Elyse Walker is an absolute legendary boss babe. She struck a deal with Revolve to launch Forward, her luxury e-commerce site, and is unstoppable when it comes to getting what she wants. She uses social media as a tool to build relationships with her customers and reminds her team of stylists to constantly respond to their customers’ inquiries on social platforms. A large reason why Elyse Walker has been so successful is because she understands her consumer and the quickest way to reach her consumer is through direct messaging and engagement on social platforms. This, along with her strong networking connections and bad ass attitude, has allowed her to take business to a whole other level.
In this week’s WWD article, “Independents’ Day: Elyse Walker’s World,” by Kari Hamanaka, Elyse talks about the importance of communication and harnessing relationships to achieve success. It’s all about “building client relationships, following up and not wasting their time,” Walker said. Instagram can help businesses do so much more because it is the number one marketing tool to engage an audience, provide insight, and publicize key items and newsworthy stories.
“Instagram is hot right now for the team; Facebook not so much. And while e-mail newsletters are still important, the open rate isn’t as strong as the team would like it to be and it’s getting less and less important over time.”
Of course we all gather information from many sources, including the news, but Instagram allows us to have direct engagement with a simple ‘like’, comment, or direct message. This engagement is key in today’s society because it makes us feel valued and heard. Walker emphasizes that at the end of the day, leaving a customer with a positive brand experience is what will drive sales and keep people coming back for more.
Another feature that makes Instagram such an important tool, is the “swipe up to buy” feature on Instagram stories. This allows customers to stay in the app and have the ability to buy the product immediately without jumping from site to site. It’s interesting to see how people in the fast moving tech and fashion world, want everything right away. For example, no one cares about seeing a collection during fashion week if they can’t buy the clothes they love right now. That’s why the whole “buy it now” concept with fashion shows is booming and more and more fashion CEOs are showing collections during fashion week that can be bought right after the show, instead of making people wait til the next year.
Walker reminds us that in today’s fast-changing social media world, an important thing to beware of is over-stimulating a customer. People are bombarded with so many graphics, images and ideas on social feeds and articles so less is more. If you offer less online or in a boutique, the less overwhelmed a customer will feel. When you have a more narrow focus, it is actually a lot more relaxing for the customer and will make them more likely to come back and shop your stuff, whether that be in a brick and mortar shop or your eCommerce website. The photo below (taken from one of Walker’s boutiques) shows how important it is to keep a boutique neat and clean for the customer.
Thanks to Elyse for highlighting these main points and encouraging readers to stay active on social media and keeping the customer in front of mind at all times. Keep up with the amazing Elyse Walker on Twitter and Instagram.
Have a great week!
x,G
Gracie Deale 
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