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Sarah Grace Hurley, Hannah Parker and Emily Hoar.
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Emily Hoar, The Rivah and Waterline
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The Rivah and the Northern Neck’s newest boutique, Waterline, includes a vast collection of clothing for women of all sizes, menswear, accessories and a robust selection of gifts for everyone from babies to adults.
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Sarah Grace Hurley, Lowe Tide Boutique
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Lowe Tide Boutique’s carefully selected women’s and men’s clothing and accessories is inspired by a chic coastal lifestyle.
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Hannah Parker, Colonial Collectibles
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Colonial Collectibles is famous for their timeless home decor and elevated ladies lothing boutique.
Any way you look at it, retail has changed forever.
There was a time when a retailer could count on foot traffic to pull potential customers into their shop to browse and spend money. The problem was, once the internet arrived and mobile devices established themselves as facts of daily life, shopping also changed.
With the rise of the millennial generation, there’s been an enormous change in consumers’ attitudes, not to mention their expectations about shopping. A 2018 poll showed that 67 percent of millennials prefer shopping online, while only 28 percent of seniors prefer it.
In 2019, consumers are brand savvy, yet less brand loyal than ever and like to engage directly with brands on social media. Retailers who recognize these changes by embracing technology and focusing on the customer are thriving and growing, despite the sea change in customers’ buying habits.
Just last year “Business Insider” noted that, “As the desktop computer recedes and smartphone penetration in the U.S. nears 100 percent, retailers need to focus on just two areas:t he mobile screen and the store environment.”
The financial and business website wasn’t telling Northern Neck retailers anything they didn’t already know. These young, relatively new business owners knew they had to embrace fresh ideas and solutions for the changes they were facing in a small town and dot com world.
You could say that 33-year old Emily Hoar is on a roll. Her boutique, The Rivah, opened a year and a half ago after it outgrew a smaller building and she bought the building on South Main Street in Kilmarnock where her inventory includes home, garden, clothing, jewelry and accessories.
On Labor Day last year, Hoar opened a second outpost of The Rivah in Gloucester. She even takes her merchandise on the road with her Rollin’ Rivah mobile boutique, using it for school fundraisers, PTA events, Nurses’ Appreciation Week and festivals. Her latest business endeavor is Waterline, a Kilmarnock boutique with a stronger focus on men’s clothing, including fishing and hunting brands, as well as women’s clothing and accessories.
With all four operations, she places a strong emphasis on social media. “I post at least one thing on social media every day,” she says of her attention to Facebook and Instagram. “I like to hear what customers think by doing surveys, asking them to tell us which color or style they like better.”
Part of her motivation is to get customer input to help her make buying decisions, but it’s also simply to remind customers that she’s here. “Social media is difficult,” she admits. “And it’s always changing, so you have to stay on top of it, especially if you want to increase your following, which is essential.”
One way to do that is with giveaway contests which allow her to feature a new line or product and give one piece away to a lucky winner. To her mind, it makes more sense than using the paid Facebook platforms, radio or newspapers. “It’s cheaper than advertising and it helps spread the word and put the new product out there for everyone to see.”
Instagram serves a slightly different function, she says, because it’s a photo-centric site. “I can shoot something quickly, put it out there and not have to worry about verbiage,” she explains. After developing a large following on Instagram, her account was hacked last year and she had to recreate the account and build her following back up. Such are the hazards of the online world.
One thing she’s noticed is that her older customers prefer Facebook where they’ll like and share her posts, while younger customers gravitate to Instagram. “When I was posting about some new award-winning shrimp and grits, I put it on Facebook, not Instagram because I feel my younger customers prefer seeing new earrings we just got to shrimp and grits.
Sales are another aspect of the business for which she utilizes social media, both as a way to show what’s going on sale and as a way to remind potential customers of upcoming sales.
Another important part of her online strategy is The Rivah’s website, which was designed to be extremely user-friendly. After research told her that nine times out of ten, potential customers accessed websites with a smart phone or tablet, the website was designed with their ease in mind. By clicking on the lines in the top right corner, the mobile customer is able to shop by category quickly and easily. Interestingly enough, most of her online shoppers are from the deep south—Texas, Alabama, Mississippi—and looking to buy brands like Simply Southern and Kendra Scott.
