1) Double check your sales from the prior year to see what items were trending high. If you don’t have record of last year, or if your boutique is new, then there are a few other things you can do. You can collaborate with other boutique owners online in forum groups. You can create a social networking site account to connect with other boutique owners to help you. Experience can give them an edge that you can benefit from if they are willing to chat with you and give you pointers. Plus, being active in your field online can help to boost your boutique’s popularity before the holiday season.

2) It can be difficult to determine how much of a new product to order. One way to find out if a new product is “hot” is to call the manufacturer. Ask them about trends that they’ve seen. Are they having to ramp up production to keep up with demand? Is there a wait when you order because they are selling everything as quickly as they can make it? Finding out if you’re carrying a “hot” item can be very valuable. Not only will you know to order more than normal, but you can make strategic decisions about which products to promote during the holidays.

3) Another way to find out if something is going to be popular this holiday season is to search online. You can see if people are using auction sites to get their hands on certain products. You can see if other sites selling that item are sold out. Connect with your suppliers or brands on social sites to see what their fans are talking about. Try to get a feel for which products are likely to move and then order accordingly.

4) Once you get everything ordered, you can use the information that you’ve gathered to your advantage. Now you know what to promote this holiday season. Make sure that your clothing racks are clearly labeled with brand names and special prices. A clothing rack that allows you to face your clothing outward instead of crammed together will be more effective. Advertise on your site, social network, storefront windows, e-mail list, and flyers that you are fully stocked with the popular item. Keep an eye online for price changes so that you stay competitive throughout the season.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

1) Make sure that basics are not at the front of the store or at the ends of your aisles. If someone is coming in for jeans, a black t-shirt, or some other common wardrobe essential, you want to lure them deeper into the store. Try to ensure that they will pass a lot of other enticing items as they make their way back to the basics.

2) You should also arrange your brands with this concept in mind. If your boutique sells a lot of a certain name brand of shoes, then customers should have to weave around all of the other shoe displays to get to them. If you have aisles, put the most popular name brands in the center of the aisles. You don’t want people to be able to easily avoid your other products by being able to grab what they need from the end of the aisle.

3) Surround or pair items that you know to be basics with other items that you want to promote. If you know that people are coming in for that new style of jeans, then you should create interesting displays coordinating those jeans with other items. Mannequin displays are perfect for this cause. Dress the mannequin in a top that goes great with the jeans, and then also load it up with accessories, like purses, sunglasses, hats, shoes and jewelry. Use a sign or other form of communication to make sure that your shoppers are aware that you have the popular item, but don’t promote it out on its own.

4) If you use a lot of bright lighting, obtrusive music, or other “in your face” themes, you’re not really encouraging the customer to relax and shop. Make sure that your retail design incorporates things that make people want to spend time in your store. Displaying samples is a good way to make sure that people spend time on your cosmetics aisles. Putting your shoe inventory our where people can try on shoes without having to ask an employee is a good way to keep them there longer. You can even use scented air filters, incense, candles and air fresheners to induce relaxation.

5) Make sure that your shoppers are comfortable and that everything is easy to access. Don’t crowd your displays. Clothing racks, garment racks, shelves and other displays should not be placed close together. No one wants to be looking through a clothing rack for their size and be backed up to another customer. Narrow aisles discourage people from browsing and taking the time to find the items that they’re interested in.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

Theft is often reported as the number one concern of boutique owners. You’ve put a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears into starting up your business and you just want to make sure that someone is not trying to take it away from you. Theft can hurt small businesses so quickly. It’s important to try and prevent theft from happening. It is almost always easier to prevent theft than it is to regain your footing after a major loss.

Internal theft is the biggest source of loss for retail businesses. Employee theft accounts for three times the amount of loss businesses incur from shoplifters. Employees that learn your business’s weaknesses are the most inclined to steal. Even if they have never shoplifted a thing, there will be a time when they are tempted to take something from work. The reasons for employees deciding to steal could include the security of knowing that they won’t get caught, frustration with low pay, dissatisfaction with job policies, or just about any other reason. It can be hard to resist when there is plenty of opportunity facing them every day.

