever. And it's not a failure. You just have to learn how to feel fast so you can get the money back out and reinvest it in something different. Sarah?

Nope, that's it. I think we can move on. All right. Yeah. This next big problem that we see, a lot of people say is I'm overbought. I am overbought. I. This kind of goes along with some of the things that we're just talking about in that whole flow, right? I'm overbought and I'm not profitable. And so one of the big things, actually, if you want to go to the next one, one of the big things here is just the sales goal, right? And the inventory that I have on hand or what I. What I should have on hand. So the math here, I have separated out in like four steps. And you Know, this is just an example that I would encourage you guys to run these numbers for yourself. And this, this answers that question of like, how much inventory means I'm overbought. How much inventory should I actually be having on hand?

Right.

To reach the sales goals that I've established. So this store, this store sales goal is $40,000 a month. Her average ticket is $75.

Right?

The average, the average ticket going out 75 bucks. So her average markup they like to do the three times. So for every dollar spent on inventory, they aim to sell it for three bucks. She, this is her plan to achieve the $40,000.

Now the.

That's great. Awesome. I love, I love breaking that down. Really helps to, you know, identify like, where is success? What does success going to look like to us? So with that, you know, I could have $200,000 worth of inventory on hand and reach that sales goal. But does that, is that successful? This is where we're gonna, this is where we're really gonna kind of put the pencil to the paper and figure this out. Like, where is my good evening threshold of inventory that I'm going to have invested in that I'm going to have available and showing to my customers that are going to get me to that 40,000 without so much extra left over that's tying up my cash that I can't pay those bills to go back and reinvest in more inventory. So number one here we determine on how many transactions per month we need to reach that sales goal. So we're going to take that 40,000 divided by the 75 which is our average ticket, and that gets us to 533 transactions per month.

So.

All right, so you can kind of resonate on that a little bit. 533 transactions a month averaging $75 is going to get us to 40,000 bucks. So the next number two, we determine that cost of goods sold per transaction. So with that we're going to take our average ticket value divided by our markup which is at $75 divided by the three time markup that gets us. Basically looks like $25 with the cost goes into every transaction. Pretty easy. Pretty simple math there. So. And again, this is all recorded. So you guys come back. I know. Maybe just listen right now and don't take a ton of notes. Come back and watch this over just so you guys can kind of go through this on your own. So Ashley, you want to advance to the next one?

Yep.

So then number three here is we're going to Determine the minimal average inventory on hand. So what this means is like okay, to reach that sales goal, what, what kind of dollars in inventory should I be having on hand? So average inventory, we're going to take that cost of goods per transaction times the number of transactions per month. So the $25 times that 533. Those are the transactions per month we are going to need to reach that 40,000. And that gives us this cost inventory at cost that we need to have on hand. So 13,325, that's inventory at cost. Now a lot of times people are saying, okay, so I like to look at my inventory at retail. Great, go ahead. And times that by that average markup you have at three. And that's going to give you this 30, basically $40,000 worth of inventory at retail. So the problem is you don't ever go back like you're, you're not going to be, let's like, like to give this example, you ever walk through a bread aisle at the grocery store and they're down to one loaf of bread. Do you buy that loaf of bread or do you be like, so I don't think so. I'm going to go down the street.

And go buy someplace else.

You. So and then if you would have got there three days earlier, maybe there's 20 loaves of bread there in this whole big long aisle. So the idea is you're never going to be able to. You don't want your inventory to go down to zero, to build it back up to 40, down to zero, build it back up to 40. That's not how this works. So a couple of the questions earlier was having consistent replenishment of new inventory on hand. And the answer to that is yes, what you want to do is constantly be bringing in and refreshing, right? And bringing in some newness. Newness sells. So 25, that's inventory at cost. Now a lot of times people are saying, okay, so I like to look at my inventory at retail. Great, go ahead. And times that by that average markup you have at three. And that's going to give you this 30, basically $40,000 worth of inventory at retail. So the problem is what, what we're looking at here is if you have a four time turn, that's three months worth of inventory on hand at all times. So basically what you're doing is taking that 12 months divided by the four turns for three months supply. So four months times times that 13,000 at cost. Then if you is $39,000 worth of cost and if you take that by your markup, that's where the big number of on hand at retail inventory. If you are going to be aggressive and have three months worth of inventory on hand at all times. Now here's the thing is you don't have to have this amount of money on hand if you are going to replenish more often. The idea here is that you have to find kind of that middle ground that what's going to work for you. But anything over, anything over that amount of money here, that, that $40,000 it costs or the 119 at retail, if you only turn your inventory four times in a year, you are overbought that image. You don't ever go back like you're, you're not going to be. Let's like, like to give this example, you ever walk through a bread aisle at the grocery store and they're down to one loaf of bread. Do you buy that loaf of bread or do you be like so I don't think so. I'm going to go down the street and go buy something you so and then if you worry is going to really age out. So the idea here is if you're looking at that eight week markdown cycle, right you are moving through this inventory consistently whether at full price or through a markdown. But if you let that sit, if you're not aggressive with your markdowns and you let that old inventory just keep adding up, adding up, adding up odds are your sales goal of 40,000. You might not even reach it because you're giving way too many options to your customers and they're getting overwhelmed and you're running out of floor space and you've run out of hangers and all the different things, right? Your, your, your online store is just becoming full of onesies. Basically what I mean is you're showing a picture of a blazer but and it says it comes small through 2x or 3. I would have got there three days earlier. Maybe there's 20 loaves of bread there in this whole big long aisle. So the idea is you're never going to be able to. You don't want your inventory to go down to zero to build it back up to 40, down to zero, build it back up to 40. That's not how this works. So a couple of the questions earlier, whereas having consistent replenishment of new inventory on hand and the answer to that is yes, but you really only have one medium left and it's tying up space.

Yeah, that's exactly like I was saying. With the store I was at yesterday that I love, there were, the racks were full, they were overflowing with so much stuff. But then when I'd find something I'd like, it would just be the three smalls that were left or a couple of extra smalls. When we get to that point, they've got to get pulled out, marked down so we can make new for something that's going to fit everybody. Sarah, there's a question in the chat here for you. How do you balance this with bestsellers that sell year round that you have on hand all the time? We have this with several bridal options or do you just treat that separately?

This is like. So that I would say yes, what you want to do is constantly be bringing in and refreshing.

Right.

And, and bringing in some newness, newness cells. So it's like your bread and butter category is what she's asking. Like that is a constant replenishment. Yeah. And what, what what we're looking at here is if you have a four time turn, that's three. What I like to say is that's what's going to get your dollars first. That's what's going to get your dog's worth of inventory on hand at all times. So basically what you're doing is taking that 12 months divided by the $4 first. So when you're, when you're looking at. If I understood the question correctly, I was answering another one, I apologize. But if I understood the question correctly, you're looking at products that more seasonal, that really pay the bills due to seasons. Is that what she's saying? I think I apologize.

Well, I'm liking Meredith's response here, Amanda. We consider these evergreen products. We use half of our budget for these and the other half for new arrivals. Yeah, I mean you can go into assortment planning certainly here on what's bread and butter versus what's new and what's trend.

Yeah. So with that say you have a hundred dollar or a thousand dollars you're going to spend and you know 50% of your sales come from that class. I would take 500 and put back towards that class. I would take 50% of my budget at least and put back towards that class that's bringing turns for three months supply. So four months times, times that 13,000 at cost. Then if you is $39,000 worth of cost and if you take that by your markup, that's where the big number of on hand at retail inventory if you are going to be in the majority of your sales. So Then if you have a few other one offs like something that's bringing in 8% of your sales or 12% of your sales, obviously that's how I like to do that. I like to break that back down and say okay then my budget when I'm allocating my funds, only a small 8% of that is going to go for maybe it was sandals or whatever might be bringing in 8% of your sales. And that's where it really. So what Ashley and I always teach in retail bootcamp is also on this whole assortment plan. But it can get very hard to be disciplined. It is because especially all the nice shiny things. And Ashley and I kind of talk about this at the beginning. Sometimes we can get caught up in like the, the pretty side of retail and not what is my data really telling me, where do I need to double back down and, and make sure I'm focused.

