How Summer Solace Tallow Switched to Shopify POS to Unify its Sales Channels

Since bringing her online and in-person sales together with Shopify, Summer Solace Tallow has enjoyed reliable payment processing, centralized inventory management, and fully synced sales data.

Summer Solace Tallow is an Oakland, California–based brand that offers holistically crafted, pasture-raised tallow beauty products and home goods. Founder Megan Bre Camp is a former chef-turned entrepreneur who uses the suet—the fat closest to the loins and kidneys of pasture-raised cattle in Northern California—to make tallow. She then adds olive oil produced by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in Capay Valley, and high-end essential oils to create her artisanal line of tallow-based ethical, organic balms, soaps, and candles. 

Megan set up her online shop with Shopify in 2019 but used Square POS to sell at farmers markets and craft fairs. With a major event called West Coast Craft on the horizon, Megan wanted to run her online and in-person sales from one place and switched from Square to Shopify POS. Since bringing her sales channels together with Shopify, Summer Solace Tallow has enjoyed: 

• Running her entire business from Shopify
• Reliable in-person payments and fully synced sales 
• Centralized inventory management and reporting

Challenge: Siloed sales channels and time-consuming administration

Megan sells her artisan line of Summer Solace Tallow products in several ways: online, through wholesale partners, stockists, in-person events, and out of live-work space with in-store pickup orders. Connection is a significant part of growing brand awareness, and Megan has always believed selling online and in person was important to building her brand.

“The blend of both online and in-person makes your brand more accessible, which is great for expanding your customer base and creating a stable revenue stream online,” Megan says. “Shoppers can choose how they buy. But as we moved out of the pandemic, I got a sense that people want the tactile experience of connecting with the brand and shopping in person again.” 

However, manually reconciling inventory between Square POS and her Shopify site was becoming time-consuming. As her business and sales grew, it became more difficult to keep track of inventory, orders, and revenue reporting. 

With West Coast Craft–her largest in-person selling event of the year–quickly approaching, Megan knew she needed a new POS system that connected to her Shopify site’s inventory, was easy to set up, and could be relied on to accept payments all day.

I saw this moment as a brand reset. I wanted to bring everything together and use the same system to sell online and at events.

Megan Bre Camp, Founder, Summer Solace Tallow

Solution: Bringing online and in-person selling together with Shopify POS

Making the switch from Square to Shopify POS was easy–especially since Megan had been using Shopify for its online store for years. Shopify POS instantly pulled Summer Solace Tallow’s product catalog from their Shopify site, which helped Megan avoid importing inventory data manually. 

She was also able to customize her Shopify POS home screen with the products, collections, and promotions she was running for West Coast Craft, making checkout faster and more efficient for her customers. “I love that I have full control of the look and feel of Shopify POS, even changing the look and personalizing it for different events,” Megan says.

And even more important than aesthetic is functionality. “If technology distracts from the transaction, that’s a problem and can ruin the experience. As a consumer, you lose interest when the cashier has to fidget with their POS terminal to key in order totals or their card reader stops working.” With Shopify POS, Megan’s customers enjoy a smooth and efficient checkout. 

Thanks to Shopify Payments, Megan no longer has to manually key in order totals in her card reader. Payments and her POS are fully in-sync, making  for a smooth checkout every time. Now—using just her iPhone, the Shopify POS app, and her card reader—Megan can sell all day with confidence.

 

Results: Set up for sustainable growth with one powerful platform

Now Megan can manage her entire business from Shopify. She can view both online and event sales data in the same place and trust that the numbers she sees are accurate. 

Megan considers her switch to Shopify POS as a “brand reset.” Now that her inventory quantities automatically sync without having to manually reconcile two systems, she can easily track product seasonality and prioritize which products to manufacture throughout the year.  

“Previously, it was hard for me to get a grasp on my business’s performance and predict how much of a product I needed to make for upcoming events. I couldn't see historical sales data for online and event sales in one place,” Megan explains. “I make my inventory in small batches, and having disconnected reporting was a big issue for inventory planning. Now, with Shopify, it’s much more straight-forward. I can easily find data to help me run my business and make the right choices.”

Blending her POS system and payments hardware allows Megan to focus on connecting with local shoppers who align with her brand’s ethos and want alternatives to mass-produced, chemical-heavy beauty and home products.

💡 PRO TIP: Set up in-store pickup in Shopify to start offering in-store pickup as a delivery option at checkout. Pay less on last-mile delivery, speed up fulfillment times on local orders, and drive more foot traffic to your stores.

I love the convenience of having everything I need to sell in-person in my pocket. Now, I can sell at events easier and turn new customers into repeat ones.

Megan Bre Camp, Founder, Summer Solace Tallow

What’s next for Summer Solace Tallow?

In the short term, Megan’s goal is to expand her online presence and to partner with additional wholesale accounts who align with the brand. And as she looks to the future, she hopes to create a permanent studio space that doubles as a showroom for her products.

“Right now our only physical retail location is a converted live-work space, which allows me to offer services like in-store pickup,” she says. “I really want a studio with a showroom where customers can come in and shop—ideally in our same neighborhood in Oakland, California, called Temescal. It’s artistic, vibrant, and has lots of foot traffic.”

Using Shopify for online and in-person selling gives Megan a reliable foundation that will help her fulfill her plans in the short-term and enable her to make her ideal future state a reality. She knows the capabilities of Shopify will allow her to delegate more operations as her brand grows.

Using Shopify for everything saves me time on administrative and accounting tasks, because all the information I need to balance my inventory and sales is in one place. If you already use Shopify to sell online, Shopify POS is the best point of sale system to use.

Megan Bre Camp, Founder, Summer Solace Tallow

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