323: From Brick & Mortar to Ecommerce: How One Woman Doubled Her Business During the Pandemic

The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

The pandemic forced many owners to shift from brick and mortar to eCommerce. Some succeeded, and some did not.

Today’s guest was one of the successful -- she doubled her brick and mortar business revenue in 2020 by implementing Shopify, Klaviyo, and a seamless in-store and online rewards program.

Mandy Buterra began her journey as an entrepreneur at age 50 when she started Wren and Wild a brick and mortar business featuring clean beauty and aerial yoga, in Bend, Oregon. Her business evolved and she was building a good customer base, then COVID hit.

Instead of panicking, Mandy taught herself eCommerce and joined our Coalition membership. Listen to this episode to learn how she’s now hitting sales highs and doubled her revenue in the last year by transitioning her brick and mortar to eCommerce.

If you’re in the transition or considering turning your brick and mortar into an online store this episode is filled with good tips about how to integrate the two business models. If you’re already running an eCommerce business Mandy also has tons of tips around how to build a rewards program and smart email marketing to build customer loyalty.

This is a well-rounded conversation and I know you’ll walk away with at least one tip to implement in your business.

Episode Highlights:

• 4:54 How Mandy started as an entrepreneur
• 8:30 Taking time for clarity before launching a business
• 9:14 Restarting, again, after losing a lease
• 11:11 Mandy’s brick and mortar and how COVID impacted it
• 13:57 How launching a Shopify site doubled business
• 15:28 Brick and mortar to eCommerce: the differences and advice for people transitioning
• 17:04 The importance of data and capturing email in store
• 18:13 Transitioning a rewards program from brick and mortar to eCommerce
• 19:38 Rewards program recommendations
• 20:20 What makes a good rewards program
• 23:04 Things that have moved the needle in Mandy’s business
• 27:29 SKU management and how to narrow and focus offerings
• 30:30: Planning for Q4 and holiday
• 31:41 The importance of a network when you’re growing a business
• 33:50 What brought Mandy’s site from a 1.9% conversion rate to 3.9%
• 35:54 Advice for people growing and building a business

Resources:

• Wrenandwild.com
• @wrenandwild on Instagram
• Smile.io Rewards Program
• Klaviyo.com Email Marketing
• Conversion Crimes Website Testing
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• Review or subscribe on iTunes