Reprint from The Business News 3-28-11
By Amanda Lauer • March 28, 2011
Chic idea pays off
Owners of consignment boutique to open third store in May
What do you get when you take two stay-at-home entrepreneurial moms plus one good business idea multiplied by five years? A thriving, award-winning chain of women's consignment boutiques called Chic to Chic.
Jill Nelson and Tammy Eiting are the co-owners of three Chic to Chic stores. "We decided we wanted to own our own business, make our own hours and work for ourselves and put the love of shopping and fashion into a business,"Nelson said. "We'd been consignment shopping and thought it was a great fit for us. There's no overhead, we don't own anyting, so there was no risk besides signing the lease and buying equipment."
The first store the women opened was in Darboy on Eisenhower Drive. "We sell dresses, jewelry, accessories, shoes and purses on consignment," Nelson said. "Our target market is 20-something to 50-something women's clothing, but we do accept teen brands from the stores in the mall because there are a lot of mothers and daughters who shop together. We carry the sizes 00 to 3X. We take current styles, no more than a year or two old. If you don't see it in a store today you won't see it in here. We have no problem getting inventory, it's just coming in droves."
It take 15 items from a seller to open an account. "We take only certain name brands," Nelson said. "We price their items at about one half to one third of what the item originally was worth and then when the item sells they get 40 percent of that sales price on their account. It stays in the store for 90 days, and if it doesn't sell, the women can pull it back. Otherwise, it is donated to the Community Clothes Closet.".
When there is money built up in the accounts, the consigners have a couple of options. "Some women use their money back in the store as store credit," Nelson said. "There are some women who will pull it out, go and shop and turn their closet over again. I would say 75 percent shop here when they see the brands we have. We still need women to shop in stores though because they need to turn their closet over."
Tammy Eiting, left, and Jill Nelson opened their first Chic to Chic, a women's consignment boutique, in Darboy five years ago. They opened another near the Fox River Mall in 2009 and will open their third store in Oshkosh in May. The Business News photo by Amanda Lauer
From January through May, Chic to Chic offers prom dresses for sale. "We price the dresses about half of what they were new. We do a 50/50 split with the consigners," Nelson said. "If they don't sell and if we think it will sell to just the right girl at the right time we'll put an X on the tag and take it back again next year for no fee."
The second store on Mall Drive by the Fox River Mall in Grand Chute was opened in 2009. "It was a good fit for us to be on the opposite side of town," Nelson said. "We have a lot of consigners from the Greenville, Hortonville and New London area that don't necessarily make it to the southeast side of Appleton. Over there the traffic is great."
Chic to Chic has a data base of 2,204 consigners, but that number could go up soon. In May, their third location, on Main Street in Oshkosh will open. "Oshkosh is going to be our outlet, so to say," Nelson said. "It's the items that have already been in our store. The clothing is half price here for the last 60 days. If it doesn't sell, and the women don't pick it up, we'll take it to Oshkosh to give it some more time to sell."
Consignment shopping is trendy nowadays. "It's the green thing," Nelson said. "The whole reuse, renew, recycle thing was really moving five years ago, it's still going on. Women want someone else to wear their clothes whether they change sizes, they change careers, stay-at-home moms go back to work or working women become stay-at-home moms."
There are seven employees at Chic to Chic. Nelson and Eiting try to spend only 20 hours each week at the store, but there is considerable behind-the-scenes work they do from home.
Sales at the store have doubled every year since it opened and that growth was recognized when Chic to Chic recently was awarded the Heart of the Valley Chamber of Commerce Rising Star Award.
It's gratifying for Nelson and Eiting to have their own business yet still have time to do "the mom thing," as Nelson called it. "I feel like it's a good balance. Plus Tammy and I are still really good friends and our customers are friends -- women come in, and they need a friend to help them find an outfit."