Boutique Chat #027 | Breaking Down Point of Sale System Data and How to Use it | Lightspeed Retail

Hey guys, it's time for episode number 27 of Boutique Chat. And if you've ever had questions about the technology that you use in your boutique, from online selling to managing your data and point of sale system, it's your week. Get ready for episode 27 with our friends at Lightspeed. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. You know, if there's one topic I feel like we are most often asked about inside of the Boutique Hub, it is usually revolves around managing your customer data and your inventory management, plus that looming question about what technology is really most important to my boutique. And so this week I wanted to take some time to really break down and provide some actionable takeaways for you on what point of sale system data is important, how do you use that data, and then understanding what technology is important as you continue to operate, grow and scale your business. So this week I'm thrilled that our friends at Lightspeed Retail are going to be joining us because this is a company that is a member of the Boutique Hub and we've talked about quite a bit actually integrating into many of your boutiques. Now, Lightspeed is a company that does several different things when it comes to your data. They can help you manage inventory all the way from purchase orders to inventory on hand to sales and data analysis all the way through customer relationships and understanding who your customers are, who's buying most frequently, who isn't buying frequently, and helps you take notes and keep up to speed on what's happening inside of your business. There's a lot to go over here, so I want to make sure you come, you're ready to take some notes and learn about how to maximize this crucial piece of your business. You've probably heard me say this before. Inside of the Boutique Hub, there is the art of retail, which comes to fashion and buying and communicating and marketing with your customers. But then there's the science. And what really separates those businesses who are here for the long run and are here to become profitable is those who really understand and maximize the science part of retail. So I hope this episode helps answer some of your questions, helps you understand how you can Become a better retail scientist in your own business and gets you excited about what's to come in the future of retail. Now, guys, in case you aren't familiar yet with Lightspeed, don't forget after you listen to this episode, we're doing a huge giveaway with Lightspeed. In honor of our collaboration that we're doing at WWD Magic and the Wind show in Las Vegas, Lightspeed's actually going to be sponsoring those events. So they're teaming up with us to give away $5,000 package to one boutique owner who's going to win a complete system from them, plus gift cards and everything you need to set the system up in your business. Plus, that lucky winner is going to get a one year free membership to the Boutique Hub on top of it.

So listen to the end of the.

Podcast, we'll tell you more about the giveaway. And if you're coming to Vegas, make sure you come and see us there. We'll give you the deets soon, but until then, let's talk about your data, your technology, and how to become a retail scientist in your business. Guys, please help me welcome Lightspeed to the show. All right, guys, welcome back to the show.

This week we're going to be talking about something that is probably one of the most hot topics, big button issues.

That we hear about inside of the.

Boutique Hub on a regular basis, and that is inventory management, data analysis and point of sale solutions. So this week I'm really excited to be joined by Carol Jang, who is the sales engineer, lead sales engineer at Lightspeed. And you've probably heard us talk about Lightspeed quite a bit inside of the Boutique Hub because it's such an easy and popular solution in terms of retail development, both online and offline in our industry today. So we're going to be answering all of your questions and talking about how to better manage your inventory and your data going forward for your business. So, Carol, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. I'm happy to be here.

Yes. So we're going to nerd out on a lot of data things today, right?

Yes, I hope so.

I can't wait. So we're going to get to this at the end of the podcast, but I want everyone to know we're really excited to be talking today because this is just the beginning. We're actually teaming up for the Boutique Boss Breakfast coming to the Wynn show in Vegas on August 14th. You guys are going to be joining us in Las Vegas, answering questions and helping educate our community more on these solutions for their business. But this is just the beginning, right?

Yeah. We're really, really excited about this partnership. It's really part of our passion and our mission to start educating smaller retailers and really help them implement solutions like different technologies that can help them grow. So this is super exciting for us.

Perfect. Well, let's get started. In case someone isn't familiar with Lightspeed and the company, give us a little bit of background how long you guys have been in business and just how this all has started.

So.

Sure.

Our company actually started in 2005. Our CEO Dax Da Silva was just really passionate about retail and he had a vision of kind of reviving the streets of the city and he really feels strongly and we all kind of follow the mission with him that small to medium sized businesses are really what brings a city to life. So he wanted to create a software that could really help save them time and help them compete with bigger box stores that seemed to be taking over. So we are now a point of sale software business. We have a number of different platforms, both server based and cloud based, that will allow our retailers to sell both in person, in store, in restaurants, online, and then to actually analyze their data if they're ready to grow into that and use that to just grow their business even further.

