#741: How Working With Sales Reps Elevates Your Retail Business

Boutique Chat

Ashley Alderson

Business, Marketing, Retail, Boutiquetips, Fashionindustry, Fashionbusiness, Entrepreneurship, Businessstrategy

5 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Retail buying doesn't have to be overwhelming—or lonely.

This week, Ashley sits down with Angela Schmook (Roadrunners, Reps Are Local Too) and Kelly Bristol (Just Gotta Have It, GHTA leader) to reveal why your local sales reps might be the most powerful, underused resource in your business.

Fresh from the GHTA Conference in Park City, they break down how reps support retailers far beyond taking orders: helping with events, securing promos and exclusives, spotting local trends, and giving you insider knowledge you'll never get from ordering online. They also unpack the shift toward lifestyle retail—where home, gift, and apparel collide—and how to approach markets with confidence, even if you've never stepped inside a showroom before.

You'll learn:

What reps really do and why working with one is free
How reps help you buy smarter, plan better, and spot trends early
How showrooms actually work (and why you shouldn't feel intimidated)
Why home, gift, and apparel are merging into lifestyle retail
How to prepare for January markets and build stronger vendor relationships

🛍️ Join thousands of retailers who've transformed their business with The Boutique Hub.

Join The Boutique Hub

Angela Schmook & Kelly Bristol

Website: repsarelocaltoo.com
Instagram: @repsarelocaltoo

Facebook: repsarelocaltoo

____________________________

Ashley Alderson: Instagram

Transcript

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0:00.0	Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be.
0:09.0	Welcome to Boutique Chat, where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek.
0:16.0	We'll hear from product-based businesses of all types, retailers, e-commerce, and wholesale brands,
0:21.7	along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry.
0:25.1	I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the boutique hub, and I can't wait to chat.
0:33.8	Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast.
0:35.9	I have not one but two amazing guests this week. Kelly,
0:40.2	Angela, thanks so much for joining me today. Thanks for having us. So a little backstory for
0:46.2	everyone. So we all just got to see each other, oh, slap my mic, we all just got to see each
0:50.2	other in person a couple of weeks ago at a conference. Before I introduce a conference,
0:56.3	Angela, since you were really my first connection to the conference, I feel like you should talk
0:59.6	about what we were just doing because all of us together in the same room is just like so many
1:05.1	ideas about our businesses, our industry, where it's headed and and how we all can work together. So,
1:11.7	Angela, do you want to tell us where we were just all at what we were up to?
1:15.0	Sure, sure. And that's actually how we first met face-to-face, Ashley, was here in my hometown,
1:21.4	Tampa. We met at a G-H-T-A. It's the Gift Home Trade Association annual conference. And so we were all together in
1:31.9	Park City, Utah. We had an amazing week in a gorgeous, gorgeous city. And the Gift Home Trade
1:39.6	Association is really the industry's place to all come together. So there are sales agencies,
1:48.1	there are reps, there are industry affiliates, there are suppliers. We all come together and we
1:53.6	talk about the needs and the problems and the successes of the industry. So it's just sort of our
2:00.2	spot to brainstorm.
2:03.0	And it really is a fantastic week.
	...

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