A LOCAL BOUTIQUE OWNER USES SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENGAGE CUSTOMERS DURING THE PANDEMIC

Melanie Whaley is the owner of Essential Elements, a boutique located at 1640 E. 87th St. During the pandemic she pivoted to selling leisure wear and masks and engaged supported by creating a private Facebook group called Essential Mavens. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY JULIE THORSON
Melanie Whaley is the owner of Essential Elements, a boutique located at 1640 E. 87th St. During the pandemic she pivoted to selling leisure wear and masks and engaged supported by creating a private Facebook group called Essential Mavens. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY JULIE THORSON

 A Local Boutique owner uses social media to engage customers during the pandemic

BY TIA CAROL JONES
Melanie Whaley is a researcher; a networker and she keeps her eyes and ears to the ground. As the owner of Essential Elements, located at 1640 E. 87th St., she had to pivot when the pandemic hit.

Essential Elements has been around for more than 35 years. Whaley left the Board of Education in 2005. The boutique has been in its location since 2007.

Whaley knew with COVID-19 changing life as we knew it, customers wouldn’t be in the market for $300 -$500 dresses. When the whole leisure wear trend started to sweep through the fashion industry, she knew that was what she needed to stock.

Whaley started to source items that would be easy sales and easy on the pocket. Fortunately, she had launched her website three years before the pandemic. 

One of her biggest sellers was masks.  She was shipping them all across the country.

Whaley was able to leverage social media to engage with her customers when stories had to shutdown and people were not leaving their houses because of COVID-19. She started a private Facebook group called Essential Mavens. Facebook was perfect for the demographic of Essential Elements’ customers. It is where the
boutique’s core customer base is.

There is an Essential Elements Facebook page but there wasn’t much interaction between Whaley and her followers, even with more than 40,000 followers. She found simply posting on that page wasn’t getting her engagement.

On the day Whaley created the group, she had 700 followers. Now, there are more than 1,500 followers. With Essential Mavens, Whaley is able to engage with the people in the group, who range from customers to supporters who want to see the business thrive and
remain in the community. The people in the group also span the country. She described it as a family network. Whaley engages the people in the group, not just by posting about the items in the boutique, but by posting about current events and pop culture. During the pandemic, Whaley would use prompt questions and ask members in the group to post their answers, along with photos, based on those prompts.

Whaley also hosted Zoom events. One was with a jewelry maker in Amsterdam whose jewelry is in Essential Elements. At the end, customers were able to purchase pieces from a custom collection the jewelry maker created just for the event. Another time, there was a
Zoom event with an African American storyteller. There were more than 50 women on for that event.

“I was just trying to create a very holistic, wholesome experience for my customers. It’s not just about what they’re wearing on the outside, but trying to nurture their spirit, their soul, what’s on the inside,” Whaley said.

Whaley owes a debt of gratitude to her community, families who have supported the business. She is grateful to be connected to a network of people. She considers those people investors in the business who are invested in seeing the business grow and develop. Whaley purchased the vacant building next to the boutique. It will house the
website operations, fulfillment and storage for the boutique. It will allow them more space and more room to do new things.

For more information, visit www.shopeechicago.com.

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