Consistency and Connection: The Keys to Boutique Success

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

Yes, thanks for asking me. I was so thrilled to see you to be there. I was so excited for this.

I hadn't, I hadn't seen you for a hot minute. But your brand, like you've been through all these things in the last couple of years. Your brand has been growing. You've got to take me back to like the evolution of how this all started. You're someone who got in business really young. Take me back to your origin story.

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

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

Yeah, so right now it's 50, 50, 50 online. A lot comes from Facebook and then Instagram and then straight to our website and then our storefront is 50%. We do have a full time that helps run the store. Store. So she's there every day through our store hours. And then we have a lady who helps with shipping and intake, which was just. That's like the first thing that we really gave up. We're like, okay, where can we spend our time? We're gonna spend our time posting more, buying more, selling more and someone else can come in and do the shipping and do the intake. And then we have some part time girls that help with this store as well. Yeah, I love that.

Oh yes.

And I'm getting ready to hire my, my second full time person, which I'm really excited about. I'm finally taking that leap of faith and investing in another person full time to help me do more of the social media. The things that I fall short on, she's going to be helping me with, which is mainly posting more like that you stood out to some things to me at the boutique Cut Summit. Like, you know, you said something and it just struck me hard. You were like, if someone pulls up your social media, let's say your Instagram feed, and they will they see all your new arrivals? And I was like, no they won't. Because you think in your head as a business owner that you're posting too much. You know, like, oh, I've already posted three times today. But yeah, if someone comes on your social media, are they even seeing like all your new arrivals, everything that you posted last week? The answer is no, unless you're posting enough. And so we're not.

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

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

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

Oh, yes.

And that screams opportunity. Right?

People are using all of it? Yeah, Old try ons. I used to only post those in the beginning when I was getting ready to like launch them. But three weeks later, I'm posting them again with a new link and a new saying and people are seeing for the first time. I have no idea you had that. And I'm like, yeah, because they're probably new followers or maybe they didn't get on social media that day and saw those new arrivals. Yeah, yeah, it's so helpful.

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

Yes. I love this question because like you said, we've had to play with it over time. And I think comparison got me bad because at one time I remember thinking I was seeing all these huge boutiques, they were launching your rebels every day. And I was like, I gotta do that. I gotta do that every day. But that did not work for me and that did not work for my customer. It was too much for my customer. They didn't want to buy every day like that. It was too much for me trying to get all that content. So then I'm like, okay, well, I'll try one big launch a week. I still want to have all that, all that inventory launched. Well then it was too much. It was like my customers were like, no, no, no, I cannot buy 50 things on one Sunday. I need you to break it down for me. So I'm like, okay, I'll try three. Well, you know, I'm all over the place. I'm like, okay, well, I'll do three separate ones. And so finally I found that two is a sweet spot for me and my customer. We were still releasing the same amount of inventory, but we were just breaking it into two. So I think my goal was 60 things a week. So I was doing 30. One day, 30 another. We've had to play around with different days as well, but being consistent. Once we found out what worked, we stay consistent. And that's something huge. You can't just, you know, on a wind, like, oh, new arrivals on a Wednesday, like, no, everybody has to know, Tuesday morning, 7:00am we're launching. Every Friday, 7:00am we're launching. We try we order all of our inventory ahead. So then I try to, like, put it all out so I can see it on a rack. And then we shoot new arrivals the week before or two weeks before. And that's when we start our first initial snow sneak peeks. And that has been huge for us. I used to be like, oh, it's too early. I don't want to spoil it for people. I don't want people asking me about it. But when they ask you, it helps your engagement, and it helps that fomo and it helps them be like, I want that. And it helps me too. It makes me excited. So that's when we started. Our inventory is the same. So we have the same inventory for our storefront and for our website. That just works for us for now. And for our storefront, the girls will still pull, like, one small or too small of every size and put it on the floor the day that we launch it. And we keep all the restrained. The back. And we always pull from the back first for our online sales.

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's so good.

So.

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

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

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

Yes, 100%.