Long before she became a mother, Catherine Oyer would shop for baby clothes while traveling, but she noticed that the brands she found abroad weren’t available in the U.S. To fill this gap, she Francis Henrya modern store for little ones. Francis Henry’s curated collection launched online and recently opened its first retail space, where sales have more than doubled.
Thanks to her smart investment in customer experience, Katherine was able to sign a lease for her second retail location. She puts her shoppers first and now continues to grow her brand through word of mouth.
Find out how Katherine’s smart customer retention plan helped her grow her children’s clothing brand.
How to retain customers
1. Pace your business growth
Initially, Catherine packed and shipped her orders herself. “I knew I couldn’t just sit at home and ship boxes all day, so I kept the business small enough that I could manage it myself,” Catherine says. Starting a business is a solo endeavor for a long time, until your brand generates enough income to hire staff. Keep track of all your customers’ orders and keep them coming back.
Then, as more customers began to return, she felt more confident attending in-person events to sell. “I was doing in-person pop-ups once a month, but not every week because of life’s commitments,” says Catherine. These events are a great opportunity to build brand awareness, but don’t overdo it.
2. Make wise choices
“Customer experience is very important to me, so I go to great lengths to include handwritten thank you cards as well as custom tissue paper and stickers with every package,” says Catherine.
Making thoughtful choices requires getting to know your customer: “We have a parking lot with a back door, but now it’s almost a front door because everyone parks in the parking lot and brings their strollers in,” says Katherine.
She listened to customer feedback and heard about the difficulty of accessing and picking up from other stores in town. To solve this problem, she launched BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store). “If there’s a mom with her baby asleep, I’ll get a message saying, ‘Can I get a bag out?'”
3. Trust the data
When Catherine notices that an item has sold out or orders new items from popular vendors, she buys more for returning customers. “The ability to sort by vendor in Shopify is really interesting,” Catherine says. “It lets me see which brands are selling well and which ones aren’t.”
With access to data from her Shopify store’s backend, Katherine can decide how much of each SKU to order. When the items her customers want are in stock, existing customers come back to buy more, and bring in new customers. “I’ve always believed that if you have a great customer experience and a great product, people will come back,” says Katherine.
Watch the full video here Shopify Master Tune in to the episode for more tips on customer retention and Katherine’s advice for opening your first retail store.
