How to get your product into boutiques and gift shops

What a boutique owner is buying

A boutique owner is building a look. Every product on the table has to fit the shop's style and its customer. They are asking whether your product makes their shop look better, and whether someone will pick it up as a gift.

• Fit with the shop. A minimalist homewares store and a quirky gift shop want very different things.
• Packaging. In gift retail the box is half the product. It has to look good on a shelf and in a photo.
• A price that works as a gift. Plenty of boutique trade is impulse buys near the till and presents in a set price range.
• Not everywhere. Owners shy away from products discounted online or sold in every shop in town.
• A story. Handmade, local, a founder they can describe. Staff sell what they can talk about.

The margin they expect

Gift and lifestyle stores usually expect a bigger margin than grocers, often pricing at about double what they pay. Many call this keystone pricing. Work out your wholesale price with that in mind, using the wholesale price calculator, before you pitch. A boutique that cannot make its margin on you will say no, however much it likes the product.

Boutiques buy a season ahead

Gift shops plan their stock months before they sell it. Christmas buying starts long before December, often in the middle of the year, and Mother's Day and summer ranges are planned well ahead too. Many owners also buy at trade fairs and through wholesale marketplaces.

So pitch early. An email in late November is too late for this Christmas and too early for the next one. Ask when they plan their next season, and put that date in your calendar.

Who decides

Usually the owner, who often works the floor. In a small group of shops, there may be a buyer for all of them. The email address on the website is often the owner's own.

When we find boutiques and gift shops for a brand, we look up the owner or buyer at each one and skip shared inboxes.

The first email

Say something real about the shop, like a range they carry or how it is styled. Say what you make and why it fits, in a sentence. Ask them to reply for the line sheet or a sample. Keep it short enough to read on a phone between customers.

Send from a separate domain so your own stays safe. We buy that domain for you, and it redirects to your website, so an owner who types it in lands on your shop. Then follow up two or three times. Most replies come on the second or third email, and the sequence stops when they answer.

Samples and opening orders

Many boutique owners can judge from the line sheet and a single sample. Send samples only to shops that ask, and send one good one rather than a box of everything. Make the opening order easy: a low minimum, a mixed case and an easy way to reorder.

After the first delivery, ask how it is displayed and what customers say. Owners reorder lines that sold in the first month, and they remember the brand that checked in.

Make ordering easy

Boutique owners are buying from dozens of small makers, and the ones that are easy to order from win. Give them a line sheet with photos, wholesale and retail prices, case sizes and your minimum order. Say how they pay and how long delivery takes. Then make the reorder just as easy: a reply to an email, or a line sheet they can order from without waiting for you.

Some owners prefer to buy through wholesale marketplaces they already use. If you sell on one, say so. If you do not, a simple direct order is fine for most independents.

Display, reorders and the second season

How your product is displayed decides how it sells. Ask the owner where it will sit and offer a small display card or tester if it helps. Products near the till sell on impulse, and products in a window sell on looks.

Boutiques run on seasons, so the real test is whether a shop buys you again for the next one. Note which shops sold through and ask when they plan the next season. A shop that has bought you for two seasons is a stockist you can name to every other boutique you write to.

Start with one city's independents

Pick one city and the boutiques that match your style. If your product is food or drink, delis and health food stores often take the same gifts, and they buy closer to the season. In the UK, gift shops and farm shops sit side by side, and the United Kingdom guide covers them.