Yeah, absolutely. There's so many good questions in the chat. You guys.

Like we said, be aggressive and have three months worth of inventory on hand at all times. Now here's the thing is you don't have to have this amount of money on hand if you are going to replenish more often. The idea here is that you have to find kind of that middle ground that what's going to work for you. But anything over, anything over that.

We could talk about these things like literally for two weeks long like we do in boot camp. But a couple quick things. So those of you who say I have smalls that always sit right, just like someone said in the chat, you're going to pull those, you're going to put them on the sale rack. Going back to Sarah's rule of thirds, anytime you buy a pack of something or you buy a case of something, some of you are home and gift. A third of it you're going to sell at full price. A third of it you might sell at a slight markdown and a third of it you're going to slash to get out the door. The idea that we're going to sell everything at 100% is not realistic. So no, the expectation is some of it's going to have to get pulled and marked down to get that cash right back out.

So I answered the question about the inventory turn. That was the thing I was trying to answer a second ago. I apologize because I saw a lot of questions about that. So I put the formula in there. It's basically your cost of goods sold divided by your average inventory. But the thing is this is basically saying how many times in Your amount of money here, that, that $40,000 it costs or the 119 at retail, if you only turn your inventory four times in a year, you are overbought that inventory year. Does your inventory sell through like turning over? So that. But that is a whole nother video. I we go deeper into that and other things. But that is a big part of your buying story is going to really age out. So the idea here is if you're looking at that eight week markdown cycle, right. You are moving through this inventory.

Yep, Absolutely. All right, let's go on to the next slide. Sarah.

All right, so there when you take those sales goals, you run that math. This is where we want you to plug those things back into these tools that we've provided inside Hubventory. Just this is the bumpers that we talked about earlier kind of coming full circle how you can utilize the tools inside Hubventory to be the better buyer. Those are the sliders that we talked about. I really encourage you guys to jump in there and play around with that. Like that first one is right. Right now it's set at 2.5 markup. So play around with these things. If you look at a product, you think I'm certain my customers would buy that for 80 bucks.

Right.

So what does that look like on the market consistently, whether at full price or through a markdown. But if you up and then play around with the markdowns and to make sure you're still able to return, let that sit. If you're not aggressive with your markdowns and you let that old inventory just keep adding up, adding up, adding up. Odds are your sales goal of 40,000, you might not even reach it because you're giving way too many options to your customers and they're getting overwhelmed and you're running out of floor space and you've run out of hangers and all the different things.

Right.

Your, your, your online store is just becoming full of onesies. Basically what I mean is you're showing a picture of a blazer but and it says it comes small through 2x or 3 earn a solid investment.

All right, last question. And I'm excited about this because we got to talk about trend report things here in a minute. I think this is the biggest question in our industry right now. No matter what you sell, it's I'm sick of looking like the rest or I'm competing with Sheen and Teemu and all these online China crap websites. Right. And really you're not. Our industry, I feel like is going through Such a change this year and a lot of boutiques, a lot of home and gift shops that started to really carry the same things and all started to look alike, are realizing, oh man, I've got to do something different to stand out from the rest. So I'm excited to dig into this. I think. How do you, how do you really stand out? First, really working on when you do go to market, making sure you're going to places that you haven't been yet. Are you going into showrooms? Are you working with reps? Are you looking at new lines? Are you using your market experience for new discovery? Yes. Along with replenishing what you know already sells through and has a track record. But are you using those opportunities for new discovery? We try to look at the same thing on Hubventory every day. Are we finding new vendors that are new and unique and have something to offer? Second bullet point here. Sarah, I know you can speak to this as well, but I would say the biggest thing that we're seeing is really, I'll call it a renaissance of what boutiques used to be. Those of you who have, you've been in business since 1947 or I know someone said you started in 2004, but.

You really only have one medium left and it's tying up space.

Yeah, that's exactly like I was saying with the store I was at yesterday that I love. There were, the racks were full, they were overflowing with so much stuff. But then when I'd find something I'd like, it would just be the three smalls. Going back to what boutiques used to be, it used to be higher end, more curated, more quality that were left or a couple of extra smalls. When we get to that point, they've got to get pulled out. Things that you could pass down, things that were definitely giftable. And then all of a sudden we got into this huge line of everything was cheap and fast and we've lost our way with every being, everything being so cheap and fast. There's a time and a place for those things. But I think the businesses that we're seeing succeeding right now, the higher price point, things that are looking and feeling like more cool quality and they're going to last longer. That's what people are looking for. And those are the boutiques that we're seeing win right now. Sarah, I know you've had some coaching calls recently. Would you echo that or what's your thoughts?

Yeah, for sure. I. My Sunday evening, I had a full inbox from stores messaging me about what they saw over the Mother's Day weekend, what happened in their stores this year compared to last year. And the overall trend was that fast fashion wasn't really that fast of a seller right now. It was that those were the things that customers were bypassing the experiences. The higher price points, the more that down.

So we can make new for something that's going to fit everybody. Sarah, there's a question in the chat here for you. How do you balance this with bestsellers that sell year round that you have on hand all the time? We have this with several bridal options or do you just treat that separately?

This is like so that I would say value driven products were the things that people were investing in. And I like you know this, this whole webinar is about how you can the better buyer. But someday or somewhere right now there's a webinar for customers how they could be the better buyer.

Right.

Like their, their money is important to them, just like your money is important to you. So think about it through their lens. A lot of customers are sick of buying stuff that doesn't wash up, that doesn't have a life cycle to it.

Right.

They're sick of the one hit wonders, the wear it once and I can't wear it again kind of a thing or whatever that might be. But more investment pieces. So we're really seeing a lot of trends happening around quality sustainability. The story behind is like your bread and butter category is what she's asking. Like that is a constant replenishment. Yeah. And what I like to say is that's what's going to get your dollars first. That's what's going to get your dollars first. So when you're, when you're looking at. If I understood the question correctly, I was answering another something. The experience that a customer feels when they buy something. The give back all one. I apologize. But if I understood the question correctly, you're looking at products that more seasonal that really pay the bills due to seasons. Is that what she's saying? I think I apologize.

I'm liking Meredith response here. Amanda. We consider these evergreen products. We use half of our budget for these and the other half for new arrivals. Yeah. I mean you can go into assortment planning certainly here on what's bread and.

Butter versus all of those things. I think really sets yourself apart right now and I think it's an amazing, beautiful story to tell and it gets back to what boutiques really used to be.

Yeah, I love that. Even this picture I feel like tells that story. When I look at the merchandising of this picture, I want to dig in and discover and I know there's going to be some real gems there that I just can't find anywhere else just by the feel of how this store is merchandised. And that I think goes hand in hand with a perceived quality and perceived value of the products that we're actually selling. Jennifer, you must have heard or you must be retail boot camp because I say this all the time. Cheap ain't loyal. Cheap ain't loyal. Right. People who are, are really loyal to a price are going to shop on your Sheens and your team use and your Walmarts and your Amazons. But what we're after, it's not the cheap customer that's loyal to us. We want the customer who is loyal to us because of our brand, because of our customers, our community, because of the relationships that we've built, because we offer something and we give them an emotional reaction that they can't get any of those other places they feel elevated when they shop with us. So how are we really doubling down on those things, those aesthetics, those products and that type of quality and value versus just setting ourselves apart by price alone. So Christina, I want to, I want to segue that into your question which is what if the brands that we're carrying have specific markups and many of them do, especially if you get is what's new and what's trend.

Yeah. So with that say you have a hundred dollar or a thousand dollars you're going to spend and you know 50% of your sales come from that class. I would take $500 and put back towards that class.

I would take to that, you know, more zip code protected which is the next bullet point here type of brand. That's where assortment becomes so important.

You're going to have 50% of my budget at least and put back towards that that class.

