Local businesses meeting a need
Virtual shopping keeping retailers busy in tough times
Since the covid-19 pandemic reared its ugly head in the United States, news stories have focused on how restaurant owners have had to regroup and make money despite a decrease in diners … then orders to close their spaces to those diners. Curbside and at-home food deliveries have become the norm.
Then there are the independent fashion retailers ... subject to being hit even harder than restaurants and big-chain clothing purveyors. After all, one might say, everybody’s working at home, and who needs to dress up to work at home?
But Little Rock clothing shop owners say that they, too, are still in business. They, like other small businesses, are suffering but have found ways to adjust, adapt and improvise … with the help of loyal customers.
“In terms of brick-and-mortar stores, for the first time maybe ever, I think small-door boutiques like us, might actually have
… a slight advantage, [be] a little more nimble, a little more able to adapt,” says
Jill Ricciardone, owner of Feinstein’s in the Heights.
Ricciardone made the call March 18 to close her store. On March 24, she sent an email blast announcing the decision to close the store permanently. Once allowed to do so, she will reopen long enough to sell existing merchandise, and, she assures in the email, special orders will be honored.
“Meanwhile, I’ve plastered my cellphone number all over the doors of the store and social media and everywhere else,” she says. “And I’m going to work by appointments … if people need me.” She’s been putting daily updates on Instagram and Facebook offering deals, as well as offering phone and FaceTime shopping as an option.
“We posted that we are here for private appointment, free delivery, curbside pickup, free shipping … whatever we can think to do to try to make this work for our customers.”
At Vesta’s, located in west Little Rock’s Pleasant Ridge Town Center, store personnel have dealt with a slowdown of merchandise coming from vendors. Drawing from the merchandise available, they’ve been shipping “look boxes” to its Central Arkansas and out-of-state clients ... “try before you buy” boxes of clothing, from which clients can keep what they like and send back what they don’t, says store representative Lila Ashmore.
“We’re doing FaceTime consults. We’re doing phone consults. We’re doing closet consorts by FaceTime. So we’re doing a whole virtual business,” Ashmore says. She’s also doing private shopping, filling a dressing room with options for the client to try. Ashmore says she has sold, and shipped, some items that customers had seen posed on Instagram. So far this has worked for the store, she says.
SHOPPERS GONNA SHOP
“Women are going to shop,” Ashmore says. “They’re going to find a way to shop, so we’re going to be there for them to shop as best we can.”
“Most of our clients, we know their sizes. … We know their closet; we know their needs. And we can take care of it without them putting themselves in a weird situation or position. I think a lot of people too, during this downtime, they’re cleaning out their closets, they’re purging, they’re doing the big switch. So a lot of our clients are doing that, and filling in the essentials that they know they’re going to need … your basic white jeans, white T-shirts, your more casual lighter, spring clothes that you wear year after year. They’re looking at those things, assessing the situation, doing a closet consult. And we know exactly what they need. We can go to the store, pack it up and take it to them.”
Prior to hair and nail salons being ordered to close, Brenda Mitchell, owner, J. Mitchell’s Hair & Boutique in midtown, had seen a slowdown in her clothing sales, but not among her hair clients.
Now, Mitchell says she’ll “probably” work on getting some internet business. “Before, I just kind of didn’t have time to do that. But yes, I will be looking to do something like that, with pictures and postings and stuff. That’s the goal.”
Curbside pickup, free delivery and free shipping are also options for customers of longtime west Little Rock boutique Barbara/Jean Ltd. Customers trickled in every day the week of March 15, Tiffany Robinson, majority owner of the store, says.
“We are cleaning/disinfecting all surfaces multiple times each day and employees are washing hands constantly,” she says. “We’re practicing social distancing with employees by spreading out all over the store and posting as much as we can on social media. We’re just taking it one day at a time. I’ve told the staff that anyone who feels it is unsafe to be here may stay home and self-quarantine.”
Here, too, loyal customers, and supporters of local businesses, have stepped up, Robinson adds.
“They’re texting or calling us, asking us to send pictures of items available.”
Paul Rainwater, proprietor of custom menswear retail store Q Clothier, located in Chenal Promenade, says he’d been going to the store to receive shipments from UPS and other shippers to receive clothing that he’d already ordered for clients — “I don’t want that stuff to get sent back,” he says.
“Also, I’m getting a little bit of appointment-only business, where I know the person is coming to the store at a certain time to sit down face-toface and order something. It’s not near like it normally is. … We have had some salespeople coming to the shop but … every single client has the option of me coming to them if they would rather have that.” He recently honored an appointment to meet with a client in El Dorado.
