Making your mark in the ultra-competitive world of fashion is not easy; but it’s totally possible if one of the most essential aspects isn’t overlooked: brand promotion.

It’s no secret. The key to the success of any business is to work in a consistent and disciplined manner.

If you want to have more successful brand communication and increase your sales, take a look at these simple tips to promote your fashion boutique.

Have a website full of personality

Websites remain essential for brands. Having a good site that grabs the visitor’s attention in less than 7 seconds is key.

To achieve this, you must give your brand a personality. Make the tone of communication and design revolve around the public your products are targeting.

Photographs are essential to get the attention of your potential clients, so make sure you have striking good-quality images.

Blogs have also become an essential tool to attract and retain customers. Start a brand blog and turn it into a fun and useful communication channel for your target audience.

Become the king of social media

Social media has revolutionized the way of marketing and reaching customers. However, the key is to produce content on a regular basis and understand the difference between each social media channel.

Creating content for Facebook, Instagram or YouTube is not the same. Each one has its own codes and styles, and users are different because their way of consuming content is different.

So, become the king of social media by learning the specific techniques of each one of them and by dedicating time to produce content. But, once again, it will do no good if you publish an incredible post today but don’t come back to publish anything in three weeks. Consistency is the basis for an active and successful social media channel.

If you don’t have time or prefer to leave social media in the hands of professionals, you can also hire a digital marketing agency to do this.

Offer memorable packaging

The packaging in which you give or send your products says a lot about your brand. It can be the difference between wanting to buy again in your store or not.

A beautiful package is a great way to make your brand memorable and will make your customers want to share photos of their new purchase on social media.

Hire a designer and create together a package that is cheap to produce, environmentally friendly and totally memorable. Let your imagination fly, brainstorm, ask your friends and customers, and you’ll see that you can easily create unique and distinctive packaging for your brand.

It’s common to believe that to dress well you need a lot of money. Fortunately, this isn’t true. By buying the right clothes, having some key accessories, and pulling out some clever tricks, you can always look sharp without going bankrupt.

Do you want to know the best tips to dress well on a budget? Keep reading to find out!

Tip 1: The core basics of any wardrobe

5 basic pieces are essential in a girl’s wardrobe: a pair of jeans that fit just right, a white shirt, a plain skirt, a dark blazer, and the classic “little black dress”.

If you have these 5 pieces, and of good quality, you can be sure that you’ll get out of any fashion emergency. Combining these pieces, you can go to virtually any type of event: a romantic dinner, a work meeting, a picnic with your friends, a wedding, etc.

Make sure you always have these clothes in good condition.

Tip 2: Accessories: essential for any outfit

Accessories can completely change any outfit. They will help you give your personal touch and fill your look with life.

A necklace or set of striking earrings, an unconventional belt, a headband, or a statement bag will make any simple outfit look amazing.

You don’t need to have hundreds of accessories. You just need a good piece of each thing and that´ll be enough to play with different combinations with your clothes.

Tip 3: Timeless and neutral color shoes

Make sure you have a good pair of the following shoes in your closet: flats, heels, sandals, and tennis shoes. That’s it. With this variety, it’s more than enough for all possible outfits that you can use.

If you don’t want to be buying shoes frequently, get timeless styles and neutral tones that combine with any color, such as black, nude, and camel.

Tip 4: Say yes to sales

Whenever you see a store with sales, get inside and see what you find. Maybe you’re looking to renew some of your basic clothes or need a party dress. You never know the hidden jewels you can find on sale, so take the time to scan all the stores. Maybe you can find a piece that will become the new favorite in your closet.

Tip 5: Always keep in mind

The key to looking sharp for less is to keep all your clothes and accessories in good condition and have basic and timeless pieces. You don’t need to have thousands of things in your closet, with the right ones you will always look great.

Digital marketing has become an essential tool for any type of business. As the owner or manager of a fashion boutique, you’re probably already using some digital marketing tools on social media; if not, we recommend that you start right now.

Digital marketing will help you reach your target customers easier, learn about their preferences, create engagement, spoil them with promotions (with the idea of ​​creating awareness and loyalty) and track everything to determine if you’re going on the right path or if you should try any other strategy.

Whether or not you have a digital marketing plan in social media, here we share 5 strategies that will help you increase sales of your fashion boutique.

Launch holiday promotions

During the holidays, it’s easier to capture the attention of potential customers. According to the season of the year, you can launch promotions and different incentives to buyers through your brand’s social media.

