Wix eCommerce Community | How to Prepare for a COVID-19 Holiday Season

As most of you know, I'm Melissa, head of community here for WIX Ecommerce. If we haven't met yet. Hi. In today's Community roundtable, we'll be discussing strategies to Prepare for your 2020 holiday season. And we'll be focusing on how to plan, promote and optimize your holiday sales. Joined today with a very, in my opinion, my humble opinion, an amazing merchant. Her name is Amanda and she's coming from Colon Canary. Amanda has incredible insights. She's been, her company has been online for quite a while now and I would love. Actually, Amanda, why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about Colon Canary to kind of jump things off.

Yeah. So, hi guys. I hope you're doing well. Thank you so much for taking the time to hop on the call today. I hope I can provide you some insight or some takeaways that you can take with you to apply to the holiday season. So again, I'm Amanda and I'm the owner of Coal and Canary. We are a boutique candle company here in Canada and Coal and Canary actually started six years ago in my kitchen and my best friend and I were just purely looking for an excuse to hang out more often. And I was never one to think that I was going to become an entrepreneur or run my own business. I actually had a full time job. I was a graphic designer for about 12 years and worked in marketing and advertising and totally loved it. And I had a job I loved. And again, this was just more of an excuse to hang out with my friend and drink some wine in the evenings. And we started basically making candles. We did some market research to see what was being done locally and internationally in the candle market and what wasn't being done. And we actually found this niche audience of females aged 25, 35 and decided to kind of go after that audience. So we create wooden wick candles and they have a cherry wood wick so they crackle like a little fireplace when they burn. So they're kind of unique that way. And we use really high quality ingredients. They don't cause headaches or migraines or anything like that. They smell amazing and they burn for a really long time. So the product itself is really high quality. And then as far as the company, we just don't really take ourselves too seriously. We like to have a lot of fun at work. We have a really fun, you know, bright company culture. Our whole office is pink and it's our brand color and we like to just provide joy and happiness one candle at a Time to consumers and customers. But yeah. So how. My company kind of got to where it is today, which kind of leads into what we're going to be talking about. We started my kitchen and once a week we would get together for a few hours and make candles. And again, not meaning to become a business, and started posting photos on Instagram and social media. And after a couple days, we had a few stores reach out asking how they could sell the products in their stores. At this point, we had no idea what a wholesale catalog was, what the math looked like, and the percentage discounts and breaks for wholesalers. We didn't know anything. So we asked a lot of questions. We googled a lot. We kind of just learned it ourselves. Probably like a lot of you may be on the call. And yeah, we just started selling to different customers and stores. And three months after starting in my kitchen, we actually got into the Grammy and Oscar gift bags and we were the official home decor product. So it kind of. And it's interesting because I talked to Melissa about this on our last call and it was more of a marketing experiment for me. So for myself, I remember when I was in school and one of my professors said to me in marketing class, he said, you can be the smallest mom and pop shop, but if you have the most amazing and cohesive branding and customer service, you can look like the biggest fish in the sea. So it was more so an experiment to see if that was actually true. And it was. So the Grammys and Oscars thought we were this big company and it was just my business partner and I in my kitchen drinking wine. So yeah, it was crazy. So we did that and then it just kind of went from there. So currently I, six years later, we have a pretty large 10,000 square foot manufacturing warehouse. Our staff, we've had the most staff we've had is 23 employees. We sell in about 400 stores in Canada, United States, and then we sell on our E Commerce direct to consumer. And we also have a brick and mortar location as well currently. So that's kind of the evolution of our company in the last six years.

Awesome. Oh, I see. Hold on a second.

We have a.

Okay, no problem.

Okay.

Monique, it's totally fine. Definitely this. This video will be recorded and no need to worry. Like, you'll, you know, I'll make sure to get the recording to you so you don't miss a thing. So no problem. Oh, and Nathan as well. Okay. So. Okay, awesome. So thank you so much again for joining us, Amanda. We're really looking forward to hearing a little bit more. I think everyone on the call, I think we can all agree, I know that we come from all different places, but I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a year for the books, for the history books, for sure. Every day I wake up and I'm like, what is going on? And I think that the holidays will be no different. Like holiday sales will be no different. It'll be bigger and crazier than we could have ever expected. So this is why we're here. We're on the call to kind of talk a little bit about, so we can help each other prepare for those sales and see, you know, if we can give each other tips and advice about it. So, Amanda, I think let's start. How do you strategize and decide which products will be part of your stock for your holiday season? I know that you, you know, you said you've been online for about six years, so how do you decide? Are there, is there specific seasonal, like seasonal products that you launch or like on top of your bestsellers or how do you, what's your strategy?

Yeah, so I mean, obviously every different type of business might be different for us in candles, again, we have the advantage of, we have six years of history, so we can kind of, you know, see what the numbers are like and see which candles are doing better than others. But I mean, every year we're still, we feel like we're going in blind. Every year our sales increase significantly. We have no idea what to expect. I think all of us on the call, I think can be prepared for a really, really crazy holiday season in a great way. I feel like a lot of customers are in retail withdrawal and, and for a lot of the customers who are lucky enough to not have lost their jobs during COVID what we're finding is they have been saving their money. They're not traveling, they're not spending the money on the things they normally spend their money on, and they more than ever want to support local. So I think a lot of customers are looking to do their Christmas shopping even sooner. And so I think it's important to be prepared maybe earlier than when normal as well, and to expect higher volumes. So again, this is different for every different type of company. What we do is we actually have a minimum like 6 back, 6 to 8 month work back timeline and we have a team meeting and we kind of get, go through last year's numbers, you know, look at the sales and then estimate, you know, we try to increase, you know, let's say 20 to 30%, sometimes more, because you always want to make sure you have more inventory than not enough. Obviously, cash flow can make things tricky. We run into that all the time as well. The bigger you get, the harder it gets. It never gets easier. And that's unfortunate, but part of the joys of doing business. But, yeah, for us, we basically, we have some products that we sell all year round that are our kind of consistent bestsellers. And then we obviously switch things up quarterly, so we'll have seasonal products that we bring in that are reminiscent of that season. So we had a great summer collection that we're just phasing out now. And in the next week or two, we're going to be bringing in our fall winter collection, which is our most popular collection for us. The thing with candles that's interesting is that summer is obviously our slowest season because it's really hot outside, so the last thing people really would think to buy is a candle. So we have to get really creative with how we are reaching our customers and different ways to kind of stay top of mind so they don't forget about us when the weather starts to get colder. And we can talk about some of those strategies maybe later, because I think it also ties in with just how to reach your customers in general. But, yeah, no, we are definitely seasonal, and we bring in different scents throughout the holiday season as well because they are very popular, and people want those types of scents in their homes at that time.

