Introduce your business and tell us your story: How did you decide on what to sell, and how did you source your products?
We spotted a gap in the market for a bridal magazine for the creatively inclined, fashion and design-loving bride and groom. The magazine is edited and designed by myself out of our Sydney studio and printed in Queensland. So we are 100% Australian owned and made.
How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you?
We launched our blog in October of 2012 before the first issue was published in December of 2012 to build up a bit of anticipation for the launch. Social media also played a key role in driving our readers to our Shopify store to purchase the magazine. Our website sends the most traffic to our Shopify store. We have a promo tile at the top that displays the latest issues added to our store, encouraging our readers to click through and purchase the magazine.
Tell us about the back-end of your business. What tools and apps do you use to run your store? How do you handle shipping and fulfillment?
None. We just use the basic Shopify set up. Its so easy and efficient. We handle shipping internally from printing the the address labels ourselves, right through to packaging the magazines up safely in a gold foil envelope and placing them in my bike basket and riding the orders to the post office every week.
What are your top recommendations for new store owners?
Have professional photos taken of your products and use social media to keep your fans and followers up to date when new products (or in our case issues) are added to your online store.