There are a few ways to prevent internal theft from happening. Surprisingly, the first thing you should do is treat your employees with respect. Ever heard the saying, “Treat others as you wish to be treated”? Employees that respect their employers are far less likely to steal from them, especially if they know that the employee is personally vested in the business.

Monitor sales in a way that rewards employees for good inventory counts. Have one person per shift in charge of display cases that lock. Have the case inventoried at the end of each shift to make an employee feel personally responsible for high dollar items. Do the same sort of checks with the register.

Investing in a security system will let your employees know that they shouldn’t attempt anything. If you’ve done your reference checks and don’t hire anyone without exemplary recommendations, then it’s likely that you’re dealing with good people who do not want to get into trouble.

Arranging your store in a way that makes theft more difficult is also a good practice. If you cram your clothes on a basic clothing rack, then it’s easy for employees to slip something off the rack without it being noticed. Opt for clothing racks that have spacers and display clothing in a more orderly fashion so that it will be obvious if something is missing. Keep your clothing racks fully stocked so that it is easy to do a quick inventory at any time.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

One of the major things you should do is prevent theft. If you can closely manage your budget so that you at least have the inventory on hand that you’ve paid for, then you can avoid the pitfall of unexpected inventory costs sneaking up on you at a bad time. Theft is one of the biggest complaints of boutique owners because it’s almost impossible to plan for and it can make it nearly impossible to get back on your feet after it happens.

Sadly, most theft happens internally. Because boutiques are small, don’t have many employees, and generally can’t afford a surveillance system, employees feel too safe and can end up stealing from the company. In fact, employee theft accounts for three times the loss of shopper theft. You can help by eliminating temptations. You can offer quarterly bonuses to your managers for loss amounts below the norm. Show all of your employees respect and pay them enough that they care a lot about keeping their jobs. Employees that respect you and that feel respected are less likely to steal.

You can also install dummy surveillance systems so that it appears to employees that they are being recorded. This doesn’t cost much and can save you from going out of business. You can also use locking glass display cases for high dollar or especially tempting items. Employees can be responsible for inventory counts of certain items at the beginning and end of each shift. This way, each employee is responsible for what happens while they are the ones holding the key.

To prevent theft by shoppers, try not to overcrowd your clothing racks. Clothes crammed on a garment rack give shoppers cover for slipping things into their clothing or bags. You can use slatwall to keep things spread out and on the walls. This will give you better visuals throughout your store and keep your garment racks lighter and further apart.

Making these few changes can help you to better control some of the factors of retail failure. Stay diligent and you’ll be better able to manage the fluctuations that come with running your own boutique.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

A simple e-mail list is a good place to start. Offer customers a discount on their purchase if they sign up for your monthly newsletter, or agree to receive promotions, coupons and announcements from you in the form of e-mail. Generally, people don’t want to have very many e-mails from a company, so you should probably consider only sending out one per month. Make announcements, personalize the feel of the letter, and have coupons that people can print out and redeem in the store.

When people receive your newsletter, it should be colorful and full of pictures. Learning a little about designing a template for your newsletter can help you to keep your customers’ interest while sticking to your brand image. If you’re not comfortable, consider hiring a professional for this part of the job. Beyond that, everything else should be free.

You also need to let your shoppers know what’s going on and what’s coming up while they’re in the store. Place advertisements on your outdoor sign, in your display windows, and on top of your clothing racks. Place signs at eye level so that they are easy to spot and read. You can also have your sales people personally tell people about your promotions and upcoming sales. Boutique shoppers are intrigued when you let them know that their favorite brands are going on sale or that new merchandise is coming in soon.

Boutiques are often small, independently owned businesses that do not have a lot of money to spend on advertising. So, keeping up with your customers on your own can be very effective and rewarding. Start a social networking site account to notify your customers of sales and new arrivals. Have them share your link to participate in contests or other promotions. This type of word-of-mouth advertising is very powerful and doesn’t cost you a thing.