That's bringing some brands that are zip code protected. It is an MSRP price. I'll say swig for example. You've got customers that are going to buy it because it's swig and that's a zip code protected and it's a price protected product. That's great. But next to that product you're probably going to have something that isn't price protected, that maybe isn't a name brand. That's where the fast fashion in my opinion and fast giftables come in because you can balance those with different types of markups and it's not a 2 markup, it's not a 2.5. It's not a 3, but it's a what can sell this for markup. And then all of a sudden we're finding margin in those pieces. But we have the consumer demand of the name goods or the name brand pieces that are zip code protected. We have to have both. And that's what assortment planning really is inside of our business.

Yeah, I like what Megan mentioned. This is something we talk a lot about in retail boot camp too. The loss in the majority of your sales. So then if you have a few other one offs like something that's bringing in 8% of your sales or 12% of your sales, obviously that's how I like to do that. I like to break that back down and say okay then my budget when I'm allocating my funds, only a small 8% of that is going to go for leader idea. And this is something that you may take a little bit of a loss to generate. Sales in other categories bring people through the door with an excitement of a product that maybe your mark or maybe it was sandals or whatever might be bringing in 8% of your sales markup is little very lower that you're going to take a bit more of a loss on to gain traction somewhere else. So there's a lot of strategy that goes around in here. But I, I really would encourage you if you're a business owner right now saying that I always do 2.3 markup, just rethink it that you're leaving a lot of money on the table. Odds are, odds are you're working a lot harder for your dollar than you need to be on. All across, all levels. Right. Because Ashley said it earlier. I love it. I love the approach and I've always said go into a showroom or go on to, to source something and look at the product first. What would my customers buy this for? Don't look at price, anything like that. What would my customers buy it? And that's where it really. So what Ashley and I always teach in retail boot camp is also on this whole assortment plan. But and because if you don't do that you're going to put yourself in a box and you're going to can get very hard to be disciplined. It is because especially all the nice shiny things. And Ashley and I kind of talk about this at the beginning. Sometimes we can get caught up in like the, the pretty side of retail and not you're going to leave money on the table, all of that. But there are, there's so much opportunity when you go above and beyond. Just the very first thing you see at market when you walk into a showroom or you walk into magic, you walk into Deb dmc, don't just go spend all of your money at the very first vendor you see. Explore, explore around. Talk to people. What is my data really telling me? Where do I need to double back down and, and make sure I'm focused.

Yeah, absolutely. There's so many good questions in the chat, you guys.

Like we said, try walk into showrooms you otherwise would not have walked into. Know who your customer is. Be confident in what your customer likes. I would love to have been able to scroll all the way back to the beginning. Somebody said they their customer is the modern woman who likes movable fashion. The word movable was.

And we could talk about these things like literally for two weeks long, like we do in boot camp. But a couple quick things. So those of you who say, I have smalls that always sit right, so.

Powerful to me, like, I'm a mom and I'm loving that. Yes, that resonates with me. So I, I'm assuming that I think your name is Mary, that I don't remember. But I'm assuming when you go to market, you look at things and say, can my customer move in this? Yes, I will invest more into this. Nope, passing it up. That's. That's a strategy. I love it.

All right, Love that. Okay, last, last point to make on just sourcing what's unique and making yourself look unique week. I cannot over emphasize the importance today of merchandising. Merchandising your website, merchandising your photo shoot. Re merchandising yours. Just like someone said in the chat, you're going to pull those, you're going to put them on the sale rack. Going back to Sarah's rule of thirds, anytime you buy a pack of something or you buy a case of something, some of you are home and gift a store. Layer, layer, layer. Any of you from the old anyone ever worked at the Buckle, you'll rule a four at the Buckle, right? Four pieces always have to be together. Those of you with home and gift stores merchandising, look at the table in this photo on the screen. If that was a table of just those pillowcases in three different colors. But like here's a table of pillowcases. A third of it you're going to sell at full price. A third of it you might sell at a slight markdown. And a third of it you're going to slash to get out the door. The Idea that we're going to sell everything at 100 is not realistic. So, no, the expectation, that's boring. I don't think I would have touched it. I don't even think I would have went near the table. But because that is so well merchandised, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I can't wait to dig through and find what's on that table. I see a cactus, I see a coffee cup, I see some candles, I see some art, I see some books, I see some socks, I see pillowcases, I see jewelry. I just want to go dig and discover. Merchandising is one of the most important things you can do in your business. It's an art in your business. And your photos have to be merchandised the same way. If we're putting on social media and we're trying to drive traffic either to our storefront or to our website and we're like, blue top, black dress, maybe it's got one piece of jewel. Patient is some of it's going to have to get pulled and marked down to get that cash right back out.

So I answered the question about the inventory turn. That was the thing I was trying to answer a second ago with Paul's.

3 on it, right? Nobody cares. Tell me a story. Solve my problems. Make it look interesting. That is the best way you can stand out from everybody else who says.

Because I saw a lot of questions about that. So I put the formula in there. It's basically your cost of goods sold divided by your average inventory. But the thing is, this is basically saying how many times in your.

In your town or any other type of boutique online is the merchandising? And then finally, collection solve problems. How many of you guys here tell me in the chat, sell through collections, you launch collections. You got your Mother's Day collection, you got your graduation collection, you have your Father's Day collection, you've got your Memorial Day sale collection. Collections are answers to people's problems and that's why they work in retail, right? Think about when you go to Target and you go to the back of the store. Freaking Target always knows what I need before I know I need it. Right? They're selling pencils a year.

Does your inventory sell through, like turning over? So that.

But that is in July here, when I'm mourning the end of summer. I don't want to buy any pencils. Right?

Well, another video. I. We go deeper into that and other things. But that is a big part of your buying.

I don't. But they know so I'm like, well, crap, if you ain't first, your last, if I don't buy these pencils, I'm gonna miss out and Susie's gonna have the ugliest pencils in the classroom. And I can't let that happen. Yep, absolutely. All right, let's go on to the next slide. Sarah.

All right, so there.

So I buy the damn pencils. So you have the same opportunity if you're not first year last. What?

When you take those sales goals, you run that math. This is where we want you to plug those things to the collections that.

You have that are going to solve your customers problems before they know they need it. Where's your customer going this summer? Is she going to a wedding? Is she going on vacation? Is she going to the beach? How can you merchandise your pieces? Not that you always have to buy in the future with collections, but what do you already have in store now that solves those problems for her? If there's 52 weeks in the year, there's 52 different reasons for your customers to come shop with you through collections. So again, one of the things we love most on Hub and Tori is the boards. You can pin and plan everything into collections by using the little star button. So you can plan everything before you know you need it.

All right, back into these tools that we've provided inside Hubventory. Just this is the bumpers that we talked about earlier. Kind of coming full circle. How you can utilize the tools inside Hubventory to be the better buyer.

Those are the last way to think about being unique is. And I think this is a trend that really started in 2020. I think it's still relevant is live cell boxes. Even if you don't live the sliders.

That we talked about, I really encourage you guys to jump in there and play around with that. Like that first one is sell.

Buying these sample boxes are another way to say, oh my gosh, I can test out these products, I can merchandise these products, I can go live. I could do a reel, I can do a tick tock. Heck, I could do a pre order if I don't have a lot of money to invest in new inventory. This is a great way to get started and make your customers feel like there's new things coming in. And then you can go back to these vendors who are deep in all of these products and place a bigger order for all the things you've already tested out. Such a great way to get a head start. If you don't have a ton of cash to get that head start. All right, who wants to talk about trends? Here's the last way that we'll cover today. We're almost done, but we really want to dig into this. I think we saved the the best for last. After we talk about the numbers, let's talk about the art side of the business, and that's trends. So we just launched the trend report, you guys. If you see that QR code, you can scan it. It's a free download. You can go grab it, use it. It covers fashion, it covers lifestyle, it covers shoes, it covers children's. It covers.

Right. Right now it's set at 2.5 markup. So play around with these things. If you look at a product, you think, I'm certain my customers would buy that for 80 bucks.

Right.

