Brick-and-mortar retail was supposed to be dead. But while many legacy retailers have had a rough go of it, modern retailers, including boutiques, aren’t just surviving. They’re finding ways to thrive. Research shows that for every company shuttering its stores, more than five other brands are opening new stores to fill that space.
Launching a boutique is hard work, and growing the business is even harder. But there are great tools out there that will simplify your workload and help you accomplish more in less time—even if you’re starting out as a one-person operation.
You can’t help but love seeing a familiar face walk into your store. As you build your business, your most important customers are the ones who become your biggest fans and keep coming back.
The 80/20 rule is alive and well for retailers: Successful brands can expect to see roughly 80 percent of their sales from just 20 percent of their customer base. Just don’t trick yourself into thinking that low prices are key to building customer loyalty.
You want your customers to love your brand, regardless of how they shop. In-store? Online? Who cares, as long as they keep coming back!
In reality, it’s not a question of whether to prioritize in-store or online shopping; it’s all about creating a magnetic shopping experience. Most shoppers are using both channels on a regular basis, as well as mobile and social media. You need to be sure that wherever they go, they’ll have the best possible shopping experience.
Millennials aren’t kids anymore. The majority have entered the workforce, built careers, and pursued milestones such as marriage, home ownership, and starting a family. As a result, today’s millennials are a major force in retail, accounting for 30 percent of all retail sales in the United States.
Every retailer counts on strong sales during the holiday shopping season. But small businesses can’t always count on a major advertising budget to compete with the retail giants like Amazon.
However, whether you have one store or 100, you can delight shoppers by giving them a memorable shopping experience and personalized service.
With so many online shopping options and so much social media out there, it’s easy to get distracted and forget just how important brick and mortar is to your business. With all that constant competition for attention, it takes more than the old retail playbook to attract visitors to your physical store. You’ve got to consistently reach out and experiment to keep growing.
Operating a boutique with limited time and resources takes a lot of energy. Having the right retail technology in place can help you maximize your time and make your life easier. But with so many retail solutions out there, how do you prioritize the ones that will be most helpful for growing your boutique business?
You’ve built up a steady flow of customers (congrats!), but you need to keep them coming back so you can keep growing. Inspiring and retaining those customers has big implications for your brand’s future success. But how do you do that, exactly?
When you’re just getting your business off the ground, the best point-of-sale (POS) solution is the one that makes life easiest for the store associate—and the one that fits your tight operating budget, of course.