388 – Tech for Digital Retail: eCommerce and Social Commerce with Christine Russo

Gift is unwrapped episode 388,

Simple approachable non-tech tech tech solutions are out there.

Attention gifters bakers,

crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

Now you are in the right place.

This is gift biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

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Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon height.

Hi there.

It's Sue and thanks for joining me here today.

New to the show.

Welcome. I'm so glad you're here in these past seven years,

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unwrapped.com/topics. And speaking of topics today,

we're talking technology,

as it applies to retail,

which may lead you to think brick and mortar while that's

true. We spin the conversation around to digital retail and in

truth in today's world,

selling both online and in person brings the most strength to

your handmade business.

You'll hear a casual back and forth conversation on all of

this, including many resources,

best practices and ideas to consider for enhancing your sales.

Today. I am so excited to introduce you to Christine Russo,

Christine and the retail,

creative and consulting agency.

Sit at the intersection of information and innovation,

serving the industry of retailers and retail technology.

She runs connected retail and produces short form videos about the

technology used in the retail industry.

Her founder's interviews have become well known for authentic reporting and

information and are growing into a global go-to resource.

Christine helps retailers solve major pain points,

understand and use new technical solutions and digitize their brick and

mortar locations and even more so don't pop out.

If you don't have a brick and mortar location,

there's some goodness in here for you as well.

Russo, welcome to the gift biz on raft podcast.

I too,

I am so thrilled to have you here.

I've absolutely no idea where our conversation is gonna go.

So this is really exciting for me.

Let's I'm guessing.

Yes. We're gonna just keep guessing until we get started.

But before we go anywhere,

I'd like to ask you about my traditional question,

which is a motivational candle.

So if you were to share with us a little bit

about who you are by color and maybe a quote or

a saying or something that is a motto that's present in

your life,

what would that look like?

Okay. So my motivational candle would be very,

it would actually feel like a hug cuz sometimes we just

need a hug to keep going.

And the scent that feels the most Huish to me is

UD O U D.

So really anything with notes of UD,

it's usually like our base and sometimes they add some top

notes onto there.

But as long as it's got that woodsy,

huggy feel good sent to it.

It keeps me going.

It's the wind on my back.

I think you wanna color also,

right? If one comes to mind and you wanna give it

for sure.

Well, it's this big time secret,

which I guess is no longer a secret cause I'm here

talking about it.

But my favorite color,

I don't tell anyone so seriously.

Okay. Nobody say anything.

It's a secret for all of us.

My favorite color is lavender and I find it to have

very ethereal and spiritual elements to it.

It's associated with your highest level of chakras and sort of,

it takes me out of my own myopic space makes me

think bigger.

So those two things keep me going.

And then as far as the phrase,

so I like to say when I'm up against like a

challenge and let's say there's an AISM,

it's called work.

Like it's not play.

So it's not always easy,

but I like to tell myself,

play chess,

not checkers.

So we're in this for the long game.

We're in this for strategy.

We may not get that move,

but we're playing the longer strategic view.

So you may lose some,

but ultimately in the end,

check me,

You know,

really important message.

Because I think a lot of people when they hit their

first failure,

it's like this didn't work.

Maybe I'm not cut out for it automatically.

They start thinking they should be jumping ship and self-doubt comes

in right away where if we're doing what you're talking about,

where yeah,

it's the long game,

chess moves checkmate.

You know what all of the strategy behind the entire game,

not just each individual move is what matters I spent my

first, I'm gonna say two years,

it might have been three years.

So I was a corporate person,

worked in corporate,

started in one type of business and migrated over to corporate

retail and then went out on my own.

And I spent the first two to three years on my

own building my business in the absolute kind of mega mega

mega highs and mega mega mega lows that entrepreneurship has.

Oh my gosh.

I can't believe I won this.

Oh my gosh.

I can't believe I lost that.

They said they do it.

Yay. And it's for this price.

Oh, they came back and they said,

and they'll super highs and the super lows at one point,

I said,

that's it I'm done with this.

Like, okay.

The successes are great.

The losses feel terrible,

but like I can't thrive.

I can't be a good manager.

I can't be a good strategist if I'm always way up

or always way down,

this is I'm done.

I'm gonna go right in the middle with a level head

and just shrug when there's a great win and shrug when

there's a loss and keep the eye on the ball,

the end result,

like did you know,

that's how they walk a tight rope.

They don't look down.

Right? They don't look at each footstep.

They look at where they're going.

Oh no,

I didn't know that.

But that makes total sense.

Cuz if you look down,

first of all,

you get so disoriented.

So look at the end game.

But I also think end to your point about not too

high and not too low,

enjoying the whole journey along the way.

Like no those lows,

when things don't work out,

they don't feel good at all.

