Boutique Tips | FIVE Tips to Beat the Summer Retail Slump

All right. Hey, guys, happy hump day. Almost said Tuesday hump day. I hope you guys are having an awesome day wherever you're at. If you're jumping on live today, we're gonna do some lunchtime live. We're gonna share a couple tips today, so hopefully you're down. Alright, so today the topic is all about the summer slump. And I'm curious if you guys are joining me today if you've ever felt like you've been in the middle of a summer slump. You know, so many times we talk about the J months and. And I think people can really let the J months jump up and bite them in the rear if they aren't ready. But they can also let the J months intimidate them and create this story in their minds that they're gonna have a slow J month just because it's J month. And it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. All right, so for those of you who want to hang out, in case we haven't met yet, I'm Ashley Alderson, the founder at the boutique Hub. And these are probably my favorite things to do throughout the day to share tips and strategies that our company's been through, that we've been through with hundreds of different boutique owners. And just to be able to react to things that we're seeing happening in the market, in the industry and marketing and business, and to be able to come and share it with you guys because I know how busy you all are running your business every single day, and it's hard to see the forest through the trees sometimes. So if this can be a light, if it can get you one idea, then we've won for the day, haven't we? All right, so back to the J months. I know a lot of you have heard us talk about it, like I mentioned, and they can be things that can jump up and surprise you if you aren't ready for them. But honestly, they don't have to. I know a number of you, last summer, actually we had this conversation about how the J months last summer for many of you were some of the best months that you'd had in business, some of the best J months you'd ever had. And this summer is looking to be the same for many of you too, just because you were prepared and you knew how to approach what can happen in the summer. So today I've got five tips, five ways that you can beat the J months if you're ready for it. You guys down? I need like a thumbs up or something if you Guys are down. Hey Christy. Hey Erin, Ashley. Hey guys. Alright, let's talk about it, shall we? So in the J months or in the summer as a whole, let me start by prefacing with this. Margins as a whole, we know are down in the J months because we're selling items that are typically lower margin, right? They're lower cost, they're lower margin. It's not like we're selling a big $55 sweater where we can get so much more margin out of it. We're selling a tank top and a pair of shorts, right? In the summer you can't take any more clothes off, like you're wearing a swimsuit already. But in the winter you can always layer more clothes on. So you're always going to have a better margin opportunity. Obviously in the fall and in the winter there's also just frankly less need in the summer. It's a shorter window of time for a lot of people, especially us in the Midwest, right, where it's summer for I swear like 30 days and then it's gone. So there's less need for people to come out and continue to re buy product. So what does that look like in terms of your own retail cycle and how can you overcome that? So five ways I'm going to jump around and share a couple of them with you. The first is if you were at the Boutique Summit. You heard us talk about this again and again and again. And that is video. Summer is your time not just to do live sales and sell more product, but summer is your time to go live more often and across different channels to test them, grow them, whether it's sales content or lifestyle content. So I know a lot of you who are here just because I know you are doing a lot of Facebook lives already. And if you're not, that is definitely the place to start. Every single day you have an opportunity to get on any of your channels, on your Facebook page, on your Instagram page, on your YouTube, to do Facebook Live and continue to grow your audience reach, but also just to build that engagement. Because the trick in the summer is being able to maintain engagement across all of your channels, keep people there, build trust so that when they are ready to buy more and more often come the fall, you're the first person that they think about, right? So if you haven't mastered video yet, summer is definitely the time to do it. A lot of you I know since the Boutique Summit have really been diving into IGTV and give me like a thumbs up or a hands up if this is you if you've tested it out yet, IGTV is so simple to use. And there's two ways you can really get active pretty quickly. Number one, if you're already doing Facebook lives, you can go in and download your Facebook Live videos to your desktop or to your phone and then you can go and upload them into Instagram. Now Instagram tv, you just click the little IGTV button and it actually uploads to your page, like to your Instagram profile, but then it goes to your IGTV page as well. So you could already maximize the content