A boutique shop is a specialty retail store that sells unique and stylish clothing or apparel targeted at a niche market. A clothing boutique shop is a very profitable investment opportunity. With strategic planning and retail expertise, you can start this business with low capital investment.
Most boutique owners sell their own designs. You can also accommodate some of the popular brands with your clothing line. Compared to a retail store, a boutique is a small retail store with having a unique variety of items. Opening a clothing boutique shop is a wonderful opportunity for professional designers.
Here are the 10 Steps to Start a Boutique Shop
1. Understand the Market
Market research is the first thing you must do. The apparel industry is a bit crowded. Find out what products customers are missing. Or a better way you can offer something to them. Boutique stores are more focused on community selling. Decide what type of clothing items you will stock.
Evaluate the potential competition in your area. What other boutiques are operating with the same product line? What is their pricing strategy? How they promote etc. Determine how much space you need. A lot of thoughtful planning is required in starting this business.
2. Create a Business Plan
Calculate your startup budget including the cost of the venue, utilities, decoration, inventory, and initial promotional budget. A detailed business plan will help you in getting finance from the bank or any other investors.
Talk to a small business consultant about the licensing part of the retail business of your area. Choose a simple and memorable ‘Name’ and ‘logo’ of your brand that relates to the store’s design and style.
After getting the business plan, starting a boutique shop attracts some of the operational steps.
3. Make your Clothing Boutique Legal
To make your clothing boutique legally compliant, it is essential to register your business. Talk to a local attorney and select a business structure that suits you best.
In addition, you also need to procure specific licenses and permits required to run a shop business in your locality.
4. Fix Location
Find a convenient location for your store. Like any retail business, location plays a vital role in a boutique business. According to your target demographic select the place carefully. make sure that you can accommodate the parking facility for your customers. Either you can have an individual storefront or you can go for the shop-in-shop option. Check whether the site is worth the rent.
5. Set up the Shop
After securing the place, the next step is the decoration. Equally, pay attention to both the interior and exterior. Ask an interior designer to help you in developing a floor plan. This will help you to get the perfect plan with some trials and errors.
6. Stock Items for Your Clothing Boutique
According to your product item categories, start buying the trending items. Make a list of brands that you are planning to tie up. Meet wholesalers of those brands and negotiate hard to get the best price. If you want to sell your own product, make sure that you have sufficient stocks.
7. Price your Clothing Boutique Products
Price your products carefully. In a boutique shop, the price is not only a reference to the nominal amount of money being charged for a product. It can also refer to the “value equation” that the brand creates in a consumer’s mind.
8. Hire Manpower
Finding and choosing the right person for your boutique shop is a tough challenge. Concentrate on getting good salespeople. Procure other utilities like a computer and monitor, a point of sale software, a receipt printer, and a cash drawer.
9. Create a Website
Regardless of whether you sell online or offline, it’s important for every brand to have a website. This may only require a small investment of time and money but will be a crucial way to capture the traffic that you generate when you create interest in your brand. Think of your website as the first window into your brand and your world.
10. Have a Promotional Plan
In-store branding plays a huge role in the overall success of a clothing boutique shop business. It is best to hire an interior designer to get the job done.
There are a number of low-cost ways of promoting a clothing boutique shop. Some of the effective ways are listed below:
- Explore social media
- Take help from social influencers
- Publish advertisements in local newspapers and fashion magazines
- Sponsor local fashion events
- Email marketing
- Offer Discounts
It is advised to go for a soft launch of your clothing boutique before officially opening the shop.
About the Author: 99businessideas.com led by Rupak Chakrabarty is committed to helping beginners, entrepreneurs, and small business owners in starting, managing, and growing their businesses.
