How to Create a Seamless Omnichannel Experience

A smart way to downturn-proof your company is by launching an omnichannel business strategy, which means running an e-commerce store and a brick-and-mortar shop.

In this episode of the E-commerce Revolution Podcast, husband and wife Ramin Ramhormozi and Jenny Romeyn (owner of the upscale children's boutique Cupcake Couture, Inc.) discuss how her online store helped her brand weather recent economic downturns and what kind of marketing techniques she uses to promote her e-commerce store.

For 17 years, Jenny has owned two brick-and-mortar locations in California and an online store. Cupcake Couture, Inc. has been named the best children's clothing store and best baby gift store year after year for Santa Rosa and, most recently, for the location in Napa.

Topics Include:

• Omnichannel Business Tips from a Mom Entrepreneur
• The Best Shopify App for E-commerce Inventory
• Completing Payroll & HR as an E-commerce Business Owner
• SMS Marketing & Email Marketing Strategies that Work
• Managing Social Selling in an E-commerce Business
• Social Selling as Part of a Digital Marketing Strategy
• A Seamless Omnichannel Customer Experience with Shopify POS
• The Best Tech to Run an Omnichannel Business Remotely
• Juggling Omnichannel Retail as a Mom Entrepreneur

Juggling Omnichannel Retail as a Mom Entrepreneur

Ramin: So tell me about this balancing act. You're a mom of three kids, two of which are twins. What does your day look like?

Jenny: So, we wake up in the morning. My son has still not risen most mornings. I get the kids ready, get them off to school, and then quickly jump into the day. Usually, we're sitting across from each other at the kitchen table with our coffee and our laptops. I go through, check emails and figure out what's on the agenda for the day. Check the schedules.

I try to block off days for the stores versus other days or specific times for personal stuff, making phone calls about bills, or answering personal emails. And then I try to block off other times for sort of the real estate. So for me, rather than jumping back and forth all day long, it's easier for me to keep myself a little more organized if I focus on one track at a time. So, that happens until school picks up, I get the kids, and then, you know, usually post three o'clock, it's a lot of running around sports, dance, soccer, all of that. Not myself. Of course. I'm not dancing.

I feel like technology is amazing in that it allows us to work from anywhere, but it's a little bit of a curse because it allows us to work from anywhere. So, the kids will sometimes say, you know, oh, mom. You're always on your phone. And I try to only allow myself to be on the phone doing work stuff during general working hours, but that doesn't always happen. It spills over. They see me always on the phone, but I say, if I weren't here on the phone with you, I would be away at an office, or away at the stores, or wherever that may be.

I think it's great because it allows me to be here and be with them physically. But I think that we're not always as present as they would probably choose for us to be. And so that, for me, I think is probably the hardest balance.

The Best Tech to Run an Omnichannel Business Remotely

Ramin: You're here in Austin, Texas, and your businesses are in Northern California. How does that work?

Jenny: Well, it looks much different from when we lived in California. So, you know, when we first decided to try out Austin, that was a big component: whether or not the business could be run from afar.

One of the interesting things that happened during COVID was that it forced us to figure out how to do things remotely. So things were put in place in my business that wasn't necessarily in place before we were suddenly offering virtual shopping. And I was trying to do Facebook lives and do various things that wouldn't cause me to have to be physically at the stores because we were in California.

We were shut down for two and a half months. It felt like forever. It could have been two years that we were shut down because that's what it felt like. So it didn't seem like it would necessarily be that much of a stretch to try to do it from Austin instead of doing it from home in Sonoma County. I think, for the most part, it's going well. Again, thank goodness for technology.

A Seamless Omnichannel Customer Experience with Shopify POS

Ramin: What about the online store? When did you launch that, and what platform do you operate that on?

Jenny: So it has been operated on a few different platforms, but currently, we are on Shopify.

Ramin: And the physical stores run on Shopify, too, right? They utilize Shopify POS, correct?

Jenny: Correct. We are now on Shopify. We were with QuickBooks point of sale for years and years and years, and it was such a great point of sale that I was hesitant to move away from it. But I needed something for online. So I had various online stores. We tried various platforms, but the sync was never quite there.

We would try to upload and download every night to sync up inventory. But if something sold right now and walked out the door, and then an hour from now, an order came in for that same product. It hadn't been updated because it wasn't updated until after closing. So it was never ideal.

So moving to one platform and one system has alleviated 1,001 headaches. The inventory is saved from the retail store to the online and between the two retail stores. So you can make a purchase in one store, you can return to the other store, and you can make a purchase online.

SMS Marketing & Email Marketing Strategies that Work

Ramin: What about email and SMS? Do you utilize those within the business, and how have they worked for you?

Jenny: We just moved to Klaviyo, and we have SKU Agency taking care of our Klaviyo email marketing, and it's been great. We have flows set up. For those who don't know what flows are, it's a series of emails that, once this happens, then this next thing happens.

For instance, we have a welcome series. If you sign up for our newsletter for the first time, whether that be in-store at checkout or on our website, you get that first welcome email. And then a couple of days later, you'll get another, the second email in the flow, which will be introducing the store, introducing our brands, and a little about us as a company. Then the third email talks about me a little bit.

We just tried SMS for the first time, and I think it went pretty well. We had quite a good-sized list to use, but it hasn't been used in a while because these customers had all opted in with their phone numbers as part of an old rewards program that we used to have that was driven by phone number.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Shopify Omnichannel Commerce, when harnessed effectively, can be a game-changer for retailers looking to stay ahead of the competition. By dividing your retail presence between e-commerce and physical stores, you unlock opportunities to engage customers and drive sales.

Throughout this blog, we have learned from the expertise of Jenny Romeyn, a leading authority in the field. We have explored the seamless integration across multiple sales channels that Shopify offers, empowering businesses to streamline operations and maximize customer satisfaction.

Jenny has provided invaluable insights into the future of retail, emphasizing the importance of embracing an omnichannel approach. By leveraging the power of Shopify Omnichannel Commerce, businesses can elevate their brand, increase sales, and create a truly immersive customer experience.