When we were getting ready to open up our clothing boutique, Juniper Oak Clothing, I had a hard time finding the information I needed. For the longest time, prior to opening the shop, I thought that in order to open my boutique, I would have to sew all of the clothing. I honestly thought that’s how it was done. Which was discouraging, since I’d wanted to have a clothing store for so long. Once I realized that the most common option was to buy clothes via wholesale, we decided to take the plunge. I’ve had so many questions on how to open a clothing boutique in the last few months. When I was doing research, it was hard to find all the information I needed. So, here are my tips.
Find your niche/what makes you special
The harsh truth is that there are a lot of clothing boutiques. I’m not going to say too many, but there are a lot. Especially here in Utah. So, in order to be successful, you’ll need to find something to set yourself apart. For me and Juniper Oak, that’s price and style. Everyone is entitled to run their business however they’d like, but I think most clothing boutiques are priced way too high. I’m not going to spend $30 on a pair of casual joggers. I also hate most styles that are common among Utah boutiques. So I’m careful to only select items that are trendy but not at any of the other boutiques I’ve seen.
This is just what I’ve chosen, you have to find what makes you different!
Finding wholesalers
This was the part that was my biggest struggle when I was getting started. I had noooo idea where to buy my clothing. Most clothing companies aren’t very open with where they get their wholesale clothing. They have a reason to be, if they want to keep their sources to themselves. But it was hard to find anything. Doing google searches didn’t reveal much. And the wholesale websites I did find had clothing I wouldn’t want to stock in my store. It was really discouraging. The process to find wholesale companies that would work for our company was disheartening. I still wouldn’t say that I’m entirely satisfied with the sources we’ve found, and I’m constantly on the lookout for new wholesale companies to work with.
My best resource to someone who is wondering how to open a clothing boutique, would be LA Showroom. They have a wide range of wholesale sellers you can sort through. Some are expensive, some are cheap, some are ugly, some are uglier. There are gems, but finding new items, especially in the beginning, would often take hours. The months leading up to Juniper Oak opening, Seth and I would spend 3+ hours a night, scouring websites, trying to find the right clothing to stock.
Pricing and profit margins
This is definitely one of the trickier parts of opening a clothing company. This and my last point were, and continue to be, the hardest parts. We constantly are changing and rethinking how the pricing and profit sections of our business are set up. We’ve only been open four months, and I’m sure within the next few months we’ll get a solid handle on how things function on our end.
The reason this is so confusing, at least in my case, is that we really want to be an affordable option. While also being affordable, we have to charge enough to keep us in business. We priced our initial launch at 200% profit. So, double what we paid for it. After our first dozen orders I realized there would be no way to sustain the business that way. It would be enough to pay off what we spent and then reorder, which would put nothing in our pocket and there are other expenses! Shipping supplies, website costs, business license, taxes, etc. So we had to rethink our pricing as we moved forward. Enough that we could sustain our business while still being as affordable as possible.
Marketing
Marketing is a huge part of owning a company. You need to market yourself and your products to new customers and clients, to try and expand your business and keep you going. We’ve tried a few different things, and again, our company is very new. We definitely haven’t tried it all and things can change.
Absolutely, 100% the best marketing strategy that we’ve used is influencer marketing. 100%. Find bloggers and influencers that already promote the types of products you sell, and reach out to them.
And then here’s the hard bit of influencer marketing that you’re going to have to chew on. You’ll have to pay. Sure, some smaller influencers with followings under 10k will post for free. We have definitely used those influencers, because we’re small, and our marketing budget is tiny. But you can’t ask influencers who promote brands for their living to promote you for free. You can always reach out to someone and see what their situation is, but if they respond with their rates, respect that. And then pencil it into your budget for the future. Or work exclusively with small bloggers(who are also wonderful at helping you gain brand recognition. I love my fellow microinfluencers).
The other stuff + how to open a clothing boutique
There are a lot of little things that go into starting a business. And almost all of it is stuff you’ll have to figure out once you get things started. Get yourself a website, an instagram account, and then market the heck out of yourself.
I hope this was somewhat helpful! I spent so long trying to figure out how to open a clothing boutique, so please feel free to comment or email me with any questions you have.