Ep 308: How gift boutiques (online & local) can survive in 2025 and 2026

The outlook for gift boutiques, online & in person, is shifting fast, and if you’re a business owner, you’ll want to pay attention. In this episode, I break down what’s happening in the market, why customer expectations are changing, and how you can position your business to thrive in the middle of it all. 

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Transcript

Welcome to Episode 308

Speaker 1 0:03

Well, hello. This is Kimberly Brock, and for over 20 years I've been running my own businesses that have not only been profitable but personally fulfilling to me. So now I'm on a mission to help other new business owners, just like you, make money doing what you love too. Now we're going to have some fun, so let's get started.

Speaker 2 0:37

Well, hello, this is Kimberly. It's episode 308. I'm so glad that you're here today because I'm having a frank conversation with you, very frank conversation, because I'm still like coming off of a lunch that I had with a friend and she's had her own boutique physical, like store for gosh 10 years and then maybe 10 years before that ran it out of her home. And we were just talking about the future of boutique businesses, if you are a reseller versus just a brand where you make your own products. And we're talking about what was the past of that, what that looked like in the future, what that looks like, how she's having to shift, how I had to shift 7 years ago when I closed my online gift boutiques because I could start seeing the writing on the wall of what being a reseller of products was like, because I resold all my gifts and everything. I didn't make anything myself. Today we're going to talk about it. This is a reality check for you. If you have a boutique, whether it's online or it's local, whether you are a maker, like you make products, you have your own brand or you are a reseller meaning, like I did, you resold other people's products.

Boutique Businesses: Reality Check

Speaker 2 1:48

This episode is a must-listen. A must-listen, because the future of your business depends on it. Okay, this is key to the success of your business and it is vital that you know what's coming and you know how to deal right now so you actually build a successful business. So I'm riffing today. This episode is not set up like my normal episodes where I'm like, okay, 3 points for this and I give you 3 simple steps. No, I'm riffing on this on the past and future of boutique businesses. Whether you're a maker or a reseller, this is for you. So listen up, I'm so excited you're here. If you're new, welcome. You came on a fantastic day. You're going to hear some real talk.

Speaker 2 2:31

If you are starting a business whether it's a coaching business, service business, product business, whatever it is you can scroll down in the show notes. I've got free resources for you and I have paid programs and one-on-one coaching, which has been the hit right now. Everybody wants help right now, as fast as possible. So I'm here to help you. I don't want you flailing around. You should not go about this alone. This is too important to you and your future and your income and your happiness. Do not take seriously. Don't let this fall into another hobby. Reach out, I would love to help you.

Speaker 2 3:01

You can send me an email through the link down below and, if you've been listening a while, thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. Y'all are awesome, amazing. I respect you so much. You are doing amazing things in this world with your small business and I think it's awesome. I'm so, so happy for you to just hit the five-star rating, like if you're an Apple podcast. Right now. You can rate this podcast. You just go to my main podcast page she's just getting started and you'll see the rate this podcast Rate it, hit five stars and then, if you have 30 seconds to write a written review on what this podcast has meant to you, how it's helped you, what you like about it, I would love to hear it y'all, because I get no feedback every sit here. I record it in this room upstairs in my house, and to get feedback is priceless for me. So it's a big favor that you do for me when you do that. So that's it. Okay, on to the episode.

Speaker 2 3:57

Well, hello friends. How are you? How is everything going in your life right now? I hope amazing. And how is your business? That's a big question, right, how is your business? I'm so happy for all of you just pushing forward with your dream. I think it's amazing, and I respect you so much.

Speaker 2 4:12

Today, though, I wanted to have some real conversation here, even though it's only one way, with me just talking to you, but it's still a conversation. Right, it's still a conversation. I want to talk to you about boutique businesses. Whether you are a product maker or you are a product seller, this is for you. When I say a product seller, I should have said product reseller. You're reselling someone else's product, so either you're a maker or you're a product reseller. Let's talk this through today y'all, because if you are looking to start some kind of boutique online, in person, like at a retail store, you want, you have a booth, and you either want to make something yourself or resell it. These are physical products. Listen up, the future of your business depends on this, depends on today's conversation. Even though I'm no fortune teller, I am no market expert in terms of what is coming, but I know what's happened and I can see the writing on the wall, so let's talk about this today.