Think about Christmas and New Year’s season; it’s an excellent time to sell clothes, accessories and all kinds of things related to fashion. You can come up with a full week of promotions in which one day you cut prices of dresses, the next day of shoes, the third day of accessories, and so on.

Prom season is an excellent time to sell party dresses, so start with a promotion campaign during Easter.

Run an Instagram giveaway to grow your brand’s awareness and the size of your community

Instagram giveaways are quite successful because in just a couple of days, the size of your community can grow considerably with quality followers.

The dynamic can be very easy: ask your current Instagram followers to post a comment on why they want to win the giveaway and tag three friends who may also want that gift. Those friends can also compete for the giveaway and for that they must start following you and tag three other friends. And just like that, you create a new chain of quality followers who may be interested in buying your products.

Send birthday coupons

We all love to be congratulated on our birthdays. With this in mind, be sure to send a birthday e-card to your customers and include a discount coupon as a birthday gift from your store. The chances that customers want to use that coupon as part of their birthday celebrations are quite high. In addition to a possible sale, you will be creating loyalty.

Start a blog

If you don’t have a fashion blog yet, we recommend that you start it as soon as possible. If you already have it, then continue posting valuable articles regularly.

Blogs are an excellent tool to promote your products through useful, practical and interesting information for your customers.

Keep your blog posts short, sweet and to the point, which is what digital readers are looking for today.

Use social media targeting benefits to your advantage

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter make it really easy to find the people who most likely want to buy your products.

With the tools of these social media, you can target your advertising campaigns and make them quite successful. For example, if you want to sell prom dresses, you can direct all marketing efforts to girls between 16 and 18 years old who live a certain radius away from your store. You can also choose the interests of the people to whom you want to target your ads and even focus on friends of people who are already following your brand on social media.

The possibilities are endless and they all play in your favor. You just have to take advantage of them to improve and increase your sales.

In an ideal world, you would be able to manage a fashion boutique based on your personal taste and on what you exclusively want to put in your window display. However, in the real world, it doesn’t work that way at all.

If you want your store to thrive and become a successful business, you have to manage your inventory based on local market factors and customer behavior.

But, of course, you don’t have a crystal ball nor can you read the minds of customers. And you might think that many decisions must be made by instinct or assumptions.

This is precisely why market research is essential. It helps eliminate much of that uncertainty, helping you to better understand your target customers, your competition, your products and the industry in general. When you know all this, your fashion boutique has much more chances of success.

In a nutshell: market research collects the information you need to know about the needs and preferences of customers, helping to understand why they want (or don’t want) to buy your products.

Use market research to learn about your client’s mindset

Knowing your target customers’ mindset will help you offer them items that go according to their values, taste and needs.

Find out who your customers are, what style of clothes they like to wear and how they feel reflected in their fashion choices.

The fashion world and trends change all the time

If there’s an industry that is continually changing, it’s fashion. So, the key to successful market research in the fashion world is keeping in mind that it never ends.

Just because you do market research now, doesn’t mean you don’t have to do it again — quite the opposite. A lot can change in 1 year or just a few months, so it’s best to do market research on a regular basis. Adopt it as one of the permanent tasks within the management of your fashion boutique.

How to do market research?

A lot of companies prefer to hire professional services for market research, which is very good. But, if you prefer to do the research yourself, this is how you can do it:

▸ Customer opinions and reviews: analyze what people say about the products you sell and about your competition. This is especially easy to do with the reviews that people write on Facebook business pages. Take the time to read what customers write on your own page and your competitors’ pages.
▸ Customer surveys: you can do them via email or in your store. You’ll be surprised by all that you can learn from them.
▸ In-depth interviews: ask your clients if they allow you to call them one day to have an in-depth telephone interview. That will be your opportunity to ask them everything you want to know about their shopping habits, relation with fashion, etc.
▸ Sales records: an excellent option to learn more about your market is to review the information of customers and sales that you already have in your records.
▸ Talk with your employees: your staff has privileged information about the behavior of people who enter your store (whether they buy something or just come in to see). Talk with your employees and ask them which are the most frequent questions of the customers, or the behavior they observe, such as customers spending more time looking at specific items, or showing interest or displeasure.

Are you about to celebrate your quinceañera party? We bet you want to look fantastic!

That day is very special because the celebration is all about you and the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Your family, best friends and loved ones will be present there that day.