So what does that look like on the markup? And then play around with the markdowns. And to make sure you're still able.

To return a gift, I want to share a couple of my favorites with you today. But this is how you can also stand out from the rest. And I don't care if you live in North Carolina or North Dakota. Dakota. Right.

You're earn a solid investment.

Customers affinity to trend is all going to be different, but I think that there's always a way to take the trend and make it applicable to your specific customer, no matter how edgy or not edgy she or he might be. So again, this QR code, I'm going to have it on these next couple slides, but make sure you scan it so that you can download this trend report and use it in your business. And if you want to copy graphics out of this trend report, share it on your social to help your customers see the story you're telling with your products. Go for it. Go for it and use it. We want to see you use it. All right, so a couple of my favorite tricks. All right, last question. And I'm excited about this because we got to talk about trend brands. Oh, man. I keep skipping all the way to the last slides. Why am I doing that? Report things here in a minute. I think this is the biggest question in our industry right now, no matter what you. Jeepers. All right, Going back sell, it's. I'm sick of looking like the rest or I'm competing with Sheen and T2. A couple of my favorite trends. Red hot. So this is really interesting. Red is back for fall as you're thinking about what you're going to bring in in the fall. Obviously, emu and all these online China crap websites right and really, you're not are. Red's a statement color. Something I learned about the trend of red that I find fascinating this year, we learned from some trend analysts is anytime the color red is trending, do you know what goes hand in hand and always trends with red? Anyone know? It's a print. I'll give you a hint. You can drop it in the chat. It's a print and it always trends. When red trends, they always go hand in hand. Anyone? Oh, you guys got it. Leopard. Leopard always trends with red. So this is. We were visiting a shoe company, Chinese Laundry, and all of their. They were talking about how they develop their lines for each season. They have trend analysts that they work with. And so they were like, hey, guess what? When one industry I feel like is going through such a change this year and a lot of boutiques, a lot of home and gift shops that started to really carry the same things and all started to look and goes. The other one goes. So as you see red and in the trend report, you're going to see like are realizing, oh, man, I've got to do something different to stand out from the rest. Like the street fashion version of the trend. But you're also going to see immediate things for fall and also some things going into like late summer transition on Hubventory that are immediate so you can pick up for your store. But as you see red, I'm going to show you leopard is going to come here in a minute. So I'm excited to dig into this. I think. How do you. How do you next couple of slides. Another big one for trend in the fall is Stormfront. So all of your dark, moody gray, not only in color but also like the textures that are going to go with store storm front. So some of the, like tweeds are going to go with this color. I personally love this. I think this is just like a beautiful. It's like that it looks rich if Samantha Connor was here, right? It goes kind of hand in hand coming off of our mob wife aesthetic. And again, this is in apparel. This is an accessories. You're also going to see this in home goods. Coming into the fall is storm front. Yeah, Shannon, I love the dark gray too. All right, there's our leopard. It's she's back. Really stand out first. Really working on when you do go to market, making sure you're going to places that you haven't been yet. Are you going into showrooms? Are you working with reps? Are you looking at. I see, I see some of you shaking your heads like gang. And how can she be back? Hey, let's just. New lines. Are you using your market experience for new discovery? Yes. Along with replenish collectively say at least it's not Chevron. Right? It could be worse. It's not Chevron. That is not back. Thank God. Yeah. Katie, did she ever leave? I don't think she. I don't think she ever did leave in some parts of the country. No. I mean, some people went to zeing what, you know, already sells through and has a track record. But are you using those opportunities for new discovery? We try to look at the zebra, but now we're going all the way back to leopard. And then what else goes hand in hand with leopard? This is fascinating. Western. Old Beyonce. She did it to us again. Right? She's bringing it back. Cowboys cool. Just like Yellowstone made. Cowboy cool. Western's not going anywhere. And again, that is a trend in home and gift, and it's a huge trend in apparel. Western is everywhere. Fringe is everywhere. Fringe is coming back big time in the fall. Okay, this trend. Florals for spring. Groundbreaking. Okay, how about florals for fall? I love the moody, dark wallpaper florals. Those are definitely the same thing on Hub and Tory every day. Are we finding new vendors that are new and unique and have something to offer? Gently back. They aren't like the big bold, but they're like small and moody. Second bullet point here. Sarah, I know you can speak to this as well, but I would say the biggest thing that we're seeing and darker florals that are definitely back for fall. 90s vibes. It kind of does have 90s vibes. Like your grandma's drapes. Like your grandma's afghan. Sarah. Like your grandma's afghan. All right, a couple more. Really? I'll call it a renaissance of what boutiques used to be. Those of you who have for home and gift trends. Latte. Latte is also a huge apparel trend. You've been in business since 1947 or I know someone said you started in 2004. Go with this color of latte. You're going to see that all over. Just any kind of, like, pillows and blankets and wall decor and gifts and candles. Jackets again. I feel like the texture of latte is also something we're going to feel big for fall. Cherry on top. I think this is fun. This is like the bright, like a red goes with the red trend. Pinks. But look at the texture of, like, the velvets for fall. Velvet is such a fall and winter going back to what boutiques used to be it used to be higher end, more curated, more quality or texture. And you're going to see that paired together with cherry for fall as well. And then finally the last is collections and collectibles. So things things that you could pass down, things that were definitely giftable. And then all of a sudden we got into this where I don't know if you can see in that photo but like all the different types of plates in terms of huge line of everything was cheap and fast and we've lost our way with decor together. All the different types of patches and pins that are such a big trend with the trucker hats and the jean jacket bars and all the things that we're seeing right now, books, things that all can be layered together in terms of collectibles. Then I'm going back to Leslie, I'm going back to your store with every be everything being so cheap and fast. There's a time and a place for those things. But I think that we're being consignment. Man, what a cool way you have to merchandise your store to go hand in hand with this trend. Trend. Really unique opportunities with these trends. So again, grab that QR code. You can download this if you haven't already and you can use all those trends however you like in your store this fall. All right, last thing and we will wrap up. If there's any questions, you guys, I want you to raise your hand with the little raise your hand button or drop them in the chat and Sarah and I can spend the next couple of minutes. Businesses that we're seeing succeeding right now, the higher price point, things that are looking and feeling like more quality and they're going to last longer, that's what people are looking for and those going deep. But last reminder, if you did not enter the giveaway for today's webinar, just take a picture tag hubventory on Instagram and we're going to giving giving away 250 of the boutiques that we're seeing win right now. Sarah, I know you've had some coaching calls recently. Would you echo that your rewards points. And then this week on Hub and Tory for fall market week, we've got all those trends in boards already pre planned for you. So if you're like, you know what, I want to dabble in the western trend, I want to dabble in the latte trend. We pulled all the products that are on Hub inventory and we put them into boards so you can go quickly shop and plan inventory from those things that we already talked about.

Yeah, for sure. I my Sunday evening I had a full.

Those of you who are hub members, there's double points. You don't have to be a Hub member to shop on hubventory. It's open for anybody to buy from. The last thing I think is really cool is just all of our free.

Inbox from stores messaging me about what they saw over the Mother's Day weekend. What happened in their stores this year compared to last year. And the overall trend was that fast.

Fashion, shipping and Hub member discounts. Those of you who are members have access to on Hub and Tory this week as well. And then finally, if you aren't already a member of the Hub, we can sure help you do that as well. Let us know in the chat and we can get you some info on membership. All right, let's do some Q A. I see some questions coming in the chat but again you just raised wasn't.

Really that fast of a seller right now. It was that those were the things.

That your hand with a little raise your hand feature. And Sarah and I can come in and answer any of those questions that you guys have as well. All right, first question for you, Sarah. How do you recommend first time buyers budgeting for their first buying trips as.

Far as how many customers were bypassing the experiences? The higher price points, the more value.

Dresses, top sweaters, jeans, gifts, accessories. When I don't have any numbers to go off of. Yep.

