How I transformed my online vintage-clothing side hustle into a bustling brick-and-mortar store in NYC

• Nichole Sesti is the founder of the New York City vintage-clothing store The Niche Shop.
• She said opening a physical store was more lucrative than selling online.
• That's because there are other vintage stores in the area, which makes it a shopping destination.

This is an as-told-to story based on an interview with Nichole Sesti, the founder of the New York City vintage-clothing store The Niche Shop, which opened in April 2022.

Sesti's vintage store opened amid a boom in the secondhand-clothing industry. What's more, the US secondhand market is expected to reach $70 million by 2027, according to ThredUp's 2023 resale report.

The Niche Shop booked nearly $400,000 in sales in its first year, according to documents viewed by Insider. After starting vintage selling as a side hustle, she now runs the business full time.

Sesti shared how she pivoted from an online business to a brick-and-mortar location in a time of digital business growth.

I grew gradually with customer interest

I originally gained a following on social media by sharing content about styling and shopping. When I started thrifting a lot in 2021, I shared that, too. But because I live in New York, my closet is small, and I had a lot of clothes that I needed to turn over.

I started reselling clothes on my Instagram stories, and there was a ton of interest from my followers. That inspired me to expand the business offline, so I sold at pop-ups across the city and had a recurring stall at Artists & Fleas, a local marketplace in New York.

The online and pop-up versions of the business brought in only about $1,000 a month. I was still working a full-time job and creating personal content on social media at the time, so I didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to selling.

I knew it had potential, but if I wanted to turn this into a long-term business, I had to look for something more permanent. I decided to rent a physical storefront to create a consistent shopping destination for the brand.

The risk of a brick-and-mortar store was worth it

I opened the shop on the Upper East Side, where I live. I always thought the neighborhood lacked a curated yet affordable vintage shop.

Since opening, a few more stores have opened up. But I don't see them as a competition because no two stores are going to have the same items. Actually, I think having more secondhand stores grouped together is a benefit to our businesses because it creates a vintage-shopping destination.

Another reason I felt confident in opening a store was that shopping for vintage clothes online is hard. The pictures typically aren't great, descriptions aren't accurate, you can't tell about sizing, and physically feeling the clothing makes a huge difference when shopping secondhand.

And it's proven to work for us: E-commerce contributed only about 5% of our nearly $400,000 in sales last year.

Combine social media with community to stay top of mind

The shop has steadily grown since opening, with the first quarter of 2023 being our best ever thanks to social media, community engagement, and strategic marketing.

Six months into running the business, I hired an employee to create social-media content. Having someone dedicated to shooting, editing, and engaging on social media ensures we're constantly popping up in people's feeds.

In November, I started focusing more on influencer marketing for the business, and we saw so much success from it. We had a ton of creators come in, shoot videos, and tag us on social. When a handful of them went viral, we saw an immediate and direct influence on our sales.

We also rely on email marketing to stay connected with shoppers. We don't spam anyone, but two or three emails are sent a month to notify them about sales, new items, or upcoming events.

Participating in events has been another game changer. We host pop-ups with fellow local businesses or sell at their brick-and-mortar stores for special events. Those collaborations create something exciting in the community and keep people engaged and coming back.