An Athabasca boutique has shifted its business model to cater more to local shoppers
Annie Syryda, owner of Elladora Boutique, said she created a beautiful website for her five-year old business to have more of an online presence, but she has quickly found that’s not the direction she should be going.
“It’s not used the way we thought it would be and after the pandemic … people really wanted to come back into a store,” she said.
Syryda said people seem to want to feel, see, and smell products before buying them, so her and her team have been putting more effort into events and things where customers can get together and shop and enjoy each other’s company in the store.
Elladora Boutique opened in 2021 and moved to its current location in 2022. Syryda said she found the town needed a store like hers and it has worked well so far. The boutique has quickly grown as it has started to include products from several other woman-owned businesses, including one of the newest additions called Walking In Memphis, a mini boutique that is renting space inside Elladora to sell its product.
“We can kind of help each other grow and it seems to be a really good fit,” said Syryda.
The business grew enough to try to have an online presence, but Syryda said it’s ultimately important for them to listen to the customers and be able to share their story as an all-Canadian, mostly woman-owned business with a lot to offer. She said the work it takes to make your business seen online is especially difficult with big companies like Amazon being at most people’s fingertips.
“We were really putting a lot of onus online because we thought that’s where we need to be, and then we realized, ‘Well, there’s a lot of competition out there.’”
Syryda said it was easier and better for the company to get back to its bread and butter, which is physical sales and allowing customers to come in and see them. She said the website is still a great tool to have because customers will go onto it, look at a product and screenshot it, and then come into the store and ask about it.
“It’s a beautiful showcase and almost catalogue of what we have,” she said.
The website will continue to be utilized and could grow, but there are less sales from it because people like to come in and try things on. The shop owner it would be a bonus if online sales were boosted a bit because it helps the business overall, but what has been built at Elladora Boutique is important and helps the small business community.
“If that’s where we put our heart and our soul … then hopefully that’s where we’re going to get back what we put in,” she said.
Syryda will continue building on what is at the boutique and trying to draw people in with new product and the new things they’re doing. There may be times when a brick-and-mortar store isn’t the greatest in this economy, but she said collaborating with other businesses and supporting them will ultimately go a long way towards helping hers survive.
“The more that we show up and be part of the community that we’re in … then they’re going to do the same,” she added.
