How Painted Tree Boutique Expanded to 34 Locations in 8 Years

Overview

Painted Tree Boutiques is a unique retail shopping experience specializing in gifts, home decor, and boutique clothing. It's like a physical store bringing an Etsy marketplace and Pinterest catalog to life. Instead of promoting its own inventory, the company sells booth leasing opportunities to entrepreneurs, helping them realize their dreams.

Established in 2015, this Arkansas-based vintage market has expanded to over 34 locations nationwide in just eight years.

The Objective

Painted Tree required a POS system that could scale their company quickly and optimize operations to open new locations in new markets.

The Challenge

Initially, Painted Tree invested a substantial amount of time and money into GoAntiquing's software, only to realize that it lacked the scalability and barcoding abilities required for fast checkout. 

Christian Gillham, Head of Growth and Analysis at Painted Tree, has revealed that the store's previous checkout process was labor-intensive. The employees found it difficult to check and bag items, which resulted in one person being assigned to each register. At the same time, multiple individuals were tasked with bagging, and several staff members had to roam the sales floor. As a result, their labor costs skyrocketed.

In addition, the software was not cloud-based, which made it impractical for a growing business with multiple locations. This meant that the shop owners had to physically be present at each site to check their sales, which was a considerable inconvenience.

Painted Tree realized they needed to make some changes to grow their business. They recognized the importance of implementing cloud-based software, enabling their team and vendors to view sales data across multiple locations. Moreover, they recommitted to their goal of excellent customer service. That meant they needed a POS provider to help them improve the business faster than they could grow it.

The Solution

Painted Tree worked with the team at SimpleConsign to move all five locations to our cloud-based platform.

By migrating to SimpleConsign, Painted Tree can:

• View reports for any store remotely.
• Establish a vendor portal allowing store owners to view their sales and manage their inventory online.
• Put new administrative procedures and efficiencies in place to streamline their labor.
• Integrate credit card processing to ensure secure payments for their customers.
• Improve customer service through faster transactions, better tracking, and more accurate reporting. 

For Painted Tree, the change was more than worth it.

"Having software like Simpleconsign allows our vendors to have their own Consignor access portal to manage their inventory across all locations, monitor sales, and track trends. And that's something that they can't find anywhere else."

The Results

Explosive Growth

Painted Tree had five locations before switching to SimpleConsign in 2019. Since then, they have opened over 30 new stores, experiencing rapid growth.

The key to Painted Tree's growth lies in its emphasis on low overhead and a quick return on investment. Their business model enables them to continue expanding, with each new store contributing to the growth of the entire franchise. SimpleConsign's low monthly cost and rapid ROI make it possible for them to keep pushing forward and expanding.

Streamlined Operations

"The ability to barcode [and scan] items was a major improvement for us. It allowed us to move people through the line quickly. It scans fast and prints fast." explains Gillham. This cut Painted Tree's labor cost back substantially.

Improved Labor Costs

Painted Tree now benefits from having fewer employees at the cash register because one employee can get much more done. Since switching to SimpleConsign, Gillham notes, "Our sales per labor hour have gone up. So our efficiency has gone up for sure."

Higher Sales

As sales are increasing, vendors want to manage their inventory more efficiently. The portal helps them track what's selling and what's not so they can restock accordingly. If vendors have any questions about their sales, our managers can print out their reports and walk them through how the reports work, providing them with sales advice. This way, vendors can focus on selling more popular items and move less desirable inventory out.

Reduced Vendor Turnover

According to Gillham, Painted Tree's growth heavily relies on vendor partnerships. The store leases out space to vendors who sell their own products, and the success of these vendors is crucial for the store's own success. 

"So, for us, the main thing is making sure the vendors renew their leases. They won't stick around if they aren't profitable. That's why we have such a big marketing department. We have five full-time marketing people, and then we are working with an agency on the side, too. We invest over six figures in our marketing so we can keep the sales coming in to keep our sales coming in. If the vendors aren't happy, we aren't happy." explains Gillham.

Improved Profitability

"We're a unique model in that our main inventory is space. So, we sell booths in our store and take a 10% commission, but the commission isn't where we make our money. We make our money through rent. It mostly goes to help us pay for our store expenses and overhead, like employees and supplies, to keep things running."

SimpleConsign has helped reduce these expenses, increase profitability, and drive growth. Simply put, "Our people can do more, resulting in a more efficient operation." Gillham states.

Conclusion

When asked what advice he would give to other vendor malls and resale store owners, Gillham reiterated, "Make sure you are not leaving behind quality and that you're not outgrowing your own business model. Make sure the technology you adopt aligns with your core values and sustainable growth path."