Building the Boutique

I know, I know, I’m about two weeks late with this post! I have a good excuse though, and trust me, being sick for the same lenght of time is no fun?

The summer/fall ‘11 market was one of my favorite market week experiences to date, and I wasn’t even the one buying! (heck, maybe that has something to do with it) This time around I was working as a consultant for a new private sale online retailer. I met up with the owner in the lobby of the Cooper Building bright and early on the first day of market week. I arrived prepared with a plan of action in hand — a list of about a dozen labels and showrooms that I felt would be a perfect fit for boutique.

We spent the next five hours working our way through the Cooper Building, the New Mart and the CMC looking at my suggested lines, her favorite lines, and a few surprises along the way. And it’s really funny how many amazing new lines I came across when I wasn’t the one buying — like Lauren Moshi’s insane new jewelry line, Sam Edelman’s new lower priced shoe line, and an amazing range of bags all priced under $130. We got a sneak peek at the new sweet valley high inspired collection from Wildfox — who knew neon cropped tops and graphic body suits could be so much fun! The only thing that didn’t impress me was the new House of Harlow sunglasses — too many retro/novelty shapes, and the plastic looks really cheap and not at all worth the price. Joey Showroom, however, had an amazing new shoe line plus a great handbag line to make up for it though (as snotty as some of their reps may have been to me in the past!)

And I felt like this new boutique owner got a pretty good taste of the good and bad sides of working with sales reps. Most of the reps were great, two in particular were exceptionally professional (they were sales directors and showroom owners, surprise surprise) and one in particular was completely useless. You know, the awkward type who basically forces you to extract information from her instead of volunteering it. That and she just walked away from us in the showroom — how rude!

Buying without spending your own money is actually a ton of fun. And ultimately, seeing how pleased the shop owner was with my services was the best reward. She and I got along great too, and I know she’s going to be wildly successful. I’ll be counting down the days until her store opens because there are number of things I want to snag for myself!

Q: I’m planning my first trip to market. Is it mandatory to make appointments?

A: Yes. Well, actually it’s not, but I would STRONGLY recommend it to anyone who’s going for the first time. Why? It’s less work and less confusion for the showroom, and trust me, during market they already have tons of work and tons of confusion going on. It will also save you a headache if the showroom decides not to sell to you — and yes, this can happen. Some showrooms want to check out your area, make sure other boutiques nearby aren’t carrying the line, or they just might want to know who else you’re carrying and what your shop looks like, etc. Even if they do let you place an order, they might check later and decide not to actually FILL your order, so why set yourself up for the disappointment?