Cool.

All right.

Actually, I see a couple of different people jumping on call. I think it would be great to, like. Erica, could you maybe introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your business? Sorry, oh, we can't hear you.

You might be muted.

I think you're. No, you're not muted. No, hold on. Or. Oh, we can't hear you. Okay, no problem. All right, so while we wait for Erica, maybe Cynthia or Mary can tell us a little bit about themselves and their business.

Hey, I'm not on video, but

my

business is a coffee shop in Memphis, Tennessee. And so we started doing Covid during the pandemic. And so we're just looking for ideas on how to navigate this holiday season.

So. Yeah. Cool. Awesome.

Welcome here.

Welcome. All right, thanks. No problem. Craig, I just saw that you saw your message, and we'll definitely send you the video after the call. Angela, are you here? Would you mind introducing yourself and kind of telling us a little bit about your business? Not sure if she can hear me. All right. I just thought it would be good for us to kind of, like, see, like, hear a little bit about each other so that as we progress to the call that it's. We can give each other some feedback and advice. Hold on. I see Erica tinkering. That's me on a daily basis, for sure. Me, like, I'm the one that's like. They're like, melissa, you're on mute. For sure. Okay. All right. Okay, no problem. Erica. Okay, so she's gonna try to open it up on her phone. All right, so we'll. We'll. We'll. We won't get well. We'll move forward and come back to that. So we're not. We're not waiting and we'll not to put you on the spot or anything. All right, so you mentioned how you decide on your products, like your seasonal products. How can you tell me a bit. Tell us all a bit about your inventory management? Because how do you add or how do you decide what. What to add or eliminate during the holiday season? Is there. Do you. Do you decide, let's say, the season before you said you. Six to eight month period? But, like, say, you know, I know. I know a little bit about your business, so I don't want to, like, go too far, but I know that. Say you have, like, a special VIP candle that you sell, and you see that while people are. Keep talking about it, do you suddenly decide, hey, I need this in the holiday season or not? Like, what? How do you come to that, like, decision?

Yeah, absolutely. So obviously, we have our set products that we know for sure we will be selling, but absolutely. I think there's. I think, as all business owners agree, it's a very fluid. You have to be able to roll the punches. So, I mean, yes, you need to have a plan, and you have to be as prepared as possible, but you also need, I think, to be open to other opportunities that present themselves that maybe you weren't expecting. So we had that happen this year. We had a VIP candle, as Melissa was talking about. So I can kind of share that with you guys. So something with my business that we struggle with every year is in the summer. Our sales always slow down significantly to the point where with our business, we do in the past, historically 70% of our annual revenue in the last quarter. So. So it's like, very seasonal, which is great when that last quarter comes, but it makes the rest of the year really bumpy and really challenging with finances and marketing and everything else. So this year we said okay. And obviously, Covid was a thing which I don't know if you want to talk about that later, Melissa? We can maybe talk about some Covid strategies, because that might happen again this fall for sure. What's going to happen with lockdown? And there's a couple things that we did this spring during the lockdown that our business actually increased 30%.

So tell us about a bit about that.

You want to talk about that right now? Okay. So with our business, we are most of our staff at our office, our production staff. And so, unfortunately, with the lockdown, they weren't physically able to be in our office with us, and they couldn't do a lot of their job from home. So unfortunately, had to lay them off. My husband works for me, though, so we share a household, so him and I were both able to basically work here together. But it was. It was a crazy time because. And I'm sure maybe a lot of you maybe went through the same thing, because our. Again, we were trying to figure out how we're gonna make sales. So historically, with Cole and Canary, we. Our biggest sales channel is wholesale. So that's where we make a lot of our money. You know, we're in 400 stores. That's like. We always thought that was gonna be like, a peace of mind type thing. Like, we're in enough stores, like, it should carry us through all year round. And then Covid hit, and all of a sudden, you know, kind of went on, and I said, oh, my God, what are we gonna do? And then on top of that, our bricks and mortar store had to close down for three months. And then we also do trade shows. So trade shows are a big part of our business. We do them in the spring and at Christmas. And every single one of our trade shows got canceled, and that's about 40% of our annual revenue. So all of that got canceled also. So there was me panicking, thinking, and I'm sure you all had a breakdown, like I did, thinking, oh, my God, we're. What am I gonna do? And I said, you know what? The only way we can make money is by selling direct to consumer online. And so what we did is we got creative. We started advertising online using Facebook ads, and obviously on Instagram. That was a huge, huge benefit to our company. It was, like, huge. We actually hired a company. I am a marketer, and I do that type of thing. But I feel like with Facebook and Instagram ads, the algorithms change every day. Everything changes daily. And I feel like my value to the company is not sitting there every day trying to educate myself on the algorithm changes. My value to the Company is being the bigger picture person and working on the business, not in the business. So that's what I try to always do. Obviously there's days that doesn't happen, but I always try to do that. So I hired a company. So I mean again, if you have the money to do it, do it. If not, you can teach yourself. But I say just try. Just try doing anything. You can see who your direct customer is and who your direct target audience is and see where they're spending their time. A lot of them are on Facebook or Instagram. Definitely utilize those types of tools because they worked and they saved our company from potentially who knows what this whole spring. So that was one thing that we did. And then another thing we did was just to try and stay top of mind in our customers homes during COVID because we knew that they were home and they were bored and a lot of them had children and they're just crazy. And so we said what can we do as a company to try and give them something to do and also make them think of coal and canary. So, so we did a coloring contest and I just created a really simple enough by 11 sheet of 1 of our candles and then a plain candle box. And the thing with our company is a lot of our names are really cheeky. They kind of rhyme the radio give

them an example because I think they're amazing.