I love it. You know, something we always say at the Boutique hub is that boutiques and small retailers are the lifeblood of cities around the world. So I love that our missions are definitely aligned in that way. You guys typically work with both restaurants and smaller retailers as well.

Yes, exactly.

Perfect. So tell us more about exactly. If I'm a retailer and I'm brand new to using a point of sale solution, exactly what types of things I'm looking for in Lightspeed in terms of managing inventory and reporting and the tools that are going to be available. Sure.

So one thing that sort of sets Lightspeed a little bit apart from other point of sale softwares is that we are really sort of an all in one solution. So where with some other softwares you might be starting out with a really basic point of sale, we actually will provide you with the inventory tools that you need to manage your inventory, manage your purchasing of inventory, and then enable you to see all of that within the reports. The neat thing about it is that it all kind of comes in one package and you can grow into it as you're going. So we always recommend that people start getting in the habit of using all of the tools that are there, but it's really something that you can grow into.

So in terms of different types of solutions that you offer. Can you talk about what an online retailer who comes to Lightspeed might be looking for and using versus someone who's just more brick and mortar and looking to go online?

Sure. We have an e commerce solution for anyone that just wants to to get their store online and just process things online. Maybe they don't have a location set up yet, maybe they're just working from home. But then for anyone who does have a physical space or if they're trying to open one and they want to manage their inventory, we do have an omnichannel solution that will allow them to have an in store point of sale. It will allow them to manage things like we just spoke about, like you're purchasing your different types of inventory, grouping those things together. There's actually a CRM component as well that will allow you to track your different types of customers, their sales history, et cetera. And then you also have your reporting module. So for someone who's just going online, we've got that basic solution where they can actually just get up and start it online. But for anyone who's really trying to have that omnichannel experience and grow into a brick and mortar presence, we really have that fully integrated system that would allow them to do both. Perfect.

So they can come to you for an all in one solution. Or you guys, we were talking about this kind of before we started recording. You guys also integrate with Shopify, correct?

Yeah, absolutely. So it's not a native integration to us, but we understand that a lot of people might start with an online presence and Shopify is a really great solution for that too. And we never want to prohibit anyone from growing into their softwares or having to learn something that they're not comfortable with. So if you've gotten started on Shopify, we still want to enable retailers to grow into a brick and mortar presence if that's what they're trying to do. So we have an open API and we have a number of different integrations. Shopify is one of the ones that a partner of ours has built an integration to. So it's not uncommon for clients to come to us with an online presence already and want to use our point of sale system. Although we do provide our own e commerce solution as well that's fully integrated. We're never going to say no to those clients or prohibit them from using the solutions they're comfortable with. Perfect.

I know that's a question that we get asked quite often and I love that there's that flexibility there where someone could go either with what they already have or completely set up with lightspeed. I think that's really helpful. So let's talk about retailers themselves today, because I know you guys are working with retailers every single day of all shapes and sizes all over the world. And I'd like to start just hearing what are some of the biggest obstacles that you see for small business owners today, Fears that they have and how you guys are able to help them or see solutions to help them overcome those obstacles.

So one of the biggest things that we see is that people come to us and they're overwhelmed by technology. A lot of the people that we speak to on a daily basis might just be someone who's super passionate about their niche and for example, a pet store or someone who just opened a clothing boutique. And they may not necessarily be the most tech savvy person. And because of that they feel like they're inhibited a little bit from moving forward with the technologies out there that could actually really be benefiting them. So one of the biggest responsibilities actually in my role is to kind of take really technical information and technical strategies and break them down into digestible information that someone could actually understand if they're not someone who's super computer savvy.

Perfect. So let's talk about some of those issues that come up along the way. Some failures or some struggles that if a retailer is working technology that they need to overcome and you're able to help them do that, let's say it's over buying or dealing with turn rate or markdown strategy. Can you talk about some of those tips that you're able to share along the way in those instances? Sure.

