Popular Bedford boutique shifts to casual lifestyle store, Williams Mercantile
Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
Stephanie Williams had built a strong retail business with her Lemonseed Boutique in downtown Bedford.
Offering fun tops, dresses, fashion accessories and unique graphic tees, she brought something new to downtown.
But in the 12 years since she opened her first storefront on 16th Street, the products she wanted to bring to customers changed.
As she stocked more products that reflected her desire to offer items for everyday living, she felt her boutique no longer fit the boutique model. As much as she loved her boutique, she felt a change was necessary to better reflect her store.
Last June, Stephanie and her husband Tom announced a rebrand of the store and a new name, Williams Mercantile.
“We were already making that shift,” she said. “We wanted to carry more men’s and more natural home products. The name Williams Mercantile opens the door to anything we want to add.”
The addition of major brands like Life is Good, Mono B, Free People and goodr sunglasses reflect the change.
The casual lifestyle store complements the Williams’ interests in travel, camping and getting outdoors – activities they love to do as parents to five children.
Risks to rebranding
Rebranding is not without risks. No. 1 is alienating or losing customers.
According to Linkedin, rebranding can:
- Create confusion for customers
- Can be costly to develop new strategies and design new signage and website
- On the positive side, rebranding is an opportunity to:
- Engage with customers in a new way and attract a new demographic.
- Update your mission, get people excited about your business
- Show customers value-added services.
In the few months since the rebrand, Williams said she has no regrets.
“It was very scary and we sat on that fence a long time,” she said. “Finally we decided we needed to just go for it. We knew there was a chance some regulars would say no thanks.”
But she also knew there were customers who were already loving the new styles in the store that were added before the rebrand.
“It was a risk but we knew it would open doors. It was absolutely the right thing to do,” she said. “We’ve lost nothing and the lull in sales we anticipated … will people walk away before they come with us? … didn’t happen.”
When doubt entered her mind, she reminded herself of the quote, “The riches are in the niches,” meaning it’s better to serve a targeted audience than to try and be all things to all people.
COVID’s affect on retail
Ironically, COVID gave her the confidence to re-brand.
When everyone was stuck at home and non-essential businesses limited their hours, Williams ramped up her online presence, doing weekly live shows from her closet at home.
People still wanted to shop, but they no longer needed frilly tops and dresses. Seeing how COVID changed everyone’s wardrobe, Williams introduced new items, and she showed viewers how to style it with other pieces. People were already shopping online before COVID, but the pandemic brought in an audience that was new to the experience and likely preferred seeing items in person and trying them on. Williams took the time to describe the fabric and the fit, which gave viewers confidence to buy online.
At the height of the shutdown, she had 80 to 100 people watching. Popular items sold out in two minutes and many never made it into the store. She was filling orders for customers in Idaho, Florida and Colorado.
“Our growth online gave me the confidence to make that shift. We were shipping to Florida, Idaho, Utah and Colorado so I knew we were hitting a chord,” she said.
Online sales, sparked by live shows, were key to surviving the shutdown. Today, online purchases make up 70% of total sales; 90% of those purchases are made via the store’s app.
With the bulk of her business online, the Williams Mercantile storefront is open three days a week, Thursday through Saturday.
Williams said the days the store is closed are spent filling online orders, checking inventory and preparing for live shows, which moved from evening to noon to preserve family time.
“Live shows are like a second full-time job. It’s hours of preparation and running the back end of the website,” she said.
If customers miss the live, they can watch the replay later.
From dream to reality
A native of Fort Wayne and a graduate of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, where she majored in marketing and entrepreneurship, Williams said she had dreamed of launching Williams Mercantile as an online store since 2018 but lacked the time to pursue it.
Her goal is a more curated collection with a deeper inventory and adding items by season rather than every week.
“It’s that added value of building a wardrobe that is you, a wardrobe that is modern but not trendy,” she said. “So that instead of buying five new pairs of denim, you’re buying that one pair that is a modern cut.”
Store hours
Williams Mercantile employs five people. The retail store at 1009 16th St., is open Thursday and Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.- 2 p.m.