Apparel company's strategy: Pop-up boutiques
- Company specializes in casual lounge- and sportswear
- Sample kits range in cost from %24199 to %24699
- Recruits have held about 100 parties
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. -- An apparel company in New York is using a direct-sales model to recruit women entrepreneurs who can serve as fashion stylists in their own, portable boutiques.
Lynn Zachos launched Ava Gray Direct late last year after concluding that she needed to re-imagine Ava Gray New York, which she launched in 2008. The company transitioned from a label seeking stores that would sell her casual lounge- and sportswear into a brand sold by women at parties, much like Tupperware or Avon.
Through Ava Gray Direct sample kits ranging in cost from $199 to $699, entrepreneurs can have their own boutique without the costs of a brick-and-mortar store, which Zachos said could require a $100,000-plus investment.
"We take the risk out for them by carrying the inventory," said Zachos, who has run a fashion boutique and who runs the company with help from her husband and children. "It's like a pop-up boutique store and you can take it anywhere."
The idea for Ava Gray Direct came to Zachos when several unemployed women she knew approached her about helping her sell her line. That led Zachos to develop a training process to teach her new representatives about women's bodies, accessorizing and fashion styling.
Zachos said her representatives have thrown about 100 parties, with average gross sales nationally about $700 and about $1,200 in the Northeast. The profit margin for the stylists is about 25 percent, said Zachos, adding that the company's most popular product is a leisure day dress, an empire-waist strap dress that sells for $84. Price points for other product range from $14 for costume jewelry to $98 for the most expensive garment.
Her stylists have had their biggest party sales in Michigan and New York. Ava Gray Direct also has signed up stylists in various parts of Pennsylvania, California, the Carolinas, Florida and Texas.
The parties are not like grandma's Tupperware guilt trip, where invited guests felt obliged to buy something they wouldn't use, said Zachos, 50, who sold Mary Kay cosmetics at 18.
"We don't pressure anybody," she said.