I think one of the biggest things is like we were mentioning, if people are overwhelmed by technology, part of the benefit to something like Lightspeed or Shopify or really any of these point of sale systems out there is that you can start small. You can start by literally just tracking data. So making a sale that's better than writing it on paper because now you have, let's say, the customer's information, if you've added the customer there. So really helping people see that technology doesn't have to be scary, it can be very, very helpful and you can grow into it is probably the best strategy that we can take to help people overcome that fear and kind of understand what they can use technology for. So you were mentioning things like the turns rate and so on. That might be something that we don't even start. We just get them to start tracking data in general. So using a point of sale system using technology to do that. And then once they feel comfortable making those sales and processing the data, then we can actually move into the next step, which would be something like analyzing data at lightspeed. We actually have a tool called Lightspeed analytics that is exactly meant for that. It's specifically built to analyze data, things like you were talking about, like the turns rate. So how fast are you actually selling through the products on your floor? What isn't selling? What's your dusty inventory, your gimroy, so your gross margin, return on investment. And these are points that we try and help retailers understand so that they start to look at their inventory in terms of time. Because that's really what's going to be the driving factor in their success. It's kind of one of the biggest mistakes that we see with retailers is that they'll come to us. And if they're new, they're very money oriented in terms of how they look at their inventory and look at their success. But if you take the example of let's say a piano store, although a piano store might have very high margins on their pianos, they might only be selling two or three pianos a year. So they're not necessarily more profitable than an apparel store that only has a 10% markup on their clothes. So those types of topics are things that would be kind of the next step for retailers. So initially we bring them in, we try and help them understand that technology does not have to be scary, it can benefit you, help them track data. The second phase would be generally helping them to analyze that data and actually see how it can benefit them.

So let's talk about that. How often? A lot of times when we're helping educate retailers, we talk about that one day a week is like your money date and you're sitting down and you're looking at those reports. Usually it's a Monday or a Friday, just depending on how the retail week goes. And you're analyzing all those reports. So if you were telling people to pull specific reports to really sit down with on a weekly basis, what would they be and what data points would be most crucial to pull out?

That would be pretty industry specific, I would say actually. But in general, some really, really good ones to have would be, you know, your basic sales. You would definitely want to see what is selling. If you're going to do it on a weekly basis, that's actually fantastic. If you get in a habit of doing it on a regular interval, you'll be able to pick up patterns much more easily. So to start out, you can sit down and do it manually like we were just talking about. In the future, I would actually recommend getting a tool that will help you analyze the data and give you predictions and so on. But I would look at what's actually selling out. I would also look at what you're purchasing and compare that to what's actually selling out.

Sales analysis by category, by class, turn rates probably by category and then inventory on hand, probably aging. Right. So you can really analyze a markdown strategy on a weekly basis.

Yeah, I was going to recommend that one. Next we have something that we call dusty inventory, but it is essentially an aging report where you'll be able to specify by the category, you know, this type of item should be on the shelf for maybe two months and I want to know if it's been sitting there for longer. So those are really, really important things to get a handle on because obviously you might really love rompers and you bring in a bunch of rompers and you find out that they're not selling. And just a basic sales report isn't going to tell you that. So aging reports are very, very important.

Right. How about purchase orders? Let's talk about that. Knowing on a weekly basis what you ordered at market and what you put your cancel date to be. So you aren't surprised when something shows up when rompers show up in December, let's just say, because everyone's had that mistake happen. Any other reports around that?

Yeah, actually we do have as well an on order report as well as a sell through report. And a sell through report for anyone who's not familiar is really giving you kind of like the rate at which it's very similar to the terms report in some ways, but it's giving you like a percentage rate at which your inventory is actually selling out compared to the amount you're bringing in for a given period of time. So that's really, really important to know because even if you are selling a lot of rompers, if you're bringing in more than you're selling, or if they're coming in December, you'd want to know what the sell through rates are on those types of items, maybe the individual items or maybe just that grouping of items for the particular season. And, and this is why again, I mean, I'm going to geek out all day over things like analytics. But it really, really is important for people who even don't like data to understand why it's important in their business and how it can benefit them and things like the tools that we could provide for data analysis really, really are going to drive the success of businesses because that's what's going to allow you to know what is selling, when is it selling, how is it selling compared to last year, what are the trends, etc.

So does the analytics. I'm so curious about this because I will geek out with you all day on this topic. I mean, you could just say Google Analytics to me and I could like go on for days. So let's talk about the analytics in the program. Does this also track, I mean, giving you reports on, if you're using the E commerce solution, conversion rates, number of people who have been on the site, number of purchases made versus traffic, like those pieces of information.