So we have a collection called the Girls Night in collection. So it's inspired by like a night in with your girlfriends when you're younger. So so it's kind of a 90s vibe. So some of the names. One of the scents is a Vodka Crani scent. Smells just like a Vodka Crani and the name is Vodka crayons and elastic waistbands because you're in your pajamas drinking vodka cran teenies together. We have one called Crimped Hair and Truth or Dare. So it's all very like cheeky kind of fun names. So basically we threw out a challenge to all of our customers and we said, hey, when you're at home with your children or by yourself, you know, feel free to come up with your best colon Canary candle name and scent and come up with a design. You can color it and then take a photo and then tag us online, then do a hashtag, a specific hashtag and basically upload it to your social media. So everyone was posting. We had about 240 entries in about two to three weeks. And it was just incredible. I mean, we gained so many Instagram and Facebook followers just from doing the contest. We had people who had never even heard it us that were doing this contest just because everyone was doing it. So I mean, that was really cool. And again, like people were writing us messages, just saying like, thank you so much, this was so much fun. And it was the one thing that my kids could do that, you know, we did it. We did one a week and they looked forward to it every week. And yeah, it just meant a lot to people. And it was, it took no time and no money from us from our end. So I think just finding ways to kind of get the best, the most reach for the lowest amount of money, you know, if possible. Another thing we had done too is we teamed up just after Covid, like once the rules started kind of lightening up a little bit because it summer, which is our slow season. And we teamed up with a local hotel when they opened back up and we did a staycation because a lot of people can't travel and they can't leave their, their cities. And so we thought, wouldn't it be nice to have, you know, you know, a mother or a family have a little one night getaway in our city. And so we teamed up with them and we offered three candles and a stay at the hotel. And the hotel actually donated. It's amazing what people will donate when you ask, you know, if you have a like minded business, definitely look at collaborating. They donated valet parking, dinner at their restaurant, a night stay in their suite because they also wanted to, you know, give back to the community. So we teamed up and to enter the contest, something that we started doing about two years ago on our Instagram giveaways. I guess before, prior to the first contest we did, we had been getting people to just tag one person to enter the contest. So it was tag a friend that you want to share this with. And it was kind of limited to one friend. And it was one entry. And then we kind of said as a team, I said, well, why are we doing that? Why don't we just open the floodgates and say tag as many friends that you want that you would want to share this with. And every tag is another entry in the contest because we really wanted to get our engagement levels up on our posts because obviously the more engagement, the better viewership. You guys all know the algorithm stuff. So yeah, so we decided to do that. And that contest actually had, I want to say, oh, it was insane, like 15 or 16,000 comments and it was more than Kim Kardashian had on her post that day.

Just not to interrupt you I have to say, I'm a sucker for those contests. I'm a sucker for those contests.

And my friends, it's always a good idea.

It's always a good idea. And I'm sure you guys all know this. Yeah.

Especially right now, like, you find yourself, like Amanda was saying, like, for me, like, here I'm living. I live in Israel, but I'm originally from America and, like, things are sort of normal, but they're not. Malls just recently reopened, so we're not. We're not shopping as much as we used to. And it's a culture that shops. So for me, like, those kind of, like, contests is like the coloring contest. I have a two year, two and a half year old. So for me, that is definitely something that I would, you know, love to do. Or it's just another activity that it's like a brand saying, hey, I understand you, you know, and here's something fun for you and your, your family and the contest as well. It's like escapism. You're like, oh, I want to do, like, I would love to do something like that. And, you know, I. Why not bring my friends along? And I think you made a good point. Why just tag one friend? I think it's a good point. And a lot of brands not make that mistake because it's not necessarily a mistake. But why. Why limit to one? Hey, say, hey, tag everybody, you know, that you want in each. Each person that you tag is. It is an entry, right? It's a. It's a. It's a good point.

Yeah. And then one last thing. If I can tag on too, the other thing that I was going to mention that really, really helped us in the summer and increased our sales significantly. And I think it's something that a lot of us can do. I don't know. I'm sorry, what all of your businesses are, because I can't hear you all. But I think there's a way that a lot of businesses can maybe incorporate this idea or the concept. So what we did is when our sales started kind of dropping because of the heat, we decided to do a limited edition, basically like a VIP candle. So what we did is we wanted to increase the amount of people subscribed to our new. Our weekly. Sorry, weekly newsletter. And we said, okay, how can we do that? Because that's where we obviously send out promotions and information about our brand and stories. What we did is we created a second collection on WIX that was password protected. And in order to get the password to enter that store to see the collection, they had to sign up for our mailing list. So once they signed up for the mailing list, they got a welcome email through all through wix. The welcome email they got said thank you so much for subscribing to Cole and Canary. The password to enter is blank. And then there was a code and the code was the same for every person, so that email never had to change. So it was no work on our end. But again like every person needed to sign up in order to get it. So our subscription list has like, it's just exploded. And so because what would, what we would do is Every Thursday at 11:00am CST through basically March until the end of August, every week we have released a new limited edition candle. And we kept it really simple. It's, it's just a plain, in a plain white box with a sticker on the front and we just hand write on the sticker what the scent name is. So it doesn't cost a lot of money. And yeah, basically we had a hundred available at 11:00am and so we set the quantities at 100. People had to go on and it was first come, first serve. And once they were gone, they were gone. And we sold out in the first six weeks. We sold out in 10 minutes and then, and even now it sells out in about half an hour. So it really got the word out. And we were promoting it on Facebook and Instagram and social media and our stories and our reels and everything else. But it was crazy. Like, it's just insane. Like what it, what it did for our brand throughout the summer and our sales. And again, it wasn't a lot of extra money. It was more product that we were providing, but we were selling it at full price. So there's things like that that really again helped us. And it brought in revenue, a set revenue every week. So we knew every week going in on Thursdays. Okay, guys, like today's the day, today's Thursday. It's a good day because we knew we were going to make at least X amount of money. So that was really helpful as well. So things like that I think are just getting creative with different things you can do. When you start to see your sales maybe starting to slump a little bit, it's like, what can you do that'll get a lot of engagement but not cost you a ton of money?

All right, hold that thought, Amanda, because I have another question that kind of follows that up. But I want to give Erica the chance to kind of introduce herself and tell us a little Bit about her business.

