How to Attract Customers with Great Boutique Design

If you own a small clothing store or high-end fashion boutique, you can wow visitors with great boutique design. Here are some tips that will help you elevate your branding with good design.

As a small business owner fashion designer that has their own showroom, you probably know the importance of good store layout, dashing window displays and good interior design of your boutique store. Assuming you can’t exactly afford a design studio to take care of your wishes and needs, there’s still a lot you can achieve with simple branding tricks that will improve your business.

Small note beforehand: we will go through examples of clothing boutiques that have great design and branding, not industry news of hospitality projects of boutique hotels and interior designers.

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Packaging and branding assets

Since boutiques offer a more high-end, personalized feel to their shoppers compared to big world-known retailers, having a luxurious and trendy branding and packaging will help achieve that feeling of exclusivity and “being different”.

Bags, wrapping paper and labels are definitely small pieces of branding that will help your logo and brand name be visible. You can even go beyond that and create tote bags or recycled plastic bags, to give your customers a self-sustainable shopping experience.

For example, Faby’s Boutique uses a simple cardboard box, but adding a label with the company’s logotype in a funky serif typeface and a silky linen strap helps personalize the packaging and make it look unique.

Hopefully, you found this quick rundown of branding tricks that will help your boutique’s design useful. Make sure you’ve got these elements covered:

Petra Pilbák

Emblema Design Studio

Kristina BilynetsMono Architects

Design by ADDI9 DESIGN CRIATIVO

Design by Anastasia Popova-Demidova

Design by Agência Capixe and Robson Santos

Design by Izabella Harutyunyan

If you want a classic paper handbag for your boutique, you can create your own design or pattern and print out your own shopping bags. If you have the budget, why not go all the way and offer a linen backpack or tote bag for loyal customers?

Design by D Once Studio

Considering the fact that boutiques are places where one can find the best gift for a loved person, you can brand a lot more than just labels and shopping bags. The Augustine Boutique, for example, has its own gift vouchers, gift boxes and crepe paper in a minimalist pastel color design. The creative and contemporary boutique logo is infused in all the materials, and the color scheme is definitely memorable and impressive.

Unique logo design

As with any other industry, a company logo will be the face of your business. If you own a business that sells goods, that basic branding asset will be applied to many assets, such as the labels and shopping bags we already mentioned.

This Italian shoes and purses boutique uses an elegant logotype and an alternate logo in the form of a monogram. The logo is versatile and contemporary, and as you can see from the mockups, looks beautiful on the minimalist shopping bags.

Since you will have to make a wide array of branding assets and different packaging, make sure the logo has more than one variation. You can have different brand marks and versions of a logotype, but the finalists you choose should have the same branding colors and style.

The Cozelli boutique has a simple monochrome style combination mark, the same logo in a golden embossing, a vertical version of the brand mark and logotype, and a circle emblem. All four versions have the same sans serif typographic logo and brand mark of a lirio do campo, or lily of the field, signifying the femininity and mystery of female beauty.

You can check out our list of beautiful boutique logos for more logo inspiration.

Interior design

It might not be as important as nailing hospitality interiors perfectly, but the interior design of your brick and mortar retail store can greatly influence the customer’s experience and, in the end, bring you more profit.

The layout of the shop, as well as the look of your window displays, can make it easier for your customers to make their way into the retail space and find what they are looking for.

For example, you need to leave some space for them to get accustomed to the interior and the layout. Display your best items first to elevate the first impression, and add a natural direction in the boutique so that shoppers will feel encouraged to keep exploring.

You also need to add important information, like prices, contents of the linen, etc., so that shoppers will find everything they need.

Another very important thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t cramp up space by putting up way too many items. Shoppers are easily overwhelmed when they can’t concentrate on what they’re seeing.

But apart from good structure and planning, a good boutique interior means that your store looks trendy, enticing and innovative. People who enjoy buying clothes in brick and mortar stores enjoy the smell, look and feel of it. Make sure you have a desk where a shopper can ask for help or information, and a guestroom or small lounging space for people dragged into the shopping experience who are there to give the green light.

App and website design

If your boutique was forced to go online because of the covid-19 pandemic, or perhaps you’ve always been mainly online, your website or shopping app is where it all happens.

You need a good, clean and easy-to-navigate design, where your branding assets are subtly infused.

That means pictures of the products, as well as their price, contents, possible location for pickup or delivery time and price, as well as other crucial details. Make sure that the gallery is updated regularly so that shoppers don’t always see the “out of stock” banner when they are looking for an item.

Of course, your front page should always contain banners for discounts, sales and other deals for customers. If it’s an app, you can even show popups or push notifications.

A useful addition is a “Suggestions” or “You May Also Like” page, where you can suggest similar products to the shopper.

Гифка гл from Аліса Шишкалова on Vimeo.

Unique offer

Finally, if your boutique does something differently or sets itself apart from the competition, make sure that is the main messaging you need to share with potential customers. Whether it’s a quirky native fashion boutique, an all-organic linen line, or a unique children’s clothing line, use that as your core value proposition. You are offering something special after all.

• A unique logo that fits with the brand
• Branding colors and patterns you apply to branding materials (labels, packaging, shopping bags, gift vouchers, tote bags, etc.)
• Interior design that looks good and helps with the shopping experience
• A useful app or website for e-commerce stores
• A value proposition that will make obvious what sets you apart from others

Good design and marketing aren’t only limited to these branding steps, but this will give you a rough idea of how design can elevate your brand.