Road to Retail: Connecting the Dots

0:00That's what retailers these days are really struggling with, is how do we make sure that we're showing up in the same way online than in physical. The easiest way for us to transition from a digital space to a retail space was to go with Shopify POS. It was the best decision we ever made.

0:33Oh, good. And because they're exposed, the arms literally... For furniture brand Cozy, the opening day of its first retail store is coming to an end.

0:48Sitting atop one of the display couches is Emma Drummond. She's Frederick Obey's fiancé, and she's seen just about every step of Cozy's evolution. I remember we were, like, sketching out logos together, and he was like, I think it should be a cloud because I want to evoke comfort. And so we were very excited always talking about it. But it would be phony to say that it wasn't scary as well. She sits and watches as a steady stream of customers flock into the store throughout the day. Locals who've watched construction go on and on at this location for months. Neighbors and competitors checking out the new game in town.

1:26And of course, the customers who have waited until now to buy. One of my friends has it and she posted a review. I'm like, be for real. There's absolutely no way that that is as comfortable as you're saying it is. It's the softest one out of all of them, actually. It's very buoyant. And our couch right now is not buoyant at all. So that's why we're getting rid of our couch. Sometimes you go into a store and you're kind of trying to visualize things in your home too. And it's so hard with dark lighting or they're trying to go for something different. But this is bright. It's cozy. But I just love seeing everything laid out perfectly.

2:00It's really a good way to see things in your home as well. Speaking of seeing things, Felix Robitaille sees something too. You might recall he's Cozy's marketing director and also Fred's childhood friend. There definitely is a place for physical space in retail for Cozy. That's what we thought, but then it's validated, I would say.

2:29hey i'm benjamin gotley welcome back to road to retail a shopify miniseries each thursday of this month you've been hearing the stories of the folks behind the brand cozy and their experience moving from an online only store to opening their first physical location if you've missed our first two episodes please check out the shopify masters podcast feed it's all there you'll want to get caught up on today's episode, episode three, connecting the dots. Road to retail is all about opening a store for the first time. And as you can probably guess, doing so is a big investment, investment in time, in money.

3:08So when you finally decide to take that risk, you'll want to make sure you've got the right infrastructure in place. I asked Fred why he decided to go with Shopify point of sale for this high stakes moment. To answer that, I'll have to backtrack a few months where we opened our first pop-up at Stack Market. A pop-up is a low stakes way for retailers to test out their products in person. Leases are little to non-existent. Spaces are small. They can be adjusted quickly. It's a great place to experiment. It's a bunch of old containers that they've recycled to make stores. Oh, like shipping containers.

3:44Shipping containers. How ironic is that you started with the shipping containers and then now your purse pop-ups in a container. Exactly. You owe a lot to those containers. Yeah, no, and still do, still do. But they didn't help us during the COVID when the prices went to$25 ,000 USD per shipment. But we're in this container. It's meant to, you know, get some learnings before our store. And it's basically just experiential. We don't expect to make any sales but it's one sofa that you can come and try or or discover cozy right there

4:22after a few days our store manager tarian who runs the store here says guys you know people are people are wanting to purchase this the couch in store like in the container but we don't have anything to to do it with them what do you suggest well i said tarian look look into it i mean And I don't mind, just find a solution that works. He's like, well, I think Shopify POS is the way to go. It's simple. It's going to blend in well with what we're doing on the e-com side. Can we test it? Can we do it? I think in two days, not even, we were set up. We're capturing transactions and ended up making hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in that container, like crazy stuff.

5:05But that was all because of Shopify POS. So when we're designing that store in the beginning, we didn't have a cashier either. It was just experience, you experience, then you buy online, we can help you with the iPad. But we didn't think we were going to process transactions with a credit card here. And it was the best decision we ever made. That simple test inside of a shipping container near Lake Ontario in Toronto is why Cozy uses Shopify POS inside of its store today. We're using Shopify for the main store for all our transactions. So the easiest way for us really to transition from a digital space to a physical space in a retail space was to go with Shopify POS.

