How To Manage Your Boutique’s Inventory

Okay, you guys know what it's like when you team up with a boutique bestie and you talk all things industry, right? You're on the same page and you both totally get it. Well, today, that's how I feel when I'm going to let you in behind the scenes on a conversation with one of my industry besties, Oola, the founder of Faves. Many of you know, and many of you use Faves when it comes to planning your inventory and managing your purchase orders once you've bought it, market or on any online platform. Well, today we're going to walk through what successful retailers using Faves have in common and what we can all learn about better management of our inventory. Plus, you guys know this is a big week for us here at the Boutique Hub as we launch our very own wholesale platform, hubventory.hubventory.com. and so Oola and I have a little sneak peek special announcement that we want to share with you that we hope makes your life even easier. Check it out. My conversation with my friend Oola, the founder of Faves. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts, and strategists that actually make it happen. 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. Oola, I am so happy you were here. You are just one of my favorite people in this industry to catch up with and just talk big picture with. I just love the way that your mind works and the way you see things. So I'm really excited about this conversation today.

Me too. Ashley, I was just thinking, it's like, I know we see each other market, but we don't ever get the time to really just talk. And I'm just thinking this is our private opportunity to chat.

We're just gonna let everyone else in on our private conversation. Yeah, well, I. In case anyone. Let's do a little backstory. Oola, in case anyone is not familiar with what Faves is, you guys have been a big part of the Boutique Hub for, gosh, a couple years now since you guys launched. But give us the backstory. Tell us about what Faves is and how it works.

Exactly. So, yes, Faves is an app that boutiques, buyers, fashion buyers use to organize and optimize buying. So it's really a tool that you can use to capture your buying. So if you're a market, you take pictures, you have your budget, you keep track of your budget, delivery dates, and all the visual. So imagine you being able to curate across all your vendors. You can see what we already purchased of dresses. Have we purchased dresses? How much have we spent? When are things coming in? So it's really a private tool for buyers and boutique owners, so they can. They can manage that whole buying process and the curation process and staying on track, really.

If anyone listening has been a part of Retail Bootcamp, you've probably heard Sarah and I talk about Sarah's former boutique Bible, Oola. I know you've heard the story about Sarah's boutique Bible, and that's really where the boutique boss planner originated from. But she talks about the old days of market. You know, when you go and you come home with a stack of invoices, which everybody does, and things are kind of lost in the shuffle. Sometimes there's a box that randomly shows up at your store a couple months later, you don't know what it is. Maybe you had a few too many margaritas and you ordered something and forgot about it. And what I love about faves is you kind of eliminate that for people. You actually help people buy smarter by having everything all in one place. How did this idea and this plan to build faves, how did this originate for you?

It originated in Copenhagen, so by meeting boutiques here and understanding. So I don't come from this industry, but when I was introduced to the boutiques here, it just clicked. And being able to understand actually the pain that is associated with buying, too, being able to understand one buyer, that was really influential and how we developed it was he would take pictures, he will actually print out the pictures, and then he would put them up on the wall and rearrange them in order to say, capture all. These are all the bottoms, These are all the tops. And he would do it that way, and it was just like, boy, we can do something smarter about this. So then it really just started working with boutiques in Copenhagen, and they were, you know, just coming up the user experience and testing it with them, getting the feedback and then evolving with time like that. So. So that's how it started. So it's really built together with the industry and finding out, like, how do we actually solve that? How do we help organize and give you that time back so you can focus on what you want to really, you don't want to sit There and copy and paste pictures. You want to find the good stuff. You want to build your business. So trying to handle the not so sexy part of the industry.

And that's really the truth, like, I love that you say it like that. It is the not so sexy part, I think, especially new boutique owners. Right. You see all this glamour of going to market on Instagram, and it sounds great, I'm gonna go buy all the pretty things. But if you don't have a budget, if you don't have a plan, if you aren't tracking what you're actually spending, you're gonna get home and be dead broke at the end of the day, and you're going to have a lot of inventory that doesn't sell.

