The 48-year-old calls her customers ‘Avaristas’ and models her clothes in social media posts to show moms like her that they too can be fashion-conscious.
Avara focuses on women’s clothing and accessories, with prices ranging from $70 to $100. Wickard describes Avara as fun and accessible, a brand for all ages. “It’s like a family, they know your name, they know where you live. You come in for a return and they know what you bought,” Walder said. “I would much rather support someone local in my community than go to a big box store.”
Another thing that’s stayed consistent is Wickard’s appearances in Avara’s promotions and social media posts. When her business was on Facebook, Wickard didn’t want to post stock images of the clothing she was selling. So without any modeling experience and thinking she was too short and old, she began modeling her own products.“It’s very important to me that our customers know that I would wear and love all the clothes that I sell,” Wickard said.
“We now know what our customers like and I think it’s taken us time to really understand what matters,” Wickard said. “We do a lot of feedback loops with our customers.”