But then when you get to the point where things are

working, you can say,

oh my gosh,

look at where I've come from.

Like two months ago,

this is how I was feeling.

I was so discouraged and yay me for figuring it out

and getting there.

So it's all of that.

So the strategy,

the long game,

There's actually a social media trend going around where it says,

if you knew that you would succeed on the 27th,

try on the 46th,

try on the 52nd try.

Would you be willing to fail,

fall down,

fail 26 times or 45 times or whatever the other number

is minus one.

And the answer always is yes.

So how do you know when that success is coming?

Yeah, We just don't get to know.

So we have to enjoy the unknown for a while and

then it gets revealed to us.

I guess I'd say the other thing I really like about

your quote is the hugs,

especially with what your area focuses,

cuz technology sounds so heavy,

especially for people who aren't comfortable with it.

I see technology in our area here being a real barrier.

People will just automatically say,

I'm not good at tech.

Yeah. Just like how people will say I'm no good with

money or you know,

anything I'm not good with tech.

They'll stay away from certain things that they should be integrating

into their business because it would really help them because they

have this idea over tech.

So when you say hugs and just feel good and support

and all of that,

that makes tech feel much more comfortable.

I would suggest this.

I hear you on that.

And it's like,

some people still can't use the remote control.

Right. I get it.

I totally get it.

I'm kind of one of those people also,

I mean,

tech has really kind of taken on its own entity,

but I sort of wanna equate it to going on a

diet, like who sticks to a diet like it's like,

who wants to learn tech?

It's like,

absolutely not.

I wanna just go about my business.

Right? So with regard to incorporating or considering tech,

the first thing you wanna do for even the smallest businesses,

write down the things that you are terrible at,

that you don't enjoy,

that you've made mistakes in that have cost you money and

or customers start with writing down those things.

Maybe you keep like a list and it's like,

oh I didn't.

I sold out of that and I didn't take it off

my website.

Let's just say,

okay. And I had an unhappy customer and they're not coming

back. Example,

I didn't have the right staff.

I didn't know we were gonna get that much foot traffic.

Okay. Let's just say whatever it is.

And they could be really,

really small things.

And if you do that,

then the next step would be to bucket them by type

maybe it's employee based,

maybe it's inventory based.

Maybe it's time management based,

maybe it's creative and marketing based emails,

whatever hate sending emails.

I hate writing emails,

all the things you hate,

all the things you're terrible at all the things that don't

bring your joy and then look for solutions because I can

assure you that every one of those things you don't like

there's a solution,

a simple solution to do it for you,

A simple tech solution,

A simple tech solution to do it for you.

Okay. Yeah.

And then here's the key thing because all of that is

like, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

If you hate that thing enough,

you will work for that solution.

You will seek out that solution and maybe you need help.

And certainly I don't recommend technology.

I'm here to assure everyone that simple,

approachable, non tech tech solutions are out there.

And so I would maybe put them in touch with companies

that can recommend a tech solution for them.

And so it's a process it's like,

if you are gonna invest time in buying merchandise or gifts

for your store and inventory,

it's the same thing.

It's like,

okay, I'm gonna put my solution,

finding hat on.

And I'm gonna speak to the person who gets me,

who understands my business.

I'm small enough and understands what I hate to do and

what kind of a solution I need.

Those resources are out there.

Technology is not just for the biggest of the big and

one of my sayings is technology can help small business do

big things.

Ooh, I like that a lot per my ears.

Yes. Did everyone hear that?

Say it again.

Technology can help small business do big things.

Okay. Because we're all wanting to do big things and we

know that there are obstacles and technology right now might be

one of your keys.

If there's something you're stuck on,

you're just not getting to that next level.

Listen up because this might be the solution here for you

as I was listening to you talk,

I think it might be good to start with what your

definition of technology is.

Okay. So with the focus on whether it's digital,

so eCommerce stores or brick and mortar stores or both.

Okay. So technology is a service provider or service system that

just takes care of a task for you.

That's it?

That's all it is.

So it could send,

it's a technology that you subscribe to and it sends your

emails for you.

And then it resends your emails to the ones that weren't

opened. And then it also sends emails that maybe over 90

days give people a,

you set a preset and it gives them a discount to

come back.

Yeah. So it's any additional support that's running,

possibly automated,

possibly triggered by you,

whatever the resource is.

However, it's set up going through the computer,

dealing with whatever position in your business needs help at the

time, there is a technology solution available,

which means you're not manually doing it.

Maybe that's the way to say it.

Is that a separation point?

Well, I mean,

automation is scary for retailers because there's a lack of trust.

Right? Well,

how do I know?

I wanna check that I need to manually do it.

So I double check it.

So you take baby steps to get there and yes.

