#747: Blending Home, Gift, Apparel, and Events into One Profitable Business

Boutique Chat

Ashley Alderson

Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.9 • 867 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if the fastest way to grow your boutique… isn't more products, but a better experience?

In this episode, Ashley sits down with Hannah Carlson of Mulberry Market Co. Hannah shares her story of how she went from selling jam at a veggie stand on her parents' farm to building a booming, curated retail brand—then she moved across the country and essentially started over. We get into the real play-by-play: switching systems, barcoding, syncing Shopify + Lightspeed, adding apparel, leaning into local makers, and building a workshop/event machine that brings new customers through the door (and actually converts them).

You'll learn:

How Hannah accidentally built a business from a mulberry tree… and why it worked
The "local makers" strategy that filled a bigger space and fueled word-of-mouth growth
Why apparel became a growth lever—and the buying/turn differences vs. home + gift
Margin realities: women's apparel vs. kids, plus pricing pressure in home + gift
Workshops as a funnel: paid events that create community, drive traffic, and trigger purchases

Join The Boutique Hub

Retail Bootcamp

Hannah Carlson & Mulberry Market Co.

Website: mulberrymarketco.com
Instagram: @mulberrymarketco

Facebook: @mulberrymarketco

____________________________

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. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson
0:26.7	from the boutique hub, and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast this week. Hannah,
0:36.3	I'm so pumped you're here.
0:38.7	I am happy to be here.
0:39.9	Thanks for having me.
0:41.3	If you guys are catching this on YouTube, it sort of looks like we're in the same room because we have the same background.
0:47.9	Great minds.
0:48.5	It's unintentional.
0:49.2	I did not plan this.
0:52.1	I just, we were talking about backgrounds before this and I'm like, I just started to use this backdrop.
0:56.8	Like a friend built this for us and I'm trying to figure the lighting piece out.
1:00.3	Like your lighting has my beat today. It's a little dreary here.
1:03.3	It's literally just my bedroom window. I do have the shade pulled down. It's like an actual
1:07.5	diffuser to really diffuse the light to make it look at it. It looks good. Well, your business has been one that I've admired for a long time. I loved watching you come through retail boot camp and just, I mean, you always had a fresh angle. And so I felt like I kept using your store as an example and like, hey, this is where Hannah does because I just think it's so unique.
1:31.9	So I'm pumped that you're here literally and we get to hear your story. But also you're part of our mastermind program now too. So I am so excited to have you in that room and to just share
1:37.3	light with those women as well. Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Let's get into it. Tell me
1:44.0	the backstory. Backstory first and then we'll get into it. Tell me the backstory. Backstory first,
1:45.8	and then we'll get into all the details of it now. How did you get started in this business?
1:49.7	Oh, boy. It's been a, it's been a wild ride. It was never something that I planned for by any means.
	...

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