SOCIAL-MEDIA LIFELINE
Rainwater is also using his Facebook and Instagram accounts to market his services.
“I did that before all this happened and I’m continuing to do that. And people are responding and saying, ‘Man, I love that suit,’ and hopefully, they’ll come in later. … I still have this attitude of I’m going to be as available to my clients as possible, whether they want to come to me, or they want me to come to them.”
Some customers, because their work environments have changed, “actually have time to come see me now because they’re not so busy,” Rainwater adds.
Some stores had already begun to offer online sales on a regular basis.
“We were fortunate enough that we launched our online store last July,” says Erin Hohnbaum, owner of a small regional chain of E. Leigh’s Contemporary Boutique stores headquartered at its Hillcrest location. “So that was kind of a blessing for us.”
She has closed all storefronts and is offering in-town deliveries. “People can text us or call us and [direct-message us] on social media, and we’re more than happy to do virtual styling,” Hohnbaum says. “Of course they can utilize our website, which presently has all of our up-to-date inventory online.
“If someone wants to pull up and call us … we’ll run items out to their car. We’re more than happy to do it.”
Although she is suffering as a retailer, Hohnbaum sees some positives.
“I think people that have the ability to spend money right now are really trying to spend it locally, which is amazing,” she says. “One positive thing out of this; it’s really getting people to hone in and focus on how they can support their local communities instead of, you know, the giants, Amazon and the other big-box retailers.”
MEETING A NEED
Some shop owners are going above and beyond, getting involved in helping to ease the shortage in personal protective equipment.
“We posted about getting people to sew masks for health care workers,” says Jeanne Johansson, owner of Scarlet boutique — which has also had to close the hairstyling arm of its business. “We got a great response.”
After doing extensive research, they sent out a pattern and put meltdown fabric between the two layers for extra protection. “My store manager can sew really well, and she’s made them all so far,” she says. As of March 25, Scarlet had dispensed about 100 masks and had many more on the way from other volunteer sewers. “We still have plenty of supplies if anyone else wants to help,” Johansson says. “Since we can’t work at the store, we figured we might as well help any way we can.”
Meanwhile, Scarlet merchandise is being sold via website and social media marketing, including employees taking clothes home and trying them on to post pictures on Instagram. Curbside delivery, free local delivery and shipping are available as well as “quarantine packages” of salon products.
As the covid-19 virus showed more of its presence in the state, Mindy Stewart, who offers jewelry, fragrances and fashion accessories at her Pleasant Ridge boutique Powder & Smoke, described the situation as “the snow day that never ends.
You don’t know what to do.” After most of the shopping center shut down, she reached out and got a couple of sales through phone texts. She is now offering sales on jewelry and giving gifts with the purchase of fine fragrances. “We can also FedEx anything anywhere,” Stewart says.
Needless to say, paying overhead costs and employees is a problem for these store owners.
Emily Brown closed her Heights clothing store, Tulips, on March 16, and canceled merchandise orders she’d made during recent trips to market in New York and Dallas. “If you have to pay your overhead and your employees to come in and run your website, you know there’s just not enough money for that right now,” she says. “We’re going to try to just sell the merchandise we have on hand. We took pretty big deliveries early in March. We were preparing for our spring break party preview and canceled that. So we have a lot of merchandise on hand.” To drive business to her website, up for six months now, Brown did a promotion of 25% off, plus free shipping. “I’m so thankful I launched [the website] back in the fall because that’s all I’ve got now, basically,” she says. Her parents have been helping her out by making local-purchase deliveries to people’s doorsteps.
RENT RELIEF
Brown does see a silver lining in the situation for shop owners … accommodating landlords. “I do think our landlords are being agreeable and concerned and cooperating with our needs so I appreciate that from any landowner, any building owner … hopefully here in probably what, six to eight weeks, we might get back to normal.”
She’s also fortunate to have some loyal customers who have been with her the past 18 years. “They’re sending me messages and shopping online and just reaching out and saying, ‘I’m going to tell everybody about your website and … share on social media as much as possible.’” Brown adds that she’s willing to meet healthy customers in the store by appointment only.
Although covid-19 has been unkind to the city’s retailers, there’s been one overriding positive in this situation.
“The local boutiques in this community all stick together,” Ashmore says. “I’ve noticed a lot of shout-outs from local boutique owners. And that’s huge. It’s huge that we’re supporting each other, no matter what.
“It’s nice to be able to lean on each other during these times because we’re just all in it together.”