So I don't want people to think,

well, I have to do it manually because I always wanna

check it along the way I can assure you that if

you take the time to set something up properly from the

beginning, you don't have to check it along the way.

And you can build in check points where you're like,

I don't wanna do that sale this week.

I actually wanna hold off on that.

Cause my foot traffic's been good.

See, especially smaller retail is very,

very tactical.

It's very of the moment like yesterday is gonna inform tomorrow

and today is gonna inform the next day.

And so a lot of people want that manual decision making,

reactive decision making.

And so factor that in.

We can factor that in and then you can still take

those things.

You hate take those things.

You make mistakes at take those opportunities.

You missed broke sale at the wrong time.

I mean,

look at where you lost business and say,

how did that happen?

How can I,

cause it's not always you fixing it.

Yeah. Okay.

And I'm just also going to bring up parallel with your

history and I'd love for you to shoot out some of

the big name retailers that you've worked with before,

because I just think it's interesting for people to hear,

but I'm also going to say that in my corporate life,

I also worked with some larger retailers,

not as much in the fashion brand as you,

but in more mass retailer,

grocery, that kind of thing.

And here,

because I'm gonna say what not to do.

I'm not gonna say who the names are,

but it was shocking to me that some of these huge

top position brands had so much lacking behind the scenes in

terms of systems.

And you would think that because the name is so big,

they'd have it all wrapped up.

They'd have it all figured out.

It would be tied up in a bundle and working so

smooth. And it was shocking to me that it wasn't.

And the only reason I really bring that up is because

everyone's always working on this.

And even though you're small and maybe that feels challenging,

that doesn't mean that you can't do it.

If some of the big guys have struggles and challenges with

it and are able to overcome it.

So can you,

You are totally right.

Look, I worked in corporate retail and my job was to

build stores for them.

So that was J crew,

Kenneth Cole,

Allison, Olivia,

Steve Madden around the world.

And usually in Asia,

there was a lot more technology involved inside the store.

But domestic.

Yeah, actually it was pretty simple.

It was like four walls in a cash racks.

And it's crazy if you think,

if you go into a Nike or an apple,

you go in and they bring you out right on their

little device,

you don't go to a cash wrap.

That's what,

how technology looks like inside of a store,

simply speaking,

and actually based on poss today,

you can do that as well.

You can be as convenient as Nike.

Can you imagine?

I mean,

I can tell you that there are stores like the ones

I worked at that do not do that,

but you can.

Yeah. I mean,

I'm just thinking of different places where things got stuck.

As simple as we know,

you know,

our inventory says we have one more of these left,

but gosh knows if they could find it,

you know?

And in the back of the room,

like where it was supposed to be,

it wasn't there.

But everyone said that you could find it,

things like that.

Checkout centers,

traffic flow patterns in terms of when to put employees in

place because it's heavier times.

So you wanna staff up a little bit at that time,

all of those things over to the point of when client

recognition systems started coming in,

like all the reward cards and all of that,

which also helped start tracking.

That's also technology.

Right. Great learning for all of us.

So everyone's struggling and trying to do technology better,

I think.

But again,

I just wanna lay the premise that don't feel like if

you're not a big brand,

this doesn't apply to you.

It actually can be a lot easier when you're smaller,

because you don't have to ask anybody for permission and justify

why you wanna bring a new thing in to use because

you do it,

you run the show.

I left corporate retail and then I work with independent retail

now. So I work with small businesses because I wanted to

deal with the decision maker and just kind of move things

along. Yes,

no. Okay.

Then we move on.

Right. So I definitely am a very strongly entrenched in that

community. My area is mostly women's peril,

but actually I'm part of an organization and they have a

lot of craft stores and quilt stores and yarn stores.

And we recognize that retail is of all shapes and sizes.

So, and I'm really enjoying being part of that world.

And like I said,

I look through the lens of that size business for solutions.

But some of the things you talked about yes are very

solvable. I would say,

be very careful.

Don't bite off more than you can chew.

Don't get a bad feeling.

Don't drown,

don't overpay.

Don't be oversold something,

but there are so much SAS,

S a a S stands for software as a solution.

Okay. Tons of those options out there in all of the

different categories,

we've touched on inventory control,

employee management email,

and you pay monthly.

I don't know.

We haven't really determined how many of the listeners have online

stores, but you can have upselling and recommendations just software as

a service on your website.

So they buy a candle and maybe they want like a

cozy cashmere blanket to go with it.

Okay. And that can be a suggestion.

And that's done kind of automatically just like,

this is what's going on.

If you really must know all of the selling that was

brick and mortar before really online selling the client,

telling the communication,

the client book,

all those things have all been automated for digital e-commerce sites.

Okay. So everything we did,

tactically is now available technologically for e-commerce sites.