Shifting Retail Landscape

Speaker 2 5:26

So, as I mentioned before, a friend and I were having lunch. She owns a boutique that is like clothing, gifts, jewelry all that in her local area and we had a frank conversation today about the future of boutiques and she knows good and well. I had my online boutiques for 16 years and we were both like in this weird mood. We were like and she's good and well, I had my online boutiques for 16 years and we were both like in this weird mood. We were like and she's had her business for a long time too, like I don't even know how long as well 20 years, something like that as well and she's seeing the massive, am I and we are kind of lamenting what is now the past but yet excited for the future. But what that means for people like her is that you have to change and it's so hard. Y'all I was kind of likening this to.

Speaker 2 6:17

I know this sounds morbid and sad, so just bear with me, but you know how, when you have a pet, you love your pet. You buy it no-transcript these things. You love it, you adore it, it's with you every single day. You think about your pet when you travel. You have to deal with your pet Like everything has to be taken care of, but one day we all know that our pets will move on and they will pass away. They will pass away and it's very sad and you're sad for what was, but you're okay because you know that your pet is in heaven with the other animals At least, I believe that, right. And your pet is out of pain, right, because we had to put our dog down, gosh, a little over a year ago, and it was so sad. It was so sad, right, but you know that this is not forever. Your animal is not forever, okay, sorry, I know that was sad, but it's the same. If you have a product business that you've had for a while, right. So, like my friend and like me, having those boutiques that I closed in 2018, 2019, it's like a sad letting go of what was y'all.

Speaker 2 7:53

I had two multi, two multi six-figure businesses that I was running at the same time. It was a blast. It was everything that was on the up. It was booming. Online was booming. I knew just enough to get my items ranked on the first page of Google, and that's how I got business. I wouldn't happen to post on Instagram all the time. I wasn't doing anything, I wasn't doing ads, I had repeat customers, I had local customers and I ran it all out of my home, right, okay, so those days of reselling other people's products and making a killing is very hard now, okay, and you may be saying, well, I am a maker, so what does that mean for me?

Speaker 2 8:34

Okay, so we know the resale market is very hard. Okay, now, back in the day as well, the people who made products wanted to get with retailers everywhere, so they were trying to get me to resell their products and then I would double the price and resell them to my online customers. That's the way it's been. So there was a middleman, right? The maker would sell to me, I would sell to the consumer. I'm a middleman, so they would double their price to me. So they'd make double about on their stuff, and then I would double the price, right? So if something costs $25 for them to make, they would sell it to me for 50. And I would turn around and sell it for $99. Okay, that's how retail has worked when you're reselling. Okay, and those makers whether they made candles, jewelry bags, anything like that, that's what they wanted. They wanted to get into a ton of retailers, right?

Rising Costs and Amazon's Impact

Speaker 2 9:35

Well then, what happened that we've seen over the last 10 years is that costs have gone up on products. We all know that right. For example, something that I used to sell on my online store seven years ago. My cost was like $27, $28, and I would resell for $56. I'm not going to say what it was because I protect my vendors, but I would resell it for $56. I just looked because, as y'all know, my daughter's kind of wanting to resurrect my old business in this very room. Use my logo and do all that and maybe sell some things locally here and we'll have a little website, very micro business, fun, right. And that same product that was a bestseller, that cost me $28 and I would sell for $56, now costs over $40. So I'm gonna have to sell it for for 80. And I'm like is this worth $80? This is $80. I mean, like what? And I'm just kind of like flabbergasted because that's what happens, y'all the cost and inflation has gone up.

Speaker 2 10:38

That's the big shift that I've seen over the past 10 years. Here's the other big shift. We all know it's Amazon. Everyone just goes to Amazon. It's, don't you? I mean, that's what I do. I'm like just order on Amazon. You got your phone, you're even in a store and you're like about to buy something and you're like but I can get it in two days and it's a little bit cheaper, I'll just order on Amazon. I mean, sometimes I'll buy in the store, but you see what I'm saying y'all.

