Having brick and mortar stores can have their challenges and advantages. It’s great to have a place where customers can physically come inside and shop, but you are limited to a regional space where customers can reach you.

Mabel and Zora is a clothing boutique, having two stores in the Portland Metro area.  They offer ladies’ clothing, jewelry, luggage, art and accessories from new and established designers, including local Portland designers. I got a chance to interview them about their use of social media and how it’s affected their business:

m_adf685a19f60c55f70ef2e5b6fd6ecfa1

What has worked for you?
Twitter and Facebook have both been very successful for us and we know we still have a lot to learn about it! But so far, so good! I don’t know if people are seeing our blog or not but we keep writing just in case. We redid our website last August and spent a lot on it and nothing really sells on it, so we are trying to get more people to it, so far no luck, but they are coming to our stores! I know I need to do more with the website, but just haven’t got the patience for it!

What hasn’t?
Like I said above, the web sales haven’t really worked out, but the website does drive people to the store, which is great, I would just like it to pay for itself!

What do you hope to achieve with these tools in the next 6 months?
I guess I’d like to just keep learning, and figure out how to simplify. I’d also like to get the website selling more. I’ve read lots of things in magazines about things I can download to simplify the twittering and facebooking, I just need to take the time to put them into action!

Related Posts:

• Sock it to Marketing: Interview with Carrie Atkinson

Other Posts I Recommend Reading!

• Sock it to Marketing: Interview with Carrie Atkinson
• The passion behind the bread, Dave’s Killer style
• How artists engage in social media and touch lives