And then all the conveniences from eCommerce sites like various forms

of payment,

being able to pay with either a QR code or your

phone are all going back into brick and mortar.

I mean,

think of it as like,

this is going this way and this is going this way

and everything's just getting better.

So what happened?

Let me give you an example is we're in lockdown,

we shopped online,

we had all this great checkout and payment options.

Gosh, I can pay with Venmo great.

Or by now pay later,

which increases the overall purchase,

right? Cuz you're spreading it out or buying gifts and it's

just widely accepted right now.

And then you go into a store and it's like,

open your wallet,

take out a card or cash and pay and it's slow

and you don't have other payment options.

You don't have buy now pay later.

It's like you went back in time,

What? So the first thing you wanna do is say,

well, the customer likes these things.

When they go online and check out@walmart.com,

how do I get that in my store?

There's a ton of value for getting it in your store

too. Cuz you've just freed up space to put more product.

So square foot allocation,

sales versus support and services changes now because of technology.

I wasn't even thinking that when we were getting started.

Yes. And I also,

what would you say Russo about,

I don't see a fine mine anymore.

Between if you have a retail location and I'm gonna put

this in for all of our makers who do craft shows

because that's also face to face selling.

So I wanna put that there versus having an online presence.

We need both in this day and age because if someone's

coming into your retail shop wants to repurchase,

but can't make it there.

And you have that same product online.

They can do a repeat purchase online.

Same thing with someone who's looking at your website and all

of a sudden see,

oh my gosh,

you're gonna be at the farmer's market right in my community

this weekend.

So then they can come and see you in person gets

questions, answered,

pick up the product right away,

maybe sample some things.

So I see both of these very much overlapping with each

other. It's not just,

oh, you're brick and mortar or you're online.

The best practice as you evolve.

Like of course you don't necessarily do this all at one

time, but is to have both of them and they don't

play independently.

They overlap with each other.

So the technology also allows you to take an experience someone's

having at your craft booth.

They click a QR code register for your sweepstakes.

Now all of a sudden they're on your email list.

Now they're gonna be able to get your emails.

And what portion of that process did you have to do

say hello,

welcome them.

Show them the QR code,

tell them the value of signing up and that's it.

And everything else then happens.

And that just streamlined your whole opportunity to do more of

those than the manual steps that we used to have to

do in the past.

You're absolutely right.

And one thing that might either scare people or make them

excited, hopefully make them excited because a website can be very

scary. So let's talk about digital retail.

So people think I have a store.

I have a website website is digital retail.

So digital retail,

one of the ways is a website.

Okay? There are many other ways and some are very sophisticated.

So we'll not talk about that require teams.

We're not doing that.

Let's take something that sounds like complicated,

but it's really not.

And it's a lot easier than a website and that's well,

you have eCommerce,

which is your website.

This is called social commerce.

What is social commerce?

Social commerce is live streaming selling through you,

sign up with a service provider that allows you to do

that. Okay?

And there are many.

And so you are basically doing QBC Your own QVC,

Your own QVC.

And I think that suits this crowd really well because you

may or may not need a website for it.

You may need it to just hold your inventory,

but let's keep it simple for right now where you're at

a farmer's market,

you have your phone filming you and you're talking,

let's say traffic is slow and you're selling stuff.

They're actually checking out.

That's why you need technology to do it.

They're checking out through that service provider and buying the stuff.

You're gonna have to triple your inventory for that and bring

someone with you to handle the in person,

people and sell out online.

And if you cultivate that,

Hey guys,

we're gonna be live at the farmer's market this Thursday.

And then you just constantly let them know where you're going

to be.

People crave it because now customers in Ohio are having the

Pennsylvania farmer's market experience,

holiday markets.

You have to tell them about it,

right? So that's your email list.

That's your automatic emailing.

That's all of that.

And then you just do it.

I'm gonna give you a hack.

If you don't wanna sign up with a technology company,

okay. Have a second person there,

put it on your live.

There's different social channels.

You can do it.

Let's say Instagram,

okay. Instagram live.

And that person who's holding the camera or filming or speaking,

someone can be in your DM.

And they're like,

I want that one.

Great go to your square,

swipe it.

Market shipping label gone.

When you think digital,

it doesn't have to be.com.

That's Really true.

And I see,

you know,

the whole social,

as you're talking about,

we've talked here about really very structured on air shows that

are daily shows those of you who are listeners go back

and listen to Adrian's boutique.

You'll hear exactly how she does all of that.

It's all structured.

And that's a perfect example of technology,

but I'll even say,

yes, it's great to have somebody who's helping you at the

booth. If you're at a show because technology aside,

if you have sales that need to get checked out and

you have someone who's still looking,

those are two different functions.

You can't do both.

You need some help,

but let's also talk about those times that happen with any

show. At some point,

you know,

if you're out doing shows,

it is pouring rain and nobody is coming.

