Lydia Dishman is a business journalist writing about tech intersection, leadership, commerce, and innovation.
From tweeting to photographing models herself to customer service, Diana Harbour is redefining what it means to be ‘handson’. She is book coauthor Survive to Thrive. Here are the secrets to social selling she’s learned with The Red Dress Boutique. Needless to say, she is a regular contributor to Fast Company and has written for CBS Moneywatch, Fortune, The Guardian, Popular Science, and the New York Times, among others.
She set up The Red Dress on Facebook. Harbour explained she was o early to the party. Notice that in the days before brands had dedicated pages, the social network was busily bringing down the hammer on businesses. Although, three times. They shut her down. Taking cues from what was working across social media, Harbour’s tactic was to shoot the clothes outdoors, on models culled from Athens streets.
This concept of customer engagement and empowerment has been invoked by some of retail’s heaviest hitters.
The most efficient communication process possible is between the two parties themselves without intermediaries. Harbour’s not content to rely on tweets and pins alone. Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten, a global leader in e commerce. On p of this, she’s extended the conversation to tackle customer complaints herself, and makes sure that negative comments don’t get deleted. It’s important that others see The Red Dress responds and tries to help, she says.
Harbour is convinced that her handwritten thank you notes to customers and surprise free merchandise completes shopping experience at The Red Dress, like the right statement necklace or killer heels. Today, The Red Dress, her independently owned clothing boutique is raking in many millions in revenue. At Amazon, the stuff is just thrown in the box with an invoice, she says. While crafting corporateese into snappy brochure copy for a financial services firm, less than a decade ago Diana Harbour was iling away in a cubicle.
The beginning of Harbour’s story will be familiar to many startup founders.
Indeed, the work environment at her former employer was so oppressive, I had a CD on my desk to use as a rearview mirror, says Harbour, to ensure no one would sneak up behind her and catch her daydreaming. Needless to say, though her father suggested she might be better served working for herself, Harbour had recently graduated from college, gotten married, and purchased a home. Make sure you scratch some comments about it in the comment form. Pulling up stakes to relocate from Columbus to Athens college town, entrepreneurship would mean not only pulling the plug on a steady paycheck. Fast Company, I grew up reading Vogue and Elle and I was feeling stifled.
She did it anyway. While Harbour began dabbling with selling items on ebay from her home, she and her husband. Doubleteamed the two shops. That said, soon Harbour was ready to open a second location. Harbour opened The doors Red Dress in 2005, a traditional brickandmortar boutique in downtown Athens. We sold our house, got a loan, and slept on air mattresses for a year in rented spare rooms, she recalls.
Of course neither venture ok off, and the second shop was shuttered. The trendy gs Harbour stocked resonated with the college crowd, while success was not immediate. After being warned by her father’s accountant that many small businesses fail to thrive, the only goal was we hoped it would take off, she confesses. Oftentimes Labor Bureau Statistics estimates only half survive past the fiveyear mark.
She set up The Red Dress on Facebook.
The warehouse space has swelled in the last 18 months from 3500 to 45000 square feet. Consequently, harbour explained she was o early to the party. With that said, they shut her down. In the days before brands had dedicated pages, the social network was busily bringing down the hammer on businesses. The ban lifted in 2007, and Harbour got busy. Besides, three times. Pinterest, Instagram and Wanelo followed. For a shop that relied strictly on word of mouth instead of costly advertising, social provided the boost that helped Harbour weather the recession while other retailers were forced to close their doors. The whole package is working. Revenue has grown from 1 million last year with online sales making up 93% of that total. Soon The Red Dress Boutique had a presence on Twitter.
Social drummed up so much interest, Harbour felt ready to take another big leap into ‘ecommerce’. Josh was in law school and I was pregnant, she recalls. Taking cues from what was working across social media, Harbour’s tactic was to shoot the clothes outdoors, on models culled from Athens streets. Some information can be found by going on the web. Harbour, who’s teamed up with plenty of the models to make sure the shots are as creative as possible. The timing was tricky, like her initial launch. You just have to do it, we never knew it would get this big.
Recruiting student models to wear outfits styled with accessories allows shoppers a way to see how something should be worn in real life, says Harbour, which is crucial to converting a browser into a buyer. The second try often does the trick and helps move the goods without having to mark them down, she says. Harbour goes back to see which items didn’t get snapped up immediately, right after the sales are scrutinized. Of course, department stores just don’t have that capability. You should take it into account. She’ll analyze the photo and try shooting again. By 2010 end, the shop and its ecommerce cohort brought in