Lightspeed’s integration of online and in-store inventory, customer data capture and payments processing enabled our first step into in-store retail.
While we’ve managed to build our brand online only so far, at some point people want to be able to see what they’re going to buy. Obviously that can be handled with sale and return but as a small business, that’s an expense that’s hard to swallow.
A pop-up shop is the perfect solution to the problem. It gives me the opportunity to show people who we are, to touch and feel the products and, of course, also try all of our garments on. But it can be a challenge to manage all the different points of sale and manage the inventory that’s online as well as in the shop itself.
The Lightspeed retail app allowed me to capture customer’s data and process payments smoothly and quickly, something that I would not have been able to do beforehand, I would have had to write invoices per hand and then update the database later.
Now with all of my products and stock available in the Lightspeed retail app I only had to add the customer’s name and email address, select the item they wanted to purchase and complete the sale via payment terminal iZettle, also easy and quick to use. The customer then received the payment confirmation via email.
Our first pop up was based in the heart of Shoreditch, right between Shoreditch House, the markets and Redchurch Street, attracting exactly our kind of fashion forward crowd. The store was branded with our logo and the window was decorated with our products. We had promoted the event beforehand via social media and had left posters and flyers in hotels and cafes in the area as well as send out personal invites to potential customers based in London.
The Pop Up was a great success. We sold more coats than ever before in one day, straight after opening and the second day was equally successful. We had a lot of overall interest, people interested in the company and the designer behind the business etc. What’s amazing about the in-store experience is that personal interaction between the designer and the people who are interested in what we create.
Best of all was the addition of foot traffic and being able to capture their data for our customer database. We didn’t just get the visitors that we’d invited personally, but also a lot of people that just walked by and came in, having seen the products in the window and wanting to know more.
Being able to process payments and capture data in such a professional manner is an absolute dream and gives credibility to our brand. The Lightspeed retail software also allows me to draw sales report following an event such as the Pop Up which is something very useful to have in order to track sales, VAT expenses etc. going forward. The ease of the retail software and training for on-boarding was brilliant and really made us feel comfortable with its use. The pop up was such a great success that I followed up with another on immediately the following weekend.
Obviously there are still challenges as a small business, as the personal time taken running a pop up has to be considered. But it was amazing to be able to extend our reach to a perfect target market and it provided real world reassurance that the brand delivers to its customers. So we’ve now decided that we’re going to do one a month going forward, supported by Lightspeed Retail.
If you’re interested in finding out where we’re going to appear, or have suggestions about where you’d like to see a Charlotte Zimbehl pop up, then drop us a line at mail@charlottezimbehl.com.
Thanks to everyone.
Charlotte