If you don’t think that you have time to keep up with a daily social networking site or the production of a monthly newsletter, you can hire an internet marketing company to do it for you. However, keeping in touch personally, using a sign atop your clothing rack, or even hanging some merchandise outside of your store is a great way to let people know what’s going on. Give them something to talk about and share with their friends and you’ve got yourself an effective marketing strategy.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

1) Using gridwall or slatwall in a small area helps you to take advantage of the vertical space available to you. These systems are relatively inexpensive to install and once there, you can have the versatility that you need to personalize them to reflect your brand image. With just a few slatwall accessories, you can create interesting displays and find creative ways to fit more inventory on the wall than you thought. It’s easy to maneuver shelves, racks, and hanging bars so that you can change up your displays with each promotion, season, or new arrival.

2) Garment racks can help you to display a lot of your inventory on the floor, but they are also useful for creating easy-access storage for your store room or behind the counter. Nesting Z-Racks are very popular for store rooms. You can hang a lot of inventory on them and then they nest together to take up less space. The heavy duty construction means that your racks will last you for many years.

3) Ceiling racks are also useful in small settings. Ceiling racks are often used in garages to store boards, skis, and other long awkward items that are difficult to contain. In a boutique, you can use ceiling racks for cardboard boxes, mannequin forms for your slatwall or gridwall, or any other items you can think of. You can also hang hangers and other items from the ceiling rack and make more room on the floor.

4) Garment racks and clothing racks are useful in the store room, but on the sales floor you’ll want to be careful. Round racks are great if you don’t overstuff them. Customers do not want to sift through a cramped clothing rack to find their size. Consider racks with bars that keep clothing separated. Getting a lot of inventory off of the floor and onto the walls is a great way to show your customers what you have without limiting what you carry.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

Boutiques often have a harder time managing their inventory than big department stores, because bigger chains have money to hire outside inventory companies, or their inventory is closely tracked electronically. Boutique owners usually have to manually keep track of everything, which translates into a big job.

Delegating some of the work to your employees can help to take a lot of the grunt work out of the job. Divide the store into sections and have each employee work on the inventory counts in that section during down times. Assigning small sections to each employee keeps the job from becoming overwhelming for any one person. When everyone is done with their counts, have them go back and check each other’s numbers.

You can offer incentives and rewards for accurate counts if the employees seem unwilling to do the job. Holding a pizza party or something similar outside of business hours to get it done is a quick and effective way to do it. Letting everyone know that first they will count and then they will check another employee’s work will generally ensure that counts are accurate the first time around. You can also assign a team to each section so that they can take turns counting and double checking numbers.

Most companies make inventory counts outside of normal business hours a mandatory requirement. However, boutiques often have part-time employees with other obligations outside of their normal schedule. If you worry about making things mandatory and risking losing valued employees, offer extra discounts or bonus money to those who participate.

Avoid the problem of miscalculating how much time each section will take by having employees that finish early help out in other sections until everything is done. Have them take on an extra clothing rack or straighten out displays so that the store is ready to open on time. Clothing racks and displays can be marked with tags or notes so that everyone knows when a section is complete.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

If you’re considering starting up a boutique, there are a few things to consider. Think about how you will compete with big retailers. There is actually a lot that you can do to take advantage of the shortcomings of big retail stores. Customer interviews over the years have revealed that customers are a lot savvier than they used to be. They have the internet at their fingertips to do research and really know what they’re looking for.

Retail stores may be able to offer more products at lower prices, but think about what customers want that they can’t get in a big department store. They crave knowledgeable employees. Retail stores often hire employees for very little pay and give them very little training. Their job may consist of straightening or stocking shelves and little else.

Customers love to shop at boutiques because of the atmosphere. Not just the decorations and eclectic appeal, but the attitude and knowledge level of the employees there. Successful boutiques educate their employees about the details of the products that they sell. Boutique owners don’t have the luxury of carrying every brand of a particular item. They have to be picky and choose the ones that have a higher quality or more unique details than the mainstream clothing lines. Then, they make sure that their employees know how to communicate these special features to their customers, helping to make sales.