So then this is downtime.

You're not doing anything but standing and in your booth,

pull out your phone like Russo saying,

even if it's just you and saying,

Hey, I met this show.

This is part of the gig.

You know of when we do craft shows,

it is pouring rain.

There's nobody here.

But let me share with you.

What's happened so far.

Our biggest seller has been this and of these two colors,

guess which one's the most popular,

like just chat and enjoy,

but oh,

by the way,

if you like these,

here's how you could get one,

you know,

like however you'd wanna do it.

So this is a way to use what you would once

think is downtime to your advantage through technology.

I am so glad Russo,

you brought that up because it happens all the time.

I'm happy we did that.

And it goes,

the same conversation is a slow Tuesday in your store,

hop on the phone,

hop on your life.

Yeah. So I do believe in structure and I wanna check

out that episode and I encourage everyone to do it as

Sue said,

but yeah,

for sure.

Part of the success and engagement that higher success and a

lot of engagement is the authenticity of lives.

In the sense of like,

maybe you're like going in and outta the stockroom and you're

just carrying them with you.

Like you will not believe what people like to see the

real deal.

And I can't imagine a more real group of people than

the people listening to this podcast.

And how interesting that is.

You have a huge community,

huge And all the material you have,

because if you're making product,

if you're out showing product,

if you're getting inventory in that are the pieces and the

parts of the jewelry that you make,

you got a brand new,

fun tool that you've never tried before.

And so you wanna experiment with it.

There is so much content for a maker.

No maker can say they lack content that's for sure.

Hold tight.

Our conversation will continue right after this short break to hear

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Well, I don't know how if this group,

it has engaged or even just looked from a spectator standpoint,

but the amount of makers and doing exactly what you said,

Sue, which is like,

here's my new tool.

Here's me cutting metal.

That's on TikTok.

I mean,

you have to be ready for your business to totally blow

up. If you are prepared for that.

And we can have a whole other conversation about that if

you want,

but that's social commerce.

And then you have to think also,

okay, let's say you don't wanna sell there.

It's awareness.

You have your website link in there,

or you have your store phone number,

keep it easy,

but think about awareness and people are actually interested to see

your process.

I mean,

I consider myself a maker,

but I don't make everything.

So I like to see what's behind what someone is making

like leather,

making like belts and purses and all that.

I wouldn't have the slightest clue.

That would be so interesting.

Just a little peak,

but you know what happens is a lot of people are

like, well,

I'm not gonna give away how I do this.

It's not There.

It's already out there from somebody,

right? Who everybody is showing everything on TikTok.

Yeah. And that's why I really kind of lean towards authentic

truth versus,

you know,

gate keeping polished,

scripted, you wanna be really careful.

And part of it has to do with your,

your customer base,

but they're generationally gen Z millennials.

They want it as real as possible.

And I've seen a ton of leather making on TikTok and

it's fascinating.

They burn it.

They do this,

they file it.

I mean,

it's kind of incredible.

They're not hiding anything.

And You have the opportunity for people to fall in love

with you then because no one else can be you.

I mean,

this is the thing.

I try to remind everybody,

including myself,

when I'm doing these reminders,

it's not just for everybody else.

It's for me too.

But is that pretty much everybody can duplicate something that you

make now it's not necessarily like if you draw your style

is different,

but there are other people who make greeting cards or other

people who do watercolor or you know,

whatever different styles,

right? But nobody can recreate your personality and the way you

communicate and the way you talk and the way you show

up. And when you start doing lives,

people gravitate to you who feel comfortable with you like your

style. And then they wanna support you and buy from you.

And you can't do that with just static posts.

Even Carol cell posts lives and videos are where you get

that across.

I totally agree.

Video is so much more engaging.

I just wanna add one more thing to the authenticity conversation.

And then one more thing in case people are like,

I could never,

because I could never is not what we do here.

So when you think about,

if you're gonna show creating,

or if you think about create what you wanna do is

it's not just create,

it's create and educate.

I follow a watercolorist I bought watercolors.

I don't water.

She's like,

we're gonna make a sky in an ocean.

Now. I'm like,

I'm doing that.

You know,

I bought it.

Did I ever do it?

No. She's like you do this,

you do that.

I mean,

you have to have confidence in your ability as a creator

and artist,

to really engage with people with your product and not gate,

keep and worry that you're gonna be copied or whatever,

but there's a real process sharing.

So think about create and educate.

When you think about videos and content,

and then one more thing.

I can't do that.

I can't be out there.

I don't want people to fall in love with me and

my style,

as you said,

so you can do all of this and still be off

camera. Believe it or not.

You can have video with your voiceover,

with zoomed in over your process or whatever it is.

You can even not have your voice.