you're creating over on Facebook and upload it over on Instagram. Otherwise, if you don't want to do that and you want to create something that's brand new, you go ahead and just create your own video. Just record a regular video on your phone, on a camera, save it to your files, and then upload that alone to igtv. IGTV I think, is a really great place not just to show product and do try on sessions, but also video just like this. And that kind of brings me to point number two. Number one is you gotta maximize video all summer long so you're ready for the fall. But point number two is lifestyle content. Like I said, the point in the summer is the person who can keep engagement up the longest is gonna be ready for fall. Right back to school is gonna be like, like this. It's going to be here as fast as you know it. So if you can keep engagement up now, people are going to be ready for you come back to school. So what kind of things can you talk about? What kind of things can you engage with? Well, we could talk about doing a closet clean out challenge, right where you maybe even build your email list by offering an opt in for people to join you in the closet clean out challenge or some type of summer cleaning challenge. You could also top that off with doing a clothing drive in your store, your warehouse, or add a pop up. So you're kind of hitting them two ways. With engagement, you could offer summer styling sessions. Honestly, you could charge for this if you really wanted to, where people could pay you a minimal fee. You could FaceTime with them just like this and you could go through and clean out their closet with them. But then offer styling sessions. If you're slow in the store, you're slow at the warehouse, or you've got sales staff that you want to hire now and retain for the fourth quarter, get them busy doing something right that, that they can do like styling sessions. FaceTime video chat. Bring people on as clients, your customers as clients, and train them how to use pieces in their closet. And then you can come in and fill the need with items that you have in the store. Let's say somebody that you, you bring on and they hire you to do a styling session, you maybe build into that price. Maybe it's, you know, 50 bucks for a styling session or $100 for a styling session, but they get a 25% off coupon for your store or a Bogo Coupon or a $50 off coupon purchase over $100 like you name it. So you can maintain some margin, but pretty easy opportunity to keep people active in the summer. Couple other things I would highly suggest for lifestyle content in the summertime. And if you're feeling me on this, give me a thumbs up. But I am really into braid bars. Really into braid bars. And if you're a boutique owner, you obviously have women following you that are also into beauty and hair and all these other things, right? So why not offer a braid tutorial? Or you guys know the little like scarves and headbands that are so popular for women to do ponytails and things with. Why not do a hair tutorial in your store? Keep that lifestyle content coming with things you know your customer is interested in so she can keep engaging with your content every week. Another thing, you guys, I like challenging myself to grill at least every other day in the summer because Otherwise there's like 5 foot of snow on the ground in Wisconsin and I can't hardly handle it. So what about a grilling challenge or a recipe swap or ask your friends and customers about their fourth of July traditions. What do they do over the fourth of July? Do polls. How many of them have boats? How many of them have campers? Right. How many of them have horses like we do and spend their summers doing that? There's so many different engagement topics that you can do posts on, you can do videos on, you can do polls on, you can keep your customers engaged. And then the little style opportunity you have to showcase products that fit her unique need. That's what keeps you top of mind in the summer. All right, item number three is we don't have this in Wisconsin. At least I've been living under a rock if we do. But most of you guys have this opportunity and that's tax free weekend. So there is a website. I'm going to share it with you after this video. I'll just drop it down in the comments about the weekends. For all the tax free weekends throughout the United States. But I know for so many of you, especially with brick and mortars, that's a huge opportunity. So if you don't already have that on your calendar, I have to mention that as like a standalone summer slump item because you have to be prepared for that now. You know, free weekend, a number of different community holidays. So it could be crazy days or you know, we always had a big crazy days in like a three on three basketball tournament like on our main street, you name it. Could be the county fair. Whatever it is. I know every community, whether you have a brick and mortar or a warehouse, has awesome opportunities for summertime engagement and for those types of big weekends. So if you aren't already planning them or if you feel like your community really doesn't have that to offer, or maybe you live or I'm sorry, your store is maybe too far off the main drag of your