Speaker 2 11:03

And here's the other big shift is that there's the rise of direct-to-consumer brands, meaning a lot of those makers now that used to sell to me as the middleman to resell are no longer needing to sell to me because it's number one hurting their profits because they can just sell. Now it's easy. They just throw up a website. They're like I'm just going to sell to consumer, I don't need to go through a retailer, I'll just sell to consumer. And they're even opening stores with just their brand. That's what has become so popular is the brand's own stores. And it didn't used to be that way. Like I was thinking, years and years ago it was boutiques everywhere that sold like a selection of candles from different brands, a selection of perfumes, a selection of clothes, right, and I was reflecting like shopping the other day with my daughters.

Speaker 2 11:54

We're on Market Street, which is kind of a bougie little shopping area here in the Woodlands, texas, and I'm looking around and all the stores are their own brand. The stores are their own brand Vuore, lululemon, aloe, jcrew, warbly Parker, nike Madewell, kate Spade, golden Goose, kendra Scott, jo Malone Perfumes Everything is the brand. There's no middleman Now. There's no middleman Now. There was Francesca's, which, if y'all know, if you have a younger female niece, daughter, anything they love Francesca's jewelry, clothes, all that. So they resell. And Nordstrom's right resells and Anthropologie resells, which I love.

Speaker 2 12:39

Nordstrom and Anthropologie, I do buy their stuff, right, they resell other people's products and they may have their own brand. Yeah, they do. They have their own brands as well that they just like. What do you call it? White label it as theirs. But in general, I'm looking around and I see the writing on the wall the brands are cutting out the middleman.

Speaker 2 13:01

So what does that mean? What does that mean? Right, we've got direct-to-consumer branding that people are doing. Inflation and cost of goods is making all the margins for middlemen really hard. Amazon is dominating, we know that.

Speaker 2 13:15

And then we can kind of see that. There's stats all over. For example, in the US there was like 7,300 store closures in 2024, and it's projected to double closures in 2024, and it's projected to double. So I predict that by 2027, there's gonna be so many little small boutiques and stuff out of business. There's no way y'all that, that resell, that resell okay, there's just no way. Now, those stats I don't know who all that is. It's just all kinds of stores, right?

Speaker 2 13:42

I think that you know, I wish they had it broken out where we knew if it was just like the direct-to-consumers brands, but I just I feel like those are the ones that are actually popping up. So I'm kind of assuming this is a lot of like stores that are reselling other brands, right, and it's saying that small business survival rate is 50% fail in the first year. It used to be that in like three out of five years or something. Now it's the first year, so that's it. Y'all. Boutiques are struggling. That traditional resale model that I was just talking about makes it so the reseller has very low margins but yet high overhead, so that's not going to work.

Direct-to-Consumer Brand Revolution

Speaker 2 14:20

Brands actually want more control. Like, if you're a maker, you actually want more control over the way your product is presented, whether it be online or in person. Right, we've got all this competition. Now I will say there is hope for you. So, if you are a maker, listen up.

Speaker 2 14:40

I believe, if you are a maker, that you need to build a solid, awesome brand. You need to become a brand with a story. A brand with a story. If you make jewelry, if you make candles, body products I don't know what you make art you got to have a brand with a story.

Speaker 2 14:59

Okay, I think if you want to have a boutique, like you've had a dream of had a clothing boutique, gift boutique I think you need to assess where you're opening it. Is it in a small town where you can be the go-to, like? I remember 30 years ago almost, when I got married, right my husband's from a very small Texas town and there was one store that you registered at for your wedding and they cornered the market for all the gifts and weddings and showers that every girl was doing in that town. You can do that. That can still work. That can still work. I do believe that.

