Question

Topic: Customer Behavior

How To Grow A Fashion Boutique In A Small Town?

Posted by Anonymous on 2/3/2009 at 1:26 AM ET 250 Points
My wife and I opened our own High End Fashion Boutique last week and despite marketing our shop in the local newspaper, sending text messages on their cellphones, setting up a Page and Group on Facebook and inviting almost the whole town - people are still not visiting our boutique...

People who do come to visit our shop are amazed and stunned to see how beautiful it looks and how affordable our items are...but still we aren't generating efficient funds.

The boutique is situated in a room of our house and our house is quite a central point of town...

I will, during the week, propose plans to local businesses, like the Salon and Spa, to give their gift vouchers to my clients, if they e.g. buy for R 500 (South African Rands) or more and vica verca...

We currently stock jewellery, accessories, clothes, handbags, purses, shoes and other smaller items, of which the most are brand names: Prada, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Ed Hardy, Dolce&Gabbana etc...But it really is much cheaper than any other store in a 500km+ area...

Our products are exactly what the classy people are looking for...we live in a wealthy farming community, where the women love to dress up and "beautify" themselves. We can also attract youths from the college as our items are affordable enough for everyone...

What can we do to get more people to our store? Do you have any ideas to raise "awareness"? I even want to offer a Louis Vuitton Handbag valued at thousands of Rands for a competition, if it will generate enough funds...

Thank you for your kind assistance.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 2/3/2009 at 3:59 AM Accepted
    Hello Kevin,
    It is very difficult to analyse your situation without being there in person, moreover you have not mentioned anything with respect to competition, Store name and interiors. Information with respest to competition is crucial for analysing such situation. However from whatever i could gather i believe the problem is in your selling these wares from your home. The product you mentioned are lifestyle products which are generally associated with pride, self esteem, social class etc etc. The customer is not looking for functionality or price benefits while buying such product, what the look for is solutions to satisfy their need for pride...etc. This is the reason why stores of such product are so beautifully designed, and the service levels are so high because its classy. The customer has perceptions about where to get classy products and a home of someone is not exactly what fits his "image" of an ideal place for buying a classy brand. Home is a place where people go to meet relatives, neighbours, friends and family but home is never associated with a place for buying brands. You need a "Shop" to solve your problem.
  • Posted on 2/3/2009 at 5:57 AM Author
    Hi Pravn.Rai

    Some updates:

    There are a few shops selling clothes, but they are in a league of their own as they sell extremely cheap clothing, which no-one really wants to buy...

    This is one of the main reasons, we opened our business - to cater to those who cannot find elegant clothes and accessories in town...

    Regarding the issue of running the shop from our home:

    Our town is extremely small (www.somerseteast.co.za) and when you can find a house you are extremely fortunate, as you can only get a home, if either someone dies and is left empty or someone moves out of town...Shops are even more scarce, so any new business won't have any shop or space, unless you perhaps buy out that business to start your own or if you're lucky and the shop closes down...

    We live in a "warm" neighbourhood, were everyone knows everyone, therefore people do not have any trouble selling/buying things from their homes - it is actually more "inviting" as you get to know the sellers on a personal level...

    Yet, taking everything in consideration, I truly don't understand why we aren't attracting many customers...

    We are open in the evenings from 5pm - 9pm (not during the day) - Is this perhaps an issue? We decided to be open during the evening as many people work till 5 and cannot get away from work - yet we are still open...

    Thanks for your support.
  • Posted on 2/3/2009 at 6:13 AM Author
    Further updates:

    The name of our Boutique is "DAVISH" - derived from my surname "Davis" - combined with the word "Lavish"...

    Our store's interior is elegant, yet funky, thus attracting people from various age-groups and "classes".

    Our Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/DAVISH/50539631882 - will explain the rest, for those interested in making a comment...

    Thanks again
  • Posted on 2/3/2009 at 6:52 AM Accepted
    Hi Kevin

    Seems like a good idea and would really work in my part of the world

    2 things I have in mind, coming for a research background I say we always have to understand our customer, you can understand what are the turn-offs that are coming from customers who never visited although they know, also capture the image issue that Parveen has mentioned, I have to agree with his opinion about that.

    Since it is a small town, you can have a small party in you back yard, and since everyone knows everyone you can just invite people in to take a look on the products, speak not about price and VFM but also about uniqueness of the goods sold, I wouldn't like wearing what everyone else is wearing even if it means I will have to travel and pay more for it

    Good luck
    AS
  • Posted on 2/3/2009 at 7:11 AM Author
    Thanks for your reply Ahmed.

    I can tell you that I am as objective as it gets when I analyse my own businesses...My shop looks warm and inviting and not a thing is out of place...When customers walk in for the first time, they freeze in amazement and usually make remarks such as "Exquisite", "Amazing", "I can see you did a lot of hard work", "Well done on a wonderful shop" and so on...

    As far as individuality is concerned:

    Not all of our items are "brand names" - 85% of our store are our own "brand", which consists of individually sourced items from across the globe - therefore not one is the same and we don't have a "line of items" - there is only 1 of a kind...

    The rest are brand names, of which we also keep only 1 of a kind - therefore no-one will ever look the "same" or wear the same items...

    I hope this clears up that matter. Thank you so much for your assistance thus far.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 2/3/2009 at 8:30 AM Accepted
    A simple addition (if you don't already have it) would be a website that's SEO optimized for your region. Since everything is one-of-a-kind, you may not wish to make the website a catalog of items that people can order from (worldwide) but you do want people to be able to get a sense from your website the experience that's "in store" for them.

    Before you try to get more people to your store, focus on the people who have already visited. Did they purchase things or not? If not, then having more people come through may not yet be a good idea - you want people to come, buy, tell their friends, and repeat. If people did purchase, then you need to give them a reason to return (regularly). Perhaps a VIP preview of new purses in one month, outerwear another month, shoes etc. Or, give them coupons to gift to their friends.

    Have you contacted local clubs whose members might be prospective customers? For example: Mothers' club, Women entrepreneurs, etc.?
  • Posted on 2/3/2009 at 11:46 PM Member
    Hi Kevin,
    Thank you for all the information that you gave. It does really show your serious concern. I tried to theorize from the inputs you have given but the solution to your problem doesn't seem to be connected to any of these. Consumer behaviour is a very complex thing to understand ....sometimes consumer behave negatively even when all the marketer stimuli are favourable. This dosnt mean that there is no solution, it just means that I belong to a culture too different from yours to understand the nature of your problem. I also strongly feel that the only person who can give worthy advice or solution to you is someone from your own place (who has strong business acumen) because he will have real time understanding of all the variables that have impact on consumer behaviour. If possible analyse your customers culture on three dimensions of Beliefs(customer knowledge, learnings, dogmas), Values (what values the customer hold true in your city) and Customs (customs prevailing in your society) I have a strong hunch that the solution lies in one of these.
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