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I'd always kind of wanted to experiment
with pushing Instagram sales a little more
just took a lock down in a pandemic to give it a shot.
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We closed actually a week earlier than recommended
just for the safety of our staff and also for the community.
We sort of saw things developing
and we were a little worried.
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I applied for any kind of financial things
that were on offer to me as a small business owner,
unfortunately, was unsuccessful.
And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking okay,
I still have to pay the astronomical rents of New York
and all the other expenses
that go along with running a small business.
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And so I was thinking, okay, what can we do
even if it's just a tiniest bit to help
cover some of the expenses?
And we pivoted to do just online
100% selling through Instagram stories.
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We're all separately running out posts
and posting to the Instagram story.
Basically, we just snap a pic, put the quick details up,
and then move on to the next item.
And it means that customers who follow us
see new stuff every day
you see something you like, you dm us,
and then we respond, like a real human us response.
And then we send you a invoice via Square,
and then it's yours.
I'm so grateful that the team that we have at the moment
are open to trying to make it work in a different way.
And also I think they're all like real fighters,
like everyone is like, okay,
how are we making it work today?
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Everyone's working from home,
maybe they're on Instagram a little bit too much,
but we noticed the sales really just booming.
I noticed things were just getting snapped up super quickly.
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In the beginning, we saw a lot of demand
for elasticated waist, and comfy loungewear
cause everyone's at home
and also the other thing that we're seeing a lot of
is people wanting like a really sparkly, sequin-y things
for their Friday night zoom calls.
We're doing like jeans consultation
through Instagram stories.
It's something that we used to do in store anyway.
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One of the first warehouses that re-opened was one in Italy.
It's a lot of effort on their part
to go through each individual piece
and hold it up to the camera, do you want this?
Showing us different angles and that sort of thing.
We are super grateful for that.
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I really feel like the relationships
with our customers have become closer now than ever.
People have reached out to us said hey,
I can't help right now I just lost my job,
what else can I do?
Things like writing Google reviews for us
and let Yelp reviews those sorts of things.
It honestly helps small business so much.
Overall, I'm feeling optimistic
in my mind already thinking how do we maintain
in this new world order?
Do I convert one of the smaller stores,
the Instagram store that we just do Instagram sales out of?
What does brick and mortar look like moving forward?
Americans they champion small business like no one else.
There's a lot of people
who don't want their small businesses
in their neighborhoods to go under
and they're doing their bit to help.
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