Speaker 2 15:33

I believe college towns have great boutiques. I believe that if you have, like a hyper-local community or something fun where you can become the go-to, I think that is your best bet. If you want to have a boutique, if you do not have a lot of foot traffic, it's going to be very hard for you to make it because your margins are low. You're competing against Amazon. It's going to be very hard. So you got to be the go-to. You got to be networking locally. You need to be involved in your chamber of commerce. Everyone has to know who you are. You are the go-to. If you cannot be the go-to, what's working? What is working right now that you could move to?

Speaker 2 16:16

Okay, private label boutiques, meaning stores manufacturing and selling their own branded products. Just like I told you, on Market Street, 90% of everything that is there is its own brand. Lush thought about that. That was there. What else is there that it was his own brand? There's all the bougie Kate Spade. What else is there that it was his own brand? They're all the bougie Kate Spade. You know Gucci, golden Goose, there's all those, but most of them, y'all, are their own brand. Okay, so private label boutiques, where you have your own brand of stuff. You make it, you sell it in a little store, in your booths.

Speaker 2 16:52

Okay, here's the big thing. This is the big thing that is here is niche resale markets. Everyone loves to go thrifting. My daughter, 16-year-old, talks about that that they love to go thrifting. Luxury, resale, thrift and vintage, sustainability-focused stores Y'all this is growing. Huge Resell markets okay, global apparel re-commerce is projected to grow. Y'all listen to this Projected to grow from $139 billion industry this year in 2025, $139 billion to $1.26 trillion in 10 years. So that's tenfold in 10 years. That is the re-commerce market. So if you have something that can be resold, upscaled luxury resale, y'all it's huge right now.

What's Actually Working Now

Speaker 2 17:46

Okay, here's what else you can do. If you are, for example, a candle maker, shout out to Annalisa Marie. She was in my programs and in Grow Getters and she is making candles. Her business is called Ambitious Vibes and she opened a store in her area and does what we call candle making classes. She hosts parties, she does events Y'all this works. This works Experiential stores. So if you're going to have a store, don't just sell your stuff. Try to make some kind of event, something that's fun, that people can do. That is working right now. You can do pop-up shops. You can partner with other shops and just do pop-up booths. You don't even have to have your own store. Right now you can just pop up everywhere. You can have a mobile truck or booth and do that, and pull up to parties and do things like that.

Speaker 2 18:44

Hotel and resort boutiques are doing well because they're niche. They're right there. People want to buy when they're on vacation. They're excited. Okay, lifestyle-driven shopping is doing very well.

Speaker 2 18:57

I think if you want to have an online store, at this point you need to be everywhere. Well, let me say this If you want to have your own store, you need to be online as well. You need to have both. You need to be omnichannel, right? Omnichannel boutique where you're online and in-person. It's got to be both Y'all. That's what's working. Private label boutiques, meaning it's your own brand boutique. Experiential things like, like I said, the candle making classes and all that for a candle store Genius, do that. Pop-up shops, very niche market stores like small towns where you have become the go-to. That's what it means. But whatever it is, y'all.

Speaker 2 19:43

You are going to have to build a brand with a story. Now, that's what you have to do a brand with a story. It's better if you can make your own stuff, because the margins for reselling are slim, unless you have a lock in the market in your area for a boutique and you have a prime location a college town, whatever it is where you can resell stuff and you have enough traffic that you're still going to make it. Otherwise, it's going to be very hard to be profitable. So if you own a boutique now, or you dream of owning one.

Speaker 2 20:17

Ask yourself am I going to be a reseller or am I going to be a brand builder? Now, again, reselling can work again. So don't get me wrong If you've had this yearning to have your boutique and you're like this is what I've always wanted in my own boutique, you can do it. But I hope you will take all these things into consideration and tell yourself I'm going to become a brand and the go-to in my market, right, if you are a maker, then you need to build a brand, build an online presence and be local with that brand, with the story behind it, and you sell direct to consumer. Okay, you have to have a local edge. You are going to have to have a local edge somehow.

