Want to Break Into Corporate Gifting? Here's How

0:00You can, you know, have the idea in mind that you want to make a t-shirt, but then it's, you know, well, there are thousands of t-shirts out there. So which one is the perfect shirt for your initiative? And we love solving that problem. Hey, everyone. Welcome to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. I'm your host, Shuang Esther Shan. There are so many different ways you can use Shopify with your business. You can directly sell to your customers, wholesale to other businesses. But what about building Shopify stores for other companies? That's what Chloe Sapienza is doing with her design studio, Telescope.

0:41Chloe's not only building beautiful Shopify stores for her clients, but she's also helping them with sourcing and developing customized branded merchandise. She's here today to tell us about her unique business model and her tips for designing beautiful Shopify stores. Thank you so much for joining us, Chloe. Thank you for having me. It's very exciting. Very excited to chat because Telescope is so unique with helping other businesses build Shopify stores, as well as customizing and creating corporate merchandise. Tell us a bit more about the services you provide. Yeah, absolutely. So Telescope is a full-service corporate gifting and design company.

1:23So we help walk our customers through from idea to delivery, whether we're helping them just make the products for an event or whether we're setting up a store for them and warehousing the products and sending them out for them on an ongoing basis. So our services start with curation and sourcing. We help customers understand what they're looking for based on their budget and their timeline and the projects that they're working on, their branding. And we synthesize that into relevant product ideas that work for their project. From there, we also offer design services and help them create the actual products that they're looking to create.

2:00Most of the companies that we work with aren't retail companies, so they're often businesses that are looking to create branded merch as a marketing effort or as a gifting effort. And so our design services come into play quite a bit there to help them bring their ideas to life. From there, we're also helping with logistics and fulfillment, both with producing the items once they get ordered, making sure they come out perfectly, sampling, all that good stuff. And then actual shipping and delivery, whether that's to individual gift recipients or in bulk to the warehouse to fulfill in ongoing store orders or all over the world we ship to events and that sort of thing as well.

2:42So it's a lot of different services that are all geared around just helping our customers build better relationships through these custom gifts that they're making with us. It's so interesting to hear because when you think about corporate gifting, you don't think about all of the different steps that comes with it. In addition to designing, you're also looking after fulfillment. How did you initially get into this space? It's a great question. And I think as most people in the creative world know, you kind of find your way to things through many different types of experiences in design. So I started my career when I was still in school as a graphic designer, and I started studying product design in school.

3:29I went to NYU, their Gallatin School, which was great for individualized study, and found different design roles after college. Anyway, I eventually made my way into this industry, working for another company in the promotional products realm, another small firm that was very focused on software development, but it really helped me get my bearings in the promotional products and physical marketing advertising industry. And I fell in love with it. I thought that it was such a unique space to be able to help these large companies solve big problems around gifting, whether it was for their employees or their marketing initiatives.

4:08um it's always a new exciting adventure to work with these customers on on solving those problems yeah and it sounds very fun to be involved in that initial creative aspect because that was something that you were interested in and helping design those ideas and turn it into a product i imagine taking on the logistics piece the manufacturing finding good partners also fulfillment, that's so much to take on. How did you ramp up this side of the business and get more understanding about it? Yeah. So a lot of what I ended up doing as a business owner was leaning into my resources and my network where my skills sort of were no longer applicable, right?

4:57So as a creative designer and business person, I had a lot of skills that helped me develop aspects of the business and then tapped into my network to better understand how I could develop these other parts of the business. Part of that was co-founding the company with my husband who came from operations and he'd worked in several tech startups and he'd worked on sort of the customer experience side of things at Zendesk and at SeekGeek. So he and I, with our powers combined got a lot of the gaps filled. But yeah, I think from there, we both used our network to better understand how we could go about solving problems around fulfillment and logistics.

5:42A lot of it, like with most businesses, is trial and error, where we're coming up with a solution, seeing if it works, iterating from there, and making adjustments. I love hearing that because it's so sweet. You guys have this complimentary set of skills where you bring the creative and he also has the experience from logistics and tech. When it comes to the creative aspect, what are some parts that you love a lot? Because I imagine we've all been to different conferences. We might've gotten tote bags and pins, but when you're looking at Telescope's website, it's so exciting to see how creative you are and also all of the merchandise that I wish I would have gotten at different events.

6:26So yeah, talk to us about that. Definitely. I really appreciate you saying that. I think our entire ethos around how we built the business is to help create better products for these companies. Things that people actually want to keep and products that have an inbuilt, well-defined tie back to what the business is trying to do, both in that individual moment and in their overarching goals as a company. So solving those problems, to me, is one of the most exciting parts of what we do, and it is what we put a lot of our focus on as a company. So there are a lot of things that the customer might convey, right?