Okay.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

My name is Erica Rager out of Portland, Oregon. I own Thrive Sauce company. So we offer a number of different everyday condiments, from spicy condiments to cooking and finishing sauces. Our themes are like, show you. This is one of ours, the special sauce.

Love that packaging.

Awesome.

Thank you. So we have our special sauces are like spicy condiments. So our branding is kind of like kitschy for this line. So it's like we have special sauce, we have extra special sauce, and we have especially special sauce.

Nice.

Love that.

Those are great for like sandwiches, burgers. They kind of take the place of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. They're 80% vegetables in a bottle. They're vegan. Our whole line is vegan, gluten free, nut free, all natural ingredients, and they're concentrated. So our cooking and finishing sauces, like, they're all international flavor. But this is our coconut yellow curry. We have like our sweet chili lemongrass. And the idea with these is like, when you're cooking, like, oftentimes you need like you're doing a stir fry and you're like, okay, well I've got to get ginger and I've got to get garlic and I have to get, you know, all these different spices. Well, we take like all of that kind of like prep out. So all you do is you just stir fry your vegetables and you get your protein and you and then you plate it up and you just drizzle the sauce on top so you're not putting all the calorie. It's more cost effective and it creates a delicious meal. You can also add it into things if you want to. So there's a lot of different ways to do it. We've got recipes on our website kind of showing like how to utilize it. We have been around since 2012. The sauce line continues to grow. But we started off as a food truck, then we won a competition.

I love food trucks. You don't know.

Yep. So we started off as a food

truck and entered into like this class and for our sauces and then we ended up winning the competition. And then that launched us into the retail arena of like grocery stores. Then I opened a restaurant, then, you know, weddings and farmers markets and sauce. And then I had a baby. And then I was like, okay, I

gotta pull back

now.

I sold the food truck, I sold the restaurant, and now I just do the sauce company. We're mainly on the east coast, but we are, I mean, on the west coast. But we are expanding toward the East Coast. We're in five states. I've got several different distributors. It's growing every day. I've got online presence run Amazon. We have our own server run through wic. So, yeah, that's pretty much us in a nutshell. And, yeah, I'm just really grateful to hear what Amanda has to say because, I mean, my biggest thing is, you know, how to. How to get, like, good content and such. Such for, like, Facebook and ig and, like, I thought about hiring a company to help me out, but I just don't want to be, like, scammed. I don't know where to go for that. And then for, like, ads and that sort of thing, like, I just have no idea. And so I should know, but I don't.

That's okay.

No, no.

And the thing I always say is, like, I know what I know and I know what I don't know. And that's a great thing. That's a great thing. And I.

My.

My biggest, I guess, lesson that I always tried to, you know, remind myself is let the experts be your experts, because your business will thrive sometimes. I mean, we recently switched accountants last year. And I mean, accounting is not marketing, right? But it's an important part of our business. And our accountant said to me, he's like, my job. He's like, yes, I'm more expensive than your last accountant, but my job is to help you make more money. And it's true. And he is way more money. But we have been making way more money because of his advice and what he recommends. So I think sometimes it's an investment that you have to make if you really want to see your business kind of grow. Because I know with myself, with my business, there was a point where I was doing literally every job and I was just bottlenecking my company. And I'm very. I'm sure all of us are because we're all entrepreneurs, but I'm a control freak, and I sometimes have a hard time delegating.

At least she doesn't know what you're talking about.

Everyone's like, I don't know what you mean. That's not me. So I think for myself, I've been really trying to tell myself and teach and remind myself that my business will thrive if I delegate more. And if I do hire the experts to be my experts,

if there's any way that maybe you can provide any recommended companies that you've worked with that will work with in America or if they're, you know, fluid like that I'm not sure, but, yeah, that would be super helpful.

Absolutely. Melissa, is there any way after the call, if you can just provide me with Erica's information?

Totally. I. If you guys are all. If everyone on the call that's currently on the call, like, is okay with, like, me sharing your email contact information, I'll.

I'll just.

Absolutely. Cool. All right, so I'll do that.

I work with an incredible company with digital marketing, and I know that you will work with us customers, so I will pass that information to all of you guys. Yeah, and

Graham and such, you know.

What's that? Sorry?

Oh, I said it'd be cool to just be able to follow one another on Instagram.

Everyone on the call needs to go to Colin Canary at Instagram. I'm upset. I'm a fan girl. I'll admit it.

As you were talking, I was like, I want to give you my money.

Really? Amanda, like, just close your ears for a second. Amanda's got a heart of gold, and she's 100% her brand. Like, she is Colin Canary. And the moment that you follow, like, in the moment, you're, like, on the. Any of her social pages, you feel it and you, like, I'm a fan girl, and I'm in Israel. So really, honestly, like, she knows her stuff, and not just that. She's like, for me, like, authenticity is what really sells products.

Yes.

And each of you, I know Alicia, like, we spoke about it as well. Like, people. People want to buy your stuff because you're Alicia.

You're.

You are you, and your. Your stuff is authentic, you know, like, and that's. That's one thing that I think a lot of brands kind of miss. They feel they have to be something that they're not. They don't have to be. You have to be you. You have to be absolutely speak you. And I think, for sure, definitely, definitely follow each other on Instagram, because I think especially this group will really benefit from each other, like, seeing that authentic, like, authenticity from each other. And it's really, like, we're gonna dive in a bit. I don't even know what time it is. We're gonna dive in a bit. Dive in a bit, because there's a couple of things I really wanted Amanda to talk about, but before we kind of go through her, I really want her to talk about her Instagram, her social media, because I think she's doing a tremendous job. She also, like, has a lot of experience reaching out to, like, influencers and stuff that I think a lot of people could benefit from. But I want to. I want to ask you quickly, Amanda, before we go, kind of dive into that.

How.

Let's back up for a second.

Do you.

How do you. I know that we talked a bit about it before, but, like, how do you have your whole holiday sales plan already scheduled and already mapped out in your mind? Or is it something that, like. I know it feels like a repetitive question, but I'm curious because it's a. It's. Some people feel that they need to, like, especially this year, they feel that they need to, like, plan it now. Like it needs to be already planned. And I kind of agree with it a bit. I think personally, I think, like, obviously you need to be flexible, but I think people are buying, like, sooner than waiting till, let's say, Black Friday or Thanksgiving, like they would do normally. So kind of maybe tell us a little bit about your. Like, have you planned your holiday sales? How do you decide? Maybe if there's going to be product bundles or flash sales, like you said, like with the VIP candles, they're kind of like flash sales. How do you decide? Like, have you already decided what your. Your calendar will look like as far as sales?