Building a Brand With Story

Speaker 2 20:59

I think online you can do well, but I think reselling online is very hard. What I had back in the day is no longer. I think. I mean it can be, obviously for a big enough company that can resell a whole bunch of goods, but it's not as easy for just normal people like me to start a multi-six-figure business reselling just products, right, that people can get on Amazon and everywhere else, even if it's cute, unless you have a great location and you're the go-to, okay. So what can you do? You can consider having a private label, like if you've had a gift boutique and you've resold other stuff, you could consider having your own product line that you get manufactured Maybe you have to get it manufactured overseas, I don't know and you put your private label on it and it's your brand of bags and backpacks and jewelry or whatever it is right. Niche, resale is huge. You could have a resale kind of store. Or you could do an online-first strategy where you start testing this online, seeing what sells, and then open a store I would recommend that and then, you know, open some kind of local place.

Speaker 2 22:07

But I think the old model of what I did, which was just restocking or just stocking and reselling other people's stuff, is fading. I think that's fading and it pains me. It pains me to say that because that was my bread and butter, that was my life. I was like my baby. I loved it, I nurtured it. I, you know, slept, ate, breathed my online gift boutiques. That's all I did, right? So don't get me wrong Boutiques are not dead. It's just that the future looks different. It looks different.

Speaker 2 22:44

You're going to have to adapt, just like me and my friend talking about her boutique that she's had and her store that she's had for 10 years. But she's had the business she did out of her home for like 10 years before that. She's having to adapt. Now, y'all she's having to adapt. She's probably going to have to close her physical store and she's going to figure out what she's going to do next. Is she going to private label, is she going to go online? But still, it's going to be the same Like she's going to have to figure something out. Right, you have to have a brand. If you're going to have a store, it needs to be.

Speaker 2 23:13

I would try to be experiential or have location, location, location. Okay, I'd love to hear your take on this. If you have your own boutique, online or in person, I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can DM me at startwithkimberlybrock on Instagram. It's below the links down below too, so you can just click it. I'd love to know your thoughts. If you already have had a boutique or you've been wanting to start one, your dream, what? What are your thoughts and what are your thoughts about how you're going to actually make it successful? Because it has shifted from what it was. It is no longer. It's sadly like our pet that leaves us. We loved it, we adored it. It's now time for a new cycle of life. That's where we're at, people.

Speaker 2 24:03

I hope you enjoyed this episode. I know it was pretty frank with you, but I think you needed to hear it. I needed to hear it too. It's actually cathartic for me to be talking about all of this because I have to let go. I think we get emotionally tied to our business and I haven't even had my boutique businesses for 7 years and I still have to like I'm what am I letting go of? I'm already done. But see, you, see how we are. I mean, you're probably like me, like we just love our businesses. I haven't had it for 7 years. I feel like I just had it yesterday, like it's fresh, right. So I know if you love your business. I know how it feels. But we've got to be thinking about the future and where we're headed. And the resale market is tough, tough, tough. You can still do it. You can still do it. I truly believe that. But it's got to be with a whole new spark. A whole new spark and a whole new direction. And I think if you want to have an online store. You need to bring. Bring it Solid brand.

Speaker 2 25:02

I would be a maker If I was starting over right now. I would be a maker and build a brand, and I would private label something. It's just my brand and I might. I would probably have a local store, like if I had to do some kind of retail. I would have a local store with online, because I think locally you could get business.

Final Thoughts on Boutique Future

Speaker 2 25:18

I would do it maybe in a really small way, but I think you're going to have to be omni-channel. I truly believe that. I mean, you could try to just make it online. You could just try to make it online. It will be harder, though, but you're still going to have to show up. You're going to show up places. You're still going to have to show up. You're going to show up places. You're still going to have to have a local presence somehow where you're sponsoring things, all of that. So I'm rambling, but see, I told you I was just riffing today and we're just talking about this, so I'm so glad you're here. I hope this sparked your thoughts. I hope this helps you think smarter about the future of your business and, again, reach out. Start with Kimberly Brock. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Okay, have a great day Until next time. Bye now. Now this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here.

Speaker 1 26:07

Head on over to KimberlyBrockcom and, yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey and you know what you don't need to go through this alone.

Speaker 2 26:17

I would love to help you.

Speaker 1 26:20

Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.