5:52That's Felix again. So the integration is really seamless. So it was a no-brainer for us to go with just adding Shopify POS. It was so easy. It was like, okay, so now how do we deal with transactions in the store? Like, let's just do Shopify POS. and we ordered a couple of them and that was it. It's so easy. It's so seamless. Meet Julie Tran, one of the sales associates at the new Cozy store. I've used Shopify before and my other workplaces. So even searching up items, adding customers, checking out, it's very easy. Such a breeze. And then at the end of the checkout, they just tap or insert their card and then they're good to go.

6:35Julie says she made three sales her first day on the job, using POS. The first one was like when she first came in like she worked near along the street so then and then she came back and it complimented her hair because it was really nice and then yeah and then we just like closed the sale for the atmosphere. Yeah but a lot of them and then the other two is just they just wanted to confirm what they wanted so like we like really made sure that it was something they wanted the color like the the size and everything so yeah it was like It was really nice. Some customers didn't come in to buy, says store lead Jeff Brown, and that's OK.

7:13Jeff has been integral to opening stores in the past with other companies, and he says the idea that a retail space isn't completely focused on a real-time transaction is a major strength for Cozy. We have a great support system in our online customer service support. So in the event that we do need to say to somebody, hey, you know, we can't complete things here. We've got your back. We've got you covered. And that's the benefit of the structure and sort of the nice thing about us being on that team before the store opened was learning the ins and outs and giving them that access point. By all objective measurements, the store's soft launch has been a success.

7:53Customers packed the renovated 1800s era building that Cozy calls home the entire day. The next day, Fred took his mother, Marie-José, and his father, Mario, to Cozy's warehouse outside of the city center.

8:10Mario is an entrepreneur too and does some translating for Marie-Josée who's an interior designer I'm proud of Frederick everything he accomplished but I'm proud of the person who he is and who remains very simple I'm proud of what Fred has done but I'm probably more proud of the person that he is very simple but he stayed the same to have a hundred million dollar business at 27 years old. He could tell it, you know, yell it on roofs or he could, in his lifestyle and his friends, but he hasn't changed. He's the same person and that's what we're more proud of. He hasn't changed one bit. When asked what he thought about Fred starting this business years ago and the progress that he's made touring this expansive warehouse, Mario says, to be honest, I thought it was not a good idea.

9:03Can I say something? I thought it It was not a good idea. Because he was doing great at McGill. He's an economy finance manager. He could have gone to do his master's anywhere probably he wanted. And that's what I was pushing for. Why don't you do your master's? You can always come for your... No, I want to do this. I want to do that. And I'm like, no, it's not a good idea. But at the end of the day, it's you, right? I was happy for him. I'm really proud of him. Really impressed. and I think it's a good thing now.

9:44We have to get the Shopify POS app on the iPad. Then we design the Shopify POS app on the iPad the way we want it for the sales team to really be efficient when creating an order and creating a cart for the customer. And then once you're ready to purchase, I mean, it just pops in your options in the Shopify POS that you can actually just pass it to the credit card terminal and then beep it and we're done. It's pretty easy. It's easy to say something. This is the best product. Pick us. But to really mean it is a different story. Head over to Fred's store in Toronto on Queen Street and he'll tell you.

10:26What he loves about Shopify is that it makes things simple. It's simple for the customer and it's simple for our team. And it's really the backbone of Cozy. Everything from the checkout to the tools that they provide to the connections that they provide. Shopify is just the way to go. And anybody thinking of starting an e-com store that's debating whether to use Shopify or not is debating too much. I mean, to me, it's the only way to go. Thank you so much for listening to Road to Retail, a Shopify miniseries. Road to Retail is produced by Megan Coyle, Gogo Zoger, and Schweng Esther Shan. Mixed and mastered by Matt Schwartz.

11:10Production assistance from Miku Betlam. And I'm Benjamin Gottlieb. If you've enjoyed this episode, or the series for that matter, let us know. Subscribe, leave a comment, all of that good stuff. It all goes a long way. Also, a big thank you to the entire team at Cozy for hosting the Shopify Multimedia Squad in Toronto during the opening of their first retail store. I hope that this series has inspired you to put down the work that isn't fulfilling and pick up the mantle of entrepreneurship to chart your own path. And if you ever get stuck, remember that Shopify can help. Until next time.

11:55Thank you.