You can have text read by the app.

So all of those hurdles and they are real,

we don't like to hear our voice and see ourselves.

It's just not,

we all kind of feel like,

Ugh, they've taken away all the excuses to really kind of

get out there.

Darn they've taken away all the excuses,

Get yourself a huggy candle and just jump right in.

There you go.

Perfect. Okay.

To make this actionable for people who are listening,

if someone was just,

I don't even know if you're,

this is gonna be able to be answered,

but I'm going for it.

If someone was just starting their business,

are there a few core,

either recommendations you already have,

or just the section of the business,

things that they should start with?

You know,

how people are they like following step by step instruction.

So are there certain things when you're just starting your business,

maybe three or four that you should be looking at?

Not necessarily all at once,

one by one,

but that you should be including in your business,

What kind of business?

A maker business.

So someone is selling,

they're a knitter.

So right now they're only selling products.

They're not educating,

not doing patterns and anything like that.

They're just starting.

Cause I guarantee you,

whatever you say here,

if you have an answer to this,

there will be people who have businesses that are more established,

farther along who don't have these included either.

Okay. Which is fine.

That's why we're doing this is what would you suggest people

make sure to start with.

So in this example,

it's a knitter with finished goods that they've created.

Okay. So the most important thing is sales,

right? We wanna get sales.

So how do we eliminate the boundaries to that and raise

awareness? So the first,

I mean,

obviously you need a social media account,

right? Everyone needs Instagram,

gotta do it.

It's an eCommerce like hiding eCommerce place.

You gotta get into that.

Right? You must have that.

You have to have a landing page.

One page that kind of is a video of view and

slow motion,

creating something.

And it's a button that says,

click here to learn more.

It doesn't have to lead to a list of products.

It can just actually click to your email.

Wanna learn more,

go here.

Those are both really simple starting places.

Now let's say the creator has a bunch of product,

right? There's product.

Have you heard of fair?

Oh yeah.

Open affair account.

Now fair.

The financials affair are whatever they are,

but Which means you'd be going after wholesale,

then not direct to consumer.

If that's your strategy.

Well actually let's back up.

I love wholesale and wholesale is back so wholesale as far

as launching a business is back.

So awareness among other stores.

Other entities I think is important depending on the business,

the pricing,

et cetera,

direct to consumer is getting more and more and more and

more expensive to get customers.

So the C which stands for CAC customer acquisition cost.

So that is why a multi-prong approach is really important.

Now, back to that,

Instagram, I don't know the cohort of this business that's starting,

but I would also recommend that they get on TikTok.

TikTok is the best direct to consumer methodology.

Okay. All,

so those are different things that come to your mind than

come to my mind.

So what do you think about having your accounting system in

place? So you're tracking your sales.

Do you think that's an important starting point?

Well, there's inventory and there's invoicing,

right? And unfortunately in our world there are two separate things

and it's terrible.

It's really awful.

Actually what I would do for someone starting their business,

because Shopify just added wholesale,

open a Shopify account.

You can do your retail day.

I mean,

it's like crazy.

It's the one it grows with you.

So they have your direct to consumer business.

You can add on so many apps,

which getting back to technology,

like easy,

easy peasy.

So you've got the direct to consumer.

They just added wholesale.

Okay. And then through Shopify,

you can actually integrate with,

let's say a fair or you can use the wholesale piece

of Shopify.

If you wanted to in your own hometown target stores and

say, would you carry my stuff?

Do you like my stuff?

And then think about trade shows,

right? To reach those stores.

Maybe you could go to trade shows with your product,

not inventory,

but like you go with your samples and you reach them

that way.

So there are gift shows,

you know,

about the gift show right in Atlanta.

Oh Yeah.

We actually exhibited some of those shows,

you know,

there's gift shows all over the country.

Gift shows.

Candy shows.

Oh yeah.

The New York now.

All of 'em.

Yeah. Yeah.

One of a kind chose.

All of those.

Some are direct to consumer.

Some are wholesale,

but I'll tell you the direct to consumer.

There are a lot of smaller boutique owners who go looking

for people to place their products.

And I just thought of this too.

If you guys go back a couple of episodes back,

we're talking about stackable,

which is similar to fair,

but very much geared to brand new wholesalers.

So if you're interested in wholesale,

go back and listen to that one too.

Stackable, check it out.

Stackable. S T O C K a B L.

Okay, great.

Yeah. And it's very much the starting wholesale person,

smaller accounts,

you know,

if you're just getting started,

you gotta start somewhere.

It goes up to bigger people too.

But another option in addition to fair.

Okay. And I wanted to get your idea of just a

few things that you thought should be in place for people

who are listening,

who are considering starting their business.

Like give them a little direction on where you think that

they should be starting to put in an integrate technology.

