Smitten with Style: Chicago shop offers curated retail, custom stationery
Smitten Boutique first opened in May 2008 — a difficult time to start a new venture with the financial crash late that year. However, the Chicago shop has remained successful over its almost 18 years.
“It’s really just a place to come and enjoy the shopping experience and help our customers curate gifts that they feel connected to,” said Kirstin Martin, owner of Smitten Boutique.
Martin was working in wedding planning when she first started the business. As such, the shop originally had a focus on both retail and wedding planning. As life changed and she saw what worked, Smitten Boutique transitioned from wedding planning operation to a custom stationery studio.
“We still have that fun hand in the event world and get to be a part of people’s big moments, one way or another,” she said. “We don’t have to have all the kind of weight and responsibility that comes with [wedding] planning. The time commitment just proved too large after we had the shop as well.”
CURATED WITH CARE
Smitten Boutique’s retail side is constantly evolving in response to what customers are looking for — and what they’re actually buying.
“Every year, our offerings change a little bit,” she said. “We have our bestselling lines, and there are a very small handful of things that we have carried since the beginning that still speak to people.”
For example, Smitten Boutique has carried Jellycats since its opening, and the brand has grown into a cornerstone of the store’s baby section — drawing in both gifters and collectors as its popularity has surged in recent years.
“We’ve carried Jellycat since we opened, but the evolution of Jellycat over the last five years or so has been kind of bonkers to see,” she said, adding the boutique’s bestselling category is baby and children, especially the various children’s clothing lines they have.
Smitten Boutique’s second-bestselling category is home goods, featuring home accents, books and candles — with scented products doing particularly well. About 10 years ago, the shop transitioned to carry more curated, beautiful pieces in the home goods and categories across the store and avoiding tchotchke products, Martin said.
Customers often gravitate toward versatile products — entertainment pieces that work for multiple occasions — as well as disposable items like witty napkins or gourmet food gifts, since urban living doesn’t allow for much storage space.
“I’m not trying to just sell dust collectors to people for their shelves,” she said. “When we’re looking at something and trying to figure out if we want to bring it into inventory, we really ask ourselves, ‘Is this something that would make a good gift?’”
The shop also features a rotating seasonal section, as well as tabletop products, jewelry and accessories and men’s gifts. Beyond the custom stationery studio, there is a wall filled with single cards, boxed notes, journals, planners and other paper goods.
“Our customers look for value in something that is going to stick around for a while, thoughtfully made and something that is going to be a really good gift or a good addition to their own space,” she said.
Smitten Boutique also has a “local love” section with products dedicated to Chicago, which brings in a lot of customers, Martin said. Her favorite product is the book “Lila and the Magic of Chicago,” a children’s book written by local author Tucker King and part of Little Chicago Explorer series.
“I love that he’s local and wrote these books,” she said “He’s not in very many places yet, which we love to watch people grow, but we love when we’re one of the first ones to have it.”
CUSTOM CARDS
The custom stationery studio sits in the back of Smitten Boutique as a meeting space for customers to explore samples and design their cards. The studio helps customers with the design process and answers their questions, making the experience more enjoyable and less overwhelming. Martin loves the human and personal element that lets them be part of customers’ lives and the community.
“We have customers for whom we did their wedding invitations 10 years ago,” she said. “Now, we’ve done their baby announcements, and we do their holiday cards. It’s really fun to see that evolution.”
Smitten Boutique has seen an evolution over the years of when people used to send paper invitations for small events, such as Super Bowl parties or barbecues, through its stationery studio. Now, customers focus on creating custom stationery products for larger milestones, with weddings being the top-selling category for the studio, followed by bar mitzvahs and holiday cards.
“Wedding continues to grow and — especially now with social media and Pinterest — the photographability of your paper goods and all of those small elements just become even more important to couples,” she said.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Smitten Boutique sees a wide variety of customers, with most typically from the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago spending an afternoon of errands on foot rather than by car.
“Our customer has an elevated sensibility on their taste level and what they want,” Martin said.
Martin said she has noticed customers moving away from impulse purchases and looking to spend their money in a purposeful way. Customers are buying local to support shops like Smitten Boutique in their neighborhood that sell quality products.
“They just want to feel like they’re making a good purchase,” she said.
Customers love the retail side of the Smitten Boutique because it’s easy, convenient and enjoyable, Martin said. These are typically customers that have lived in the area for years and, when a big life moment happens, they become a customer of the stationery studio.
“Some of our best retail customers become studio customers, and vice versa,” she said.
The studio also brings in more people from outside the city or state who come solely to create an invitation, especially if Smitten Boutique is recommended by an event planner or friend.
“We can be a destination shop for stationery at the same time being very much of a neighborhood shop on the retail side,” she said.
Smitten Boutique gives back to local charities and participates in various community events throughout the year. The boutique also donates annually to Mercy Home, which provides a safe home for older kids, and recently participated in the annual trick- or-treating event on Halloween for children in the neighborhood.
“Really anything that happens in the West Loop, if there is a business element to it, we’re always looking to participate,” she said.
Martin moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, a few years ago, where she opened another Smitten Boutique location. She traveled between the two shop locations until the second shop closed after a year-and-a- half since it wasn’t in a high-traffic shopping area.
“We probably could have kept it open and and really worked harder to eventually see it succeed, but because we already had the shop in Chicago, it just wasn’t worth it to stick it out,” she said.
Now that she’s lived in Charlotte for a few years and gained more knowledge of the area, Martin said she might aspire to open another location there in the future. For now, she’s focused on the future of the Chicago shop.
“I’m really happy with the one in Chicago, and I’m appreciating having more time to focus on that one after having my attention split for a couple of years, and just having fun, seeing what else we can build with that one,” she said.
