Why Boutique Shopping Needs A Marketplace All Its Own

The plight of fashion-forward shoppers is nearly universal. Out and about in the world or casually browsing on Pinterest they see the item that is clearly destined to be the centerpiece of all their wardrobe choices for the next months. This shopper is likely female (though increasingly male), urban and has cash they are looking to invest in the consumer economy.

They also have a problem: The perfect whatever it is was purchased at a one-off boutique in a city far, far away. Sure, the super-rich can hop the Gulf Stream and pick one up between yoga and vegan cooking classes, but even the most fashionable among us are usually operating on some kind of normal human budget. That means if it isn’t available online or within easy driving distance, the perfection of an outfit, set of shoes or accessory must by necessity take a backseat to its accessibility.

But perhaps, if Garmentory can get itself to scale, that problem will be a thing of the past, as the boutique set will have a natural online bazaar to which they can flock.

Because when it comes to the peculiar world of non-chain fashion retail, the ongoing risk and challenge is in stocking supply and striking an appropriate balance. Consumers face a problem with discovery, but retailers face an equally big problem with inventory and knowing how much of what to stock and when.

“Inventory is one of their biggest costs and biggest risks,” Garmentory’s CEO John Scrofano told CNBC. “They have a whole world of people who want that inventory, but they are kind of bound to where that brick-and-mortar store is geographically.”

Garmentory wants to be the digital destination where the consumers looking for the best boutique selection — and boutiques looking to expand their potential customer pools — can meet, greet and transact. Apart from one-off brick-and-mortar shops, the site also caters to small and up-and coming designers who do not have individual store locations of their own, but bases of consumers looking to buy from them directly.

Currently, Garmentory is home to about 250 boutiques and designers. The vast majority of those listings hail from the U.S. and Canada — though there are also listings from England, Russia, Singapore and Australia appearing on the platform at what their executive team calls an “increasing rate.”

The target customer for the site, according to Scrofano, are the young luxury buyers that tend to haunt sites like TheRealReal and patronize stores like Nordstrom or Saks. They tend to be seeking good deals on high-end products, a sweet spot Garmentory is hoping to hit with average costs ranging between $75 to $600.

That “young luxury” customer is, of course, highly desirable to a wide variety of merchants, and Garmentory’s initial draw is passing almost no costs on to the consumer user — instead drawing its profits from a commission on sales made through its marketplace. That focus on customer value means that shipping and returns on the platform are always free and delivered in three days or so.

How sticky a service Garmentory will prove to be in an eCommerce space that suddenly seems quite crowded with marketplaces remains to be seen. Founded in 2014, the firm has raised a conservative $1.3 million in funding  and clocked monthly growth in the 10-percent range.

The secret to continued growth and success for the firm, Scrofano noted, is the ability to continue to attract and appeal to independent boutiques.

“The way we win against those folks [larger retail players] is by offering items with deep meaning,” Scrofano said. “This is like art to the people who made it — people really connect with that. The boutique owner or designer might actually be the one packing or shipping to you, and a Barney’s or Nordstrom — they just can’t do that.”

And, according to at least one merchant who is part of the original cohort of 250, the marketplace has amplified their range and sales picture and more than paid for itself in terms of increased traffic.

“It gives us a larger audience and just a larger presence to really go out and go up against bigger companies in the eCommerce space,” Jill Donnelly, co-owner of Seattle-based Baby & Company noted. “It’s also opened up my imagination and focus to cater to a much bigger net.”

Scrofano says that Garmentory is making a bet that consumers actually want to shop small and local but don’t have an easy or intuitive way to access those main street business unless they are doing a very in-depth Google search aiming at a lot of very small targets. Some markets like Amazon Handmade and Etsy scratch the surface of that access issue, but Garmentory thinks it can do it a bit better.

“It’s not just ‘Oh, we feel good about small businesses,'” Scrofano said. “We really believe in what they do.”

Now it just remains to be seen if businesses also believe in Garmentory.