Mobile Boutiques' Newest Retail Innovation
A new wave in retail will be mobile boutiques, according to a handful of entrepreneurs.
Retail thrives on novelty, and for Rebecca Marciano, the next big thing is a fashion boutique on wheels.
Marciano and her brother Harrison Marciano debuted mobile boutique ShopTruckLA on Sept. 8, during Fashion’s Night Out festivities in downtown Los Angeles. She and a handful of other Los Angeles entrepreneurs believe that selling premium denim and local designers out of a fancy truck makes sense, especially in a town where thousands of people line up to buy pricy fusion cuisine from popular food trucks.
ShopTruckLA will sell fashion labels such as William Rast, Paige Premium Denim, J5 Collection, Haute Love Affair and her own Puncture fashion label out of an 18-foot General Motors Utilimaster truck. After the former tool truck was purchased for $8,000, Rebecca and Harrison Marciano, the children of Guess? co-founder and A.B.S. by Allen Schwartz co-owner Armand Marciano, spent more than six months retrofitting the truck into a space where style-savvy people would want to browse for clothes.
With new shelving, turquoise paint and a phone booth–style dressing room, which has yet to be installed, ShopTruckLA and other mobile boutiques will offer the best deals and the best of all worlds to consumers and to retailers, Rebecca Marciano said.
For consumers, ShopTruckLA will offer merchandise 80 percent below the retail price, as well as jeans alterations. The shop also drives to consumers; consumers do not have to commute to shops. For retailers, a truck can offer an escape clause no lease can provide. quot;If you’re not doing well in one area, you can go somewhere else,quot; Marciano said. quot;You’re able to pick up and go if it is not working out.quot; Marciano ran a physical boutique called Puncture in Beverly Hills from 2005 to 2007. She also operated a Von Dutch boutique from 2003 to 2005 and has worked as a web editor and a wardrobe manager for independent films.
Stacey Steffe and business partner Jeanine Romo started their boutique on wheels, Le Fashion Truck, in 2010, and they hope to nurture their class of retail into being more than a novelty. Later this month, they intend to launch West Coast Mobile Retail Association, a trade group for mobile retailers, including ShopTruckLA; T-Ruck, a mobile T-shirt boutique; and The Flower Truck, a florist on wheels. Among the association’s services will be information on dealing with parking codes in various Los Angeles County municipalities, as well as etiquette tips.
quot;You can’t pop up in front of another person’s shop. It is insulting,quot; Steffe said.
Despite the 17-foot size, Le Fashion Truck has all of the amenities of bricks-and-mortar shops, Steffe said. There is a dressing room, as well as racks to browse, and shop owners take payments with credit cards. They use the Square reader, which can process credit card payments when attached to mobile phones and tablets.
Le Fashion Truck often does business at craft fairs, open-air markets and private parties. Steffe estimated 20 percent of her overhead goes to fees vendors pay to do business at events. However, 50 percent of her budget is spent on diesel fuel. quot;We hit the gas station a couple of times a week. Once it goes past $5 a gallon, I’ll freak out,quot; she said.
The ultimate test for Steffe’s mobile venture will be time. quot;If we make it past a year, it will not be a novelty,quot; she said. quot;I don’t even feel like we've touched the surface with being a mobile boutique.quot;
