Under the Success Stories section of our blog, we publish real-life stories of small business owners who run their online stores with Ecwid E-commerce. Here you can get to know fellow merchants and learn from the first-hand experience. Have an Ecwid store and want to share your story on our blog? Here’s how to do it.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Sometimes you don’t know what you need until it’s too late. As was the case with Julia Rose Boston, luxury handbag and accessory reseller, who quickly realized their desperate need for an e-commerce platform. You’ll notice her website redirects to her Instagram account, later we’ll touch on the unique way she sells online.
You’ll read the challenges they faced manually managing a fast-growing business, and how seamlessly they created an automated customer shopping experience. Oh yeah, and they increased revenue by almost half!
Learn what tools JRB used to automate sales while maintaining a strong relationship with her audience. And not only providing luxury products but also an upgraded shopping experience.
Ecwid merchant Julia Rose Boston automated the sales while maintaining a strong relationship with her audience
Losing Sales, Putting Out Fires
Julia Rose Boston has risen to popularity with the help of social media, fans and influencers flock to her account to purchase luxury accessories at a fraction of the cost. This was easily managed when demand was low, and no need for a website or inventory tracking. Shoppers commented on a post or sent a DM for which product they wanted, and the team sent an invoice through Paypal. Simple enough for a handful of orders a week?
Influencer marketing example
Thanks to influencers, her follower count swelled and so did orders. Due to the nature of the one-of-a-kind product, there are no variants or multiples. Meaning, if you accidentally oversell, you don’t have a backup. The sudden jump in demand and clunky invoice system resulted in issuing refunds and more alarming, unhappy customers.
Influencers are game-changers
Because inventory was manually managed, oversold products lead to customer frustration, not ideal for a growing business. Her team was confused and disoriented, spending more time putting out fires then growing the business. The sudden growth was becoming a hindrance, not a propeller.
Having to adapt to their growing audience and orders, Julia (CEO and Founder) and her Product Manager, Humfrey knew they needed a new solution, like yesterday. Humfrey tested over 14 different platforms, thoroughly researching which solution was going to be best for Julia and the team. And after much deliberation, they took a leap of faith and migrated from PayPal to Ecwid based on a few different factors.
A Leap Of Faith That Lead To Sales
With Humfrey leading the charge, Ecwid was the platform of choice for a number of reasons.
Ease of Use
With a growing staff, their e-commerce platform needed to be easy to understand. A diverse team with different tech levels, they needed to onboard employees quickly. Both Julia and Humfrey have seen an improvement in overall morale. With a remote team, having a solution that is easy to use and manage, saves the team precious time and energy.
The sales team love being able to intake bags and check orders from the app — it’s simple to update while out on photoshoots or in the warehouseJulia Rose Boston
Build An Authentic Customer Connection
One of the most important parts of JRB is customer experience and connection. With selling luxury handbags & accessories, part of their brand is giving customers high-level service and high-level experience.
JRB sells on Instagram. Transactions are handled by Ecwid.
With JRB, available products can only be found via Instagram. Before Ecwid, transactions were handled via Direct Messages, which led to confusion and accidental overselling. Now with Ecwid, a product listing is created within the control panel and that specific URL is uploaded to IG stories.
Swipe up to purchase
The story, usually a video, has a swipe-up link where shoppers can purchase the item and have a smooth and seamless checkout experience. Check out their account and see it in action!
A product page on Instagram
As you can see, JRB has curated a very unique and personal relationship with their customers. Ecwid gave them the ability to host their online store in a unique way while maintaining a personal shopping experience with customers.
This also means that the majority of customers are using their mobile devices for shopping. So the platform needed to be optimized for a mobile shopping experience.
Was The Leap Worth It?
We mentioned that JRB found a unique way to sell online with Ecwid. If you try to access her shop link, you are redirected to her Instagram account. Simply put, by "hiding" her products and putting in a redirect — products can only be found through her IG stories. This creates an urgency for shoppers to buy immediately, as they can’t browse through an actual website.
While still keeping a close connection with shoppers, she is able to sell only via Instagram. The checkout process becomes smoother.
After switching to Ecwid, the result was a stark contrast to the chaos before. With an organized inventory catalog, a streamlined workflow they quickly found their rhythm. Long gone were the days overselling products and frustrated customers. As Ecwid was able to serve JRB, so was the business able to better serve customers.
Coming from the business enterprise sector, where companies pay a high amount for software services and platforms. I was looking for someone who could serve JRB as a great small business service. We were very impressed with the way Ecwid was ready to engage and eager to help us succeed.Humfrey (JRB Business & Product Manager)
With the migration to Ecwid, her business saw an overall 43% increase in revenue (comparing September 2019 vs February 2020). And even more rewarding was the astounding feedback from her customers, and how easy and smooth the checkout process is! The team morale and communication significantly improved, they could see the status of orders, which items were sold out, awaiting shipment, etc.
What I didn’t expect was how much happier the team are since we integrated with Ecwid — freeing up time we used to spend sending invoices and tracking orders means more time with the buyers (and bags) we love.Julia Rose Boston
Level Up Customer Experience, Increased Sales
While switching to Ecwid was one part of the solution, there were a couple of other tools that JRB used to upgrade her business. The previous platform forced them to manually send invoices to customers. Now with access to business tools & apps, like Back in Stock Notifications and Abandoned Cart recovery, Julia and Humfrey were able to increase sales and expand the business.
Back-In-Stock Notifications
As a luxury reseller, products and inventory are all mostly one-of-a-kind. So why would you need a Back-In-Stock notification? Well, one unique way the team utilized this app, was by gauging the product interest of customers. They quickly see where they need to source specific products and find high-interest pieces that will make a quick sell.
With this app they can curate a list of products their customers are interested in, giving them further insight into their audience. Sometimes gauging product interest is difficult, surveys churn low rates, social media posts lay flat. And so using this app in an innovative way, you now have data to support future product development.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
We talk about automation for your business because it allows you to earn back time and make sales. Another way JRB and team did this was by simply enabling Abandoned Cart Recovery. It’s a pushed notification that goes directly into the inbox of your customers. You don’t even have to do anything! And in one month they recovered over 150 carts attributing to 13% of their monthly revenue.
Read how another merchant recovered 17% of their abandoned carts. And enable Abandoned Cart Recovery on Business plans or higher!
Return the customers to their last step and let them complete the purchase
While giving customers an easy and quick checkout is a top priority. Equally as important is integrating business tools & apps to better serve your customers. And you’ll likely start to see a revenue increase, which is exactly what happened with JRB.
Ready to Level Up Your Customer Experience?
Julia Rose Boston’s story shows the importance of finding ways to better serve your customers. You could have the sleekest, fully optimized storefront. But if it’s not serving your audience for their wants and needs, you may eventually lose their business.
We discussed a few tactics you can try today but for more insight, check out a few more below.
- How To Create Customer Profiles for Your Business
- 10 Ways To Update Your Store in 2020
- Tips To Increase Conversions and Make Sales
Subscribe to the Ecwid blog to read more inspiring stories like this one, and if you have a story of your own, don’t hesitate to share it in the comments!
Start Selling on Instagram with Ecwid
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meagan, Khareem Sudlow