I'm really glad you asked that actually, because, I mean, I'm talking specifically about our software in terms of actually tracking the conversion rates and things like that. That's something that isn't done in our software, but you can do it through something called Google Analytics, which is something that Google provides. There are paid versions of it as well as free, and the free version can tell you things like your conversion rates, how people are coming to your site, etc. And it's really important to know those things. Our platform does allow you to integrate with Google Analytics so that it can read through your site and actually see what's happening and create that data analysis for you. Our analytics tool is really primarily based on the data that's running through retail. So our E Commerce, because it's connected to retail or Shopify, if it's connected through one of those integrations to retail, that information will still show up in the analytics tool and it will allow you to compare things like your sales online versus your sales in store, or what products are selling online versus what products are selling in the store, your, you know, average basket size online versus in store, etc. But when it really comes to the conversion rates, where people are coming from, you know, kind of what pages are driving the most traffic, that would be something that's more done in Google Analytics.

Perfect. Let's talk about customer reports and that CRM that you guys have. I'd love to know more like exactly what reports you're encouraging people to run. And then I know you've got a marketing mind as well, and you probably hear from tons of retailers how they're best using that information to really segment their customer and speak really specifically to their customer once they have that information. Can you give some good examples of that?

Sure. Actually, I love this topic, so I'm really glad you Brought it up perfect. I really, really do. I'm sure that most of the listeners out there, either you've been the one behind the targeted marketing campaign or being the target of the targeted marketing campaign. But there's a small part of me that, as much as I find it almost creepy, I love when I get a targeted ad on Instagram and I'm.

Like, you know what?

I would love this.

Yes, I love it too. Oh, my gosh.

It's terrible for my wallet, but it's great for me. Anyway, in order to do that, if you're not familiar, really, the knowledge that's behind that has a lot to do with, first of all, tracking customer information. So if you can take down the customer information, that's amazing. Even if it's just an email or even if it's just a name, it kind of gives you insights into what that customer likes to buy. Our software also enables you to track a customer type. So you can start to group customers together and then pick up trends based on these customer types as well. So within our reporting, probably the most important report is really the customer and item report. And that's because you can go in there in terms of marketing. I mean, at least there are other important reports, obviously for other things, but you can go in there and you can see, okay, what types of customers were buying this item in this season, for example, that's going to be included in our basic reports. If they do want to add in that analytics tool, you can go nuts with marketing in there. It has a report that will tell you what customers are commonly purchasing together. So you could go in and you could say, you know, I want to see all of my customers that bought blue jeans within the last month. And from my commonly bought together report, I can see that these are usually paired with a T shirt. So I'm going to go and see everyone that bought blue jeans but hasn't bought this T shirt that's usually bought with those jeans. And it will allow you to filter by all of your customers that you have contact for all of the customers that have specified that they don't mind if you contact them. And you can export that list as a mailer list, and then you can target them specifically with maybe a discount code for that T shirt. So there's a lot that you can do in the marketing. You can look up things like your average customer lifetime value, their average days between visits. You could even say, you know, most of our customers come in within this time. These group of customers have come in with, you know, or they haven't come in within that time, we're going to target them and find a way to bring them back into the store. So there's so, so, so much that you can actually do in that tool with customers. You can also find like a footprint of customers. And by that I just mean let's say you have a group of customers and you notice that they haven't come in for a while. You can go through their history and create a filtered report that will actually show you kind of their spike in when they came in. And you'll be able to compare that with maybe like sales that you ran. And you could say, okay, I see that there was a spike of customers that came in in December and we happen to be running this type of sale then to bring those customers back in now I know I need to run that type of sale again.

Oh my gosh, my mind is spinning a thousand miles an hour because I love all these things. And it's the difference, you know, the boutiques that we see on a daily basis, there is a big difference in the art of retail versus the science of retail. And a lot of people get into the business because they like the art, right? They love fashion and they love buying and going to market and serving people. But the science part of it can be really overwhelming. And it's the ones who are most successful are the ones who have really figured out how to master both. And so all the examples that you gave are perfect examples of how to truly become a retail scientist and use this data to your advantage. And that's what sets you apart from everybody else.