Hoar says she has two kinds of typical customers. One is a year-round Northern Neck resident in her 30s to 50s who comes in to try on clothing. “Very little of my inventory is over $50,” she says. “So anyone can walk in and get a great new outfit without breaking the bank.” The second is a summer visitor who comes in specifically looking for Northern Neck items such as t-shirts, hats, crab dip mix or a can of Virginia peanuts.
At one point, Hoar hired someone to do her social media, but she’s gone back to doing it herself. “A box comes in and I’m excited about something and I can Facebook it right away,” she says. “It feels more personal to put it out to my community. Also, I think people want to know who’s behind the scenes.”
At 24, Sarah Grace Hurley is new to being a business owner, having bought Lowe Tide Boutique in Urbanna last December, after working there during breaks from Wofford College and when home on vacation. Because she’d gone on buying trips to Atlanta with the former owner and interned at the buyer’s market, she’d already learned she liked both sides of the business.
“I always knew I wanted to own a store,” Hurley says from her sunny office. “I just didn’t know I’d do it this young.”
Already, she’s made minor changes to the shop’s interior and keeps a running list of improvements she’d like to make. First among them is being open every day and consistent with hours so customers can count on coming by. She’s been steadily adding in new inventory with the assistance of her manager and assistant buyer,Morgan Grammer.
Unsurprisingly, she’s a huge fan of social media. “It’s a super fun way to engage with customers and it’s free,” she says. “Plus, it’s a great way to get customers excited.”
Her goal with the store is to create a lifestyle brand that caters to the area with specialty brands such as LillyPulitzer. “We’re a coastal business where customers can come in and get a gift, a piece of clothing or something for their husband,” she says of the wide-ranging merchandise.
Hurley says there’s a learning curve to trying to find new ways to reach customers and organically grow her social media following by putting out content people want to see. One thing she refuses to do is buy followers, as some businesses do.
“I think of myself as a consumer when I’m posting, looking for things that get me excited,” she explains. “What will motivate people to come in?” She encourages customers to post photos of themselves wearing clothes from the shop because seeing clothing on real people appeals to her followers.
She posts on social media every single day, does giveaways of new products and is planning a Mother’s Day contest. “There’s no way to run a shop without Facebook and Instagram. It’s a way to show our excitement about what’s coming in and, more importantly, a way to be close to our customers.”
Originally her grandmother’s business, Colonial Collectibles inWarsaw is now owned by 28-year old Hannah Parker and her aunt Julie Christopher, who took over in 2015 when her grandmother retired. Parker graduated with a degree in business in 2012 and had seen the ebb and flow of retail over the course of her life. “But social media changed this business in general,” she says.
She worked there full time until she met her husband, a Marine, who was transferred to Beaufort, South Carolina last August. Being two states away didn’t stop Parker from doing all of the social media and point of sale maintenance such as inventory and purchase orders remotely, and because he’s away so much, she’s still able to work in the store two weeks a month.
“Social media is absolutely 100percent a must-do,” she insists, making a habit of posting once or twice a day. Admitting that Amazon hurts retailers like her, she makes a point of ordering unique gift items for the store.
Her tools of the trade are Facebook, Instagram and an extensive email list to keep customers up to date on new arrivals. “Instagram came out with Instastories and I’ve found we get more views with them. With the stories, people have to choose to look at them.”
Parker uses the feedback—who views her posts and when, the number of times viewed, how many people are reached—that Facebook and Instagram provide to guide her future postings. The shop itself has over 6,000 likes.
For online contests, she asks viewers to like and share her post. “If 500 people share it, that’s 500 of their friends who see our post,” she explains.
Although the shop doesn’t yet have a working website, it’s the next item on her to-do list. The difficulty is that they sell out of inventory very quickly and she doesn’t want to disappoint potential customers.
“My goal is to stay relevant with unique items and customer service,” she says. “People love coming in to look and talk to someone. You don’t get that with Amazon.”
Colonial Collectibles · 804-333-0581
Lowe Tide Boutique · 804-758-4444
The Rivah · 804-577-4291
Waterline · 804-577-4160