community, you've got to create that sense of excitement. So there's your opportunity to host a boutique crawl or a ladies night out or a three on three basketball tournament in your own parking lot, right? You can be creative and where there's an open weekend or an open weeknight and you feel like you need to drive more traffic and engagement to your store or to your warehouse because you can have a warehouse sale, get creative with those community calendars. All right, tip number four, and that is it kind of goes back to this theme of creating events and experiences and lifestyle content, but it is, how can you create a new experience for your customer? So again, we're going to be going back to back to school pretty quick. I know most stores start to flip and transition their merchandise in mid July or early July for back to school. If you ever wonder about like, when's the right time to start carrying some of those things or marketing in that way, or getting your graphics prepared or your website homepage updated. I always go to Target as an example, mainly because I'm obsessed with Target and it's nearby. But whatever big box store you think your customers shop with, I would look at them as a leading example, right? If you can't employ a full marketing team, follow somebody who can. And that's usually a big box store. So whenever they start to flip their marketing for back to school, ding, ding, ding, there's your chance. So how about hosting a back to school swap, right? For your customers to swap goods with each other for back to school items. Could be like a clothing swap, it could be backpack swap, it could be, whatever you name it, school supply swap. Because I know, I came home with like seven extra boxes of markers that I didn't need. Right. How can you get creative and help your customers build community around your brand? They aren't just there to purchase clothes from you, right? They're there because they want to be a part of your tribe, in a sense, have a sense of community with one another. So clothing drive, you could have people bring clothes in that you're going to donate to a shelter or Goodwill, wherever you want to donate it. You could have people bring those to the warehouse, bring it to the store, bring it to a pop up. You could host a number of different experiences around that whole back to school season that takes place. There's young kids with back to school. If you have a children's or tween boutique, college age, back to school school. And then you guys know what it's like to be. If you have kids, a mom and you kind of dread the back to school shopping trip, does anyone else like, dread that? With me, I feel like I go to Target with my kids, right? And there's three of them and I've got three shopping lists and like three markers and I am desperately trying to like wrangle my kids from jumping into somebody else's cart and like crossing all the lists off. And it never fails. I get to check out and I've forgotten the wet wipes and the Kleenexes and the random crap that was not in the back to school aisle. Does anyone else have that? And I honestly feel like I might need a drink after I go back to school shopping. It's that chaotic. So many of your customers are feeling the same way, aren't they? So how can you reward your moms after back to school so they can treat themselves? So maybe it's like a buy one now, get one later sort of experience where if they're going to shop with you now for their kids or for somebody else and that they can come back and get a treat later on. All right, I already mentioned in terms of experiences hosting a boutique crawl, it could be a physical boutique crawl where you're going from community to community. It could be a digital boutique crawl where you and four of your other online boutique friends are hosting, like a digital shopping experience where people have the opportunity to shop each store. And if you want to caveat this, you can actually turn that into more of a scavenger hunt where people can go around to again, different physical stores or online stores. And you've got the rules, right? You've got the scavenger hunt. Contest where they're finding different things either in the store or on the website. All right, last tip. When it comes to events and experiences for the summer, I know a lot of you here are brick and mortar. Just kind of seeing some of you who are here, those of you who are online, or maybe you're a combination of both if you don't have the opportunity to host a pop up outside of your normal space, right? So let's say you're online and you want to host a popup with a salon or somewhere. Or let's say you have a successful brick and mortar, but you want to still host a popup in another community. Still opportunity for you, even if you're brick and mortar, to host a pop up, you could host your own popup somewhere else. Or what if you hosted a popup in your space? So where's your local Etsy dealers, your soap makers, your essential oil sellers, all your MLM girls? Because I know you got 5,000 of them hanging out on your Facebook page somewhere, right? They are knocking on your door. Where's your MLM girls? Get together with those people and host a big pop up. Create an experience, create a lifestyle