Absolutely. I like to say, like, a successful buying actually starts before you go. Right. It's really about, like, why are you going? What do you need? What do you not need? When do you need the things to show up? Right. So and so. And if you don't know that, it's so easy to get overwhelmed, right. You go to market or where you go online and buy, you can really get overwhelmed by everything that you see. So having process or not, well, process a plan in place for what you need. So that's where also, you know, in the. In the. Yeah. Most simplistic way, it's really about, like, what do you need and what do you not need and what do you need it? And then going into being really more advanced and saying open to buy budget and working with somebody or defining open to buy budget yourself and saying, how much do we invest in per category per month? So we really keep track of the details of that. And it's such a big difference. When you see boutiques doing that, it's really amazing.

Yeah. Walk me through one of your successful clients that uses faves. Walk me through the process of how they prepare before they go to market, how they set up with faves, what happens when they get there and what happens when they get back home. Can you, like, lead me on that journey?

Absolutely. So the ones that are truly successful in this, buyers and boutique owners, what they do is actually to set up a budget, Right. Have a plan. Well, first of all, they know who they're buying for so that they have that all checked off. Right. Who is. Who's my customer and what do we need? Like, who. How do we serve them best? And then once before they go to market, they really have a plan for, like, what do they need to purchase? So really broken down to, are we looking for Dresses, what type of dresses, how much are we investing in dresses and in which period, like are we investing X amount for to be arriving in September and this amount in October. So really breaking it down to open to buy budget. It really takes away that, you know, uncertainty when you're then at market, because then you have a plan and you know then what to go for. But you also know then when you're deviating and you can, you can, you can reevaluate when you're there, but you're not running around as a chicken with a head cut off. Like, like, what is this? You know, just being tempted by all these things, but you know what you need. So that's before you go to market, having that plan. And many of the ones that are really successful are working together with retail consultants, like a management, one group that can help actually define the budgets together with them, set a strategy and say, hey, let's, you know, if we set a growth plan for you, then we go ahead and we want to invest in this much in inventory in order to bring home that revenue and see you on your growth, set you on your growth path. So that's where we see that many of the ones that are doing super well actually working with somebody else that can help strategize and dare to force notes to not force them, but to help them raise up. Right. And go ahead and set that buying budgets a little higher, maybe so and then what they do is when they're at market, one of the things that they also do is that they, you know, when you're at market, it's really about like, you want to take it all in, you want to be inspired, you want to see all the trends, but you don't need to actually invest the first first hour, the first few hours you had market, you can walk around and take it all in. And you can take it all in in the Faves app. So you can just mark it as potentials or maybes. Right. So that way you can capture a lot of things and you can make the decisions later. So instead of you trying to remember, oh, I think we saw something, you actually have that in the Faves apps. So the ones that are really doing well, they're doing that, they're capturing information in their marketing as maybes and then they're taking the time to evaluate later. It's like, oh, wait a minute, we looked at some really cool, colorful sweaters that look sort of similar. Let's look into what is the, you know, what was actually the price point, what was the, you know, the return opportunity for these and when do they come in and then we can, we can make the best optimized buying decision that way, right? So the one that is most financial beneficial to us. So that's what they do at market. So exactly your point, Ashley, about, you know, like, you know, instead of coming home with a bunch of invoices sitting on the bed during the night and trying to organize going back tomorrow, it's like what did we buy? What did we not buy? Then you have it just in the famous app, you can scroll and say where are we on our budget? What did we actually buy of dresses or bottoms or tomorrow we're going to look at top, tops, let's look at what bottoms we have for the same period coming in so we can build a collection that actually works together. So there's all these points about the budgets, deliveries and the visual part. So you can do the curation across. That's what you do. The ones that are doing really well are the ones that actually taking that time and methodical about being at market. The mark cart is really tempting, right? It's fun to be a market too, but it's with you invest a serious investment you out there doing, right? So it's like balancing that. So this will help you balance and maybe have a, you know, a cocktail later because you actually will have the time to, to actually not have to work all night. So when you come home from market, that's a, that's another part of this whole buying, right? Because buying really doesn't stop just because you leave market, right? It's really about are you getting the goods in that you ordered? So being able to like keep track of that. So what did we order? Did we get all the goods where we were supposed to get? In August you'll be able to see that in the Faves app. So that's one thing being able to do that. Another thing is to. I know Sarah speaks a lot about this, about educating the team, get them on board, you know, they're going to be selling this stuff. Get them on board and educate them about what's going on. So you can already now because you have the buying, you can share the pictures with them and say, hey guys, this is what we're getting in next month or this is what's coming in for the holidays, you know. And so the marketing team can already start thinking about marketing opportunities because they will see what's coming in. They can start structuring these stories both visually and storytelling wise because they have those Pictures that they can go from and they have the information about who is the vendor. So they can go out and reach out as well for additional information. So that's. So I think that the ones that are super successful are the ones that are using the face that we're seeing. That it's not just the buyer that is using the app, but it's really the team. It's also the marketing team. It's also if they have a design team, this is for the bigger retailers. But if you have internal department design team that actually building your own label as well, they can see what's coming in. So when they can go ahead and design something that complements what is being purchased, does that make sense? So it's like they are on top. They're as educated as the buyer. And the buyer does not need to spend all the time trying to create reports and everything because they can themselves go in and just search and say, what's coming in of dresses, what's coming in in the holidays, how many have you purchased? So they can know how much to actually push the marketing pedal for certain things. That was a lot of talk.

