This post is very delayed, and I’ll explain why later, but first I want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported me on this blog from the beginning, and thanks for all the compliments on the opening of OohLaLuxe.com.
Getting the Store Up & Running For the past two weeks I’ve been pretty much working on getting the site up, day and night. I’ve really had the worst luck with computers/internet recently. For about the last three weeks it’s been one problem after another! First I my internet would only work for a few hours a day, and after that was fixed my computer was attacked by spyware/trojans. It took me almost three days to clean that out and THEN my internet starts going at a snails pace (think slower than AOL…yeah). Le sigh; perfect timing, eh? It just slowed down my progress, but it didn’t stop me!
So I basically had to build the site from scratch, by hand, from the ground up. I’m pretty proud of doing it all myself, although it was terribly time consuming and a ton of work. I had Natasha of Riot Designs create the header image for me, but everything else I pretty much did myself. Yahoo Web Stores is pretty cool to work with, it’s not too limiting although there are a few things I would tweak about the system if I could. What’s great is that they make it fairly easy to customize the look of your site, as long as you know how to use Dreamweaver and design web pages before hand. But at the same time, that meant creating each and every page by hand. But thankfully the bulk of the work is over now!
Next it’s all about marketing. I’m probably going to start with word of mouth and then advertising, and then later try and get some PR locally or something like that. I really hope you guys continue reading this blog. I’m still going to document the process of running a boutique, because it’s really just getting started! And I hope to launch a brick and mortar store in a year or two, so of course I’ll cover that as well when I get there. Wish me luck guys!
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5 Responses to Open For Business Pt. 2
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First Things First
My name is Kim, I'm the owner of OohLaLuxe.com boutique and an fashion jack of all trades, so to speak. I started this blog as a guide for aspiring buyers on how to start a fashion boutique, and from there, it merged into a hybrid of a personal blog, guidebook, and a place for me to share my recent work.
How great! How have sales been so far? Are you working anywhere else currently?
What means of marketing are you using? I know of a PR firm in the L.A. that may be
of help if need be. I just ran across your site and it looks great, will you be updating
the homepage often, or is that too time consuming to change? Best of Luck!
Lisa
^Hey Lisa! No sales yet, but hopefully in the next week or two because my marketing hasnt even kicked in yet. I’m mainly focusing on blogs, word of mouth, and ads on fashion sites. PR would be great in the future but I cant afford that right now!
The scrolling billboard on the main page will probably change every two weeks at the least, most likely weekly
Thanks for your comments and compliments!
Hi Kim,
Maybe you already have a plan for this, but maybe this will be helpful for your readers. One thing you should definitely keep in mind when budgeting for marketing an ecommerce site is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You are doing a great job already by posting this blog. Blogs and the great advice that you are giving are a great way to get caught on search engines. SEO is probably one of the most important marketing tools in getting eyeballs and viewers to your site. These consultants have a whole bag of tricks when it comes to getting your website listed on the first page of a google search result if a consumer types in “shopping.” However, be wary of SEO consultants because many will charge for needless things. Check their references and make sure they have a track record for success. Cheers.
defintely seo is amazing! as i stated earlier my boutique is now defunct but I run the website for my husbands business. we pay about $1000 a month for seo, it’s so well worth it and way under 10% of sales which is what most business people I have talked with suggest budgeting for advertising. this is the only advertising they budget for every month and we get calls from all over the world. the business would not have had the cash flow it needed during the early days when we were drumming up local business if it weren’t for the use of seo to get online customers.
^Hey Alison, your info is SO helpful! I never knew how much to budget for advertising. 10% sounds good, Im trying to decrease how much I spend and just focus on SEO and search engines. Because honestly, advertising (at least for clothes) doesnt really bring in sales as you would think it would :/