We recently connected with Stacie Seaton and have shared our conversation below.
Stacie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
In 2019, I decided to re-enroll in college. For one of my speech course assignments, the professor presented a list of topics for selection. I found the topic concerning the environmental impact of textile waste particularly intriguing. As I researched this topic, I was astounded by the information I uncovered. Research has shown that a polyester garment, accounting for over 50% of all clothing material, can take more than 200 years to decompose in a landfill. Additionally, most articles of clothing get discarded after being worn approximately 7 times.
During my research, I also learned about the adverse effects that clothing manufacturing processes have on the land and water surrounding the factories. Toxic chemicals leach into the land and flow into streams. This pollution has a detrimental impact on the members of the local community, contaminating their natural resources and harming people and wildlife. I also learned that approximately 26% of the global population lacks access to clean drinking water, while fast fashion industries use somewhere around 2700 liters of water for the production of just one garment. It was then that I realized every fashion purchase has consequences.
Each time I practiced the presentation, my passion for this subject grew, compelling me to take action. I began by making small changes in my purchase choices and educated myself even more on the lifecycle of a garment. In 2021, I launched “Third Time’s a Charm Boutique” as a platform to live out this mission and make a difference by influencing the fashion acquisition choices of consumers. In September 2023, we transformed into “The Empowerment Boutique”, evolving our mission as we grew in influence. This past summer we focused on empowering the customer to #shopconfidently when purchasing secondhand fashion online and set out to fulfill the purpose of our mission. Today we continue to evolve in a way that supports our mission as we release our latest collection later this year. In a few weeks, we will be revealing a line of shirts imprinted with an original, empowering graphic on pre-loved garments using non-toxic, eco-friendly ink.
Our Mission
The Empowerment Boutique offers a unique fashion experience for women, by providing quality second-hand clothing that is both stylish and sustainable.
We aim to Normalize Secondhand Fashion as we strive toward a culture that will:
Empower women in the fashion industry by promoting quality products that are ethically sourced and sustainably made.
Elevate the online shopping experience of Pre-Loved Fashion, making it easier for consumers to #ShopDifferently.
Educate ourselves and those around us on ways to extend the life of clothing by caring for, upcycling, recycling, and properly disposing of.
Together, we can decrease consumption, reduce textile waste, and #StopFastFashion .
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The Empowerment Boutique aims to elevate the online shopping experience of apparel, we call it fashion done differently. Focusing on style and fit, we guide our customers as they make conscious purchasing decisions. Our company began in 2022 as “3rd Time’s a Charm” promoting the normalization of secondhand fashion while educating on how to reduce textile waste. In 2023, we transformed into “The Empowerment Boutique” both expanding on our original mission and utilizing an online platform to do live selling shows. As part of our commitment to our customers, we encourage the purchase of pre-loved and upcycled garments, making conscious purchases, and repurposing unwanted styles. With over 35% of online apparel orders returned due to sizing issues, we are working hard to lower this statistic and reduce textile waste. We do this by providing measurements alongside sizes and encouraging our customers to ask questions before making their purchases. This helps simplify the online shopping experience for our customers and empowers them to make informed purchases they can feel confident about. Confidently shopping means fewer returns and extending apparel’s lifespan from the average 7 wears to many, many wonderful years.
I am excited to announce that we brought in a new member to our team this year. Hiring this amazing woman enables us to spend more time connecting with our customers, providing a more personal shopping experience. We have also been able to attend in-person Pop-up events this year because of her assistance. Through this, we have grown our customer base while presenting ourselves to the local community in a way that was previously not possible.
Online businesses present a variety of challenges. When consumers have so many choices, reaching the right customer base can be challenging. When sales were low, I felt discouraged and wanted to give up. It felt impossible to achieve my dream and vision for the boutique. Determination to see my dream achieved along with the gentle encouragement of my wonderful partner was crucial to overcoming these challenges. Along the way, there have been mistakes and oversights made that resulted in returns, refunded orders, or loss of customers. I used the lessons learned from these mistakes as opportunities to learn what didn’t work for the business and I made the changes necessary to improve. By revising my methods I found success and continued to push forward, trying again and again. For me, success is about liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
Platforms! I wanted to steer clear of platforms at first. It was my goal to make a website, similar to an online shopping experience from a popular retail store, that didn’t require a profile or membership. Eventually, I changed my approach because of a few major challenges. First, there was marketing. It was expensive and difficult to advertise something so new and small. As I poured time and money into making and marketing my own website, I found the cons outweighed the pros. The cost of marketing, insurance, website maintenance, and shipping supplies all added up to more than my projected revenue. It was then I decided to give the platform Poshmark a try. At first, I struggled with the fees and immediately considered them to be a con of platforms. Then, I considered the cost of the fees in comparison to financially supporting my own website. Those costs added up, and it made sense why they charge such a high percentage. The insurance and shipping were the largest factors that won me over. If there is an issue, they work with me to protect both the customer and I. They also cover the cost of returns and provide refunds in a timely manner.