That makes sense. No, it was good. I wanted to hear the whole process. But one thing I also think is really helpful with faves that I know a lot of people inside the boutique hub appreciate is the integration with Shopify. Talk to me about that. Like how not only are you planning what's coming, but now you can push that right into your Shopify to save a step in the process.

Exactly. So that's another thing. So in order to. So once you have the products in, you can really just shoot them up. It's just a one step. You just select and you shoot it up to Shopify and the product then arrives as a draft product. So that just gives yourself an advantage. So you can push it up and you can then start getting ready. So once a product gets into your business, you can then do your shoots and then update the picture. But then you're all set. You're one step step ahead. You don't have to wait. So that's how that works. Is really quick to just to get that up. Thanks for asking. Not everybody is using Shopify, but for the ones that are using it, that is absolutely super helpful.

You guys, thank you so much for listening to today's episode and I'm so excited to make a personal invitation to you. You guys know, behind the scenes at the Hub, we are always looking for new ways to serve our industry. Both our community of retailers, but also Our community of wholesalers. And so for the last two years, we've been working on one massive project. A brand new wholesale marketplace built by the industry, for the industry. And you're invited with so much of your feedback along the way. Today we're so excited to announce the grand opening of hubventory.com that's hubventory. H U B V E N T O R Y. You're invited to come make a profile to shop your favorite curated and vetted brands handpicked by the boutique hub. But not only to shop because you see, Hubventory is a different kind of wholesale marketplace where we want to help you buy smarter. Each and every week. We want you to invest in your inventory rather than buying on a whim. So when you sign up for Hubventory, not only will you be able to find your favorite brands, but we'll encourage you to follow those brands and then start to pin products to boards to build boards that are designed for your next new arrivals launch or an upcoming collection by product category or even by uploading your open to buy plan and buying with your budget. So you're welcome to join us today on hubventory.com to plan and buy smarter and to follow the vetted, curated and trusted wholesalers that we all love. I'll see you on hubventory.com are there other. Do you feel like there's common mistakes that you see retailers make in this industry that you're like, if I could just get my hands on them, I would help them understand X. What do you think some of those common mistakes are?

Well, I think there is a common mistake everyone makes and they don't like to talk about because it's so God embarrassing. But everybody does it and they know it is that you end up buying the same thing over and over again. Right? It's like, you know, it's like I like to say what the heart is full of is what you get in. So until you have a way to visually mirror back what you purchase, it's really easy to buy it again. And you know, I hear from the most brilliant of buyers, you know, so before they started using the Faves app, it's like, that's one of the pain points is so embarrassing. It's like we ended up buying the same thing. We would have white sneakers from seven different vendors. Remember, you know, forgetting that we had, you know, that we had that we hadn't placed an order. It's so easy and like, why would you not make that mistake? Seriously, how can people remember all this stuff. I mean, really, I can't remember seven things. How are you supposed to remember? You looked at like, you know, hundreds of different vendors, thousand styles. How are you supposed to remember? You know, so that's that. I mean that. Go ahead.

