Can't make it to a Le Fashion Truck shopping event? Bring the shopping to you! Le Fashion Truck brings fashion to you with private shopping events for you and your girlfriends!
Le Fashion Truck features local designers that market and produce their own designs. While most designers are L.A. based, Le Fashion Truck houses designers from Oklahoma to Hawaii.
Le Fashion Truck owners Jeanine Romo and Stacey Steffe helped create the American Mobile Retail Association to offer consulting and business services for existing and emerging mobile retailers.
Entrepreneur Stacey Steffe got the idea for a boutique on wheels while working at the El Cerino farmers market in Los Angeles, vending handbags. Bored with the restrictions of her marketplace shop, Steffe approached handmade jewelry vendor and eventual Le Fashion Truck co-owner, Jeannine Romo after coming across her booth at the same market. Steffe loved Romo’s designs and it wasn’t long before Steffe approached Romo with the possibility of giving L.A. its first fashion truck, “Why not put a store in the back of a truck?” said Romo. With that, Le Fashion was born.
Openng in January 2011, Le Fashion Truck carries fashion that you won’t find in your stand-alone boutique or department store. “We carry a swimwear line out of Oklahoma, a handmade jewelry line out of Los Angeles, and a floral headband line that is handmade by a designer in Orange County. We work as much as we can with people that are producing their own designs, and that’s why you can’t find what we carry in another boutique or department store,” said Steffe. With that however, come boutique prices, with clothing and accessories ranging from as low as $7 to over a hundred dollars.
OThis unique shopping experience is created by an inclusion of local designers as well as shopping in a small space. By being the owners as well as cultivating the pieces that are featured inside the truck, Steffe and Romo are able to accurately answer questions about the products they have, as well as help style the customers they interact with. “It’s awesome. Everything is super cute and we found a lot of items that we want to purchase,” said Tatum Henderson, designer and shopper.
With a low overhead cost, starting a mobile business has been a trend that is more attainable than starting your traditional restaurant or shop. “An average start-up cost is about $20,000, which is a lot less of an expense than a traditional brick and mortar boutique,” said Romo. The low start-up cost leaves more room for profit, and allows truck owners to spend less time paying storefront rent and more time creating a unique shopping experience. Shopper and designer Tatum Henderson thinks so too, “Pop-up shops are the way for everything; it’s a really an ingenious idea not only for the consumer, but for the business owner to be able to own a retail space without the high overhead,” said Henderson.
Romo says that some standalone boutiques have brought on trucks to add another aspect to their store and drive revenue that is lacking in their boutiques, “The truck is another way to keep going in the retail word, even after their standalone boutiques have closed,” said Romo.
Spending what you save on rent to retrofit a truck to your design theme ensures a store on wheels that can realistically compete with a standalone shop. When walking into Le Fashion Truck, you feel as though you’ve been transported into a quaint French boutique. From light-pink accents to vintage floral wallpaper, the design of the truck is chic and enhances the trucks space without over-crowding it. By keeping an open isle and displaying the designs against the trucks walls, the truck is able to include a dressing room that is covered by a pink striped curtain to reveal a full-length mirror where shoppers can try on clothes and test out accessories.
Le Fashion Truck has helped to pave the way for the trucks after it, creating the American Mobile Retail Association, an organization that offers consulting and business services to retailers wishing to set up a mobile shop. Their unique vision has spawned the creation of 19 fashion trucks operating all over Southern California. Cruz and Selvedge Dry Goods are just a few that have gained notoriety amongst the mobile retail world and more continue to pop-up each year.
If you can’t make a Le Fashion Truck event, you can rent the truck for private events. “We bring the store to the hostess’ house. She’s there with her friends, they’ll sip wine, and have light bites to eat, and we just bring the shopping experience right to their home,” said Romo. Anyone can rent out the truck for an event, with some requirements. Le Fashion Truck requires a minimum of ten women at each private shopping event, and will travel at no cost to the host within a 30-mile radius of their 90028 zip code. A cost of $25 per additional 25 miles of an event outside of this radius will be charged to the hostess. Once the truck has a parking space, your private event can begin.
All purchases are made via iPad. Customers have the option to pay with credit or debit card or in cash. Receipts are emailed to customers, creating a truly digital shopping experience that is just another way that sets Le Fashion Truck apart from boutiques and department stores.
Just this week, Steffe and Romo held a shopping event outside of the W Hotel in Westwood. The event attracted those who walked by, and customers that had been alerted about the event through social media. The trucks twitter and instagram handle are written under the trucks name, sparking a curiosity to all that drive or walk by the truck. “The way we let our repeat shoppers and fans know where we’ll be is through social media. Social media is huge in mobile retail. We post on instagram, twitter, Facebook, we have an email list that we send out to our subscribers, you can check our website; it’s very technology based,” said Romo. Social media has helped contribute to spreading the word about fashion truck events, including Le Fashion Truck’s latest two-day residence outside of Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
Another element that has made Le Fashion Truck a shop of the digital-age, is that shoppers find out where the truck will be through social media. The trucks twitter and instagram handle are written under the trucks name, sparking a curiosity to all that drive or walk by the truck. “The way we let our repeat shoppers and fans know where we’ll be is through social media. Social media is huge in mobile retail. We post on instagram, twitter, facebook, we have an email list that we send out to our subscribers, you can check our website; it’s very technology based, said Rommo.
Designer, Kisha Hicks of Wilma & Ethel, a jewelry line that has been featured on Le Fashion Truck uses social media to keep repeat shoppers up-to-date and attract new customers as well, “I post where I’ll be on my Facebook page and twitter account so that my followers can follow me, and they don’t necessarily have to buy my jewelry through my online store, but can actually come touch and feel my products,” said Hicks. Social media creates a fan base that spans much farther than where these pop-up shops show up or where the truck stops, it creates a more intimate relationship with customers as well as creating business opportunities with other designers.
The future of retail has taken on a new image because of the emergence of Le Fashion Truck and the various trucks that have popped up in last few years. With malls and department stores experiencing less foot traffic than before, a business that can come to you is gaining more appeal. Both Steffe and Romo see that future of retail being in mobile retail, and they’re not the only ones.
Hicks uses pop-up shops to take her designs all over California. “Le Fashion Truck has helped me determine the direction I wanted to go with my line. Before I was mainly doing wholesale through my online store, and that was a harder way for my business to flourish. Almost everyday, I’m at a different location, setting up a pop-up shop for my line. The mobility that you have by not being in one location has allowed my business to grow in a way that it could not in a traditional boutique,” said Hicks. Hicks doesn’t just keep her designs in Southern California. In addition to her online sore, and weekly pop-up shop at USC’s farmers market, Hicks travels as far north as San Francisco to bring her handmade jewelry to customers.
Outside of online shopping, Le Fashion Truck is the closest you can get to a convenient shopping experience that is also hands-on. With a wave of mobile businesses in a town that is constantly on the move, and stuck in traffic, Le Fashion Truck makes it possible to pull-over and check out their designer duds without having to step into the monotony of a mall.
Le Fashion Truck’s reach goes much farther than Southern California. Designers Tatum Henderson and Stacy Lee traveled all the way from Oahu, Hawaii to get inspiration for a fashion truck they’re starting, “We came to check the truck out because they are the pioneers. It’s such a novel idea, it’s just a different way to shop,” said Tatum. This novel idea that started as just a thought in Los Angeles, is taking flight across the nation, making mobile boutiques the next hot place to pick up unique designer duds.