Behind the Scenes: Boutique Research

Hey everyone! This is Elizabeth, Brynn's new Merchandising Assistant. I'm originally from Flint, MI but I'm spending the summer in Chicago for the internship and loving every minute of it.  I've only been working with Brynn for about a month, and I have already learned so much.

One of the many jobs that I have as a Merchandising Assistant is finding new boutiques throughout the US that Brynn's product would fit well in. Although we love shipping all over the country via our relationship with eBags.com, we are excited about getting into the thousands of boutiques across the country. So I look very carefully for the ones that would be best. 

We value our products highly, and we want to make sure that they are in the right place. When researching boutiques, I use a variety of different resources such as Yelp, MetroMix and our very own Chicago Fashion Resource.

Sometimes I look for specific types of boutiques such as gift, accessory, or shoes or I'll just do a general search for women's boutiques. The type of store that works well for our company is the gift boutique, because women are in the store buying items for their children or gifts for friends, and then they come across a great bag for themselves.

We are in a gift boutique here in Chicago called Fixture, and we sell very well there. Patti, the owner, has become a great friend and we love doing trunk shows there. Spare Parts in Lakeview started carrying the line last Fall and simply loves it! Vanessa couldn't believe she hasn't been carrying the line longer.

Cerato on Southport is a great location and garners lots of publicity for us, which of course we greatly appreciate!  It's an apparel boutique that carries several other Chicago Designers, such as Lara Miller, Kate Boggiano and Kristin Hassan.

We were excited to add Arm Candy in Santa Monica, CA to our list last year and Boutique 610 in Arizona (boutique pic shown above) has been with us since 2009.

Finding boutiques online can take hours because there are just so many of them, but it is a crucial process. Once I have a list of stores, I call them to obtain their buyer information and to tell them a little bit about the company. I then email the buyer with the line sheets and a more detailed description of Brynn Capella, Inc.

Once we get some interest and if it's possible, we visit the buyer in person with some of our products. We pack everything up in our trusty big red suitcase and roll it all around the city. It's always so much fun to see the buyer's reactions to the bags and their process for choosing it for their store. They are always very impressed with the design, the functionality, and of course the leather.

For the future of our company, we are looking to get our products into more cities across the country.

We are currently looking at where most of our sales are coming from because we would love to offer a boutique location to where our customers are. For our Fall Lexington Collection, we feel that Brooklyn, NY and San Francisco, CA would be perfect, but we definitely aren't limited to those locations. We just recently got back into Hazel in Chicago. Our products used to be in the store in 2008, and now they just ordered some of the new summer "Hey Sailor" collection! We're so glad to have another boutique to add to our list. Want to help us find our next favorite store?

We love to hear from our customers...
SO...
Where do you think our bags would fit best? Are there any amazing boutiques near you that we should know about? Post a comment with the boutiques you have in mind and we'll be sure to check them out ASAP.

So excited to hear your ideas! Until next time...
Elizabeth