All right, so Lindsay, are you an online store? Are you a brick and mortar store? Curious on that and my neck online and pop up parties. Okay, so here's the thing. You can make an online store look a lot fuller for you brick and mortar girls. You can make a brick and mortar store. Value driven products were the things that people were investing in. And I like you know this, this whole webinar is about how you can be the better buyer but a lot fuller with props and build outs and plants and different things like that. But the idea is that you want to start, it's okay to start small and test the waters and really let your customers know you're just getting started and you're learning from them.

Right.

Versus bringing in a lot. Bring someday or somewhere. Right now there's a webinar for customers how they could be the better. Being in a product and then having to find a customer for the product. That, that's, that's pretty tough. Look at your customer. Who is your customer? What do they struggle with and find products that fit their needs. That's the number one place to start. But then when you're saying you're like the actual budget to it, you know it really, it really does to buyer.

Right.

Like they're your, their money is important to them just like your money is a penned. But I like to say like be realistic. Go back and do that sales goal calculation that we did earlier today in this, in this webinar. Look at a realistic sales goal and then figure your numbers back from that. You know, you know ideally what you're important to you. So think about it through their lens. A lot of customers are sick of buying stuff that markup will be right. You're able to figure that out and ballpark those things. Doesn't wash up, that doesn't have a life cycle to it.

Right.

They're sick of the way it's going to tell you how many transactions that those pop ups are online you're going to need and then it's going to help you break that down into inventory. So I would really start there. But you guys, I have seen pop ups and online stores get started with one hit wonders. The wear it once and I can't wear it again kind of a thing or whatever that might couple hundred dollars worth of inventory and just be like laser focus, test the waters and build from there. I've also seen stores that went all in and they, they went full fledged trailer, $20,000 worth of inventory all the things and those are the ones that really kind of struggled. They may have made some sales but be more investment pieces. So we're really seeing a lot of trends. Not enough. It took them a long time to really recoup those things. The whole time those that inventory is aging. So I really encourage you to start out with less happening around quality, sustainability, the story behind something, the experience that a customer feels when they buy something. The give back and build from there. And it's okay at a pop up. If you go to a pop up and you sell out of your inventory, you guys let your customers know what a wild success that was and that you're bringing in more right people that's attractive to people. Selling out of something creates that fear of missing out. So it if when you're getting started as long as all of those things I think really sets yourself apart right now and I think it's an amazing, you're very vocal and tell that story. You can attract those customers to come back.

Right.

So I, I do, I do I suggest an open to buy. The problem there is you don't have a lot of the background information that you're going to release really need to build out a full open to buy plan but yes as you track forward beautiful story to tell and it gets back to what boutiques really used to be. Yeah I love that every calculation or every sale counts every inventory you bring in counts. So you do want to start tracking that in Shopify. I love the better reports. I love Delirious Profit is two different apps that I would recommend for you there but.

Is there even this picture I feel like tells that story When I look at the merchandising of this.

Picture I want another part to that question.

There is Sarah I'll come back and ask so first I dig in and discover and I know there's going to be some real gems there that I just can't find anywhere else. Part of her question different person was okay we had to drop Management one for our open to buy because Shopify no longer integrates with comments sold. Does the hub open to buy have a turn in category breakdown as if can that replace what you're doing with Management one or do you have other open to buy suggestions on where to get open to buy plans for. It's just by the feel of how this store is merchandised and that I think goes hand in hand with a pursuit.

I mean yes you can you can use all the data that you're pulling from Shopify comments sold and run the numbers yourself. The thing about the forecasting going forward one thing about management one that I really like like and and they're working on some different things because of the comment sold situation but the one thing that your normal spreadsheet calculators are not.

Going to have quality and perceived value of the products that we're actually selling.

Jennifer have is the comparison of what's selling for other like similar stores to you around the country and that's one thing that Management one does a really good job out their data you must.

Have heard or you must be retail boot camp because I say this all the time Cheap ain't loyal they pull.

They can compare your store to other similar stores like you to help build.

Cheap ain't loyal right People who are are really loyal to about trends and.

Forecasts going forward so but a couple other options. Yeah there's there's other apps open to buy apps and things strictly inside Shopify but a calculator yourself that's a great you are in our open to buy calculator here inside the boutique hub there's we have a whole spreadsheet of of calculations available for you plug and play the one thing that I would encourage you to do is just consistently be talking to other similar stores boutique besties like yourself finding out like what's working for them and maybe what's trending in some other stores.

The price are going to shop on your Sheens and your Teemus and your Walmarts and your Amazon.

But what we're that are maybe in a little bit more up and coming area than you are that you could see like what's going to be trending for me here in the next season. That's one thing that management one I really do like how they're they operate with that so hopefully they get that system all figured out going forward real.

Data of what we're after. It's not the cheap customer that's loyal to us. We want the customer who is loyal selling in other places. I think that's their huge advantage is the data they have to offer offer. Monica, I see your hand up I also see your question in the chat and you were asking about best point of sale for both online and brick and mortar. I would say for us more to us because of our brand, because of our community because of the relationships that we've built because we are often than not is Shopify. It's the largest, fastest growing most apps offer something and we give them an emotional reaction that they can't get any of those other places places most integrations simple point of sale that you can use for your online store and your brick and mortar. Great reports all kinds of apps that can help you like we mentioned delirious profit and better reports as well. Did you have more questions Monica, I see your hands still up but if you have another question feel free to ask it. They feel elevated when they shop with us. So how are we really doubling down on those okay perfect. Sarah, let's talk about this. This is a great common question Tanya asked how do I get my online sales moving Our in store is doing great but we have little to no online orders. All right.

Yes this is a big one so one of the first things I I.

Like to those things those aesthetics those products and that type of quality and value versus no is are your is.

Your online driving your in store business I see a lot of stores that their customers will come in and say I saw it online and they've come in because they want to buy it in store.

Couple things just setting ourselves apart by price alone. So Christina I wanna I wanna segue.

That why I is when I look at think of it personally why I would make the trip to go into.

A store into your question which is is what if the brands that we're carrying have specific markups and many of them do. Especially if you get or is one.

Maybe I didn't trust the descriptions. Maybe I didn't trust the photography online. So look at your online and and see you know maybe where is the fall off? Is it in. In the part in the in the checkout process or am I not giving enough information about a product that my customer trusts it to make the actual purchase or is it more of to.

That that you know more zip code protected which is the next bullet point A discovery opportunity.

Maybe you don't have quite the discovery bundles collections photography where you are solving that problem for the person online where they see if I buy that you know top what is the jacket I would wear with it? What is the accessories I'd wear with it. Maybe they see it as something they like but they you're not telling them that whole story.

That's your type of brand. That's where assortment becomes so important. You're gonna have.

Those are a number of reasons that I personally would rather go into an online or a business.

Some brands that are zip code protected it is an MSRP price. I'll say swig for example. You've got customers that are going to buy it because it's swig and that's.

As if then just shop online. Why I failed to check out online. So those are a couple things I always like to ask first and foremost about that. Two, depending on who your customer is depending on who your customers they may just want that personal experience consumer behavior right there and maybe they, they want that opportunity to go in inside a store and talk to somebody.

I'm gonna piggyback your answer. I'm gonna give you a whole nother kind of look at just like the social media side of things. Most often when I'm doing social media audit code protected and it's a price protected product that that's great but next to that product you're probably for stores for brick and mortar but are also wanting to get their online going. Two huge things that they often miss. It's. It's like there's a mindset of well I have this online store so if I built it and I have something that isn't price protected that maybe isn't a name brand that's where the fast A will come, right? If I just tell people I have a website they'll check out on it. Right? And they never will. They don't so having an online store is like, like going to the front door, turning fashion in my opinion. And fast giftables come in because you can balance those with different types of market. The key in opening the business every single day and being present in your online store, how do you do that? And it's not a 2 markup, it's not a 2.5, it's not a 3, but it's a what can I sell this for at two huge things. One is your photography. A lot of times brick and mortar stores will take photography of like a display, a window, a vignette. Maybe it's, you know, Susan who came in and she just came out of the dressing room and she's wearing this. And so I took a picture of her and I put it on social. But to drive traffic to an online store, it has to be systematic where every new arrival, all of your collections get high quality merchandise photos every week and we're posting about them multiple times a day. You sell what you show. So we have to show all those things on social media and make sure every single thing gets markup. And then all of a sudden we're finding margin in those pieces but we have to sit up there with high quality, very consistent photos. The second big thing besides photos that I see is in the descriptions of how you're posting. Are you giving them the consumer demand of the name goods or the name brand pieces that are zip code protect the exact URL to check out for that product that you're sharing. So if I want to buy this sweater, it's, it's my boutique.com backslash sweaters backslash the acted. We have to have both. And that's what assortment planning really is inside of our business. Ashley Ruffle sweater with everything I'm doing on Facebook on, on it.