7:11They might just say, hey, we need tote bags for an event, or hey, we're thinking about making hats. and it's our job to dig deeper into what their goals are, who's receiving these hats, what environment is this going to be given out in, what is the end goal, is the idea to have people wear these hats on Zoom calls to get your brand in front of people and make it a talking point. So that's just an example. We want to make sure that the things that people are coming to us with are the best potential products and manifestations of their brand that could be created. And it might not end up being a hat at the end of the project cycle.

7:52We may come up with a better idea that helps them really get the most out of what they're spending on these products. But it's really just a lot of fun, I think, for our whole team to solve those problems because it's not just about design or having a good idea. It has to be possible to make those products, both within the timeline, the budget the customer has and all of the other physical parameters that come with making products in real life. Very different than like designing a digital product and delivering on that. A lot of the times it's employees of the companies you're working with who are shopping at those stores.

8:30How do you make sure they have a great shopping experience and what are some tools or the way that you're setting up those stores to ensure that the online store is built to its best ability? Yeah, that's a great question. There are a lot of different use cases for our customers to be a good fit to have a store. So we set up two different types of stores for our customers. We do an internal store that's just used by admins to view inventory and send it out, whether that's to their employees or to their customers. And then we'll also set up a public-facing store for some customers who then get a very retail-forward shopping experience of that brand's products.

9:11the things that we look for to help identify that as a good solution for our customers include you know their ongoing needs as a company whether having inventory pre-made and on hand is a good fit which pretty often it is you know when you're making something new it can take up to you know a month to get it made or that sort of thing it's just an example of a timeline but if we have it made and it's in the warehouse we can also help our customers turn things around a bit more quickly So it's ready to go and it can ship out just like any of your Shopify customers who are retail and they have a 3PL that uses their inventory to ship it out to customers.

9:53So it's really around identifying their needs for how they need to manage their inventory and then what type of experience they want to create. We love when customers want to create an external store for both their employees to shop products, but also for their customers and partners to go as a way to redeem gifts from interactions that they've had or from events that they've put on. So it gives us the opportunity to help them brainstorm new ways to bring to life their brand. I think that covering a lot of the different product categories is a good place to start when people are putting together their stores.

10:30so we like to make sure there's a good balance of apparel and outerwear, some functional items that may be good for the home, whether that is a tech item or drinkware, but things that maybe people would not necessarily think of right away, maybe not a water bottle, but a self-heating mug or something like that that could be a nice item for someone to buy. We like to have accessories on there too, so hats and socks and that sort of thing. Just a nice range of items to give people the option when they're shopping to pick different types of items. And I think it's also intimidating to think about because you're helping them with setting up the store, fulfillment and orders.

11:18It feels like you are managing so many different businesses at once. How do you all make it make sense in your mind and stay organized? It's the constant, I think, balancing act of a business to manage different parts of your organization that you've set up. So we use a lot of different project management tools for ourselves to keep everything square. We've also created a very unique physical work environment. So in the age of everyone sort of leaving their offices and working remotely, we've really tried to design the telescope work environment like a traditional studio. So like a design studio or architecture firm where the team is able to collaborate and physically be in the space with our designers, but also with the packing and the gifting experience.

12:15So our warehousing and fulfillment and our designers and our team all sort of operate out of some collaborative space together. There are obviously additional things required for warehousing, and that gets handled a little bit separately. But when the products come in and when things get packed, there's staging elements where the fulfillment team is actually interacting with the people who designed and sold the products. And that really helps, I think, our systems feel cohesive both to the customer and to us to make sure that everything comes out exactly how it should. Because to me, I think the biggest thing that I want to convey to our customers is that sense of continuity, that sense of we've really created an all-in package for them and we're helping them every step of the way.

13:01and there isn't a moment where someone doesn't know what's going on or someone down the line, the person packing, wasn't told how it should be presented. We really have tried to, because our industry is filled with so many companies that sort of don't take as much care, I would say, in the fulfillment of the products, in how they're packed and shipped. It's sort of more Amazon-style fulfillment because they'll use outsourced third parties. But because we own our own warehouse, we've been able to create quite a bit of control over the outcomes for our customers and we've seen so much success with it.

13:38Yeah. It sounds like it's fully integrated and streamlined. So there is that additional layer of care that's throughout each step of the process. And it's also interesting, you also can see and understand data that comes in to all the stores that you help set up and see how different items are being ordered. How do you measure success and then use some of those data points to have insight into designing new products for the future? Yeah, the data on products that are selling or moving is very important. And we will use that information to both help with restocking products, which often happens, right?

