What do baby clothing boutiques offer over big chains
| Dec222017
What do baby clothing boutiques offer over big chains
Baby clothing boutiques are known to offer specialty items. Parents look to baby boutiques to find trendy and unique clothes for their newborn. Although large chains and supercenters have the advantage of being a one-stop-shop, baby clothing boutiques have a few advantages of their own that make them favorites in the customer’s eyes. Here are a few reasons to choose boutiques over big brand stores:
Personal Touch
Baby boutiques are a niche market and carry fewer products. These benefits parents since employees are more familiar with the inventory they have which, in turn, allows them to find the perfect fit to the customer’s needs. Likewise, there is more face-to-face and a personalized interaction which creates a sense of the customer as being valued. It isn’t unlikely for small shops to know their customer well and develop a rapport with her over time.
This personal touch often lacks in department stores where it may be hard to find an associate in the vast store, especially to find someone specifically for the baby department. In contrast, sales associates in boutiques have more time to be attentive to new parents and are further specialized in baby clothing and educated in what is best for an infant.
Unique and Quality Item
Boutiques are famous for giving parents more options to choose from- something unique and different.
Baby boutique owners look everywhere for something that that will make the parent who is tired of the same old, dull options for baby clothes excited. To find something different “Diana&Nicky Baby Boutique” owner has searched far and wide landing somewhere unexpected: “Turkey is underrated in terms of the supply they have in the US market”, Deyana says. “Most of the items supplied to the US are from China, but the quality situation with Chinese clothing is a hit and miss.”
Deyana explains that US big name manufacturers are able to undercut prices of boutiques and other small mom- and -pop shops due to how cheap production is in China. But that price drop sometimes comes at the cost of quality.
And although Turkey is a mass producer of goods and retail, it is overlooked over China’s cheap production prices “Which is unfortunate because the quality and diversity in the items I have are top notches,” according to Deyana.
Stick it to the Man
Just one purchase at a local baby boutique is a way to support the local economy. Local support allows boutiques to be competitive in the saturated baby clothing industry. Boutiques are usually family-owned businesses and as such, the owners have taken big financial risks betting on the store to work. A dip in their finances negatively impacts their whole family life, whereas a dip in sales of big chains is rarely felt so personal. In addition, for every $100 you spend at a local business, $68 will stay in the community. And locally owned businesses provide better wages, in most cases, than chains do.
Boutiques, and especially ones in the over-competitive baby industry, are a way for customers to vote with their dollar. They are often underrated as busy parents choose the convenience of a supercenter. But hopefully, with the emergence of double fronted baby boutiques – both brick-and-mortar store and an online store- that will change as the convenience factor will be attractive to busy parents.