Yeah, I like what Megan mentioned. This is something we talk a lot about in retail. Boot camp to the lost Instagram or.

It'S, you know, my products are tagged if I'm using Shopify or both. Because the idea of I'm going to just take a picture of this sweater and say buy it@mybique.com it's going to take me at least 8 clicks to get where I want to go to find that sweater. And the idea is anytime you're selling online, can I get something to my cart with two clicks or less. So photography and then how I'm talking about this product photo and making it really easy to shop and then incredible consistency showing up every single day reminding people, hey, snag it in store leader.

Idea and this is something that you may take a little bit of a.

Long we're open 10 to 6 or buy it in time ship or buy it online ships anywhere in the US from our warehouse in Dallas or whatever it might be. But letting people know they have those two options those are huge pieces of getting that online online cost to generate.

Sales in other categories bring people through the door with an excitement of a product that maybe your mark the business.

Going all right Mariana, I see your.

Hiccup is little very lower that you're going to take a bit more of a loss on to gain traction somewh else. So there's a lot of strategy that goes around in here but I stand up.

Do you have a question? Yes. I was gonna ask like one piece of advice that you can give me to prepare for the June and July months since I don't really have that many business on online like I do pop ups but why would give me one advice that would be like beneficial.

I really would encourage you if you're a business owner right now saying that I always do for me.

Oh man. So the G months are real. Sarah, I know you've got a bunch of stuff to share here first thing so if you like learning like this first thing I would invite you to is we do a huge training for a week. It's actually three full days of training called summer school. It's free you anywhere on our social media you can sign up for that. But that's coming June. What is it 20th somewhere right in there. Someone in the team can drop it in the the link to sign up in the chat. Come join us.

2.3 markup just rethink it that you're leaving a lot of money on the table. Odds are, odds are you're working a lot harder for your dog.

And we're going to dig deep into specifically the J months and all the strategies in the J months. Months. But sometimes J months are your biggest opportunity. Right. Because when do athletes train taller than.

You need to be on all across all levels. Right.

Because Ashley, athletes train in the off season. So yes, when it's an off season for your business, where is there an opportunity for you to build your email list, to build out your email flows, to run Facebook ads, to really analyze your numbers, your inventory, your collections and go back to the operations of your business when you're not as busy as maybe you typically are in some of the other months or is it your time, the holiday season that's going to Sarah, what else would you add to that I.

This is a great opportunity. If you said it earlier, I love it. I love the approach and I've always said go into a showroom or go on to a, to source something to just dial in and interview your customers. Spend some more time really getting to know who and look at the product first. What would my customers buy this for? Don't look at price, anything like that. What would my customers buy it for? And because if you don't do that, you're going to put yourself in a box and you're going to who they are asking. You know, I love the idea of a customer interview and finding out like what, what is it that they're missing in the, in the industry? You know, what, what could you fill the void? What are some of the problems that they have? Sometimes we make a lot of assumptions about our customers and the J months are a really good time to, you know, sit down and ask some questions, hold customer interviews, sit down at a coffee shop, send out email, send out our. We, we do this in retail boot camp, like a survey to your customers and make sure you're taking that time and learn from that information. Love that. It's another really good opportunity to dive into your reports and look at like your inventory. You're going to leave money on the table, all of that. But there are, there's so much opportunity. Who are your best selling vendors? What are those best selling classifications? What colors sell fastest for you? What sizes sell fastest for you? Those. And, and if you are, if you're home decor and gift, those questions might be a little bit different, but you know, similar. Start looking at it. Don't. And my big thing is stop looking at sales numbers. When you go above and beyond. Just the very first thing you see at market when you walk in, stop looking at just sales numbers. Get deep into a showroom or you walk into magic, you walk into dmc, don't just go spend all of your money at the very first vendor you see. Explore, explore around, talk to people's numbers and figure out who, where they're coming from, when they're coming in, things like that.

That. Okay, thank you. Yeah, that we could talk about those. I love that we could talk about that. Obviously we're gonna for three days in June in for three days straight, we're going to talk about those things. So thank you for asking that question. All right, Kim, I see your question in the chat. I just want to hit on this real quick. She says my customer shop online. My online goal.

Try walk into showrooms you otherwise would not have walked into.

No. First to see new merchandise. Should I not tag items as new? No, absolutely keep tagging them as new. Right. That's the number one reason people want to come and see. They click on new arrivals. That's probably your most clicked on category online. And they can come either, you know by via in store pickup. Like they can check out online, do in store pickup or maybe it's going to drive traffic back to your brick and mortar. So keep keep tagging things so they show up as new arrivals new and.

Freshness drives your know who your customer is. Be confident in what your customer likes. I I would love to have business for sure. I want to tackle Danielle's question. She says benefit to put being able to scroll all the way back to the beginning. Somebody said they their customer is the modern woman who likes movable fashion. The word movable was an item away for the next season versus putting it on sale. How long to try to sell something for full price before putting it on sale? Okay, so this is a definite mindset shift. I asked my ask of you guys would be to have to sell everything in the season. Do not think that is not like the, you know back like just well, my ball back plan is I'll just pack it away. If there's somebody on this call that can afford to go ahead and take a whole crapload of 20 bills and put it in a box and put it in the base is so powerful to me. Like I'm a mom and I'm loving that. Yes. That resonates with me. So I I'm assuming that I think your name is Mary that I don't remember but I meant to forget about it that you don't need that money until a year from now. Then maybe your story is different. But odds are the majority of businesses, small businesses specifically needs cash out of the inventory to reinvest it. Styles are going to change. Cuts are going to change, colors are going to change, prints are going to change. Odds. Assuming when you go to market you look at things and say can my customer move in this? Yes, I will invest more into this. Nope. Passing it up. That's. That's a strategy. I love it are when you bring that back next year, something about it is is is still the reason. Whatever that is, it's the reason it got put away in the first place.

Right.

Odds are it didn't get better sitting there in the box box. And even worse than that is when the season comes and goes and say like you're going to put swimsuits away in the end of August for next year. And then I'm talking to you on a coaching call and you're decorating for Christmas the following year, and all of a sudden you're like, oh my gosh, we forgot to get all these swimsuits out. I thought these were Christmas decorations. And now all of a sudden it's two full.

All right, love that.

Okay.

Last. Last point summers.

And you're. You're reinventing that. So I'm not a fan.

Make on just sourcing what's unique and making yourself look unique. I cannot over and of putting things.

Back if it's like basic white tank tops that are actually going to stay white because you're going to pack them away and they're not going to turn off white in the basement hanging on a rack or something like that. Okay, maybe for some reason, but odds.

Are I would rather emphasize the importance today of merchandising or get the cash.

Out of it as fast as you can to. To be able to go back.

Merchandising your website, merchandising your photo shoot. Re merchandising your reinvest.

Because every square footage of your business, whether you're online or your warehouse, costs you money. You have to pay taxes on that space. You have to pay rent on that space. You have to do all sorts of things and everything should have a return on investment.

Investment.

So stockpiling inventory in the basement or the back room, it's a risky move as far as I'm concerned because you should be using that inventory and that that allocated space for something that's going to generate some cash. Megan says I was notorious for putting it away and yeah, losing them.

Yes.

That's sort.

Layer, layer, layer. Any of you from the old. Anyone ever worked at the Buckle? That's it.