opportunity in your space or in someone else's space. So again, throughout the summer, it's all about how do I continue to drive engagement, build relationship, maintain connection and trust with my customer, and build a tribe around my business so that later on, come fall, come back to school again, I'm top of mind, and they can come back to me. Last tip number five. We talked about how to continue to drive sales, right? And get busy during the J months. Because that's a trick. So many people think, ah, the J months are here. And because they instinctively think it's going to be slow, they get slow, right? Have you ever done that? Have you ever given yourself an excuse? Like an out? I was gonna say an opt out. It's too much marketing today so far. Like, you think it's gonna be slow, so you're like, oh, let myself off the hook. It's the J months and you just make that excuse. Honestly, a lot of people do that and they don't even realize they're giving themselves that out. So I want to challenge you to this with tip number 5. J months can be slower. You have to hustle. So why not use some of the downtime, if you do have it, to update your marketing, right? You could update your marketing, you can update your numbers, you can update the way you segment your audience. This is your time to prep for the really Busy third quarter and the massively crazy fourth quarter. Don't overlook the opportunity that you have in the J months to make something happen. So number one, you can update your finances, you can get serious about your QuickBooks, about your P&LS, your balance sheets, understanding your margins, your maintained margins, your best turning vendors, your best turning sizes, your best turning categories, and how to finally create an open to buy plan for your store so that you know you're buying right for the fall. If you don't have a handle on those numbers, the summer is your time to get it done. Because in the fall, this is the trick that happens in the fall. Everyone is so busy hustling in the fall and they're so busy selling, right? But so many times people are only focused on what's my gross sales number in the fall or holidays, what's my gross sales number, right? But because they did not calculate your best turning vendor or category or size or their maintained margin, they missed so much opportunity to keep the money here because they were only focused on that gross number. So if you don't know these numbers or how to adjust your formulas and really focus on these equations, get it done now. Because if you can hone in and really tweak those things now, turn those dials now on how to create a better margin or how to know your categories so you can buy smarter, man, that's going to set you up for success in the fourth quarter. So know your numbers. Number two, know your marketing. Here's your time. If you were one of the people who switched from mailchimp this year, maybe you still use mailchimp. Here's your time to go in and create new automations. Update old automations to better segment your email list between past customers. Best customers. Get back customers right customers by size or location or brand that they purchase. All those opportunities to update emails, create text marketing lists. If you aren't using Facebook messenger, here's your chance to really automate that this summer. All those things that can really be a big sales driver in the third and fourth quarter. Summer is your time to tweak and to really nail those pieces of your business. Last thing. Okay, I already gave you the five tips. I'll recap. Go live more, use video Master video, create more lifestyle content, know your tax free weekend, create events and experiences whether you're online or off and update your numbers and your marketing. Okay, so five tips. Last tip. And I'm speaking to myself when I say this tip. Okay, Summer is a special time of year. If you are a mom, and you have kiddos. And I have taken this one to heart, because usually in the winter, like, it's go, go, go. My husband and I work a lot. This is the time to go to the pool. This is the time to play outside. This is the time to also give yourself grace. And because it's slower, you have an opportunity to do a lot more, but you also have an opportunity to enjoy the season of life that you're in. Right? So we love being business owners. We love being entrepreneurs. We love the hustle. But don't forget the why of why you're in this business in the first place. All right, guys, if you're still here, those are the five tips. I would love to know which one of them matters the most to you, if you took any of them to heart, or if you think you're gonna put any of them into play. I hope they help you have a more successful and more sustainable summer and honestly, more enjoyable summer, because that's what it's all about. I want you guys to have fun and to be able to do what you love. So if you like them, let me know in the comments what one you're gonna take action on. And if you'd like more tips like this, you can find us anytime inside of the Boutique hub. For all of you who are members inside Retail Bootcamp, which actually starts this week, or you know where to find me, hit the DM button. So thank you, guys. Hope you have an awesome day.