Beginning Boutique

Founded| 2008; 16 years ago (2008)
Founder| Sarah Timmerman
Headquarters| Brisbane, Australia

Area served

* USA
* New Zealand
* Australia

Website| beginningboutique.com.au

Beginning Boutique is an Australian fashion e-commerce store with headquarters in Brisbane, Australia.[1] Founded in 2008 by Sarah Timmerman, this boutique is best known for offering a wide range of trendy women’s fashion options including dresses, tops, bottoms, swimwear, accessories, festival outfits, and other ethnic fashion and lifestyle products.[2][3]

Apart from selling its products online and on social media handles, Beginning Boutique has also featured its collections at major festivals and events such as at Coachella & Splendour in the Grass. The brand diligently supports and practices sustainability and has been actively involved in the scenes at BBHQ.[4]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Products
* 3 Events
* 3.1 Covid-19
* 4 Sustainability
* 5 Awards
* 6 In the media
* 7 References
* 8 External links

## History[edit]

Beginning Boutique was launched in 2008 by current CEO, Sarah Timmerman. After a trip to Paris, Timmerman developed an even deeper love for fashion and was inspired to open Beginning Boutique, an online retail store for young fashion conscious women. Its primary purpose is to serve as an e-commerce site, a go-to place for its vast range of fashion-forward products. Timmerman’s entrepreneurial parents spurred her passion for business, but she had no fashion experience. She practically taught herself the retail understanding of building a global fashion e-commerce company from ground up.

Since the inception of Beginning Boutique, Timmerman, has grown from an online presence operating from her humble bedroom to a warehouse giant of over 80 employees as well as the successful creation of an online community for people like her who enjoy trendy clothing and keeping up with the ever-evolving fashion industry.

Apart from selling its products on its official website, Beginning Boutique has also been actively hosting sales on social media handles, which has resulted in the brand garnering mass recognition, especially from Gen Z and millennials.[5]

## Products[edit]

Beginning Boutique offers a wide range of fashion products specially catered to young women. They include top end clothing items from women’s dresses, tops, swimwear, bottoms, accessories, and festival outfits. They also specialize in a wide selection of dress styles, from formal wear, cocktail dresses, party dresses, casual wear, and summer outfits. Apart from dresses, Beginning Boutique also offers an extensive range of trendy tops, everyday clothing, outerwear, and fashionable sleepwear for young women.[6]

There are a number of brands under the umbrella of Beginning Boutique, including the Omighty Illusion and Lioness range, 9.0 Swim, Abrand, AS Colour and Bilini. Also featured are Dr Martens, Nana Judy, Peta + Jain, Rollas, SNDYS, Superga, The Edit, Thrills and Tony Bianco. Not to mention the especially exclusive BB brands.[7]

## Events[edit]

### Covid-19[edit]

Beginning Boutique’s most popular categories is festival fashion.[8] However, when its Coachella collection launched in 2020, it unfortunately coincided with the global pandemic, resulting in the cancellation of the large scale festival. Timmerman’s quick thinking resulted in changing tactics and instead focused on sending the collection to TikTok’s biggest stars, including Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae. As a result, the collection reached the masses in extraordinary fashion making it one of their fastest selling brands since.[9]

More than a decade since its humble beginnings, Beginning Boutique has made its mark on a global scale, with its commitment to sustainability, a strong social media presence (boasting close to 900K followers on Instagram alone) and excellent customer service.[10]

## Sustainability[edit]

As part of their sustainability project, Beginning Boutique has made it their focus to ensuring all aspects of packaging are Australian made, compostable and carbon neutral. In 2019, they announced that they had successfully changed over their parcel packaging to 100% compostable materials. This is in large a huge part of their mission to significantly reduce their carbon footprint.

In 2020, Beginning Boutique launched their BB Better Initiative. The slogan for this Initiative is “We want to be better and do better, for the planet, for the people, and for the future.” The BB Better campaign is an initiative to highlight Beginning Boutique’s commitment to sustainability. They are donating 1% of all sales to the BB Better campaign, a part of which goes to the Stars Foundation, an organization supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young women to make active choices towards realizing their full potential, and Greenfleet, an organization dedicated to forest restoration and neutralizing the impact of carbon emissions, plus a chosen quarterly charity partner.

Beginning Boutique has also set a goal of having a carbon-neutral office and warehouse by 2025.

## Awards[edit]

* Telstra QLD Business of the Year 2015 - Winner[11]
* Telstra Small Business Award 2015 - Nominee[12]
* Regional nominee of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award[13]
* Anthill’s 30under30 2015 - Nominee[14][15]

## In the media[edit]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Silva, Kristian (26 November 2013). "Beginning Boutique a Brisbane business success story". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
2. ↑ "Beginning Boutique Tops Ladder for Social Media". Power Retail. 5 February 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
3. ↑ "BEGINNING BOUTIQUE RANKS NO. 1 IN AUS". businessnewsaustralia. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
4. ↑ Eldor, Karin. "How The Founder Of Beginning Boutique Leveraged Social Media (And A Lunch Date With Sophia Amoruso) To Become A Global Fashion Force". Forbes. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
5. ↑ "Beginning Boutique's fashion-forward supply chain". auspost.com.au. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
6. ↑ "8 brands to know about before everyone else finds out about them". au.finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
7. ↑ Donovan, Daniel. "Civic Nation BrandVoice: An Interview With 2022 EICC Award Winner: Jennifer Martin". Forbes. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
8. ↑ "West End's Beginning Boutique an online fashion powerhouse". couriermail. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
9. ↑ ""Just trying to do the best we can": Beginning Boutique founder starts medical supply site". Inside Retail. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
10. ↑ "Release the power of your social media -- tips from the number one social media brand in Australia". The Chainsaw. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
11. ↑ "Online fashion retailer named 2015 Queensland Business of the Year". Telstra.com. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
12. ↑ "2015 TBA QLD Small Business Award - Beginning Boutique". Retrieved 30 March 2022.
13. ↑ "Sarah Timmerman". www.ey.com. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
14. ↑ Freudenthaler, Christina (21 August 2016). "Congratulations Sarah Timmerman, 2016 Anthill 30under30 Winner!". Retrieved 30 March 2022.
15. ↑ "Sarah Timmerman". SmartCompany. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2022.

## External links[edit]

* Official Website
* Beginning Boutique on Facebook
* Beginning Boutique on Instagram
* Beginning Boutique's channel on YouTube