Yeah, so I'm. I now have a full time. Her actual title is Director of First Impressions, but she's basically our customer service marketing assistant. So her and I get together and we have basically at the very beginning of the year, we sit down and we talk about when the release dates are of everything for the whole year. And then we talk about what promotions we're going to have that are like, set promotions. Does that calendar change? Absolutely. I would be lying if I said yes. I wish I could just say that it's, like, done and then we're perfect, you know? Absolutely not. As you know, things happen. Covid happened. You have to pivot all the time. So, yes, we definitely have our set kind of promotions ready for things such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday or Boxing Day, like, those types of things which kind of never really change, but I think that the opportunity lies outside of those. So I think that customers love, love when you can give them special attention or unexpected surprises. So something that we like to do because at Colon Canary, we like to make all of our customers feel like they're our best friend. So when we go to a trade show or if they see us in the store, when they take a candle home, they know who made it, they know who poured it, they know it's vegan, it's ethical, and there's a story behind it because People buy stories, not products. They want to take us, they want to buy a story. So when they buy, when they have our candle at home, they know exactly kind of the whole reason behind it. It means a lot more to them. So with that said, we like to have a lot of personal touches with our customers. And so we'll randomly sometimes do a flash sale. Usually it might even be like if, for example, we had a really terrible storm and a lot of people's power went out a few weeks ago, and we did a flash sale because, based on the weather, because we said, you know what, your power is out. We're going to keep a light in your home. We're going to provide light for you. And we did like, I think it was like 40% off, like certain products, for example. So there's opportunities that, you know, you can, you can utilize weather or events or, you know, you have to obviously be very mindful and making sure that they are appropriate and whatnot. And don't do it too often because I think that kind of ruins the. The authenticity behind it. But even during COVID for example, we had a sale, that promotion, a promo code. And the promo code was covidhero. And it was for any frontline worker. And we didn't advertise it. No one else knew, but we would go on, and I would have Elise, my marketing assistant, and she would go through and see our followers and she started trying to see which ones were frontline workers. And we direct messaged them saying, thank you so much for your service. We would like to offer you 25% off your next online order with the promo code COVIDHERO. That was nothing that was planned at the time, at the beginning of the year. But again, with COVID we wanted to give back and help those types of people. And it meant so much to them. Like, they were not expecting it and they became lifelong customers and they said that. So I think that there's a lot you can do outside of those hard lines that you prepare for. If that answers the question.

Totally. It totally.

Is it okay if I jump in and say something?

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

I have two things I wanted to go back specifically for Erica. One app that I like to use, I was trying to pull up the name and I'm going to send it to you directly, like, or I'll put it in the chat one here. But my sister, she actually made my website and she's like, studies, like social media, engagement, analytics, all that. She keeps me on top of my stuff. And there's an app that I use that she shared with me. Like I said, I think it's called Plan with two ends, if I'm not mistaken. But you can actually create like groups of hashtags because you know, Instagram and with the algorithm they don't really like for you to use the same thing. They want you to switch it up. But what I love about Plan the most is that you can put like hashtags, like you can type it in and it'll show you how concentrated it is. So you can see the better chances you have of increasing your engagement, increasing your followers.

Sorry.

My daughter's favorite song is on.

It's all good.

There's that. And then as far as she's watching the Greatest Showman, like she's obsessed with this movie. It's such a good movie.

But.

And then one thing too that I like to do because I like to plan in advance. My sister keeps me on top of my stuff. She's like Alicia, like for example, like she was like, okay, September's around the corner, what are you releasing for the winter? And I'm like, okay, so. But one thing I like to do, especially during the holidays, depending on how you all market your businesses. One thing that I found to work really well for the Mona Lisa Bakes is doing 12 Days of Christmas sales. I think it's like super like anticipated with my guests. And now that like I've like really like increased my traffic because of COVID It's like now people are really looking for it. They're like, alright, so you said 12 days of Christmas, cool. So like it's literally a different sale every single day. I think the best one that I've done is I usually like people. I have bundles on my website. Like I have the assortment. One thing that really helps me stand out is my build your own dozen, which is a customized cookie. And then I have like a cookies and cream assortment that, that people like to get. Cause that's like one of my best selling cookies. And it's. I usually do like 30% off, like I don't know like your price points. But I know that people love like a good discount. So definitely, like I just wanted to go ahead and put that out there.

Yeah. And on that note, thank you for sharing. On that note, two other apps I use. I know one is so popular and you've all probably heard of it, but later. So we use later to schedule all of our social media posts. But with that said, that's just. We just strictly use it for posting our posts. The Customer engagement, we do organically because that's important. And then another thing that we use is called Hashtag Expert. So it's a free app, and you can actually put in what kind of business you're in and what kind of hashtags. Like, it'll bring up what kind of hashtags are original or popular and that you should use. Those are two that we like to use as well.

Can I ask one quick.

Yeah.

So with the hashtag, from what I heard, is that, like, if you're gonna hashtag something and it has, like, a million, you know, like, users for that, then that means you're in competition to be seen within that million. Is that right?

So you actually.

Definitely in competition.

Yeah.

It'll also be like. Like, again, it's more concentrated. So, like, the chances of you being towards the top are slimmer to none.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? So, like, it's not that you can't do something that has, like, a million in it, but you want to go for the things. I believe the app said between, like, 500. I think, like, you roughly want to be in, like, that 500,000 to 900,000 range, because not that many people are using it. And then you can also get away with adding, like, hashtags to your story, but hiding it behind the post.

So, like, look at her. She doesn't get it.

I know.

I tried. Look, my sister keeps me on point. And then with that, you can, like I said, you can hide it behind your post. And that one or that way you can get away with, like, like the million, 2 million, because it'll go to the hashtag Instagram story. You get what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Hide it behind your post so, like,

you can type it. And then, like, you know how, like, the post usually goes, like, straight, like, directly in the center of your Instagram story. You can type whatever, put it above your picture, tap the picture again, and you won't be able to see it.