Exactly. I'm really happy actually that you mentioned that it's overwhelming because it definitely is and it doesn't have to be so scary. Honestly, it overwhelms me kind of with excitement. I really love the whole topic. But the whole point of our analytics tool and even just our basic reports is really just to make it easier for retailers to go through and analyze their data. Actually, that analytics tool has a full section for every single report that it offers that describes what the report would normally be used for, who would normally use it, what are some next steps you can do with the data and actually the calculations that go behind the data. Because for things like a turns rate, that might be a new topic to someone and they might have no idea how that's calculated. So the whole objective here, our target audience is small to medium sized business owners and we're super understanding of the fact that honestly some of them don't even know how to turn on a computer. And that's absolutely fine. That's what we're trying to facilitate, an ease of use and ease of analyzing this data. The whole platform that we offer is actually built upon something called Looker, which is a data analysis tool that's used by Fortune 500 companies. We actually use it internally in our company to do our own data analysis. But what we've done is we've overlaid a user interface on top of it that allows you to speak human to it rather than code. You can say, I would like to see all of my, you know, sales for the last month and you can specify the date range rather than having to type in some code that most people know.

Yes, I love it.

Perfect.

So question, kind of following up on this because you do visit with so many retailers on a daily basis and you see the different ways that everyone utilizes the platform and becomes successful with the platform. I'd love to hear, you know, what are the things that the most successful retailers you guys work with have in common?

I would say that they have a plan, a growth plan. And like I mentioned before, actually, like we've both mentioned before, there's so much technology available to retailers now that to come in and start off with everything would be terrifying, I think, to anyone, really, even if you are a tech savvy person. So I think that the most successful retailers have had a growth plan. They've said things like, well, we could start at the most basic. You know, maybe we're going to start tracking our sales in a system. After we're comfortable with that, we're going to start tracking our customers in the system. After they're comfortable with that, they start tracking their purchasing in the system and so on, and just being okay with the fact that you don't have to start everything at once. With our retailers that have tried to start everything at once, we've seen, seen that they do get overwhelmed and it often takes them actually longer to get up and running with everything than those that just started with a growth plan and took it step by step.

I like that. I think there's a lot of truth to that. We see that too in our community. It is so easy to get overwhelmed. And we always tell them, what's the only way to eat an elephant? And that's one bite at a time.

Right?

So, So talk to me about, you know, you guys have been around for, you know, quite a while. You've seen lots of change happening in the industry. Talk about where do you see the industry going in terms of Retail and wholesale and just changes with brick and mortar and big box stores and everyone moving to E commerce. What's kind of your pulse on what's happening today?

I think it's definitely moving towards customer convenience. I can speak as a millennial myself. We have very high expectations of retailers, and we're not the most patient group. We really do expect to have everything kind of at our fingertips, and we expect that people that we talk to, retailers, sales associates, etcetera, to be experts in their industry. This is really having to do with the infiltration of technology into just the retail space as well as just kind of the world. Because of that, we have access to all of the information online, comparative prices online, etc. So we really do expect as customers to come into the shop and have someone that knows absolutely everything, have someone who might be flexible on pricing, or at least empathetic to the fact that we are coming to your shop for hopefully a reason. What can you do for us to keep us coming to your shop and not going to a competitor? So, in terms of the industry, we do see a lot of movement towards technology and understanding customers and their specific wants and needs almost more than just being kind of a niche service or something like that. I like it.

And really kind of going back to talking about data and how you segment your customers, really to get people there for something very specific. You have to speak to them in a specific way to get them through the door. So I think that those two answers really do go hand in hand. All right, so we're all here because you're in business, and we're in business because we love working with boutique owners. And I know you love to shop with boutique owners as well. So two questions. First is, tell me about you personally shopping with boutiques, which you were telling me about before we got recording. And second, what do you love most about working with retailers on a daily basis?

Sure. So, first of all, I actually try and shop exclusively with boutiques in terms of my clothing. The reason being that I kind of like having unique pieces. And I really do find that in boutiques, they tend to have very high quality, sort of unique pieces. I also just really like the interaction that so personal. I had a bit of a shopping problem before, so I actually put myself on a budget where I'm only allowed to shop one week of the year. And I have my kind of select boutiques that I love going to, and I love that I go in there and they actually remember who I am a year later, which is incredible to me.

Did you say one weekend a year? Yes.

It's. How do you survive? I haven't really grown since I was about like 14 years old.

