Hello Friends Boutique is new to Front Street in downtown Traverse City. The business started in 2020 during Covid as an online boutique shipping nationwide through their app. Now owners Eddie and Heather Nickerson are creating a community at their storefront.
“So, we’ve done live sales where we shop nationwide, and it was booming and so successful and so fun,” says Heather, “But we were missing the community aspect of everything. So, we knew we wanted to get downtown in front of people making connections like this. But we were a little nervous. So, we finally took the plunge this year and opened two months ago.”
Both Heather and Eddie were born and raised in Traverse City. They are enjoying seeing new and familiar faces in their store.
“So, it’s fun to see our friends, our families, our acquaintances walking through the door that haven’t shopped with us in the past,” Eddie said.
The goal of the store is to make all women feel beautiful, no matter what number is on their clothing tag.
“A lot of places only service women’s sizes small through large,” said Heather. “And to be honest, not everybody in America is small through large. So, we really wanted to cater to as many people as possible. So, we try to carry sizes small through three XL, fitting women’s sizes 0 to 24. That is our goal, making women feel confident and beautiful in their own skin and be able to shop in person now like that is huge.”
The store is helping women gain confidence.
“One of our first weeks, there was two who actually cried in the fitting room. They were like, oh my gosh, I can come to a store and try things on that fit me and I feel good. And one actually took a picture of me posted to social media like that. We were changing the world and I’m like, how cool is that?”
Hello Friends is excited for people to come in store and try on the clothes, instead of returning items they purchased online. They also have had customers come from around the country.
“We had, two people from Iowa who followed us for five years come and visit. They made a girl’s trip out of it. Then we had sisters come from Wisconsin two weeks ago, just to come and meet us and actually try things on in the store, because they can’t do that everywhere..”
Hello Friends carries comfy and casual items. They are proud of their denim wall, carrying Judy Blue Jeans, which they say are hard to find instore. They also carry accessories, like jewelry, bags and water bottles.
The store also has a livestreaming room where customers can see what goes on behind the scenes.
“This was my husband’s idea,” Heather said. “He was like, we need to have this in the forefront of the business so that people who come in maybe from out of town, who can’t come back to shop with us, you can scan the QR code, download our app and join us from anywhere, and we’ll ship it to them.”
Heather says what goes on to make a livestream happen.
“So, basically, we set up our camera, we have a big TV behind it so that I can stream what’s on my computer to read comments,” said Heather. “So as people are asking questions about things, I’m able to easily interact with them, even though it’s streaming from this little camera right here. So, they’ll ask me how my day is or how my jeans fit, and I’ll be able to tell them like, hey girl, size down.”
Heather says her favorite thing about live streams.
“Oh, I guess the clothes and the community that we talked about, like these women aren’t just random people. It’s not just Jane Smith. I might not know her personally, but like her joining me every day telling me about her husband and things like that. You get to know these people. So, it’s fun and you get to be like, hey, you bought this yesterday. This would go really well with it. It seems kind of funny for those who don’t know it’s happening. But like, these people have become friends. So, it’s not just, hey, we’re packaging an order and sending it to you, like Amazon. Like, I feel like I know these people.”
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