And that's just like losing your cash.

The old rule of four at the Buckle. Right. Four pieces always have to be together. Those of you with home and gift stores merchandising, look at the table in this photo on the screen. If that was a table of just those pillowcases in three different colors. But like here's a table of pillowcases. All right, we probably have time for one more question. Sarah. I think think I see Kathleen's in the chat. Here we go. What do we do with remaining inventory after we have discounted them, but they still just aren't selling? What are my other options?

Okay, so the one thing I would say is I love like the last chance rack. I'm Not a big believer in leaving those onesies mixed in with your inventory where they get lost if you can pull them out. What is. You know, I've seen other people do like single and ready to mingle collections, last chance collections. But ultimately draw attention to that.

That's boring. I don't think I would have touched it. I don't even think I would have went near the table. But because that is so well merchandised and I'm like oh my gosh, I can't wait to dig through.

And to Ashley's point and her store, the example she had with the store that had a ton of smalls, this is where we can get into a whole nother webinar on marketing and segmenting customers but based on their buying behavior. So I would reach out specifically to those said customers with a marketing plan. These are discounted items.

Right.

I'm.

I'm going to go back find what's on that table. I see a cactus, I see a coffee cup, I see some candles, I see some art, I see some books, I see some socks, I see pillowcases, I see jewelry. I just want to go dig and.

Discuss to those customers that like to buy things on sale that fall in these categories, whatever that might be and say hey Ashley, I know you, you know this is exciting. You know you love this vendor. I have mediums available, blah blah blah. Then there's 65% off. Specifically a language that would relate to that sale driven customer. That's a great, that's a great opportunity. I'm also a big believer, like I mentioned earlier, the, the mystery items, the grab bags free with purchase.

Right. Merchandising is one of the most important things you can do in your business. It's an art in your business.

Free with purchase of a full price item. You know those are loss leaders. That's we. You may some of those categories may drive dive into that loss leader kind of sale mentality but ultimately to just.

Sit there and let them and your photos have to be merchandised the same way.

If we're putting die a slow and painful death in your store and take up space. Oh my gosh. It's exhausting for you as the customer and it's exhaust or you as the business owner.

But it's on social media and we're trying to drive traffic either to our storefront or to our website and we're.

Like blue tip also exhausting for the customer where they feel like they constantly are seeing the same thing over and over again and it's frustrating if it's not in their size, right? Like if I fell in love with this and my sizes were sold out.

Black dress, maybe it's got one piece of jewelry.

Every time I came back in, the thing's still there but my sizes are not there. That can be extremely frustrating.

We could go deep into the discussion of klaviyo and segments. It's like my nerdy marketing brain gets so excited about these topics. So I love that that got brought up. You guys, excellent questions today. These were so good. I hope there was a nugget for you again whether you're new and you're here or you know our friend in the chat with 15 stores that's here on it, right? Nobody cares. Tell me a story. Solve my problem. Our mission at the Hub is there's someone something for everyone. So whether you're brand new weblooms make it look interesting, that is the best way you can stand out from everybody else who's either your multi million dollar business. We've got groups and niche segments of our own community at the Boutique Hubs. You can connect with people just like you. And then we do trainings like this every single week for all of our members at the Hub plus a massive training library. So if you aren't already a part of in your town or any other type of boutique online is the merchandising our community. We invite you to join us at the Boutique Hub. Of course this week with fall market week, we invite you just to test out Hubventory, try a new wholesale platform. We hope you love it and we just really thank you for being here. Thanks for sharing a few hours, hour and a half of your day today we're going to send out the replay to you guys. And then finally collection solve problems. How many of you guys here tell me in the chat sell through collections. But again, thanks so much for being here. We, we love what we get to do with you guys like this whenever we have the opportunity. So thanks again.

Yeah, so much fun. I hope you guys all found it valuable. And when you guys see us at summit, for those of you coming in the summit or see us at market, please don't be a stranger come in and say hey, we're really excited to get to know you guys all better.

I love it. You launch collections, you got your Mother's day collection, you got your graduation collect. All right you guys, if you have any questions, it's the boutiquehub.com or our name action. You have your Father's day collection, you've got your memorial Day sale, color or happy people@the boutiquehub.com anytime you've got a question. But again, thanks for being here. We'll see you guys soon. Have a great rest of your day.

Thanks guys.

