Madi Zeglen (left) and her mother Cheryl Zeglen (right) at their What to Wear retail store in Sudbury, Ont. The pandemic shutdowns forced the business to pivot a portion of the business online.Supplied
When the pandemic shutdowns forced Cheryl Zeglen to close the doors of her What to Wear retail store in Sudbury, Ont. last year, she worried about the long-term impact it would have on her well-established brick-and-mortar business.
“We had to pivot right away,” says Ms. Zeglen, who opened the storefront in 2005 to bring high-end fashion and a boutique shopping experience to the northern Ontario city.
With the help of her daughter Madi, Ms. Zeglen quickly set up an Instagram account that she combined with curbside pickup to keep sales going.
But it was when What to Wear set up its online shopping experience using Square Online that she quickly realized the new normal was something she would be able to handle.
“We opened the whattowearsudbury.ca online business in September last year,” she says, adding that sales have grown “exponentially” ever since.
“We’re already selling nationally, and you can feel that it’s really starting to take hold,” Ms. Zeglen adds. “And I see the possibility of having to create a warehouse space for what can happen in this business.”
When Ms. Zeglen set up an online shopping experience using Square Online, she quickly realized the new retail environment could be good for business.Supplied
Using Square Online, Ms. Zeglen’s daughter set up an online point-of-sale system that easily integrated with the store’s website and different tools that she easily ran off an iPad.
For instance, Square’s e-commerce platform for businesses enables Ms. Zeglen to keep an updated client list, which she says is valuable for reaching out to customers to keep them informed of sales and promotions or products that may interest them. The online store also updates inventory in real-time, syncing automatically with storefront sales to ensure What to Wear has an accurate picture of what’s in stock at all times.
“Our inventory is always really organized, and we have a good handle on it right away,” she says. “Until we got Square, I never knew exactly what I had, things like what size or what colour. It’s working extremely well for us.”
What to Wear also uses Square’s mobile reader, which allows it to take payments on an iPhone for curbside purchases, which Ms. Zeglen says could enable the store to expand to home deliveries and personal in-home shopping experiences.
The business also uses Square’s Dashboard, which lets her see immediately what brands and items are selling and when. Ms. Zeglen says it’s an amazing tool that has helped focus the business.
“I’ve never had the opportunity to have this much information at my disposal before,” she says.
The store has shipped merchandise as far away as Vancouver to the west and Nova Scotia to the east and served loyal local customers throughout on-again, off-again public health closures over the past 20 months.
What to Wear Sudbury hasn’t missed a beat during the pandemic: Sales are up about 15-to-20 per cent over the past year. Online sales are up 10 per cent even after the physical storefront reopened from the latest pandemic closures earlier this year.
The expansion to online has also had the unexpected benefit of reinvigorating Ms. Zeglen’s entrepreneurial spirit.
“We could expand our market to anybody we want; wherever we want to ship, wherever we want to grow,” Ms. Zeglen says. “I’m always up for a challenge. I love it. And I think this has added some fuel for me to be more excited about my business again. There is no limit to what can happen to our brand.”
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Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Square. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.