New ‘Shop The Area’ Service Offers Local Boutique Delivery
Shop The Area is a new Baton Rouge service that operates like Waitr, but for local boutiques. This means you can shop from your favorite boutique and get your order delivered in as little as an hour.
Claire Aillet has spearheaded this concept with the help of her aunt Terri Durr. It’s been a work in progress for over 3 years, but it’s finally launched here in the Baton Rouge area!
Shop The Area has two founding boutiques so far - Wanderlust By Abby and Addiction Boutique - with plans to add more boutiques in the coming months.
But with the holiday season coming up, this is a service you need to know about ASAP!
We already know how crazy Baton Rouge traffic gets — and shipping will be a nightmare this holiday season.
So local delivery for Christmas sounds like an amazing solution.
And it’s also a great solution for anytime you’re in a pinch or would just rather enjoy the ease of something being delivered to your doorstep.
And to top it off… you’re supporting not one, but two female-owned local businesses when you do it.
How It Works:
You have two options when using Shop The Area’s service.
First, you can shop directly from the boutique and choose local delivery at checkout.
Shop The Area will get the alert, send a driver to pick up your package from the store and then deliver it to you.
Or you can shop local boutiques directly through Shop The Area’s website.
Think of it as a marketplace where you can shop more than one boutique at a time.
Essentially, the boutique’s merchandise is automatically uploaded and synched to the Shop The Area website each night.
When you purchase the product(s) through Shop The Area’s website, the boutique is notified. They fulfill your order while Shop The Area sends a driver to pick it up and deliver it to you.
It’s also Shop The Area protocol that your order is packaged and sealed as if being shipped. The driver is also required to take a photo upon delivery.
3 Years In The Making:
I know we’re all sitting here like “why didn’t I think of this!”
This service of retail delivery is seriously genius.
And we all know it’s probably easier said than done when merging so many different boutiqu”s systems and processes… on top of their merchandise.
It’s come after a long trial and error process for Claire, but she’s committed to figuring it out.
Claire is a former boutique owner herself and got the idea because her customers always wanted their packages delivered same day.
And after an order with Waitr, it sparked the idea.
She’s brainstormed with local boutique owners about the best way to make this system work smoothly.
She’s worked with developers on the backend systems and continues to receive feedback every step of the way.
In each new phase of the rollout, she’s able to evaluate what’s working and what’s not and add in new features.
“I’ve failed so many times,” she said. “I know it’s coming but it takes figuring out what’s working and what’s not. All great things don’t happen on the first try.”
She’s powered through over three years, and she’s clearly in it to figure it out and bring something really unique to the Baton Rouge area.
“I want to help more people shop online locally,” Claire said. “I want to bring together shopping online and in store.”
Claire’s also on a mission to increase visibility for local boutiques and to be more than a delivery service.
Shop The Area offers professional photography for the boutiques, social media promotion and visibility on the website.
It will be easy to discover new local boutiques and products through their site and social media channels.
You can start shopping now on Shop The Area and find them on social media at @shop_the_area
