What major goal do you have for your store in 2019, and how do you plan to achieve it?
We’re on the board of our local boutique district, and our biggest goal is to promote local shopping in our area. We realize we absolutely have to focus on our return customers—they keep the doors open. We launched a VIP program and a campaign, and we’re really concentrating on creating experiences for the customers: events with multiple stores and other collaborations. It all leads to an elevated experience for our shoppers. We also want to grow our social media; we’re selling directly off Instagram now, and people are loving that.
—Katya Ananieva, co-owner. She’s Unique, Alexandria, Va., shopshesunique.com
I’m working on trying to engage the local community more. I’m hoping to host more events in the store—we brought in a few new local brands and some artists who do craf