You can also. Yeah, yes. You can also shrink it with your finger really, really, really small, and then swipe up or hide it, like, in a corner, and it'll. It'll appear on an edge as well.

Nikki, women. You are.

I know, I know, I know. Another thing I was gonna suggest, too, was another thing that we try to do, too, is, like, utilizing our customers. So when you're talking about products like you, like, you were mentioning Alicia, like, how you have the 12 days of Christmas sale. So something that we recently did is we on our story, asked our. Because it's Obviously, customer engagement is super important. We like to kind of ask our customers, what do you want? Or do you have an idea for a new product? And they'll tell us, like, they're right there. And there's a whole, you know, target audience of people willing to share information as a test audience. And they will tell you their customers telling you what they want. Like, you can't ask for anything better than that. And we had one woman who had the most amazing idea ever, and we're going to do it this Christmas. And it's a similar kind of idea. Like, it's. It's more of like an Advent calendar idea.

That's so cute.

I think this is a great idea. You should do this. Like, I'm gonna do that. That is a wonderful idea. So things like that are also easy ways to kind of get new ideas too. If you're feeling stuck or looking for something new.

I love that. I have two questions for you, Amanda, and the questions are for everyone. Honestly, if you have any insights, definitely jump in. But Amanda, I was wondering, how do you, like, how do you optimize yourself? Do you have, like, retargeting campaigns that you do? Do you have, like, abandoned cart email? Like, what. How, like, do you use those type of tools? How do you decide, like, when you want to use them?

Yeah, so we use them in many ways. So through wix, we do have the emails that get sent, the retargeting email. So for abandoned carts, things like that. But we also, with our Facebook ads, we have. Usually we have five or six different types of ads going at once. And then we look at the analytics and it's very obvious. It'll show you which ones are performing the best. And then we like to kind of invest more heavily in those ones as well. But yeah, for us, I mean, definitely, like new customer email. New. Sorry, new customer emails, or reminder emails. And then with the ads, again, I think our most popular one is the retargeting or the abandoned cart ad as well. So those are definitely things we utilize. And they. And they really work. I don't know about the rest of it. If Erica or Angela or Alicia, if you utilize.

Yeah, I do as well.

Yeah.

And they've been working well for you, like, do you feel?

Yeah, yeah, they do. So I have the one where, like, when they subscribe, subscribe, then they get sent an email that's like 10% off. And then I also have one, like, after they purchased, then I asked them to provide a review and that's actually worked really well. I mean, the reviews that I get on my website just from asking, I mean, it's been pretty incredible. And then I do the abandoned cart one as well. And I want to say that there's one more, but I can't remember.

So those are.

That's the gist. But I believe that it's. It's working well.

All right, actually, let's. Let's. Let's move back because we kind of, like, touched on the influencer, like, kind of, like having influence. Like touching base with influencers. And Amanda, how do you decide which bloggers or, you know, site to get in touch with? And, like, how do you reach out to them? What's your method of madness or geniusness?

So it's nothing super crazy, but one thing that we did that works really well is every. Every year, we will do a call for. For influencers. So we'll do an influencer call. We do a couple different things, so that's one thing we do. So what that does is we'll basically just throw it out to all of our followers and say, like, hey, do you want to be a coal and canary ambassador? It's kind of what we call it. And to apply, they have to submit a photo and then explain, like, why they think they'd be a great ambassador and then obviously include, like, their Instagram username and Facebook.

Are you still taking. Taking applications?

No, just kidding. Oh, I know, I know. Hey, I know we actually. All year, but yeah, it was great because for us, for our company, and I think it's again, and we all know this, like, people love authenticity. So there's nothing I hate more than when I go onto Instagram and I see an influencer posting, you know, for the seventh time this week about her Dove Body soap. And I'm like, I know you were just talking about this because you got paid so much money to do this, and you don't actually, like, you can tell, like, she's not passionate about Dove Body Soap. She's just doing it because she's getting paid as part of her job. And I get that. Like, it's a job, and she's doing her job, and she's doing it well. But people can read through that. They can read through authenticity and not being authentic about something. So I think for us, doing the applications was a way to get people that truly were excited about our brand and that really believed in the brand and wanted to be a part of it. And so we had tons of applications, and we definitely took a variety of different types of people. We Took different ethnicities, different people of different age and size and everything. It's super important to be diverse. And then we also, from there, we wanted to make sure that some of them had more followers than others. We took some that didn't even have that many followers, but it meant so much to them. And they posted more than we even asked them to because they were so excited. And I think having a mix of different types of people was really key. And then what they did is once a month, they got a little box in the mail and they got, I think it was two or three candles, and they got some other locally made product as well. And we got all the product donated. We approached a bunch of stores locally and said, hey, do you want to be a part of our ambassador box? And they said, absolutely, we're in. We had amazing, amazing stuff donated. And these influencers, our ambassadors, sorry, their boxes were usually worth like $300 a month, and they got it for free. So we had to ship them out to them. So that was a cost, but nothing crazy. For the amount of reach we got from it and the amount of excitement, they were required to post at least once a week, but that was it. And they could do it in a story or as a post as long as they tagged us. And then we obviously reposted it. So the cool thing with that is that we've had so many more people see this happening, and they all want to be Colin Carry ambassadors. So now we get all, you know, it's just really kind of gotten the hype up. So that's one thing we do. Another thing we do is we do have lots of influencers emailing us asking to basically, you know, promote our products in exchange for free product. So we usually do take, I would say, 10 to 12 max a year. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, what's important for us is that they're content influencers and that they are highly engaged with their audiences. So someone can have 150,000 followers. But then we'll go through and we will investigate and we will see. Okay, how, you know, are there followers commenting? Are they engaging? Are they commenting back? Does it seem real? Is it a bot? Does it seem authentic? You know, is it in a. In a place of the world that we might, you know, really want to start advertising and promoting our product? So there's a lot that we add that we look for. And also we also ask that they provide us with some statistics as well. I hate nothing more than when an influencer emails you saying, I Hi, I'm Angela. This is my account. Can I have five free candles? You know? And she's like, I'll post about it. I'm like, that is not okay. Like, this is a business. It's a business transaction. So, yeah, like, we expect that they're gonna provide us with information to know that they're taking it seriously. And. Yeah. And just we want to make sure that they're. That they're excited enough. So those are the kind of.