Customers love to feel like they are special, not just another face in the crowd. When they shop at a boutique, they can get personal service, honest advice, good information about the products, and the employees might even know their names when they come in. This personal type of experience is an important part of what you should offer your customers when you run a boutique.

Make sure that you respect each and every customer, whether or not they are buying anything. Make sure that they can see everything you have to offer in a unique and efficient manner. Don’t cram everything on to a shelf or one tiny rack. A garment rack should not be overstuffed. Spread items out so that they can be seen and admired. This also helps to promote the idea that the garments are unique, or maybe even one of a kind. Consider using specialty garment racks designed especially for boutiques. These may have varying levels of hanging bars, or mix bars and shelving, giving your store a more textured look.

When you start your boutique, remember these tips. Treat the customer like a valued individual. Be honest, give good advice, and offer information about your products that no one else can. Keep the store tidy and easy to shop through. With these things in mind, you’ll be able to take advantage of the things that make boutiques unique.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

You can get involved in your local community drawing positive attention to yourself and your business. You can make personal contacts and actually keep up with them easily on social networking sites. Big retail stores could never do these things. Your presence in your community will make people want to support you and your small business. It makes them feel like they are doing some good to preserve small businesses in their community. You can show people you care by attending benefits and other local events where you can get your name out there.

You can use your personal connections around town to figure out which promotions will be most effective. Have people tell you what they would like to see. Would they want a portion of their purchase price to be donated to a charity? Would they rather see some other brands that you haven’t thought about carrying? Would they be more inclined to stop in if they received regular coupons by e-mail? All of these things could be invaluable to know and could really help your business to take off.

People love the atmosphere that a boutique offers, as well as the unique products. Make sure that when they approach a clothing rack that it is not too crowded for them to see what they’re looking for. Keep things stocked so that people know that you’re likely to have the sizes that they need, but make sure that they can leisurely look through the clothing racks without much effort.

Make your displays interesting and enticing for customers to explore. Heighten their curiosity by having special visuals around every corner. If someone can look into the store and immediately start planning which sections they are going to want to visit, then you’ve done a good job. Making the atmosphere relaxed and personal, in a way, will help you to provide the experience that boutique shoppers are hoping to encounter when they come inside. Take advantage of the many advantages of being a small boutique and you’ll reap the benefits.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

1) Sometimes it’s hard to take an objective look at your own business, mainly because you have put so much of your personality and dreams into your work. Another reason is that small boutiques may gain a lot of their personality from areas that other, bigger, businesses would have cut due to overhead. Try to take a realistic look at your expenditures. You may even decide to hire a retail consultant or financial consultant to get unbiased opinions.

2) Reevaluate your business goals. Sometimes it’s hard to stay on track and be true to your initial vision. Make sure that you have a clear and concise business plan. Creating a motto can be helpful. As you make decisions, always ask yourself if the decision is consistent with the goal. If it’s not, ditch it and move on. Unnecessary changes or ones that are not conducive to a successful business can drain your wallet and reap little benefit.

3) Boutiques are in a position where they want to grow, but they don’t necessarily want to become a chain. Retaining your small business charm can be challenging as sales pick up. You can help your boutique business by marketing yourself as a small local business. You can win customers over by encouraging them to support their town’s small businesses as opposed to spending all of the town’s money in giant corporate stores that send their money elsewhere. Being active in the community is a great way to build a reputation without spending any money.

4) You can promote yourself for free by staying active on social networking sites. Offering special deals to your fans and followers will encourage them to spread the word about your business. Using the internet to gain customer loyalty is an easy way to market without spending a lot of money.

5) You can save money and make more money by rearranging your boutique. Coming up with a way to sell more merchandise without moving into a bigger space, is key. A shop fitter or interior designer may be able to help you come up with the best arrangement for your clothing racks. If you have only round clothing racks, they may be taking up more room than you have. Take a look at a garment rack that makes the best use of the space that you have. A clothing rack that allows you to display more garments in less space can make a world of difference.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.