Good morning everyone! I’m excited to share my coffee time with each of you! Today’s post is for all of my followers who are boutique shoppers, boutique owners, and simply boutique enthusiasts! My friend from college, Amanda Grace Poole, recently started a new company with her sister and her cousin. Amanda started a boutique around the time that I started Southern Jewlz and she grew it to be an extremely profitable business within only a few years. She then sold her business (it was a super smart and profitable move!) and went on to get married and to take on new opportunities as a newlywed who traveled and did mission work with her husband. She now runs a cancer survivorship center in the Woodlands. I have known Amanda for almost 15 years and she is a Southern Belle mixed with a Go-Getter! I’m so excited for their new business (Three Girls Market) and knew this concept would be a great fit to share with my readers!
After catching up over lunch at Blue Baker (one of my favorite spots in College Station), I decided to interview her and share their concept on my blog.
So tell me — Who are the three girls of TGM?!
“We are family! Brittany and Amanda are sisters, and Holly is our cousin. We are three girls with insanely busy lives that needed a convenient, faster way to shop! We are finance professionals, former boutique owners, and we are all consumers. Brittany is great with leading teams and teaching efficiency. I (Amanda) have lots of experience buying and creative marketing. Holly’s strength is all things analytics, taxes, numbers and finances. Together we make an incredible team.”
What is TGM?
“TGM is the revolutionary NEW way to shop. This is an amazing e-commerce startup/concept that originated out of a need for trusted, quality, and curated items. Did you know there are over over 60 million fraudulent accounts on social media? So often many of us have ordered something online, and never received it or we received it 2 months later and it could fit my 3 year old daughter,” says Brittany. We vet these boutiques from all over the country for quality and customer service, and then put them on our site. A customer can now buy a dress from an amazing boutique in NYC, and a shirt from one in College Station, and check out in ONE shopping cart.
“We wanted to create an amazing and trustworthy shopping experience for our customers,” Holly stated. Brittany is a working mom, as am I, and Amanda runs a cancer survivorship center in The Woodlands. We don’t have time to shop in person. We also wanted to be able to save time shopping boutiques. We didn’t want to enter in our card information on 7 different sites and pay 7 different shipping fees.”
WAIT WAIT. Is there free shipping on TGM?!
“YES! As we grow and add boutiques, we will be adding an Executive Membership option, which gives you free shipping for a YEAR.”
Amanda — as a former boutique owner, can you explain the benefits of TGM to a shop owner?
“Absolutely. It benefits shops, and different kinds of shops, in many ways. For example, only 17% of boutiques have an e-commerce site. So we just signed a shop up, that doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of building/paying for a site, so they are now able to sell online with Three Girls Market. This saves them a lot of time and money! Because you can view TGM by shop name and location, they loved this!
Another reason shop owners should love it is that we provide clickable links to your social media, and back to your website site (if you have one). Even if you have a web site, you can use TGM as a marketing tool! Use us to reach new clients, and diversify the price and kinds of items you want to offer! Think about it — people who sell on Amazon, still have their own sites. Its a way to market and get their name out there. Because it is an easy shopping experience for customers, they will want to use the site and therefore drive your sales up on more than one platform! Matter of fact – we envision being the Zulily of the Boutique world!
Keep in mind we are NEW! We just launched and have only a handful of stores that have been approved to be on our site, but after many months of planning and developing this concept, we are ready to take on new clients and grow our site!
What If I’m a Boutique Owner who Already has a Website?
It’s going to just be an additional shopping method and marketing option for your store. As we build our site’s traffic and social media following, you will have more exposure to our following in addition to your own! Possibly the strongest incentive is the fact that a consumer can check out on one shopping cart from multiple boutiques all over the USA will be very convenient to the customers!
Tell me more about the Amenities of Selling on TGM:
The shop owner doesn’t have to be rehearsed at maintaining and updating websites. They will have access to our IT guy and web developer who will handle that aspect for you. We have lots of how-to videos and allow the boutique owner’s customization of their own coupon codes and specials. The site is already integrated with USPS as far as shipping labels go. The shop owner’s with TGM also have access to all 3 TGM girls. It’s basically a website within a website and access to the co-founders and IT guy (John is his name) who all have expertise in different fields. You can look at us as extended members of your team!
How Do Shops sign up?
There is a link at the bottom of the homepage: threegirlsmarket.com
From then on, we will charge shops a $59 membership fee BUT that is waved if they produce $500 of sales each month on the site. Our percentage of sales is only 15%, and from that we give back to United Way of Great Houston, which is a women’s initiative and young mom’s scholarship fund. We are strong believers in giving back to our community and helping provide women with the opportunities to be successful.
Who do I contact if I have additional questions than you answered on this blog?
Feel free to email us at hello@threegirlsmarket.com! We look forward to reviewing new stores to include on our site!
As a boutique owner for nearly 10 years myself who is almost solely online, I will say that the cost and energy of building and maintaining a website can be overwhelming at first, and can even still feel that way when the business is no longer new. This would be a great outlet for stores who are not yet online, and just an additional source of traffic and avenue to new buyers for those who do already sell online. I personally know Amanda and her sister Brittany and can vouch that they are each other’s ying to the yang. When Amanda first told me of her new business, I complimented the fact that all the co-founders were family members and that would come with a deep amount of love, loyalty and appreciation for each other as team members which can be really hard to find these days.
So before I wrap it up and get back to the rest of my day, don’t forget that my own boutique (Southern Jewlz) recently launched some of the cutest new luxury swimwear options online. Most options are still in stock, but we are down to only have a handful or even one left in most of the styles. I wasn’t a believe of high end swimwear until this year. The fit is incredible and truly hugs you in all the right places while still allowing you to be active! So check it out on my boutique’s website at www.SouthernJewlz.com and feel free to let me know your thoughts below! Have a fabulous Thursday everyone!
xo,
Leave A Comment