April 28, 2025

From Showroom to Sales Floor: Prepping Your Store and Staff for New Arrivals

Nope, That Wasn’t the Victory Lap

The dust has started to settle on National Bridal Market Chicago, your bridal boutique is getting back into its standard routines, and historically, the bridal busy season is tapering off. You may be thinking it’s time to kick your feet up for a couple of weeks while you’re awaiting your new market orders. I’m sorry to rain on your parade, but there’s much work to be done during this time. Here’s why: the end of bridal market isn’t the finish line—it’s the starting point.

Just because bridal market is over doesn’t mean the work is. In fact, now’s when the real magic begins—getting your store organized, your team excited, and your strategy in place to make the most of those new arrivals. Let’s talk through some ways you can maximize this post-market momentum and set your store up for success.

Market Debrief & Reflection

If you haven’t already, it’s a great idea to hold a market debrief with your staff to reflect on market as a whole. Not only does this help get all of your staff on the page, but it serves as an open space to hear different perspectives.

First, hold a debrief with the staff that attended market with you—these are likely your managers, lead stylists, and marketing directors. Since this is your idea bouncing and decision making crew, be sure to discuss the what and why questions.

Here are some ideas:

What trends did you see?
What did we buy and why?
What are our goals with these purchases?

After your core crew is in tune, hold another meeting with all of your staff to bring them into the loop. Present what trends you saw, what you bought and why, and share team and individual goals. Don’t forget visuals!

Although this meeting is more of a summary, it’s just as important to share the ‘why’ with this group because that is where purpose is derived from—and with purpose, your team sells with more confidence, connects more deeply with brides, and shows up each day with a shared sense of excitement and direction.

Mindset Shift: From Buying to Selling

Market is fun, fast, and full of inspiration—but now it’s time to channel that energy into strategy. Buying is emotional; selling is intentional. Now that your staff is prepped on what to expect with your new arrivals, it’s time to combine that knowledge with motivation. You want to help your stylists sell smarter, not harder.

Reminders for Your Staff:

New gowns are not just pretty, they are tools to generate revenue and serve your brides.
- Every gown hanging in your store is a solution to a bride’s need or want.
Focus on why we bought each gown
- What type of bride will love this dress?
- What objections might it help overcome?
Use intentional language to build excitement around new arrivals.
- Emphasize that these dresses are fresh from the latest designer collections, featuring on-trend, never-before-seen styles your brides won’t find anywhere else.

With the right mindset, your stylist can move from simply showcasing gowns to strategically matching each bride with her dream dress.

Educating Your Team

Of course, a market buy looks different for every bridal store, but one thing’s for sure—your team needs to have this information locked in prior to the dresses arriving. You’ve already prepped your team on the what and the why of your buy, but don’t stop there, review and repetition is key.

Ask each staff member what type of learner they are—auditory, visual, or hands-on. For your auditory learners, do some Q&A with them. For your visual learners, look through Poppy showroom together or make flashcards. For your hands-on learners, find dresses with similar material or styling, and handle the new arrivals as they come in.

Be sure to include both designers and dresses in this process, especially if you picked up any new lines!

Inventory Organization

I know what you’re thinking—this is the most tedious and potentially dreaded step. However, the more you do now, the more you’ll thank yourself later. Prep your back-of-house crew for vendor and inventory entry, bag tag/label creation, gown inspection, and dress steaming. It might sound like a lot, but we’ve broken the software stuff down into easy, bite-sized steps.

No stress, just Poppy. Check out our Training Library and see how simple it really is.

With many of these tasks being tech based, get a head start! You know what you ordered so you know what to anticipate. When your dresses come in, they’ll only need a few minor physical touches to get them ready for brides.

Prepping the Store Physically

Out with the old, in with the new! Get ready to clean, organize, and make space for your new dresses. Seize this opportunity to do a deep cleaning and reorganization—eliminate chaos, don’t add to it. You know those ideas that have been hanging out in your head (and maybe on some sticky notes)? It’s time to bring them to life and get them into your storefront. If it could make your store operate more efficiently, it’s worth a shot.

3 Ways to Get Started:

Involve your staff in cleaning and organizing—many hands make light work.
Create signage or special racks in the front of your store to highlight new styles.
Refresh mannequins and displays to showcase your new arrivals.

As with any closet clean out, you may find some gowns that need a new home. Whether it’s their lack of performance or simply the fact that they’ve lived in your store rent free for too long, a sample sale should be on your radar. It’s a smart idea to host a sample sale this time of year given the turnover of inventory and opportunity for fast cash. Be sure to check back soon for our Sample Sale blog series!

Marketing Rollout Plan

Your new arrivals don’t have to be physically present for you to start getting the word out. If you’re picking up a new designer, create a fun reveal post for your followers. If you want to highlight some of the new styles coming in, use stock photos and videos from designer libraries.

3 Ideas for Outreach:

Create ‘this or that’ polls for which gowns your followers are most excited for—not only does this boost engagement, but it builds excitement!
Consider hosting a ‘New Arrivals Weekend’ Event to promote the exclusivity of being some of the first brides to try on the newest designer collections.
Run a Customers Without Purchases Poppy report to follow up with brides who are still looking for their dream dress. Share pictures of new arrivals that match their vision and encourage them to come back in.

Connect with your marketing director to finalize your plan and get to work!

Keep the Team Motivated

Thus far, your interactions with your staff have been rooted in acquiring information and retaining knowledge. It’s important to supplement in some personal motivation and celebrate post-market wins. Although this looks different for every store, incentives are a great way to boost morale. Whether it’s a small treat or a team bonding activity, show your staff some love!

Create short-term sales goals around the new arrivals. You can do this on an individual stylist basis and a team basis.

3 Ideas to Keep Your Team Motivated

1. “First Look, First Sale” Challenge

Set a goal to sell at least one of each new style within the first 30 days it hits the floor.
Track who makes the first sale of each gown and celebrate with a small prize (gift card, coffee, or bragging rights!)

2. “Feature & Sell” Focus of the Week

Highlight one new gown each week in team meetings, social media, and on the floor.
Set a goal for how many times it gets pulled in appointments or sold that week.

3. “New Arrival Bingo”

Create a boutique bingo card in your breakroom.
Each time a new gown is sold, mark it off—aim to complete the board by a certain date.

With the right mindset and a little planning, those new gowns won’t just look pretty on the rack—they’ll help your team connect with brides and crush your sales goals this season. It’s all about turning that market excitement into real results and lasting momentum.

Discover how Poppy can help your store thrive. Book a demo or start by filling out our Get Started form.

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