Very cool. I see Deneen just joined us. Hey, Deneen.

I so apologize for being late.

It's all good. There'll be a recording of this call as well. So anything that you missed up until now, like, I'll make sure that you get the recording so you don't miss anything. What was the. There was another thing that I wanted to ask you. Can I. Yeah, go ahead.

I have one more thing, too. Sorry. I was gonna add this before, and I just forgot because I think Alicia was talking about her 12 days of Christmas, and it got me excited because that's awesome. Something else I wanted to quickly mention, because you were talking about hashtags and we were talking about Instagram in particular. Yes. Something else I wanted to mention because a friend of mine actually works at Google, and so she keeps up on all this type of stuff, and I don't talk to her as often, but she'll always kind of email me whenever there's, like, a big. So something that's really important that I think a lot of businesses should know that I think a lot of businesses feel pressure to post more than once a day, I think. Oh, that's a big question. It's like, how often do I post to really gain the most, you know, the most engagement or have the most likes or views? She was saying that they changed it a few months ago. So, for example, if you post once a day and you have, let's say, 40,000 followers, all 40,000 followers are going to see that post, potentially. But they'll all have the exposure to that one post. If you post four times a day. Because you think if I post more, I have four times as much chance of my followers seeing my post because they're so bombarded. That is not true. What Instagram will do is they will take the four posts and they'll divide your audience up into four. So only 25% of your audience will see one of those posts. So just so you know. So if there's anything that you're posting going into the holidays that is, like, super important. So if you have a promotional. A promotion going on or a bigger announcement. Just post once a day because you want to make sure that everyone hears and sees that post. So don't. Don't do a second post. That's another important thing I wanted to add throughout there.

Glad you said that.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's very helpful. All right, so one last question for Amanda, and then we'll kind of, like, open up for a quick Q and A. What's. I was curious, then, what is the one thing, if you can think of one thing that you'll definitely be doing differently in your business this year for the holiday season that you didn't do last year, Maybe because of COVID Maybe just in general. But what is that one thing?

That is a very easy question for me, actually. And it's very obvious. We are doing free shipping, which we had never done before COVID with our product, this cave. This is a bad example because this is one of our candles, but it's already been burned, so it's kind of ugly right now. But it's in a heavy, heavy glass, so it weighs about one pound, just with the candle itself. And then it comes in a box, and then we obviously package that in another box.

Do you have any of your boxes? I'm sorry, not to put you on the spot, but I think I have one.

I only have one. Sorry, Sorry, ladies.

I'm.

Gentlemen, I'm not prepared. So this was one that we did, and a portion of the proceeds go to charity. It's called I Can See clearly Now instead of clearly because we like a good pun. This one smells just like Froot Loops and milk. So it smells identical to opening up a box of Fruit Loops. It's crazy. This one's our most popular in the summer. But, yes, all of our boxes are just really cute. A lot of them have foiling and other things on them, but a portion of the proceeds goes to a local LGBTQ charity in the city for that one. But, yeah, so sorry, going back. So, free shipping. So our product is very heavy, so our shipping costs have always been quite high. But it's amazing because what we did is we offered free shipping during COVID because everyone was at home. We also offered free contactless pickup and local delivery. So it is a lot. But our sales increased 30%, and the increase in sales actually warrant, like we are. Our price for shipping per package went down substantially because we have commercial accounts with our local shipping companies. The more volume you do, the cheaper your rates are. So our volume increased 30% and our rates went down even more than that. So we actually are making more money per unit sold now offering free shipping than we were before COVID And everyone loves it. Like everyone loves convenience. People just want it to be easy. And people are now are just used to clicking and collecting. So more seamless of an experience you can make it for your customers. The easier it's going to be and the more they're going to, the more often they're going to order for sure.

That's a good point. I love free shipping. So why don't we. I know that we only have a few minutes actually we're a bit over, but let's take a few minutes. If everyone, you know, still available to kind of like do a quick Q and A. Does anybody have any questions that they want to ask each other? Anything that they want to add or something they specifically that they wanted to mention?

May I ask a question, although I'm late coming in?

Yeah, of course.

So that free shipping definitely interests me. Interests me. But I know it will interest my customers because they complain so much about shipping. I can't really, I can't reduce it and I say I can't until, until you share with you how you ship your products. But the USPS and the ups, they charge economical amount for my box boxes. I'm doing boxes this season and I hope everybody's getting into this. What is it? The, the boxes every month, the subscription boxes. Yeah, but that shipping, they're like, oh, I want it, I want it. How much is shipping? 21.95. Oh, wait a minute. Wait, I don't want it.

Yeah.

Sir, what was the question at the end?

Oh, I apologize. What shipping companies do you use?

Oh, yeah. So we're from Canada, but in the States we do ship with ups and then it becomes usps. So same thing. Like, it's hard because when I was starting out in the first couple years, we didn't offer free shipping because our quantities just didn't work out with the price breaks. But I think there's maybe other things like if you are able, you know, to do a free delivery service or for local delivery or if you can do free contactless pickup. Somehow not everyone can do that. Obviously we started doing that and I would say 50, 50% of our local orders have been people picking it up themselves. And it doesn't cost me anything. Put their name on it and I put it outside and they pick it up. So things like that.

I can do local. I can do local. My local people are. Yeah, it's that when they get on that plane. And now I don't know if y' all this, but it's not the same cost. You know, USPS. USPS says I'm just used as 8. 8.95. If it fits. If it fits, it ships. That's not true. Now it's 8.95, depending if it's going to Washington state.

Yes.

Versus the East Coast. I mean, they are literally killing us.

Yeah.

I don't want to happen during the holiday season and the voting season. I just don't know.

