The Tricks with Boutiques

A Designer on the team had a boutique she's interested in working with and sent me an email in regards to how they wanted to "partner" with UB which made me think this would be a great post for those of you out there trying to link up with some boutiques in your area.

Working with boutiques is a very fine line. They can be a great way to get the word out and their events can draw in party goers for you that you would never have met BUT there are quite a few BUTS on the ins and outs with staying legal in Corp's eyes that I want to point out as they can be a slippery slope.

This specific Designer was VERY SMART. She contacted me before things got out of hand with the boutique and we were able to set them straight before anything had been promised. Here are the main issues with what they wanted to do and what MOST boutiques will want to do unless you let them know up front.

1. This boutique wanted to pay the regular UB price to the Designer and then upsell the products for 3x the amount to their customers. I explaiend to the owner that we can never upcharge the UB products. We're happy to give some of our commissions to the boutique owners, but the customer can in no way pay more than the regular retail price regardless who the scent is named after, etc.

2. The boutique requested specific labeling and packaging for their store. This again is a NO NO. Our packaging is what it is. If you'd like to have a sticker or logo on the back with the recipe and tape over it so it stays, that's fine but we cannot change the packaging.

3. The boutique wanted to stock our product in the store and sell it retail. Again this is a very fine line. We have permission to leave a sample for store clients' to try. If they wish to purchase I have them fill out a UB order form and pay the store who in turn pays me the amount and I drop ship the product to the customer. (You may charge the actual shipping costs as well).

These 3 items seem to come up the most often and it's critical that we don't misrepresent what the store can do with our products and what we can offer the store.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to post a comment...