Category Archives for Marketing

clothing-boutique

Increase Sales at Your Clothing Boutique by Adding Gifts and Accessories

Clothing boutiques are warm and friendly places to shop and that’s what makes them such pleasurable places to visit, browse, and buy. There’s no shopping experience that compares to boutique shopping. Owners make sure to personalize the shopping experience and shoppers often find themselves wanting to purchase something, even if they haven’t found what they’re looking for. As a result, an effective way to capture these buyers is to add affordable gifts and accessories to the sales floor at your clothing boutique. 

 

Jewelry

clothing-boutique

Bring in unique jewelry pieces to your clothing boutique to widen the selection of goods offered. Earrings, bracelets, and necklaces are statement pieces just as much as the clothes one wears and are the perfect ways to tie an outfit together.   

Go ahead and browse through these designers’ websites to find one that fits your boutique’s style and price point:

  • Jan Michaels offers fashion forward pieces with a wide range of price points and styles to fit any boutique.
  • Avindy is a unique line based out of North Carolina and run by a mother and daughter team. The price points are a little higher because the pieces are handmade, but you can find some that are affordable as well.
  • Charles Albert is also a fabulous designer with a varied price range.

 

TIP: It’s important to offer gift boxes and creative wrapping that represents your store’s branding.

 

Candles

clothing-boutique

Candles are not only a popular gift item, but they add an inviting aroma to your store. Studies even show that certain scents will lead to higher spending by the shopper!  These Scents Will Make You Spend More is a helpful article that discusses the scents that will have the biggest impact on your bottom line. Find candles that match your “selling scents” and add them to your store. It’s always nice to have a candle lit in your boutique; it adds atmosphere, a pleasant aroma, and encourages higher sales.

Here are the best websites for finding candles for your clothing boutique:

  • The Little Market offers a diverse selection of candles which are fair trade, ethically sourced, and artisan made. They’re a non-profit founded by women to empower women, a strong selling point to many socially conscious boutique shoppers.
  • Heritage Candles also offers a wide range of aromas and they’re made in America, which is another great selling point.
  • Makana Artisanal Luxuries’ website states, “At Makana, we have worked tirelessly to create beautiful, fragrant candles that are made with 100% soy wax, phthalate-free natural fragrance and essential oils and lead-free cotton wicking.” Luxury candles at its finest!

 

Gifts

clothing-boutique

Although all of the above-mentioned items can be used as gifts, Poketo can be your one-stop site for all your needs. They offer jewelry, home goods, cards, scarves, sunglasses, and more. Poketo’s offerings have a fun and edgy attitude which will add an interesting element to any clothing boutique. They have something appealing for any shopper and their products make for some of the best boutique gifts you can find.

 

TIP: Optimize your upselling on the smaller items by keeping them at the POS stations. Check out Shopkeeps’ How To Increase Sales In Retail – The Ultimate Guide for more information on product placement and other useful tips to increase retail sales.

 

Unique Greeting Cards

clothing-boutique

If you’re going to offer gifts, it makes perfect sense to bring in a line or two of greeting cards. It’s a simple thing to add to your store and cards complement gift offerings perfectly. Also, greeting cards are an easy upsell item whether the customer is buying a gift or not.

Here are some great resources to find the perfect cards for your clothing boutique:

  • Irene Irene Art has a wonderful selection of unique greeting cards that would suit any boutique.
  • GiftsWholesale.com not only offers boutique cards, but also a wide range of affordable gifts.

 

There are innumerable strategies for increasing boutique sales. Please use this guide and the linked articles to learn the tricks of the trade and sell, sell, sell! And if you want to learn more about increasing your revenue by adding accessories to your sales floor, read this article: 5 Ways Fashion Accessories Can Boost Retail Sales.

Including gifts and accessories in your clothing boutique can definitely help grow your bottom line. Just think of all the extra sales you’ll make by implementing these simple ideas. Enjoy!

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Personalized Boutique Experience Key to Attracting, Keeping Customers

The Importance of the Personalized Boutique Experience

Know Your Clients

Boutique shoppers are a different breed of buyer. After all, they’ve chosen to shop at a boutique rather than a department store full of inventory. Why? It’s simple: They care more about fashion, labels, and quality than the average customer, and they’re willing to pay higher prices to get it.

These shoppers visit boutiques for unique clothing and accessories that fit their style, as well as the personalized experience.

To be a successful boutique owner, you must make client relations and understand their tastes your highest priority.

For more on the importance of the personalized boutique experience and how to achieve it, visit:

Track Your Clients’ Purchases

 

Point-of-sale system

Having a quality point-of-sale system will help you keep tabs on your clients’ preferences.

By documenting your customers’ preferences, you’ll be able to give them an optimal shopping experience with brands they like and fabrics they prefer.

 

For online boutiques, keeping a record of clients’ purchases is easy because orders are kept in a database. Brick-and-mortar shops, on the other hand, can benefit from a POS system that can track each purchase.

In the end, learning clients’ buying preferences will help increase sales and customer loyalty, and it will simplify how you choose merchandise and market it.

These POS systems are recommended for brick-and-mortar and online boutiques:

Choose the Right Brands

It’s important to stock your store with the brands that suit your customer base, but you should also offer complementary labels as a way to keep your boutique fashion-forward. Finding new designers and lines to offer your clients is a strategic way to keep them coming back.

There’s no greater excitement for a boutique shopper than discovering a new, hot brand, and you want them to find it in your store. Boutique shoppers like to be ahead of the crowd in their fashion sense, and providing your customers with fresh, new products will position your boutique as a fashion leader.

Customized Marketing

Knowing your clients’ tastes will allow you to effectively market your goods.

If you receive a shipment of your customers’ preferred brand, send them an image-filled email informing them of the new pieces. Own a brick-and-mortar shop? Then give your clients a call.

If a shopper is interested in a particular piece, offer to hold it until they come in and try it on.

Such personalized touches make boutique shopping exciting and highly rewarding. Going the extra mile also helps nurture client relations and increase store loyalty — both of which will result in growing sales.

Social Media

Facebook for Business

Facebook offers targeted and cost-effective marketing options.

Whether you own an online boutique or a storefront, you need to have an online presence.

Facebook is a great place to start because it has a massive pool of active users and it’s an easy way to stay engaged with your customers. Furthermore, it offers targeted and cost-effective marketing options that can help you keep your clients interested and expand your base.

The key to success on social media is to interact with your audience as you would in your store. Always answer questions, be courteous, and reply to comments — in other words, provide the highest level of customer service.

Your Customer is the Key

Everyone knows the phrase, “The customer is always right.” For boutique owners, it should go a step further.

Satisfying your clients is the key to a successful store, so you should always keep your clients at the center of all the decisions you make.

Your customers will appreciate your dedication to their satisfaction, and you will develop life-long clients and grow your customer base.

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