Actually.

Still fit. And I used to shop a lot, and so now I've cut it down. I, you know, I bought myself a place and had to go on a budget. But when I do spend money, I like to spend it with boutiques, really, because of that personal interaction. And I think that's something that, you know, big box stores, no matter how hard they try, they're never going to be able to compete on that level.

Agreed. And there's something about building that personal relationship and you saying that they remember you a year later like that. That's a gift. That's art, right?

Yeah. And it's. It's not like a unique experience with a certain boutique. It's. Maybe it's just Montreal boutiques. I'm not sure that's primarily where I do that week of shopping, but they're amazing. They're really amazing. Actually, you know what? I'm gonna segue and share a story with you about a specific boutique on Queen street in Toronto, because this, this just speaks so much to why small boutiques are always going to be successful and why they're never going to become obsolete. There's a man named Steven Asafo who was a designer in Toronto, and I went into his boutique, and I'm not from Toronto, I live in Montreal. And I bought a pair of pants and he tailored them for me and he actually said, you know what? My wife's from McGill or she went to McGill. And we really enjoyed the experience we had with you. So we're going to bring your pants to Montreal. And they took me out for dinner. And that's something that you would absolutely never experience if you walked into, you know, Macy's or a Target or something like that. And I love that story. And I actually stay in touch with him now and I sell. I sell his products without even knowing what they are anymore. I always tell people to go to his store. And that's something that really, like, it's. That is the driver to me, in terms of boutiques and what makes them special. Like, they are people who are passionate about what they do, about sharing their experiences with people. And there's nothing that beats that, man.

It's all about building relationships and truly serving people versus selling a product. And that's so cool. So you got your pants altered and you got dinner. That's impressive.

It's impressive. Yeah. And I wouldn't say that's my expectation of every boutique retailer out there, but makes me just want to shop with a bunch of different individual beauty boutique owners. Just because that is the type of people that they are. Right. It's passionate people that have a dream. And it's amazing if you have.

If he's online, if he has a link, you'll have to send it to me after we're done recording because I want to put this in the show notes the store. That's pretty cool.

It is, yeah.

He's.

He was very cool and super talented designer as well.

Perfect. And what about. So that's why you shop with boutiques. But tell me about working with boutiques. What do you guys love getting to experience on a daily basis?

With boutiques, I actually feel so fortunate in my job because I get to speak to every single type of person out there in terms of the boutique owners that we speak to. The part that I really love is that there literally is a niche for kind of everything in terms of boutiques, you really come across every single type of person and you come across people who are just so passionate about what they do, and you come across industries that you didn't even know existed. So, for example, in my notes, I did write something about felt animal heads because there was a boutique that started selling small felt animal heads a while back, and it was so interesting to me. And then a couple years later, I saw them at a farmer's market and I saw another company doing it, and I realized that there's actually a niche market out there for felt animal heads, which is something I never would have thought about before.

But wait, what do you mean felt animal heads? Is this like taxidermy or something different?

Imagine people who don't want to have an actual animal head on their wall will make them out of felt.

Oh, awesome. Okay, so wait, I'm thinking about, like at Target. I've seen some animal heads, like out of fabric that go in your kit. Like kids patterns and that kind of thing. Is that what you're talking about?

Yeah, sort of. These ones would be made out of, like, if you take wool and add soap to it, it becomes felt. They frame them, they mount them on wood sometimes. And that's really just what I love about the boutique industry is you come across everything. And I love and find it so inspiring that there are people that are just going for their dream. And even if it doesn't seem like a commercial market at first, they're making it into one and they're literally changing the world because of it. That's a small scale. I mean, I don't know how many felt animals we need in the world, but I think they're really in interested. Interesting. And the fact that that has become a market is so incredible. It's just people sharing their passions. And I'm so fortunate to get to actually see into all these different industries on a day to day basis. I might talk to someone from four different industries, you know, five different industries, six different industries depending on the day. Yesterday I talked to someone who makes bunny toys and sells them online after her day job. And it's just so cool. I don't know, I love, I just love people following their passion and what they want to do and sharing it with me. Like it's neat, I think.

