Okay, I’m sure you’ve all enjoyed checking out the new products on OohLaLuxe.com (right? right!), but don’t think I’m going to forget what we’re all really here for!  Building the boutique is a never ending process.   I actually did my 3rd photoshoot last weekend, and my last for a while here….and for that I’m thankful.  Photoshoots just aren’t fun. Why?  Too much lifting!  I love the styling aspect but I hate having to take up that heavy mannequin and dress it.  It’s good excersize, though.  Thankfully this one was only about an hour with seven looks or so.

New Section - FAQs
You might notice the “FAQs” button at the top of the page.  This is my way of making the site easier to navigate.  So if anyone has questions that have already been answered in older posts, you can look up there and quickly find the particular post without having to wade through months and months of posts.  But its a work in progress!

Speaking of questions, a couple of weeks ago I received an email  from Latasha with a thorough set of questions about launching a boutique.  It’s basically a quick over view of a lot of things I discussed early on, but this is great for anyone who has just found this site, so check it out:

Q&A

How much do you know to order (inventory) for an online boutique, vs a actual boutique where you may have 3 of the same shirts where as online you have way more customer since you are online?
Well first off, I didn’t assume that I was going to have more customers.  When you think about it it’s more likely that you’ll have less customers because there’s no walk in traffic; you have to build your customer base from the ground up and you’re competing against EVERY online boutique, not just the ones in your town or in your area.  There’s really no set amount on how much to order.  I bought 1 or 2 in each size, and the only reason why I bought two in some sizes was because of the minimums on some lines.  I personally think it’s good to start small and not get in over your head, so I wouldn’t recommend taking in more than two pieces per size.

I know you are housing the merchandise yourself, did you ever think about letting a fulfillment house your merchandise? And with you housing the merchandise, how are you going about with shipping, packaging and that sort, are you going thru usps, fedx??

I don’t even know what a fulfillment house is!  People keep mentioning this but I’ve honestly never heard of it before.  I’ll have to look into it, but I highly doubt there’s one in my town anyways.  But I like having my things right here where I can access them in case a customer has a question about fit or if I need to do reshoots or something like that.  Plus, I’m guessing it’s cheaper and I need to save as much as I can!  I’m using UPS and USPS for international orders.

Did you ever email any of the sales reps asking to carry their lines, and if so, how did your go about asking them (what is key info to ask)?
I did, I emailed tons of them.  Just tell them what you can about your business and ask for their line sheets.  Usually they want to know where you’re located and what other brands you’re carrying.  If the line is really high end they might want to know more.  In this case you will probably need (I forget what it’s called exactly…) sort of like a press/media kit?  It would most likely be a PDF with information about your store, floor plans, square footage and a ton of other stuff. Unfortunately I don’t know too much about this since my store isn’t brick and mortar (yet :D)

Did you create any contracts and agreements for the reps or designers?
Not beyond the invoices, which only allows you to cancel an order up to 7 days after it’s place (I think; it might be 10 days, can’t remember exactly).

I know a lot of people say when starting out start out small and what not, but with starting out do you think its best to have a business lawyer and a business consultant, pr/marketing firm?
If you can afford those things I would say go for it.  I would KILL to be able to afford pr/marketing!  If you can only pick one out of those three, I would say go with that one.  And if you can, try and find someone you know to help with these things for free.  My dad runs a business totally unrelated to fashion, but he was still able to help me a lot with the paper work in the beginning (and the fact that he’s in financial services doesn’t hurt!) and I have a friend in PR who helped me with a press release.

How are you promoting your site??
Through advertisement!   This is the only thing I’m trying to keep hush hush, but it’s not that hard to figure out.  Online advertisement, basically.

When paying the sales reps are you doing cod or paying up front, credit??
They take my credit card at the show room and then they charge the card when it ships.  Usually they will call you to confirm the card before the ship date.

At the showroom/tradeshow, when you find the lines you want and the pieces do you have to pay up front?
No, you don’t have to. They give you a choice.  You can also do COD, or credit like I did.  I believe they take checks as well.

When you do decide on the lines you want to carry, how long is it until you receive the merchandise  Or does that depends on you and when you need the merchandise or when the site will be up and running?

Good question!   Right now the lines are showing their Fall 2 and Holiday collections to buyers; buying for Fall 1 (usually August & September) ended in April, so that gives you an idea of how far in advance buying is.  But sometimes, depending on the line, you can order immediates and have them shipped right away.  They’re basically left overs.  Voom, for example, is great with this.

And each season is broken up into two or three delivery dates, usually one per month.  So if I’m the sales rep for OLL and you’re looking to buy for this fall, there will be a different collection for October (shipping 10/15), November (shipping 11/15) and December (shipping 12/15).  That’s just an example, sometimes the ship dates are the 1st or 30th of the month.  More flexible lines will let you push back items from one shipment to a later one in order to meet their minimums. So there are ways to customize your deliveries, to a certain extent.

 So, what’s next? Hopefully buying for Fall and Spring in the coming months! I can’t wait for holiday sales, that should be a fun time.  And more importantly I can’t wait to get into the showrooms again.  Buying is seriously my favorite part of this process.  I’m looking at a handful of up and coming lines, and I’ll probably add one more well known line.

I can’t WAIT for you guys to see what Voom and Plastic Island have for Fall!!