What a boutique website needs: pages, words and photos

A boutique website has one main job: convince someone nearby that your shop is worth the drive, and make it easy to find you, call you and come in. That means clear pages for what you carry, your sizes and price range, your hours and location, and who you are. It does not need every item you stock, and it does not need to look like a department store's site.

What shoppers check before they come in

Think about the woman who saw your bag on a friend's arm, or the man looking for a gift on his lunch break. Before they get in the car, they want quick answers to a handful of questions:

• What kind of shop is this? Women's clothing, home goods, gifts, kids, menswear, or a mix. Say it in the first line of the home page, with your town: "Women's clothing and accessories in downtown Franklin, sizes XS to 3X."
• Is it my style and my budget? A few photos of the actual racks help, and so does a plain price range: "Tops from around $30, dresses mostly under $120." Vague words like "affordable" mean different things to different people; real numbers save a wasted trip.
• Do you carry my size? For clothing boutiques this is the question that decides the visit. If you carry extended sizes, petite, or plus, say so near the top.
• Are you open right now? Hours, holiday hours, and whether you close early on Sundays.
• Where do I park? Downtown shops especially. "Free lot behind the building, entrance on Maple" is worth a line.

If those five answers are easy to find on a phone, the site has done most of its work.

The pages a boutique site needs

Home

Your shop name, what you carry, your town, today's hours and one tap to call or get directions. Under that: two or three photos of the store, a short paragraph in your own voice, and a line about what is new this month. Keep the top of the page simple. A shopper scrolling on a phone in a parking lot should not have to hunt.

What we carry

One page, organized the way people shop: by category (dresses, denim, jewelry, candles, baby gifts) and by the brands you stock. Brand names matter more than owners think. People search for a brand plus their town when they want to try it on before buying, and a list of brands on your site is a plain, honest way to be found for that.

You do not need a photo of every item. A photo per category, showing the real display, does more than a hundred product shots you will never keep current.

Visit us

Address, a map, parking, hours, holiday hours, and the phone number as a link a thumb can tap. If your entrance is hard to spot, describe it. If you are wheelchair accessible, or not, say so. Keeping these details right matters more than any design choice; keeping business hours right on your website covers how to stay on top of them.

About

Boutiques sell on taste and on the person behind the counter. Write who you are, why you opened, and how you choose what you stock. "I buy for women who want something nobody else at the party will be wearing" tells a shopper more than a mission statement. Add a real photo of you in the shop. Not a headshot against a gray wall.

Gift cards, events and store policies

A short page or section each:

• Gift cards: whether you sell them, in what amounts, and whether people can buy one over the phone.
• Events: trunk shows, sip-and-shop nights, sidewalk sales. Only list what is actually coming up.
• Returns and exchanges: your in-store policy in one or two sentences. Shoppers ask, and it is better to read it before buying than after.

Photos that work for a boutique

The best photos are taken in your shop, in daylight, with your phone held steady. Shoot a few wide pictures so people recognize the room when they walk in, and several close-ups of displays, textures and details. Pictures of you or your staff helping a customer, with their permission, show what the visit feels like.

Avoid these:

• Brand catalog images. Every other shop carrying that brand uses them, and they do not show your store.
• Stock photos of models in a white studio. They make a local shop look like a website reseller.
• Photos with prices on tags you have since changed.

If you need help, taking good photos for your website with a phone walks through light, angles and what to shoot.

What to leave off

Plenty of boutique sites are cluttered with things that made sense once and now get in the way:

• A "Shop" button that goes nowhere. If you are not selling online, do not have a shop link. It frustrates people and makes them leave.
• Last season's sale banner. An old "Spring Sale" in November tells shoppers nobody is minding the site.
• A broken social media feed. Instagram embeds often stop working after an account change. A plain link to your Instagram works better than a feed that shows an error.
• Pop-ups asking for an email before people can see anything. If you want a newsletter, offer it at the bottom of the page.
• Music that starts on its own. Every phone visitor in a waiting room will close the tab.

Making it easy to call, text or stop in

Many boutique shoppers want to ask one question before they come: "Do you still have the green jacket in a medium?" Make that easy.

• Put your phone number at the top of every page as a tappable link.
• If you text with customers, say so: "Text us a photo of what you saw on Instagram and we will check the rack."
• Add a short contact form for people who would rather type, and tell them when you answer: "We reply the same day during store hours."
• Offer to hold items. "Call and we will hold it until close tomorrow" turns a maybe into a visit.

Make sure messages from the form actually reach a phone you check. A form that sends to an old email address is worse than no form.

What to do this week

• Open your site on your phone and check that your hours, address and phone number are right on the first screen.
• Write one sentence that says what you carry, your size range and your town. Put it at the top of the home page.
• List the brands you carry and add the list to your site.
• Take five new photos of your shop in daylight: two wide, three close-up.
• Remove any shop link, old banner or broken feed.

If your current site has the right information but looks tired on a phone, you can see your boutique site rebuilt first and decide with the new version in front of you. And if you are weighing whether to sell online at all, the companion guide on boutique websites without an online store covers how to bring people in through the door instead.