Among all the elements that you should consider for your quinceañera party, the most important is your dress. Many other decisions depend on it, such as the shoes, hairstyles, and type of jewelry you’ll be wearing. It can also influence the decoration of the venue and the style of the invitations.

As we know it’s an important decision, we want to share some tips for choosing the best quinceañera dress for you.

Tip 1: Choose the silhouette you like best

Although most quinceañera dresses are characterized by having a princess-style silhouette, there are also less sumptuous options.

Simply choose the silhouette you like best, it’s your moment and all eyes will be on you, so if you want to be a princess, be it.

If you like to break with the conventional style, then choose a less voluptuous quinceañera dress and that doesn’t stick with the classic silhouette; for example, a high-low skirt dress. It’s up to you.

Tip 2: Choose the color of the dress according to your skin tone

Some colors go better according to our skin tone.

If your skin is dark, perhaps you’ve realized that practically all colors look good on you. However, brighter tones such as yellow, fuchsia, green, or electric blue make you look spectacular. On the other hand, if you prefer to make a nice contrast, then go for pastel colors or white tones.

If you are olive-skinned, avoid beige tones as they don’t favor you so much. Choose eye-catching colors like violet, orange, vermilion red, salmon, or yellow.

If your skin is white, the first thing you should do is get away from light tones. Your skin looks beautiful with dark and saturated colors like turquoise, burgundy, red, emerald green, or even gold.

Tip 3: Choose the dress according to your body type

All bodies are different and there are dress styles that favor us more than others.

If you are a short girl, a waist-cut dress looks beautiful on you, as they help stylize your silhouette, making visually longer the lower part of your body.

If you are thin, wide skirt dresses or with ruffles will help you give more volume to your figure. If, on the contrary, you are of robust complexion, an empire-cut dress that marks your waist will be very flattering for you.

If you have a large bust, round-neck and sweetheart necklines will make you feel quite comfortable and look great; avoid halter necklines. If you have a smaller bust size, then choose a corset that fits your waist.

Now, you’re ready to go and find your dream quinceañera dress! Remember that the most important thing is that you feel comfortable with your dress so you can enjoy your party non-stop.

All women look to have a personal style. We always think that others are better dressed than us, that they have a more elaborate style, or that they have a special gift for choosing clothes that make them look fantastic.

But in reality, our style evolves with us throughout life, so it’s normal to be in a constant search. Changing styles is quite good because it means that we change over time; that we mature and see the world differently. Our needs evolve constantly, and that allows us to stay creative.

No matter what stage of life you are in, these tips will help you find and define your personal style of the moment.

Tip 1: Choose the story you want to tell with your clothes

It is said that looks can be deceiving. We have the great advantage of being able to tell all the stories we want with our clothes. Elegant, sexy, glamorous, rockstar… we can decide it with the way we dress.

Of course, the best thing is to dress according to our personality, the idea we make of ourselves, and the one we want to transmit.

Think about it for a moment: what do you want to say about yourself through your clothes? That you’re a happy person? That you’re an introvert or an extrovert? That you like simplicity? Everything is possible and ‘you’re free to dress according to your wishes. Also, you can decide to be all these people on different days; there are no rules.

So, imagine the person you want to be and define what clothes you could wear to be that person.

Tip 2: Create your basic kit

It’s convenient always to have basic clothes in your closet. A white shirt, jeans, a comfortable skirt, and the classic “little black dress” are some of the essential pieces.

So, you must define the basis of your wardrobe, that is, the clothes you can’t live without. This basic kit is the key to your personal style and it can give you an idea of what you like to wear the most. For example, maybe for your jeans are essential, while for your best friend can be skirts or dresses.

Make a list of the clothes you have used the most in the last year and write why. This will make your favorite items jump before your eyes, and it’ll be easier to see what your current style is and decide whether you like it or not.

Tip 3: Does your fashion style adapt to your lifestyle?

You have a vague idea of your ideal style and the story you want to tell, but, does this story really fit your lifestyle? Is it an ideal style for your day to day or, on the contrary, it has nothing to do with your daily life?

Maybe you’re a busy person who runs all day; then you need to give priority to have comfortable clothes, instead of an elegant outfit difficult to wear with the daily hustle. Please note that having comfortable clothes doesn’t mean slobby, you can look chic and stylish without sacrificing comfort.