14:18So if a product, I'm sure for retail brands, they have the same thing going on. If a product's popular, we want to make sure that we're letting our customers know so that they can restock it and continue to offer it to their employees or customers. But we use that to help with restocks. We use it to help with suggesting new products, like you said. So if the creative consultant who's assigned to the customer notices that the ceramic coasters maybe didn't move as well as they should have, The next time around, they'll take that information and try to suggest different types of products, maybe get some feedback as well from their employees or customers to try to figure out what they're interested in.

15:02Like one product kept getting returned and exchanged, and we found out it was because it runs large, and it wasn't really clear to us that that was the case. And so that was nice to be able to use the data of like, wait, this product is being exchanged quite a bit. Let's figure out why that's happening. And then we were able to better adjust for that in the future when we sell it or when we're stocking it for the customer. Very interesting. And I think as well, like when you're in the step of actually thinking about new items or sourcing for different new ideas that you have, how do you go about finding products that you recommend?

15:39There are so many ways in our industry to source products. So our approach is to get as much information as we can about the project prior to starting our sourcing journey. We try to get, you know, if they have a budget in mind, if they have a deadline, the quantity they need, the theme. Those are just a few examples of sort of parameters. And then we use our own sort of back-end system to filter for those things. So to make sure that the products that we're sourcing for that project fit within the timeline. Timeline is a big one for our industry. It's sort of a just-in-time model in terms of how we get the products for our customers.

16:29They won't often be ordering like a year in advance. I know for retail, you'll often design and make your line a year prior or however long you need to be able to do the production timelines, which are often 90 to 120 days for often overseas production or that sort of thing. Whereas we work with a lot of suppliers that hold inventory here in the U.S. and then they customize it on demand once the orders are placed. a lot of suppliers that we've built relationships with over the years that we prefer. Our sourcing model is to gear people towards sustainable and local makers whenever we can. So we'll put together a custom catalog for a customer with a bunch of different product options that we've sourced and curated.

17:16And again, that's to give them the easiest shopping experience. So we're saying by giving them that, like, hey, all of these products work for your budget. They work for your timeline. We've pre-vetted all of these suppliers. These things can all be made the way that we've mocked them up for you. We're happy to update the designs based on your feedback. And we can kind of then help streamline the sourcing process for them, because that I think is the most time-consuming part, which we are happy to offload, which is actually finding the right products. You can have the idea in mind that you want to make a t-shirt, but then it's, you know, well, there are thousands of t-shirts out there.

17:57So which one is the perfect shirt for your initiative? And we love solving that problem. It sounds like you're constantly on the pulse and looking at new businesses. For our listeners who are new business founders, maybe they have a product that might be a good fit. How do they actually get on your radar and make it easier for themselves to enter into the corporate gifting space. I love talking about this because my mission, our mission is to truly get most of our industry ordering from local makers. And we really want smaller brands and people making products here in the United States to be able to sell into this industry.

18:43So I have a lot of resources, too, that I'm happy to share. But my recommendation is to, well, make sure that your business is set up in some way for wholesale. It doesn't need to be massive quantities. It can be whatever quantities you can produce. But just having a wholesale model is key to sell into this industry and to work with companies like ours. So it's much better to partner directly with companies like ours as opposed to trying to work one-off with customers because most people who start retail brands aren't trying to do what we're doing and help customers figure out how to brand their products and that sort of thing.

19:28So, for example, we work with Patagonia, and they only want company logos on the back neck or on the sleeve. They no longer want us or anyone in our industry to put logos on the front just because they think it'll extend the longevity of their products, which we're totally behind. So that's just an example of, like, coming up with an agreed-upon way that we can customize products. We work with a company called Rainz. they make like rainproof bags and cool sort of futuristic. Yeah. They're also on Shopify, a Danish brand. Yeah. They're fantastic to work with. And we do a lot of tone on tone embossing of company logos on their products so that it's more subtle and doesn't detract from the rain's branding as well.

20:13So that's another example of how that could work. And if a company is trying to get into our industry, having some ideas around how their products could be co-branded is a good first step, or at least allowing for it. Because we can always help figure out how to customize things. We have plenty of decorators and outsourced companies that we work with where we can send things to be labeled or that sort of thing. So they don't necessarily need to do it themselves. They just need to be okay with that happening and also be aware of where it's best to place that type of co-branding on their products.

20:52And I think those are the two main things, just being available to sell wholesale. We're a distributor, so in our industry, there are the suppliers, there's the distributors, and then the customers. Distributors are buying things more or less wholesale and then selling them to the customers, So that's why that's such an important component. I think the third thing is just being open to new opportunities and to feedback as well. Like any wholesale business, that will open up selling to stores that want to carry your products, but it will also open up this whole industry and probably other opportunities as well.