I just always go back to thinking about one person I

was working with when I went in and started talking with

her about her business and how everything was going.

And she was still manually writing down all of her sales.

And I'm like,

how are you doing your sales report at the end of

the month?

And she was going back to these pieces of paper.

And I'm like,

if you get audited,

you're gonna be in for one load of a headache.

You know?

So I remember that.

And I think,

you know,

when you think you're small,

you don't need all of these things,

but way easier to get things in place earlier than later,

I would take that a step further because reconciling sales at

the end of the month,

you just look in your bank account.

That's what people do.

The issue here is are you investing in the things that

are selling and growing your business where it should be.

So the most important documentation and why you need to have

a system.

And yeah,

I feel like people open their eyes and first go,

let me start a business.

I'll go on Shopify and then figure out what they wanna

do. Right?

They go backwards.

Yes, absolutely.

A hundred percent.

So that's how imperative Shopify is to a smaller business.

But anyway,

let's go back.

So you are on order orders placed,

okay. Orders received.

Now, if you're making it still within Shopify,

you can have the costs involved in orders made,

let's say makers orders made orders received.

And then what's sold because you're running around in your business.

Next thing you know,

you have like 47 knit,

blue turtles.

I don't know like what just happened here.

You don't have a top line view of your business.

And that's where small businesses make a huge mistake.

They think I have money in the bank.

I don't have money in the bank.

I'm selling.

I'm not selling.

That's too common.

And then really bad,

a bad habit that gets hard to break because all of

that upfront paperwork,

let's talk about stuff.

You don't have time for finding new technology and doing the

upfront paperwork.

Both of those help you actually thrive and be profitable,

Saves you time in the long run,

but not in the short run,

cuz you have to put it up to get it set

up. But then once it's set up,

you're saving time.

The forever You're saving time,

but you're making money.

Okay. So the thing about profitability is not money in the

bank, right?

It's actual profit and you need the right record keeping going

into the business to understand if you're actually making money.

And that has nothing to do with actual cash flow.

So the thing about retail selling makers,

it's like a lot of math and a lot of counting

that everyone hates because you wanna be a creator and you

wanna be an artist and you wanna curate your store,

your line,

your vibe.

Well, unfortunately you have to do the other things.

If you really wanna be profitable.

Now, if you hate it,

like I said,

you find people and things to do stuff that you hate

doing, but you don't just not do it.

That's the first thing I took off my desk when I

started my first business was a bookkeeper.

Like I can do the numbers,

I know how to do math.

You know,

I had my software that I was using,

but did I wanna do it?

And did I wanna do data entry and reconciliation and all

that? Gosh,

no. And that sounds so like,

it's like,

oh my gosh,

I'm not ready for that.

I'm not ready for that.

But it could be an hour a month.

Someone has to do if you're just starting out so affordable

for you.

And then as you grow,

then their time grows.

Right? And that's replicable with lots of different things.

Some things you wanna keep for yourself and some things,

you know,

you wanna hand out as you grow.

So, okay.

This has been wonderful.

We talked a little bit Instagram TikTok.

Of course we talked about fair.

I added stackable.

I love that you are a partner advocate with me with

Shopify, for sure.

Are there any other programs that you just by name wanna

spit out for everybody just for them to think about?

So for that live selling,

one of the easier ones for smaller business that they might

wanna check out is called comment,

sold one for small business,

but there are comment sold was kind of the first one,

but now there are lots and lots and lots and some

of them are too expensive.

So they're too big.

They're like for big,

big, you know,

big but comment sold,

the fees are very affordable.

Yeah. And that's the one I was mentioning when I was

talking about that other podcast that I did,

Vicky uses comment sold.

So, and she does a live show every single day.

So you guys could go into her live show and see

how comment sold works from a customer end,

super easy there.

They actually got bought.

So, oh they Did.

Yeah. So they just added within the website,

video selling,

it's kind of a big technology.

Ooh, it's for an established,

you know,

if you're established website,

but there's nothing I love more than when you can grow

into a technology and not like,

have it work for you now and grow out and find

new UUG is the worst.

Like when they span from like small to,

you know,

they can help,

they can actually partner with you as you grow.

I agree with that.

Totally. What about some type of a CRM platform?

You know,

what do you recommend for people there?

I mean,

so let's say they're on Shopify,

right? I like,

I mean,

for someone their size,

a lot of people use Omni send,

which is an email system,

but also can see what I love is segmentation,

but it has to be simple.

So in this world,

maybe there's like a lot of gift givers,

but then there are a lot of people who wanna buy

for themselves.

So you can see when you have people come around every

like November and then they don't come around any other time

because they're gonna be a gift giver.

Right? Yeah.

So with Omni sender,

you able to figure out where those purchases are by time

of the year or are you tagging them based on when

they're purchasing?