Always try to give more importance to clothing that fits your lifestyle. If you have trouble defining your style, this is a great way to find it. Besides, you can always come up with ways to improve your outfits if you feel the need or desire to do so.

Tip 4: Buy the right clothes

You’ll have less difficulty defining your style if you buy the right clothes. That is, those pieces that you would like to use always and that adapt to your lifestyle and the story you want to tell. And yet, making purchase mistakes is also a good long-term way of knowing what you want or rather what you no longer want.

Don’t feel guilty if you regret having bought that green jumpsuit you never wore (because you don’t wear jumpsuits, nor do you like green, but it was so beautiful that you couldn’t resist. Mistakes are also necessary for life.

On the other hand, it’s common to have the idea that we need to have a lot of money to look elegant and well-dressed. This is a mistake. Style can’t be bought, so it doesn’t matter how much you spend on clothes.

Tip 5: Get inspired and stay creative

Your style doesn’t define you for your whole life. You have the right to make it evolve and adapt it. Fashion is a great playground, so you have to have fun with it.

Even if you feel comfortable with your current style, never stop inspiring yourself. With social media, it’s very easy to find inspiration that will encourage you to try a new trend, a color you never thought to use, or to dare to wear a type of clothing that until now you have never used.

In fashion, never say never.

If you own or manage a clothing boutique, it’s very likely that you’re constantly seeking to maximize the profit margin you have.

Being able to increase the profit margin, which is the difference between gross income and expenses, will allow you to do many things with your business, such as exploring new lines of products, thinking about an expansion, or implementing improvements that will benefit your short, medium and long term profitability.

Take into account the following ideas to create a comprehensive plan that allows you to have a higher profit margin in your clothing store.

Reduce costs in your store

Increasing the selling price of your products to improve your margin is usually not the best idea, as this could lead you to lose a considerable number of customers.

A good solution is to adopt simple but effective schemes that can make a real difference in the costs you have. For example, it’s essential to have good employee handling and well-planned inventory management. The reduction of packing costs for shipping orders or the stored goods can reduce the seemingly harmless expenses.

Also, the selection of your suppliers and the relationship you have with them are crucial, because they can help you improve costs, get discounts or give you benefits that will improve the profitability of your store.

Do a revaluation of the prices at your store

It’s important to have a balance between the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) and the price that customers are willing to pay.

Make a revaluation of the prices you currently have and create a strategy. One idea is to put “premium” prices on items that are used once in a lifetime, such as wedding dresses or prom dresses; and that the rest of your products keep competitive and attractive prices for your customers.

Offer an extra that doesn’t cost you anything

Speaking of a fashion store, you can offer personalized style advice when your customers are shopping, and charge for it. So you can go from selling just a dress, to selling a dress plus a consultancy.

Also, many customers are willing to spend a little more in stores where they know they’ll receive extraordinary service. If your store starts to be known for the quality of its customer service, you can increase your prices and obtain a higher profit margin.

As the owner or manager of a fashion boutique, it’s easy to get discouraged and frustrated when sales are low or when you don’t receive enough visits to your store.

At times like these, you need to know some tips and strategies that will help you get your store back on track to increase sales and make it a thriving business.

Here are 7 tips that you can easily implement and that will improve the sales of your boutique.

Give people a reason to visit your store

One of the main things you can do to promote your store is to give people a reason to visit it.

Whether you organize a private event, offer products that’ll be available only for a limited time or you distribute online coupons that can only be used in your physical store.

Focus on the way you sell

Of course, it’s crucial that you have quality suppliers with excellent products, but also the customer service and the way in which you sell is very important for the success of your store.

Train your staff to be friendly and helpful with customers at all times, improve your refund policy, and be accessible on social media. In a nutshell, offer an extraordinary complete experience for your clients.

Building this type of customer service may cost a bit more in the short term, but it’ll help you have a very healthy final balance with happy and loyal customers.

Never stop analyzing

Analyze your sales or the absence of them; of previous days and even of previous years. Analyze the products you have in inventory and the sales of each of them. Also analyze your competition, your customers and your employees. All that analysis will help you determine what you can do to improve your sales, your marketing strategies, the performance of your employees and even yours. Never stop analyzing.

Motivate your customers to pre-order

If you sell prom dresses, be sure to do an advertising campaign in which customers feel that time and inventory is limited and that it’s best to buy or order their dresses in advance.