21:28So to, yeah, just be open to things that come. And I think selling in bulk. I had done a little bit of, I had started a retail company before starting Telescope. And I know that from that experience, like selling in bulk and like wholesale quantities is a really good way to support the ongoing operations of your retail business and your B2C. Those are such great insights. And I'm excited to dig into our conversation even more. I'm chatting with Chloe Sapienza. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you, our listeners, for tuning into the show. Did you know that we have recently launched a YouTube channel where you can watch some of our favorite in-person interviews?

22:13Check it out. And thanks again for supporting Shopify Masters. So this is one of my assumptions with the corporate gifting and merchandising world is I think it comes with seasonality as well because there's a lot that happens around the holiday season. How do you plan for that and make sure that you can handle those busy seasons where the orders are a lot more compared to other months of the year? Oh, man. Yeah, I think this is probably similar for retail as well, right? There's a big push during the holiday season. So from front of house to back of house, we prepare our team mentally months in advance.

23:03We talk about it. We make sure that everyone understands that the demands are going to be different during that last quarter of the year. I think mental preparedness is one of the biggest things that you can do for your team as a business leader. Just making sure people as far in advance as you can can help them understand what their workload may or may not be like throughout the year. Obviously things change day to day, but when there is that seasonality, it's something you can get out in front of very easily. So that's step one. And then we also make sure that we have some slight overlap of additional people just to make sure if someone's out sick or if someone's unavailable suddenly, both on the fulfillment side or on our operation side.

23:52We have sort of built-in redundancies during that time to make sure that we don't have any delay in processing. It's very timely that time of year. There's sort of this attempt to always get customers to place orders early. We do our best to do that so that our team isn't as slammed all at once. But there are only so many things that we can control. And sometimes it's budget related. Customers don't get their budgets approved for that quarter until later. And so inevitably, we end up with a very busy end of November, first two weeks of December every year. and we have a we also try to make sure that our team feels again supported and like we're all doing this together so myself and my co-founder Andrew will always be available to our team during that time even if that means we need to you know jump in and help figure out how to move something from one side of the warehouse to the next or you know just being available I think when people are at their sort of max capacity is really important to us to make sure that people feel supported.

25:02So you have a lot of notable clients from Amex to Grammarly, and you also work with brands like Patagonia and Reigns. There's a lot of relationships you manage. What's your advice for new founders as they're developing relationships with other businesses? Yeah, relationship development is at the core of what we do for our customers. I think that customer service and building relationships is really the only thing we should be talking about in business because everything else is sort of should be a given, right? So for us, we personalize our customer experience by assigning dedicated account managers to everybody that we work with, no matter what sort of level they're at with us, whether they've only placed one order or whether they're an ongoing customer with multiple storefronts and spending a lot of money with us over the year.

25:56We treat everyone with care and with a dedicated team that they can talk to and that has continuity for their projects. so we hope as we scale to to continue to create a personalized relationship building model where we can really be available to people and and make sure that they know that that's what we value because at the end of the day when you're gifting products of any kind whether it's to your employees or to your customers the end result is to build a better relationship whether that means retention for your employees or happy and overall happiness in your job or whether you're trying to yeah Develop more with the customer that you're working with or the partnership that you're working on.

26:40Gifting is a really wonderful way to celebrate milestones that are otherwise very intangible. Even if it's just, hey, thank you for the conversation or thank you for coming to this event. The right type of timing and product in those situations, I think, goes a really long way for people. Definitely. Corporate gifts are a sign of appreciation and also celebration of milestones. And you had a milestone of becoming a Shopify Plus account. There's plans of opening your own storefront for Telescope. Tell us about how you're planning to scale Telescope. Yeah. Much like a plumber with leaky pipes, we don't have our own swag store that is public-facing yet.

27:31I think that as we've been building, we've really put a lot of emphasis and focus on our customers and the programs that they're designing with us. and I've had in my mind this vision for what the telescope store will one day be. And it's been a long time in the making and I'm very excited to say that it is in progress. I think that what I envision for it is to be an example of what we, like the sort of highest level example of what we want to accomplish for our customers. so I want it to be very on brand for us as you can see from our website like we have a lot of space themes going on telescope the idea there behind our name is that we help you find what you're looking for but we also see it as a great metaphor for the overall landscape of what we're working in gifting and like yeah I'm really excited about it it sounds like the sky's the limit.

28:31So very excited for the future for Telescope. Thank you so much for being here, Chloe. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate your time. That's Chloe Sapienza, the founder of Telescope. Shopify Masters is produced by Megan Coyle and Gogo Zoger. Our engineers are Miku Betlam and Matt Shorts. Our managing producer is Benjamin Gottlieb. And I'm your host, Schwang Estershan. We've got brand new episodes for you every Tuesday and Thursday. And if you're still listening, share this episode with a fellow founder and check us out on YouTube.