Oh, I talked to someone yesterday, Oola, who literally told me, she said, you know What? My management, one consultant told me I had 17 different styles of moto jackets. So you're right, everybody does that. And you think about, you know, Sarah always uses this analogy in boot camp about if you went to the grocery store and all you brought home was the crap from the charcuterie board section, your family would disown you because at some point you have to remember to go get the milk and the bread and the eggs and the meat, right? Like you gotta have the good stuff and then you can sprinkle in some of the charcuterie board section, but for gosh sakes, not all of it. And I think that something you said earlier, Oola, that I want to pull out and highlight is it's not that we're buying. It's not that we're buying, right? Anyone can buy. You go to the mall and buy. You buy for yourself. But when you're buying for your business, you're actually investing. And you use the word investing. And that's important to make that distinction because you take it a lot more seriously. You look at it in a different light. You have to invest smarter. And that's really the problem that you're trying to solve. And I appreciate that.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that brings up another thing that is not uncommon, is that when you are looking at product not connecting, like what is the profit opportunity is on that product, but looking at the cost price and not necessarily considering what am I going to sell this for and what does that mean in return before you start buying it. Right. So being able to connect and see does this actually make sense from a business standpoint and not just because it's super cute and it's a pretty okay wholesale price, but what is the retail price and what is the opportunity for return? So that's, that's another tricky aspect to, to remember these things. But that's what we try to make it easy in the app too is like when you take a picture, you put in the wholesale price and then you can put in a markup and it will calculate the retail price, or you can put in the retail price and it'll show you the markup. So that at least helps you to of sort it will show it to you, to you right there and then. And you can say okay, well I really shouldn't be going lower than a 2.2 markup or 2 or you know, but, but then you can see those things and it's much easier because let's face it, there is so much stuff going on when you're buying. It's like trying to keep track of everything when you also have to space out the delivery so you don't end up with everything coming in the same month. Right. I mean it's also a cash flow issue both in, in two terms, two cents. Like you need to have things in in order to sell, but you also don't want to have everything in the same time where you have to actually pay. Right. So if you don't have the two money space to being able to navigate all that, that's a lot of stuff.

Yeah, it is a lot. I feel like too in the last couple of years the way that people buy, obviously we have a lot more options now. Right. There's all these online platforms along with in person trade shows and there's, in my opinion there's really no right or wrong. Like there's opportunity to buy from both and for different reasons. If you were to give someone advice that's asking like should I go to market, should I buy online, how often should I go to market? What's your take on what successful buying looks like, where should it be and how often should they be there?

Yeah, I think successful buying is a combination of both. It's being definitely going to market and establishing relationships. It's really hard to just do via the platforms being able to actually touch the products, get a sense of the quality, get to know the different agents that are the reps at the different vendors. It's so important I think. But pairing that up with online buying, I think we've seen a huge shift in buying from going for just mainly pre order and like two to four times a year going by to now. It's happening almost like monthly for many. Right. Like it's so much more frequently. So therefore it's a combination like going to market and then filling up with in season buying online. I think that's, I think that's what we see the most successful buyers do. They are really going to, they are meeting, they are going to market maybe four times a year or something like that and then they are buying online for the rest where they're actually buying in season and also pre ordering mostly from market, but also in season buying from market. But definitely More preordering happening when you are actually touching and seeing the products of market. But that's been a big shift.

It has been a big shift and I agree with that strategy. I think that you can never replace that in person. Experience. Experience of going to market, building relationships, touching, feelings. So there is a place for that. But it's, it's expensive to travel to.

Yeah.

And it's tough to get to all the market. So I agree with having that as your core strategy and then filling in with your ready to ship or whatever new arrivals you catch online that you can, you know, test your assortment with. So I like that I want to shift this conversation because you and I have such aligned visions when it comes to buying. But also, you know, the buying plan, buying smarter, tracking your numbers, tracking your pos, all of those things. But also like your vision for, for Faves in terms of like seeing those collections ahead of time has always been my vision for Hubventory. And the, one of the big reasons we built Hubventory is we wanted it to be different than every other wholesale platform. So not only is it all of our curated, vetted and trusted members of the boutique hub that are on the platform as brands, but we have this whole thing that's like Pinterest where you can pin to boards and plan collections and see your shipments as they're coming in. So you and I have some exciting news to share, but I'm going to let you be the one to share it since you're the guest today. So will you tell everyone our big news?

I will. I'm so excited about this, Ashley. I mean, seriously, this is so awesome. I know. Like, our hot members that are already on Hoppentory and now use the ones that are using Faves are going to be so excited. We are actually building a connection between Faves and Hotventory. So it means that when you're buying from Hotventory, you can send those products directly into the Faves app.