Yeah, you're spot on. You know, I've heard some people say everyone complains or, you know, has things to say about the society that we live in today and like the day and age that we live in today. Sure there's their, you know, downfalls and drawbacks, but I think it's also one of the coolest times to be alive because of that opportunity for everyone to follow their passion just like you're talking about and you know, to be able to have that freedom and flexibility and to create their own business. Selling felt animal heads or whatever it may be on the Internet. Like what a novel idea. And you know, there's also this old adage, the riches are in the niches. And I mean, it couldn't be more true when it comes to retail and E commerce. Really the more specific you can get about your product and the customer that you're serving, the better off you're going to be. Right?

Well, exactly. And that kind of brings us full circle back into the technology because without the technology it could be pretty daunting of a task to try and actually track what everyone's buying and create a spreadsheet to see who would be interested in this next product that we're about to launch. Those types of things. That's why I personally really like my job because I get to pair two things that I love, learning about people's passions and just people in general with the total geek side of me that loves technology, loves data analysis and I get to share my passion with them. So it's a pretty neat pairing for me. And I think anyone really in this industry, especially us at lightspeed, at least I like it.

I'm right there geeking out with you. This has been a lot of fun. Carol, thank you so much for spending your time with me today and sharing these tips and ideas. And this is actually just the beginning. So should we talk more about our collaboration for Las Vegas? So we are teaming up. We're hosting the Boutique Boss breakfast on Tuesday, August 14th at the Wind show, that's women's wear in Nevada at the Rio during Las Vegas Market week. And you guys are coming out to join us for breakfast. That's 8:30am and you're going to be speaking as well, correct?

Yes, exactly, yes.

So you can come in. I think we've got four or five different speakers lined up that morning that'll be speaking on very specific pieces of the industry, yours of course being data analysis and inventory. And then we're going to have some roundtables. So depending on really what you want to come and learn about in your business, you can sit down with our speakers and have a more intimate conversation with them and learn kind of these insider tips and tricks. And then to top it off, we're teaming up to do a huge giveaway, which this is pretty awesome by the way, this giveaway.

Do you want to talk about the.

Details of what's all included? Because it's a $5,000 package.

Well, essentially we want to enable some lucky retailer out there to start their journey into data analysis and using technology to really run their business. So what the package includes is actually a full year subscription to our cloud based software in addition to the Omnichannel products. So there would be an E commerce component attached to that. They would actually get the hardware as well. So you're going to get an iPad stand, a cash Drawer receipt, printer, $500 Apple gift card to buy an iPad if you need one, a Bluetooth scanner. So all of our packages, even if you're just a normal customer or if you're lucky enough to be the winner of this contest, come with one on one onboarding, which is something that's pretty unique to us in the industry. A lot of companies might provide that, but you're not going to be paying for it in this case. So you'll be set up with someone who's kind of like myself, but more like a post sales role. And they'll be going with you one on one to set up your taxes, set up your different payment types, set up your whole account and teach you how to use the tools that you might want to use within the software. And then on top of that, you're going to have access to 24.7phone support and then you could chat or email too, if you have a less pressing matter, but a lot of people like to call in. I used to work in our support department. It wasn't uncommon for us to have kind of people who might not be so tech savvy call in almost on a regular basis. We got onto the first name basis there. So I don't know, it's a pretty cool package, actually that we're offering. I'm very, very excited for whoever wins it. It's a huge, huge value actually. So, I don't know, good luck to everyone who's gonna enter the contest, I guess.

I love it.

And they're gonna get a free year's membership at the Boutique Hub as well. So we're gonna sweeten the pot a little bit. So if you're listening and you're interested in being a part of this giveaway, obviously we're gonna have sign up at the breakfast in Vegas. You can sign up there or I'm also going to have a link in the show notes of this podcast. So if you're listening and you'd like to learn more and be a part of the giveaway, you can enter there as well.

Oh, there's one last thing that I even forgot to mention, which is in my opinion, one of the coolest things of all is you would actually be like a featured customer of Lightspeed as well. So we'll help promote your brand too.

Perfect. I like it. Well, Carol, thank you so much again for joining me today and I can't wait to finally meet you in person when we get to Vegas and to share this with the community. Thanks for these tips and ideas and I'm sure we will stay in touch to help answer some questions along the way.

No problem at all. I'm super, super happy to be here and also very excited to meet you in Vegas. Perfect.

We'll see you soon.

Okay, bye.

Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

We hope that you. You loved it.

Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonus downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community.

We'll see you next week.

Sam.