Fear of Boutique Shopping Overcome

Have you ever had a fear of walking into a small boutique to do some shopping? A couple of things have always scared me, one that I wouldn't be able to afford anything, two that I was not dressed well enough to be in there, and three that I would be treated like I didn't belong there. On Friday night that fear was overcome. Tarah and I decided to have a whirlwind evening and see how many events we could cram into one evening. By, the way the count is 3. We started at La Rousse Happy Hour. La Rousse is a great boutique on Virginia St. The owner is extremely pleasant and helpful. She didn't tell you something looked good just for the sake of a sell. I appreciated that. The nice thing about happy hour is that it happens every friday from 4-6, she serves wine, has music playing and has a particular theme each week for what is on sale. I was able to get a navy blue dress by "Soda Blu" that fits my oversized body as well will fit me when I reach normal size again. Next we headed to the Alexis Hotel at 1st and Madison where Atsui Tokyo was holding there grand opening. I was nervous as the stores carries designs from Japan and the japanese fashion scene is much more progressive than Seattle. Well never fear, there are some of the cutest items that I ever did see. I look forward to post maternity and going back for some of the great items they carry. The grand opening party had a dj, champagne (Dry Soda for me) and apps provided by BOKA. If you find yourself down that way, drop in you may find something you just can't live with out. From there we headed to Fremont. They were have First Fashion Night. We checked out Essenza, Dream, Bliss, Les Amis, Burnt Sugar, Horseshoe, Bellefleur, LolaPop, and Industry. All of the stores were friendly and had great deals. By his time of the evening I was quite tired as I had been up since 5am due to a business breakfast.
My recommendation for that Friday night with nothing to do, check out our event calendar, gather up a couple of friends and make the rounds. You can get a taste of many things as well as accomplish some shopping.
Remember that Bellevue Fashion Week starts on Friday. Check out the calendar for some great events. Look for UFN, if you are there as we will be attending many of the events. Last year, Tarah and I had a lot of fun attending the shows and taking advantage of the sales.

Shop 07

On Monday May 14th, I attended the first ever Shop/07 put on by CraveParty. The purpose of the day was to bring together boutique owners and learn what others in the industry were doing. The day was set up with several panel discussions. It was insightful and at the same time could reassure you of what you were doing right or wrong.
The first panel of the day was "How does your market grow". The panelist included Luly Yang, Fran Bigelow, and Allison Olsen. The three discussed what it is they do, how they got to where they are today and strategies for success. One theme became very clear, Stay true to your vision and yourself. Logically, duh but really thinking about it becomes something harder to apply. It is easy to see what others are doing and try to emulate them however to be successful you must remember why you are in the market you are in and what strategies you decided to employ.
The second panel was "Promotions". The panelist included Victoria Roberts, Lisa Myers, and Karen Lorene. The main concept was to use promotions and events strategically. You do not want to be held in the same regard as Macy's and the One Day Sale. (Honestly, when aren't they having a one day sale). Promotions can differentiate you from others and draw customers in for different reasons such as rewarding the loyal customers or even clearing out inventory.
I skipped the next panel and took a long lunch since the tourist industry just doesn't do it for me.
In the afternoon session, there were breakout sessions. I chose to attend sessions related to the internet. The first was regarding what type of website do you have whether it be informational or e-commerce. It was an interesting discussion on which way to go. The second was related to e-newsletters and emailing customers. The theme that resonated here was similar to promotions, don't overdo it. When sending out a e-newsletter make sure that you have something to say to your customers that they will find of value specifically latest offerings, sales, specials, events, etc.
The final panel was Press Release Straight from the horses mouth. The panel was interesting related to getting PR with Daily Candy (Jasmine Moir), Seattle Magazine (Shannon Borg), and the Seattle Times (Monica Soto Ouchi). Each have their own style as far as contacting them, what they are looking for, lead times, etc. A person from the industry who handles PR would have been nice to learn what styles they use that are successful and what has been complete flops.
Overall it was a great day. Melody Biringer put on a great conference with some very informative speakers. Not bad for coming up with the idea 4 months ago.