What is a boutique?
A boutique is a store where exclusive clothing, accessories, jewelry, handbags, and other related goods are sold to an identified audience or to a particular segment of the market.
Goods in a boutique are likely to be more expensive compared to other stores. This is because they boast of high quality products and are exclusive.
Customers patronizing boutiques know they’ll be spending more compared to other stores but they care less because of the product quality. That’s one of the reasons. why this business is a good one.
So without any further ado, let’s get into the various types of boutiques you should know.
Note: Your boutique type should be chosen or decided on based on your passion for a particular niche.
In essence, who are those People you’ll like to focus on or target your boutique products too? Do you want to focus on male clothing, females wears, formal wears, children wears etc.
It’s not advisable to open a boutique targeting all available options especially if you’re just starting out.
Instead, you should pick a niche and launch your boutique focusing on a particular segment of the market.
You can decide on your target audience based on your knowledge or experience dealing or having dealt with a particular group of people.
For example, if you’ve worked at a boutique targeting women wears, it’s not a bad idea to open a boutique targeting the audience.
This is because based on your experience having worked at one, you must have known strategies to reach out and satisfy them easily, compared to other niches you know little or nothing about.
Read Also: How to start a boutique
Types of boutique
High-end boutiques
These are boutiques that stock up their stores with various products from top designers only. Examples of those designs are Gucci, Prada, fendi, Versace, Nike, Adidas, channels etc
High-end boutique
Because these products are very expensive, you should consider siting your boutique at a place saturated with high income earners.
In essence, a location place research is needed before starting a high-end boutique.
Modern fashion boutique.
A modern fashion boutique deal exclusively on popular brands.
This type of boutique can also be called the buy and sell boutiques in terms of the way they stock goods.
The buy and sell boutiques actually purchase trendy products in large quantities at wholesale prices from manufacturers or distributors and sell to customers at an higher rate.
To successfully leverage this boutique type, you may need to
Invest a lot of money to buy products for sale.
Work on developing a close relationship between yourself and the seller (wholesalers, distribution or manufactures); in other to buy at the a low price/best price so you can make more profit.
Always buy goods needed by your target audience in large quantities in other to get discount on prices.
The modern fashion boutique should be operated based on your interest in men fashion or women fashion. Whichever you feel you’re more comfortable serving based on your experience or passion is what you should go for.
Children boutiques
Just as the name implies, it’s a boutique that focuses on selling children wears.
Children wears boutique
It’s no news that the need for children wears is always on the increase and this is because the wears are cheap when compared to others.
Aside the cheap rate, children can hardly go a day on just a single wear. Because of their lifestyle at such tender age, there’s need for parents to change their cloths sometimes to keep them neat and healthy. Get deals on quality and colourful wears as they do well with kids.
Self made designs boutiques.
If you’re a fashion designer like me, you can set up your own boutique displaying your best self-made designs. Remember the likes of Gucci, Nike, Versace and other quality brands were nothing before they became something.
You can also start somewhere yourself by focusing on a particular segment of people and creating something of high quality for them. With hard work, creativity, consistency and patience you’ll become a recognized brand.
In summary, considerations on how to start a boutique are
Deciding on the scale or size of the boutique you want to open. Do you want to start on a small-scale or on a large-scale?
Type of boutique; This is all about choosing a niche or recognizing your target audience based on your passion for or experience having dealt with that segment of the market.
Abilities needed to start a boutique business.
High fashion sense.
To start a boutique successfully, you need to know a lot about fashion. It is very important you are very good at it. You should be able to spot a few clients and improve or change their fashion style completely for the better.
Familiarity with top designers and quality fabrics.
To run a boutique, you need to be familiar with all the top designs available in the market for your target audience. Aside that, you should understand or must know how to differentiate between high quality fabrics or products and low quality ones. Boutiques are known for their quality products and that’s why they attract premium prices.
Management skill
I’ve discussed something very similar about this on getting a good business education.
The whole idea is just to know how to manage your boutique to avoid hitting the rocks. Get to know how to plan well, organize, control, direct, finance and influence your staffs or employees and your boutique be just fine.
Challenges of a boutique business
Lack of start-up capital:
lack of customers at the introductory stage of the business.
Product price: some customers may feel the price of the product is always too expensive and they may feel reluctant to buy.
Expenses: (Money spent of transportation, salaries etc)
Unsatisfied clients
High level of competition.
All of the above challenges are associated with other businesses and they are nothing compared to the benefits of starting a boutique.
This business is a very lucrative one. So I’ll advise you get to work soon by following this guide on how to start a boutique to open yours; before someone else will acquire that ideal location.
Don’t forget to tell your fabric or product suppliers about your boutique. You can drop your flyers or business cards with them so they can help give or share to interested individuals to contact you.
So that’s it on the types of boutiques you can start from my end. If there’s any we missed or you’ve any contribution on this subject, feel free to drop your thoughts via the comment section of this blog.
Thanks for stopping by.
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