And not to cut you off, but I'm glad. And not to cut anybody off. I'm glad you said that because, Melissa, I definitely wanted to, like, bring that up. One of the biggest issues that I've run into is that I've had to come out of pocket, like, astronomically for shipping because I use usps like my biggest clientele. You would think because I'm on the east coast, it would be over here in Maryland, but my biggest clientele is in California. Like, sometimes people buy like. Like, their package, like, in total will probably weigh like 1 point average, like 1.15. And it'll be. It'll end up being like, I think, like, close to $30. But then on Wix, it's only charging them like, a flat rate of like 10:35. So, like, I don't know if, like, I'm the only person that's been experiencing that because I try to do free shipping, but I'm afraid to do free shipping just because I don't want to take another hit, you know?

Yeah. If I can offer one other suggestion. So the digital marketing company that I work with, they're incredible. And they said to me right off the hop when I started working with them in March, because, like, at that point, we weren't offering free shipping because of that reason. I said our candles cost $30 and our shipping can be anywhere, like, from like 12 to $14. And then our hard cost. You know what I mean? Like, it's just. It's hard. And they said, Amanda, the key is to increase your buy. So you want to try and do bundle deals or try and do. Try and get them to purchase way more at one time. Because shipping is like, not. It's barely anything more than I know for our product anyway. It costs the same to ship five candles and to ship one sometimes.

Right.

Or it's just like $2 more.

So free with five candles.

What's that? Sorry.

Free shipping with three candles with the.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And that's what we were doing. So before COVID that's what I kind of started doing. In the last year, we said it was free shipping over $90, because in that way, the customer is buying three candles. And it's. The math was way better for us. So that really got us in a better place. And then our quantities went up and then our price went down. So that's kind of where we got to the point where we were able to start doing the free shipping. And then once we did free shipping, same thing, people automatically started buying more at once because they knew it was free anyway. So like, well, I might as well just buy like a bunch of them. And so it was amazing. I was worried about that. But the orders have been frequently, like at least three candles per order with free shipping. So nitro way to do it.

So on. On my site, what I. I tried to do the free shipping, but I was like, okay, I can't do that because if people are buying like one bottle of sauce, that doesn't make sense. So what I did was I upped it to free shipping on orders $40 and above. And typically that's with my size because it's like in plastic bottles. I'm able to get it into like the flat rate box, which is, you know, or the flat rate, like, envelope, which is $7 or $7.15. So people would be buying like five or six bottles, but it would fit inside of that little package.

So, you know, and.

Or the other company that I use is shipo S H I P P O. And so I've connected shippo to my WIX account and then it will print off, like you enter in the label information. Or sometimes it'll just like go completely over so I don't have to actually enter it. Anything. I just put in either the carrier that I want to use or the dimensions of the box or the package that I'm sending. And then it'll populate the cheapest from the most expensive. And so then that way I can pick and choose what, like, sometimes it is UPS that I need because it's a bigger order. Other times it is, you know, United States Postal Service. But, you know, there's ways that you can like, really like maximize instead of even doing the United States flat rate, you know, box by seeing what is populated because it is based on the weight and it is based on the. On the area, as we all know. Right?

Yeah.

So how does it pop?

For sure.

And they.

You don't have to be on a contract. You could do it month by month. And it's really reasonable. They take a small percentage. But at the end of the day, when I look at, like, if I just had a ups, and I do have a UPS account, but if I was to go through UPS to send the same package versus going through Shipo, because they have these, like, really great rates, it would be maybe $20 more just by going through UPS than if I use Shippo.

Wow, that's great.

Good to know.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, guys, we're about 10 minutes over, but this was an amazing conversation. First, I just want to thank all of you for joining. It was incredible, and I think a lot of you. Deneen, don't worry. You're going to get the recording. You totally didn't miss anything. Two things I want to say. We will be planning our next discussion, and I really want your feedback. Like, what do you guys want to talk about? And that doesn't, like, it can be anything, really, because I want to make these discussions valuable to you guys. So if that means, hey, this is just throwing a spitball in here, like, throwing an idea. If that means, hey, I want to learn about. More about what people are doing with subscriptions for the holidays, and I want, you know, a couple of merchants that are working with subscriptions and maybe, you know, someone from the product team that is, you know, also, you know, is the expert on subscriptions to join the call. I can do that. I really, really want you guys to just say, hey, listen, Melissa, this is what we need. This is. This is the conversation I want to have, and I want to connect with other people. So that's one thing. Another thing is we do have a forum that we just opened. There isn't a lot of content there yet. I'm just putting it out there. But I will say this. The product team is looking at that forum. So if you do have specific needs or wants or feature requests that you want, please jump in there and, you know, write, like, post your feature requests, because they are looking. I promise you, they ask me every day, and I want to make sure you guys get what you need. So that's the two things that I like. So if you have a feature request or something that you really want to see on the platform, the WIX platform, definitely jump on the phone. I'll send you guys a link again. And as far as the next roundtable discussion, I'll reach out to all of you. I know, Deneen, you were, like, a little bit late, but I'm gonna send you. Send all of you Your contact details, meaning your email. So you guys, if you guys want to, like, kind of even jump on a call together, just the two of you, then you guys have each other's contact details. But also I want you guys to make sure that you tell me, hey, this is what I want to talk about next. And I'll make it happen whether it's with someone from WIX or without. And I'm totally open to either. So that's the two things. But again, I really want to thank you all for joining the call. This was amazing. Amanda, you're amazing.

Thank you.

I really appreciate you sharing your insights. Alicia, Deneen, Erica, Angela, who we didn't hear you're here.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming. And if you need anything, you guys all have my contact details. If you don't, it's M E L I S s a s@wix.com Melissa's no idea. And you're welcome to email me anytime. And I'm happy to help. Alicia, Amanda, I'll definitely be in contact with you guys. I have a few things I want to spitball with you. But again, if you guys have any ideas or thoughts that you want to bring to the table and you want to discuss, I'll make it happen. Just let me know.

And just so you ladies know, I just put my email, my direct email address in the chat. So again, there's a lot of, A lot of things I didn't even touch on during this call. It was such an organic conversation. And I'm so glad you being here and offering all of your advice. I learned a lot too. And I think I could still learn a lot more from all of you as well. So if you ever want to continue or have a question, continue conversation, absolutely. Let me know. Marketing and branding is more of my, like, wheelhouse, which we didn't even really get to talk about today. That's my favorite thing. So if you ever have a question about that, I'm definitely open. So let me know. It was great to meet you. Thanks, Kayla. Have a great week, guys.

You too. Bye, guys.