Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nikki Arnise. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nikki , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
Starting Nique Kouture definitely started out as just an idea. I used to want to be a fashion designer but at the time that seemed like something that wasn’t in the cards for me. I like to style outfits and dress nice; people would always ask me where I got my clothes from, so I started looking at it like “why am I sending these big businesses money when I can tap into that business myself.” I did the research myself, I didn’t have someone holding my hand and walking me through the process. Nique Kouture was really built from the ground up, I obtained my EIN and sales permit, registered Nique Kouture as an LLC, and looked for the vendors myself. I’ve been to Market and made some connections with a few vendors in person. I slowly started using social media to promote Nique Kouture and would have people cash app me to pay (very humble beginnings), I used to meet people to drop off orders or have them pick them up from a location. The items I had would sell out and the business started growing more and more every week.. I started noticing a lot of interest from out of state customers. During this time, I had been paying for a website that I wasn’t using. I slowly started playing around with the website and just started learning different things about building a website. I would sit up until about 3 am each day until the website was completely built. I launched the website the next day and discontinued the cash app format. I slowly started adding installment plans like Afterpay, Sezzle, PayPal, etc. Within this last year I have added ShopPay and Shopify installments. Now that Nique Kouture has been in business for a little over 3 years I am looking into getting a storefront while still operating online for our out of state customers.
Nikki , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Nique Kouture is an online fashion boutique that offers trendy, ready to wear fashions for people who have somewhere to go! Whether it’s brunch, dinner dates, girl’s nights, or concerts you can find it online at shopniquekouture.com. Nique Kouture specializes in fall and winter styles and offers a limited selection for spring and summer. In the near future, I am working on bringing a year-round vacation collection which will cater to popular travel destinations each year. I am big on customer service. I offer an email option where the customers can email me directly and I respond back immediately so it’s not a situation where a customer has a question or an issue and I reply back within 24-48 hours. I try my best to accommodate the customer in any way I can. I have had customers who have wanted to order an item but need it quicker than the shipping time frame and if I can accommodate that (excluding weekends or holidays) then I will make that exception. I have been blessed to not have any complaints in regards to the quality of the merchandise I supply and I plan to keep that standard of quality. Nique Kouture is very affordable, I compare my items to other retailers and we are at least 20-30% cheaper. It takes a lot for a customer to trust a new business and trust that they aren’t being scammed, so to have multiple customers in multiple states believe in my boutique says a lot about the work I put in on a daily basis to build that trust.
I am proud of the business I created on my own. I am proud of myself for sticking to my plan that started out as an idea that I didn’t know would be possible to execute. Running a small business in this economy, dealing with inflation, and competing with big businesses and designer brands can be intimidating as well as unpredictable.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I already had a strong social media presence. I have always been on social media for hours a day, sometimes all day playing around or engaging in conversations/debates about various topics. I have built relationships through social media with people I have never seen a day in my life. I also show a lot of support on social media for people who have had businesses years before I even thought about starting one. When I started my business, I started with showing my logo announcing my online boutique will be coming soon. People showed so much support really making me feel like “ok I got this…I can do this” Later, I started off with two or three items and posted them on social media and they would sell out. To get an idea of what my target audience would be I would show items and get opinions and most of the items would be well received by about 85% of the people engaging with me. Word of mouth and being tagged on posts asking for recommendations became my biggest source of followers for buy business pages. I don’t have thousands of followers on my IG business page because my audience mainly uses FB. Because I know my IG follower count isn’t high, I focus on being viewed rather than followed. I taught myself how to do reels with transitions and mirroring to keep the viewers engaged and the response has been very good. For me, I have to use both social media platforms differently. What works for FB won’t always work for IG and vice versa.
My advice for anyone that’s new to building their social media presence is to be consistent. Post content everyday, don’t worry about followers in the beginning because the idea is to get seen. Once people start to consistently see you they will start following you to see what’s next. Pay attention to trends and don’t be afraid to try different things to see what works for YOU! The trending sounds are a big deal if you are a reel-er and there are a lot of tools that can help you. Being genuine is a plus, people like to follow and support people that they can relate to and who are likeable. I still have people that message me from time to time telling me they’re rooting for me, inspired by me, or love my posts and videos. The last piece of advice I have for those just starting to build is, don’t think too much about it! From experience I can honestly say, those perfect backgrounds, photoshoots, and having a videographer for every piece of content is not as big of a deal as you may think it is. Work your way up to the “professional look” level if that is what you want but in the beginning stages you are still trying to figure out who your audience is and what they like and respond to.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been being a walking billboard. I wear a lot of the items from my boutique, sometimes from head to toe. When I post online, do a video, reel, or story, I show people what my clothes look like in person on a real person. I have recently started doing “GRWM” (Get Ready With Me) where I will show a live version of styling an item and giving ideas on different ways to style an item. By doing this method, it helps grow clientele organically and it’s more likely that they will support my boutique more than just one time.
Contact Info:
- Website: shopniquekouture.com
- Instagram: nique_kouture
- Facebook: Nique Kouture