Opening Your First Store: Advice From The Show Me Your Mumu Co-Founders
Image via Show Me Your Mumu
While many brands are opting for an e-commerce-only approach, there are plenty of reasons to open a brick and mortar store for your business, too! Cammy Miller and Cologne Trude, the co-founders of bohemian chic brand Show Me Your Mumu, saw the value of bringing the Mumu experience into real life and have learned quite a few things about maintaining a boutique one year after opening their Abbot Kinney spot.
Here are their top pieces of advice for how to successfully open a store for your brand:
5 Tips on Opening Your First Store
1. Experience
A store is an opportunity for customers to experience your brand in real life. Our store is a small space, but we wanted people to walk into the world of Mumu when they stepped foot in the door and feel like they were experiencing the brand firsthand. Decor, color scheme, and lighting are all very important. The Mumu store is light and bright, and you feel instantly happy when you walk in!
2. Staff
At Mumu we pride ourselves on being nice girls, so we want our staff to reflect our brand's mentality: friendly, cheerful, and helpful to all! Retail is hard work, so the staff you hire is so important!
3. Product Assortment
Even though we would love to have our entire Mumu assortment in the store—it just isn't realistic. We have learned a lot along the way, but the assortment on the floor and giving the customers what they want at the right time is so key. We also play with seasonal shops like "Bikini Week" in summer, and "Party Shop" in Winter, to make the vibe really streamlined, shoppable, and fun.
4. Events
A store is a great space for events, and we love to throw a Mumu party! Luckily our store is also in a great location off of Abbot Kinney, so we get to have really fun store events. We try to incorporate like-minded brands and bring in new audiences. Who doesn't want an excuse to have a drink and shop!? :)
5. Reflecting
In opening your first store, you are going to learn so much along the way. We make sure to keep detailed reports and meet monthly about what is working and what is not working. There is always room to make quick changes and implement new ideas. Learn from your mistakes and successes!
Show Me Your Mumu co-founders Cammy and Cologne
Why did SMYM open its first store in Venice Beach CA? We (Cammy + Cologne) both live in Venice, and it is Mumu's California home. After moving from NYC, we had our first offices here and it is considered home base for the brand. We have recently moved our offices to the Art's District in DTLA (we make most of our product in Los Angeles) but we still consider Venice our home. It is also very Mumu vibes on Abbot Kinney; we love it there!
Why did SMYM foray into Bridal? Mumu has always followed our lifestyles as we have moved into each new fun stage. We both got married about 6 months apart, and we launched bridesmaids with our weddings. We saw a lack in the market for easily accessible, good quality yet affordable, and stylish bridesmaid dresses—basically dresses girls our age would be excited to buy and wear! Our dresses are comfortable, fit multiple body types, and you might actually want to wear it again. And we have a wide range of colors and styles—more coming soon!