No, they do it for you.

Okay. So it's a more advanced level of something like MailChimp,

it's more advanced.

It has more features than something like MailChimp.

It's the same.

Okay. All of those like CRM email things are commoditized.

Okay. So what does that mean?

They're all the same.

So your choice should come down to what is easier for

you to use and the cost and their customer service.

Like if you have problems,

that's it.

So MailChimp's just as good.

Okay. All right.

Okay. Wonderful.

Well, I think that's given people a start and for those

of you who are listening,

who are like CRM,

I've got it.

Bookkeeping. I've got it.

I'm doing lives.

I got it.

I'm on Instagram,

I'm everything.

And I'm wholesaling then kudos for you.

You've got it all covered.

This has been wonderful.

Russo. What else would you like to say just in summary

to our audience and then also what do you offer?

And if there's something that you think that would be valuable

for us to know about you,

where would we go to find more?

Oh, that's great.

So first of all,

I am in the business of advice.

So anyone can email me and be like,

Hey, I liked what you said about that.

Who should I speak to?

I'm not in this like pay for play gatekeeping world because

that just I'm in it for the community.

So anyone can email me if they want to ask specific

questions. My email is Christine R CC agency.com.

So there's that I'm prolific on LinkedIn,

but it's a much for more of a bigger retailer.

So, but if they want,

they can look up Christine Russo and get inspired to grow

really, really big.

So I can definitely make recommendations.

And none of it is affiliate links.

None of it is there's no financial motivation.

One of the things I would say that in terms of

tier two level,

and it sounds like you do have some pretty sophisticated businesses

and established businesses is yes.

One of the most overlooked aspects of getting help outside of

your own amazing skill set is inventory planning.

Okay. Oh Lord.

It is the most important thing.

And nobody wants to really Well because we have inventory of

the parts that we use in production.

And then we also have inventory for the pieces that are

already made.

So there's a lot there,

Right? So as I said,

what I would recommend,

if you have any interest in getting any kind of support

there, I do have a resource for you and I can

put you in touch with them.

And they work in this exact world now to me,

the difference between profits and not profits,

because it's so funny,

people get to the end of the year and they're like,

I didn't make any money,

but I sold so much,

But I so much,

how did I not actually make money?

So if you have a real interest in actual profitability and

longevity in your business,

I would really say,

you know what?

I think I'm ready to look forward in a real way.

In other words,

you're gonna pay to have someone help you look forward and

you're gonna make enough money that it covers that cost.

And then some retail makers,

it's a business of looking backwards.

Hey, I did this.

Maybe I'll do this,

but that's just not enough.

There's a real science to it that if you partner with

the right company and people and maybe an app,

there's a lot of resources out there.

I personally think the apps are very like to go forward

and be like,

I'll just get an inventory planning app Shopify.

They're very,

very complicated.

They've too much information.

So what do you do?

So you're talking about the,

in the inventory arena specifically,

right? Well inventory and also like,

okay, as you said,

component pieces.

Cause if you're gonna eventually make something,

you have to back into the inventory.

Right. But that whole area versus other apps that Shopify has,

you're just talking about the inventory.

One is very and more complex,

Not inventory tracking inventory forecast,

like what do you do?

Going forward planning.

Okay. Gotcha.

All right.

And if someone wanted to have that conversation with you,

then they can email you about that.

Thank you so much.

This has been very interesting,

just a great conversation about what technology can do for your

business. And hopefully we've put some thoughts in some of our

listener's minds as to ways that they can improve,

become more effective and more productive so that they can sell

more. This was great.

I love your format.

I really appreciate it.

My mom's name is Sue,

so I happy about that.

There you thanks again.

All right.

Take care.

Tech is not something to be fearful of,

but to be embraced,

to help you expand.

We covered a lot of ground in the episode today,

I've listed all the resources we discussed in the show notes.

So you can access them there.

If I had to identify the most important takeaway from all

the things we discussed in this interview,

it's to take Russo's advice and have a system in place

to track sales.

Obviously your business runs off the sales that come in,

having the knowledge of where they come from,

ensuring that you have product to fulfill the orders and knowing

what to double down on because it's producing can mean everything

to the future of your business.

Just a quick reminder that I'm looking for motivated handmade product

business owners,

to sign up,

to do a gift biz boost,

which is a podcast interview for this show.

During our time together,

you'll get a free business coaching session from me giving you

clear action steps that will boost your business growth.

And of course,

as a guest on the show,

you'll be able to promote your business to get more visibility

too. I'm doing these on a first come first serve basis.

So head over to gift biz,

unwrapped.com/boost to sign up for your session today.

I can't wait to give you a boost.

I wanna make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook group

called gift biz breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and are a community

to support each other.

I got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

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