The feeling of limited time and limited edition motivates buyers to act, as they won’t have the opportunity to obtain those products at another time of the year, or at least not in the same way.

Be locally relevant

As much as possible, get to know in-depth the community in which you operate. This will help you find marketing and awareness ideas with which local people will connect more easily.

Organize events

If possible, organize at least one event per month in your store. Events can attract visitors and fill your boutique with potential customers.

For example, you can organize a fashion show, a makeup class or a personal style course. The idea is to offer an event related to your fashion store and provide something of quality to attendees who can become customers.

Tell a visual story in your window display

If your store is in an area with a lot of pedestrian traffic, create a beautiful window display that tells a story. From the outside, your store should invite people to go in.

A well-designed window display attracts the curiosity of customers and encourages purchase.

Gala dinners are the events with the strictest dress code. If you were invited to one, don’t panic, getting dressed for a gala can be quite fun, because it’s something that doesn’t happen so frequently.

First of all, remember that gala parties are always at night, so your whole look must be thought for night time.

Also, it’s important to know the dress code for the gala you are attending since it can be black tie, black tie optional, or semi-formal.

Take note of the following tips to know how to dress for a gala party, and take advantage of the event to pamper yourself with a dreamy dress.

If it’s Black tie gala…

For a black-tie gala, men should wear tuxedos and women should wear long and very formal gowns.

This is the occasion when you can wear a dress with a princess-like silhouette. Your overall look should be very elegant and glamorous.

If you don’t know what color of the dress to choose, black and dark colors never fail for gala parties.

If it’s Black tie optional gala…

Black tie optional galas are a bit less elegant. Men can choose to wear a suit instead of a tuxedo and women should wear long dresses, but not so dramatic ones.

Choose a dress whose shape highlights your silhouette and don’t forget that it is an evening event, so say yes to all the sparkle that you want.

If it’s Semiformal gala…

The third dress code option is semiformal, which is usually for parties with a more relaxed atmosphere.

For a semiformal gala you can choose a midi dress or even a cocktail dress. If you prefer to go with a long dress, it’s ok, but make sure it’s a simpler dress than the one you would wear for a formal gala.

Shoes to wear at gala…

For an entire gala look, choose high-heels with rhinestones, sequins, and glitter.

If your dress is black, go for black shoes, but if it’s of another color, gold or silver heels can be an excellent option.

Last thing, your Coat…

As galas are always at night, you should consider taking something to keep you warm.

If the party is in wintertime, think of an elegant coat. If the gala is on the beach or in a warm-weather place, you can wear a silk pashmina to cover your shoulders.

Follow these tips and look spectacular at the next gala party you go to. Remember, the key element of your look is the dress, so take your time to choose the right one for you.

The relationship with your suppliers is an important aspect not only for the success of your business but also for its growth.

When trying to grow your business, it’s important to maximize each advantage, and you are likely overlooking the extra benefit you can get from your suppliers.

Remember that the companies to which you buy products and services can be potential partners, because, if your business grows, they also benefit as you’ll be able to buy more, so your success is in the interest of both.

If you have a good relationship with your suppliers and you are known for paying on time, they could increase your available credit and give you more time to pay, which can get you out of a hurry if you are in a moment of low cash flow.

Turn Your Suppliers into Partners for Your Business Growth

We recommend that you reflect on what you expect from each of your suppliers. There may be hidden opportunities for you, and that can be very beneficial for your business.

Also, certain aspects can help you identify if a supplier is helping your business grow or not.

Innovation and Improvements

If your supplier is not growing and improving her offer for you, you’re not getting continuous value from her. She is an expert in her field and should have the potential to innovate her work to offer you better products.

Advice

A supplier that’s working to grow your business should offer advice based on what you really need and not only what you want to hear.

Beyond Expectation

If your supplier exceeds your expectations without your pressure, it’s worthwhile to develop and consider her as a partner for important projects.

Time

Time is worth gold, and that’s why your supplier must give the necessary time and attention to your business, to know how it’s going, and what its needs are.

The best suppliers are those who are continuously giving you new ideas and suggestions to improve your business. There is much to be gained by having a stable supplier base, as long as they help you grow by improving aspects of the business.

The stability and support of your suppliers are essential when you are growing, or your business is seeing changes in the market.

So don’t go with suppliers just for the price. Consider the whole package of benefits to give a higher value to the business relationship. Also, reward proactive suppliers. They’re a great asset to your business!