Do you love to quilt?
If so, you’re one of about 10 million quilters across the U.S. These quilters routinely need supplies like fabric, thread, patterns, and tools. And because of this significant demand, opening a quilting store is a potentially lucrative proposition.
Turning a quilting hobby into a business requires research, hard work, and persistence — but with a sound business strategy, you can find great success.
In this blog, we offer 10 practical quilting business tips to help you find success at your quilt store. Whether you already have a store or you’re looking to open one, these quilting business tips will help you build a community of loyal customers and be profitable.
When you open a quilt store, you need to fill it with a wide variety of fabrics, threads, tools, and other supplies. Before you start acquiring inventory, do your research. Look at which quilting and fabric products are most popular and which ones aren’t, and consider trends to see what quilters need to create the most popular projects.
As you run your quilt store, take note of which products sell the best and whether customers are asking for products you don’t have. It’s important to curate your inventory based on your customers’ preferences. When customers find products they love, they’ll keep coming back to your store.
Having an online presence is essential for customers to find your quilting business. Customers need to find your quilt shop’s address and hours of operations to plan their trip to your store. It’s also helpful if they can get a glimpse of the products you offer.
Your website should be well-designed and easy to use. Choose one or a few colors to use throughout your quilt store and keep these colors consistent on your website and anywhere else your business is. Invest in a unique logo so customers can quickly recognize your brand.
Selling items online allows you to reach more customers and create a new stream of revenue for your business. To set up e-commerce, you need a sophisticated system that organizes orders, fulfillment, and shipping.
You also need to offer quality customer service to keep customers informed and assist them with issues that may occur. Take care to provide the best customer experience possible to keep customers ordering again and again.
A well-designed, logically arranged quilt store is easy to navigate for the customer and enhances their shopping experience. Organize your products into logical categories and use signage to make sure customers can easily find what they’re looking for.
Here are a few essential sections of your quilt store’s layout:
Setting up wall displays increases visibility for your products and helps you save space on the sales floor. Use displays at the front of your quilt store to showcase your most popular products — these items will catch customers’ eyes when they walk in, leading to higher sales. To keep your displays and all of your products visible, be sure your store is adequately lit.
A quilt store is more than just a place to make a purchase — it’s a place to explore products, be inspired, and engage in conversation. For this reason, adding some comfortable seating somewhere in your store may be helpful. Keeping some quilt and sewing books in this area for patrons to flip through will help them generate ideas for their next project — and lead to more purchases.
Related Read: The Best Quilt Shop Floor Plan: Help Customers Find What They Need
Inventory management is at the heart of your retail strategy. To keep your quilt store profitable, you need to know how much inventory to order and how to continuously turn it over. Good inventory management requires attention to detail — if an item becomes a top seller, you want to order enough of it to satisfy demand. A product with lower demand requires a less constant stock of product.
The best way to track your inventory is to use a digital point of sale (POS) system. These systems keep track of each item in your inventory and automatically adjust counts as items enter and leave your quilt store. With accurate data you can access anytime, you can identify trends and determine how much you should order for each product.
Even with sophisticated inventory management software, it’s still beneficial to occasionally conduct manual inventory audits to ensure your counts are accurate. If a stubborn product doesn’t seem to be selling, put it on sale or create a display to encourage higher sales. Next time, order less of that product to make room for something that’s selling better.
Related Read: Quilt Shop Inventory Management: 7 Steps to Success
Customer service is always important, but this is especially true at a quilting store. Quilters who visit your store want to interact with other quilters and benefit from their expertise. The success of your store isn’t just about products, it’s about creating friendships and a community of local quilters.
Always be friendly, and strive to be knowledgeable and helpful. To do so, you need to continually research quilting and learn about new trends so you can make informed suggestions. Train your staff to help your clients as well as you can, so each customer has a great experience.
When customers have a good experience at your quilt store and make friends there, they’ll be more likely to come back, and more likely to tell their friends about it. By offering great customer service, you’ll retain customers and gain new ones.
Another way to keep your customers engaged is to promote your quilting business on social media. Create accounts for your store on top social media platforms, and loyal patrons of your store will follow you. Use these platforms to showcase your products, your store, and your expertise. Offer tips for quilting and create demonstrations to show users how to use your products.
You can even post your customer’s quilt and sewing creations. Customers will be excited to see themselves and their friends featured on your page.
Social media accounts allow your quilt store to reach a new audience. To draw in even more users, you can use paid ads on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Google, and YouTube. As technology advances, these ads can more precisely target specific demographics so your ideal customers see your store.
Sound pricing strategy is essential to creating a sustainable business. To find the right prices for your products, start by researching your competition. What do similar businesses charge? Are you targeting the same audience as these businesses, or are there any differences? What’s the quality of their products compared to yours?
If your products are better than a competitor’s, you can charge a little more than they do. If your products have the same quality as a competitor’s, you should charge the same amount or less to compete with them. However, you also need to consider your profit margin. If prices are lowered too much, profit margin suffers. Balance these factors to find the right prices for your products.
If business is booming, you may be able to raise your prices. If store traffic is slow, you may need to lower them. Adjust your strategy over time and be careful not to change prices too much — customers need to know what to expect and if they see multiple price increases in quick succession, they may look elsewhere.
Related Read: What Is a Good Fabric Store Profit Margin? 4 Ways To Increase Your Bottom Line
Creating a community of loyal quilters who frequent your quilt store helps you stay profitable over the long term. One of the best ways to build this community is through in-person classes and other events held at your store.
Create classes to demonstrate quilting and sewing skills. Create a project together step-by-step or host free work time for quilters to work on their projects using your work areas and tools. Quilters are likely to invite their friends to these events, and participants are likely to buy supplies for their projects from your quilt store.
Related Read: Run Fabric Classes In-Store in 7 Simple Steps
Loyalty programs increase sales by turning customer’s shopping into a game. Customers who use a loyalty program accumulate points, punches, or another unit each time they make a purchase, and those points can be redeemed for rewards.
These rewards can include free, discounted, or exclusive products. For example, a customer could earn a free cutting tool or a discount on a purchase of fabric.
Make sure your loyalty program is easy to understand and use. If the system is too confusing or you can’t quickly take care of a transaction, customers are likely to lose interest.
Pay attention to your key metrics. As you execute your strategy, look at how expenses, revenue, and profit change. If your metrics are improving, your strategy is likely working. If not, take another look at your strategy.
Determine if you’re stocking the right products and whether your marketing efforts are effective. Consider what other changes you can make to improve your numbers, and continually adjust your strategy based on your most important metrics.
These quilting business tips will help you set your quilt store up for success. As you implement them, think about your ideal customer. What products do they want? Do they use social media? What is their price range? What kinds of events would they be likely to attend? Answer these questions and plan your retail strategy accordingly.
The best way to efficiently manage all of the operations of your quilting business is with a point of sale system, which is an invaluable tool in implementing these quilting business tips. Like Sew offers an all-in-one industry-specific POS solution that includes payment processing, inventory management, e-commerce, and more.
To learn what Like Sew can do for your business, schedule a demo today!