Yay.

So you have the, you have the pictures, you have the pricing, you have the quantity, everything. It goes into the Faves app directly from Hubin Toys. So it's going to be such a time save. And so I'm super excited that we have that and we can announce it. Thank you, Ashley, for letting me do that.

You should have just said, shut up, Ashley. Let me talk. Shut up. Let me tell everybody.

No, no, it's. No, but it's just like, it's so, I mean, online buying is super important. Right. And being able to have an overview of what you're buying from market what you're buying online. So Hawkman Choi is joining Fashion Gold Fair, A New Order and Joa in Faves. So it's the fifth, and I'm super, super excited. This is gonna be such a. Just a game changer, and I know there's gonna be so many excited people out there to hear this.

Yeah, I'm so pumped about it because realistically, coming from, like a wholesale platform owner. Right. It puts. I feel like I'm in a weird situation to say this, but in all honesty, people have to buy from multiple places and I'm totally good with that. Like, whatever is good for the retailer at the end of the day, that's what I want. And so I love that. Yes. I hope you buy on Hubventory. I hope you love Hubventory for a million reasons, but I want you to be a better buyer because I know you're going to buy more, you're going to be in business longer, you're going to have peace, like, all the things I want for your life. So I love that we have this integration that connects what you buy on Hubventory to everywhere else. But a couple cool things I think, make this integration a little bit different. One, if you are a boutique Hub member, you get discounts across Hubventory at many of the brands on the platform that have specials just for you. So you're going to be saving there. But if you also are on Faves, you and I have discounted pricing together as well. So if you're a Hub member, you also have special pricing on using the Faves app. So if we can keep more money in your pocket and you can use that to invest and turn a little bit more and make a little more take home at the end of the day, day, that is a huge goal for I know, both you and I. Right?

Absolutely. Yes, exactly. I'm glad that you brought it up because that we do have the. The Hub specials and, and I like it. It's. It's. I'm happy that you brought up because that is absolutely worthwhile taking. Taking. If you're not a member of the Hub, can I say that, Ashley, is that okay? You need to do that? You need to get. Become a member and, and just. I mean, there is, like, so much the Hub has to offer. The community there is extraordinary, like being able to communicate with all these other boutique owners that come to. You know that you ask when I am so impressed by the questions that are asked, you know you can. And all the answers that are offered up to you immediately. It's really just a really awesome community. And then you have of course, all the savings things on top of it. So yeah, if you're not a member, go do it today now.

Do it today.

Do it today.

I love, I love that there's the community online, but you've been a big part of our in person community. So if anyone listening has been to the Boutique Summit, you're always joining us there. If you've been to market in person in our showroom in Dallas or Atlanta, I love Oola that you've been a part of that as well. And then there's a group of retailers in the hub who've been through Retail Bootcamp who also make a trip to LA with us in the fall for a private buying trip to la. And I'm so excited that trip is coming up and you're going to be a part of that as well. So I appreciate this relationship and all the knowledge that you constantly are bringing back to our members. That's a really big deal. So Oola, is there anything else today on the podcast? Any parting tips you would like to leave with our listeners today?

I think, you know, just treat it as the investment that it is buying. Just have fun with it but really think of buying as an investment investment. Do yourself that, you know, that little time up front just like why are we going? Why are we buying and who are we buying for, how much and when do we need it? It's really just doing that before you start buying and just, yeah, enjoy the process but really treat it as the investment that you are making. In technology we have a saying, garbage in, garbage out. It's really. No, it's not. Yeah, treat you make sure that you get the best stuff into your business so you have the best opportun to excel. You know, that's you're all to yourself. You made this choice, you're working your buns off, you know, so take that and run with it and just.

Yeah, we have to be able to use both the retail art side of the brain, which so many people love, like all the pretty things, right? The social media, all of that. But you have to have the retail science side of the brain. The numbers, the analytical, the buying, the investing, all of that. So Oola, thank you so much for pairing those things together, for coming and sharing faves with us today and giving us this exciting announcement that we're so pumped about and I look forward to seeing you in person soon. Thanks again.

I do too. Thank you, Ashley. It's been a pleasure.

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