I quickly learned that platforms can be amazing tools to help small businesses really get their product and name out there.
After a successful year using one platform, we decided to venture out into two other platforms. Whatnot was the next one we chose to invest our time and effort into. While it was not as successful as our previous platform, it did provide a few features to customers that we were previously unable to provide, as well as giving us a completely new customer base. Recently, we were able to get in on the ground level of a brand-new platform called “District”. Again, this platform provided features that were different and new—such as social media selling—and we could reach a fresh customer base. What I enjoy about the District platform is that it’s more community-based for the seller. That support has kept me interested and motivated.
The biggest pros of using platforms are that they provide everything you need in a website and small business model. The cons are fees and a limited customer base. While you do not have to be a member of the platforms to make a purchase directly from me, one does need a membership to view my LIVE Stream, which is where I do most of my selling. This limits the viewers and detours some potential customers. We combat the limited customer base by using social media as a marketing tool, funneling leads into the platform channels for a successful sale by turning the follower into a customer. It also helps keep our returning customers updated, engaged, and informed of when we go LIVE or have new inventory.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
How did we build our following on Social Media? SLOWLY.
Our social media following isn’t huge, but it’s a genuinely interested customer base that views and interacts with our posts, stories, reels, lives, etc.
The first thing I did was advertise to family and friends. It’s easier to make a customer your friend than a friend your customer. Trying to market to my current social circle didn’t work; I needed to reach people interested in becoming customers instead of forcing them to become customers. Expanding our reach was a challenge. I didn’t want to pay for some AI to beat the algorithm or gain bots or spam followers. There’s a temptation to think numbers equate to success, but that’s not always true.
One interested follower is more valuable than a thousand uninterested followers.
I post content that is useful and informative for our followers on a consistent basis. My social media advisor, Nadia, and I work together to create fun and informative content that keeps our followers entertained while also creating leads. Being genuine goes a long way in connecting on social media. I am active throughout the day and respond quickly to messages and comments. To convert customers into followers, we offered 10% off at our pop-up event to anyone who followed us on social media. We had a huge QR code for customers to scan that linked to our landing page, where our social media links were at the top. This is an easy way to follow up with customers and also provide future advertisements and interest from them.
If you are a brand that is just starting on social media or looking to expand your reach, I would suggest a few things to focus on, to begin with. First, check your story views and interactions. Are real customers interested in your business, or are they bots and spam? Read your comments and messages. Are they valuable, contributing, convertible conversations? If not, what can you do to change the narrative? Social media offers many tools for sellers and influencers. I highly suggest informing yourself about how to utilize them. Start slow and build upon what works for you and your business.
Consistency and discipline will take you further in business than motivation ever could.
Next, schedule your content. Be consistent. Have your LIVE each week at the same time and day to build an expectant audience. My assistant pushed me into doing trending reels. I was not on board at first, but since they have caused our audience and influence to grow substantially, I am more open to participating in trends.
Then, find moments of meaningful connection with those who interact with your media, view your stories, and comment on your posts. I also present media that is more than just advertisements. I think about what our followers would be interested in seeing. Samples of my content include empowering quotes, fashion tips and trends, local events, news about the textile industry, environmental information, etc. Become the profile that they look forward to seeing pop up in their stories, not an account they want to block or mute. As a brand, be confident in what message you want to send to the world.
Communicate your brand clearly.
After that, begin to track what works. I find that trending audio does wonders for interactions and views but doesn’t get me any follows or link clicks. That’s OK. Each piece provides different results, and you need a little of everything to gather enough fandom to convert into customers. Widening your reach by posting to as many platforms as you can has the potential to increase genuine followers. Same content, different platforms. We post to YouTube, Poshmark Stories, IG, Facebook, X, Pinterest, etc. I don’t waste my time filming different content for each account; instead, I focus on quality content that can be posted to all platforms.
Lastly, be careful with whom you choose on your team to manage the social media accounts. If you need to outsource, be diligent that they are conveying your company brand correctly, and ensure you will still play a part in connecting with clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://empowermentboutique.shop
- Instagram: @the.empowerment.boutique
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheEmpowermentBoutique/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-empowerment-boutique
- Twitter: https://x.com/shopempowerment
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheEmpowermentBoutique
- Other: https://poshmark.com/closet/_empowerment_
https://www.whatnot.com/user/the_empowerment_boutique
https://district.net/u/the_empowerment_boutique
Image Credits
Stacie Seaton