Collection. Collections are answers to people's problems and that's why they work in retail, right? Think about when you go to Target and you go to the back of the store. Freaking Target always knows what I need before I know I need it, right? They're selling pencils in July here when I'm mourning the end of summer. I don't want to buy any pencils, right? I, I, I don't. But they know. So I'm like, well crap, if you ain't first year last. If I don't buy these pencils, I'm going to miss out and Susie's gonna have the ugliest pencils in the classroom and I can't let that happen. So I buy the damn pencils. So you have the same opportunity. If you're not first year last. What are the collections that you have that are going to solve your customers problems before they know they need it? Where's your customer going this summer? Is she going to a wedding? Is she going on vacation? Is she going to the beach? How can you merchandise your pieces? Not that you always have to buy in the future with collections, but what do you already have in store now that solves those problems for her? If there's 52 weeks in the year, there's 52 different reasons for your customers to come shop with you through collections. So again, one of the things we love most on Hub and Tori is the boards. You can pin and plan everything into collections by using the little star button. So you can plan everything before you know you need it. All right? Last way to think about being unique is, and I think this is a trend that really started in 2020. I think it's still relevant is live sell boxes. Even if you don't live sell, buying these sample boxes are another way to say, oh my gosh, I can test out these products, I can merchandise these products, I can go live. I could do a reel, I can do a tick tock. Heck, I could do a pre order if I don't have a lot of money to invest in new inventory. This is a great way to get started and make your customers feel like there's new things coming in. And then you can go back to these vendors who are deep in all of these products and place a bigger order for all the things you've already tested out. Such A great way to get a head start if you don't have a ton of cash to get that head start. All right, who wants to talk about trends? Here's the last way that we'll cover today. We're almost done, but we really want to dig into this. I think we saved the the best for last. After we talk about the numbers, let's talk about the art side of the business, and that's trends. So we just launched the trend report, you guys. If you see that QR code, you can scan it. It's a free download. You can go grab it, use it. It covers fashion, it covers lifestyle, it covers shoes, it covers children's, it covers home and gift. I want to share a couple of my favorites with you today. But this is how you can also stand out from the rest. And I don't care if you live in North Carolina or North Dakota. Right. Your customers affinity to trend is all going to be different. But I think that there's always a way to take the trend and make it applicable to your specific customer, no matter how edgy or not edgy or he might be. So again, this QR code, I'm going to have it on these next couple slides, but make sure you scan it so that you can download this trend report and use it in your business. And if you want to copy graphics out of this trend report, share it on your social to help your customers see the story you're telling with your products. Go for it. Go for it and use it. We want to see you use it. All right, so a couple of my favorite trends. Oh, man, I keep skipping all the way to the last slides. Why am I doing that? That Jeepers. All right, going back to a couple of my favorite trends. Red hot. So this is really interesting. Red is back for fall as you're thinking about what you're going to bring in in the fall. Obviously, red's a statement color. Something I learned about the trend of red that I find fascinating this year we learned from some trend analysts is anytime the color red is trending, do you know what goes hand in hand and always trends when with red. Anyone know it's a print. I'll give you a hint. You can drop it in the chat. It's a print and it always trends. When red trends, they always go hand in hand. Anyone? Oh, you guys got it. Leopard. Leopard always trends with red. So this is. We were visiting a shoe company, Chinese laundry, and all of their. They were talking about how they develop their lines for each season. They have trend analysts that they work with with. And so they were like, hey, guess what? When one goes, the other one goes. So as you see red and in the trend report, you're going to see, like, the street fashion version of the trend, but you're also going to see immediate things for fall and also some things going into, like, late summer transition on Hubventory that are immediate so you can pick up for your store. But as you see red, I'm going to show you leopard is going to come here in the next couple of slides. Another big one for trend in the fall is. Is stormfront. So all of your dark, moody gray, not only in color, but also, like the textures that are going to go with store Stormfront. So some of the, like, tweeds are going to go with this color. I personally love this. I think this is just like a beautiful. It's like that. It looks rich if Samantha Connor was here. Right. It goes kind of hand in hand coming off of our mob wife aesthetic. And again, this is in apparel. This is an in accessories. You're also going to see this in home goods. Coming into the fall is storm front. Yeah, Shannon. I love the dark gray, too. All right, there's our leopard. It's. She's back. I see. I see some of you shaking your heads like, God dang it, how can she be back? Hey, let's just collectively say at least it's not chevron. Right? It could be worse. It's not chevron. That is not back. Thank God. Yeah. Katie, did she ever leave? I don't think she. I don't think she ever did leave in some parts of the country. No. I mean, some people went to zebra, but now we're going all the way back to leopard. And then what else goes hand in hand with leopard? This is fascinating. Western. Old Beyonce, she did it to us again, right? She's bringing it back. Cowboys cool. Just like Yellowstone made cowboy cool. Western's not going anywhere. And again, that is a trend in home and gift, and it's a huge trend in apparel. But western is everywhere. Fringe is everywhere. Fringe is coming back big time in the fall. Okay. This trend, florals for spring. Groundbreaking. Okay, how about florals for fall? I love the moody, dark wallpaper florals. Those are definitely back. They aren't like the big bold, but they're like small and moody and dark. Our florals that are definitely back for fall. 90s vibes. It kind of does have 90s vibes. Like your grandma's drapes. Like your grandma's AF again, Sarah. Like your grandma's afghan. All right, a couple more home and gift trends. Latte. Latte is also a huge apparel trend. This color of latte, you're going to see that all over just any kind of like pillows and blankets and wall decor and gifts and candles, jackets. Again, I feel like the texture of latte is also something we're going to feel big for fall. Cherry on top. I think this is fun. This is like the bright like a red goes with the red trend pinks. But look at the texture of like the velvets for fall. Velvet is such a fall and winter texture and you're going to see that paired together with cherry for fall as well. And then finally the last is collections and collectibles tools. So things where I don't know if you can see in that photo, but like all the different types of plates in terms of decor together, all the different types of patches and pins that are such a big trend with the trucker hats and the jean jacket bars and all the things that we're seeing right now, books, things that all can be layered together in terms of collectibles. Man, I'm going back to Leslie, I'm going back to your store being consignment. Man, what a cool way you have to merchandise your store to go hand in hand with this trend. Really unique opportunities with these trends. So again, grab that QR code. You can download this if you haven't already and you can use all those trends however you like in your store this fall. All right, last thing and we will wrap up if there's any questions, you guys, I want you to raise your hand with the little raise your hand button or drop them in the chat and Sarah and I can spend the next couple of minutes going deep. But last reminder, if you did not enter the giveaway for today's webinar, just take a picture tag hubventory on Instagram and we're going to giving giving away 250 rewards points. And then this week on Hub and Tori for fall market week, we've got all those trends in boards already pre planned for you. So if you're like, you know what, I want to dabble in the western trend, I want to dabble in the latte trend. We pulled all the products that are on Hub Andory and we put them into boards so you can go quickly shop and plan inventory from those things that we already we talked about. And then those of you who are Hub members, there's double points. You don't have to be a Hub member to shop on Hubventory it's open for anybody to buy from. The last thing I think is really cool is just all of our free shipping and Hub member discounts. Those of you who are members have access to on hubventory this week as well. And then finally, if you aren't already a member of the Hub, we can sure help you do that as well. Let us know in the chat and we can get you some info on membership. All right, let's do some Q and A. I see some questions coming in the chat, but again, you just raise your hand with a little raise your hand feature and Sarah and I can come in and answer any of those questions that you guys have as well. All right, first question for you, Sarah. How do you recommend first time buyers budgeting for their first buying trips as far as how many dresses, tops, sweaters, jeans, gifts, accessories when I don't have any numbers to go off of. Yep.

All right, so Lindsay, are you an online store? Are you a brick and mortar store? Curious on that and my neck online and pop up parties. Okay, so here's the thing. You can make an online store look a lot fuller for you brick and mortar girls. You can make a brick and mortar store look a lot fuller with props and build outs and plants and different things like that. But the idea is that you want to start, it's okay to start small and test the waters and really let your customers know you're just getting started and you're learning from them.

Right?

Versus bringing in a lot, bringing in a product and then having to find a customer for the product, that, that's, that's pretty tough. Look at your customer, who is your customer? What do they struggle with and find products that that fit their needs. That's the number one place to start. But then when you're saying you're like the actual budget to it, you know, it really, it really does depend. But I like to say like, be realistic. Go back and do that sales goal calculation that we did earlier today in this, in this webinar. Look at a realistic sales goal and then figure your numbers back from that. You know, you know, ideally what your markup will be, right? You're able to figure that out and ballpark those things. It's going to tell you how many transactions that those pop ups are online you're going to need and then it's going to help you break that down into inventory. So I would really start there. But you guys, I have seen pop ups and online stores get started with a couple hundred dollars worth of inventory and Just be like laser focus, test the waters and build from there. Um, I've also seen stores that went all in and they, they went full fledged trailer, $20,000 worth of inventory, all the things and those are the ones that really kind of struggled. They may have made some sales but not enough. It took them a long time to really recoup those things. The whole time those that inventory is aging. So I really encourage you to start out with less and build from there. And it's okay at a pop up. If you go to a pop up and you sell out of your inventory, you guys let your customers know what a wild success that was and that you're bringing in more.

Right.

People that's attractive to people. Selling out of something creates that fear of missing out. So it if when you're getting started, as long as you're very vocal and tell that story, you can attract those customers to come back.

Right.

So I, I do, I do I suggest an open to Buy. The problem there is you don't have a lot of the background information that you're going to really need to build out a full open to buy plan. But yes, as you track forward every calculation or every sale counts, every inventory you bring in counts. So you do want to start tracking that in Shopify. I love the better reports. I love Delirious Profit is two different apps that I would recommend for you there. But is there another part to that question?

There is Sarah. I'll come back and ask. So first part of her question, different person was okay, we had to drop Management one for our open to Buy because Shopify no longer integrates with comments sold. Does the hub Open to Buy have a turn in category breakdown? As if can that replace what you're doing with Management one or do you have other open to Buy suggestions on where to get open to buy plans for you?

I mean yes, you can, you can use all the data that you're pulling from Shopify Comments sold and run the numbers yourself. The thing about the forecasting going forward, one thing about Management One that I really like in and they're working on some different things because of the comment sold situation. But the one thing that your normal spreadsheet calculators are not going to have is the comparison of what's selling for other like similar stores to you around the country. And that's one thing that Management one does a really good job out their data they pull. They can compare your store to other similar stores like you to help build out trends and forecasts going forward. So but a Couple other options. Yeah there's, there's other apps open to buy apps and things strictly inside Shopify but a calculator yourself, that's a great RNR open to buy calculator. Here inside the boutique hub there's we have a whole spreadsheet of of calculations available for you. Plug and play. The one thing that I would encourage you to do is just consistently be talking to other similar stores, boutique besties like yourself finding out like what's working for them and maybe what's trending in some other stores that are maybe in a little bit more up and coming area than you are that you could see like what's going to be trending for me here in the next season. That's one thing that management one I really do like how they're they operate with that. So hopefully they get that system all figured out going forward.

Real data of what's selling in other places. I think that's their huge advantage is the data they have to offer. Monica, I see your hand up. I also see your question in the chat and you were asking about best point of sale for both online and brick and mortar. I would say for us more often than not is Shopify. It's the largest, fastest growing, most apps, most integrations, simple point of sale that you can use for your online store and your brick and mortar. Great reports, all kinds of apps that can help you. Like we mentioned delirious profit and better reports as well. Did you have more questions Monica? I see your hand still up but if you have another question feel free to ask it.