Ruby Friel always knew she wanted to start her own business. Her entrepreneurial journey began as a teenager working as a florist for small business owners, and later became a product designer, traveling the world researching trends and drawing inspiration from the small boutiques and shops she found. But it wasn’t until 2020, when a friend offered her an affordable space above her store in Stockport, England, that she decided to take the plunge. In March 2020, a week before the UK’s first lockdown was imposed, Ruby launched Still Life Story with £3,000 of her entire savings.
challenge
In the early days of Still Life Story, Ruby was a female show. She manages every aspect of the business, taking on about 20 different responsibilities while juggling the needs of a mother with a newborn baby. Although the store has been an instant success and has turned a profit, Ruby has to decide each month between paying her salary or investing in her new brand. Each month, Ruby chooses to use all profits to grow the business.
Building strong relationships through direct conversations with customers and providing personalized service has always been part of their growth strategy, but when the company has grown to a certain point, conversations alone are no longer enough. Ruby knew she needed data to guide buying decisions and ensure she was reinvesting strategically.
solution
Using Shopify’s analytics dashboard, she monitors total sales and number of transactions each day of the week and reviews the store’s growth monthly.
After familiarizing herself with her data, Ruby discovers that one of the most important metrics for the business is revenue by product type. Ruby realized that while individual rings weren’t selling well, jewelry as collectibles was one of the best-selling categories among her clients. This is the insight Ruby needed to massively increase their best-selling product categories and grow profits from their best products.
Ruby also figures out which specific products in each category are most in demand by looking at the Sales by Product Variation report. This allowed her to identify which products to reinvest in and showcase them on social media to drive traffic to the store. The report also conveys a more competitive pricing strategy.
As a starting point, based on their best-selling products, Ruby is able to develop an effective cart-building strategy by choosing to carry complementary items for promotion alongside items customers love.
This data also influences their merchandising, sales and marketing strategies. Ruby uses the ABC analysis report, a classification system for classifying their inventory into A, B, and C products. Using the ABC analysis report, it is easy to determine which products generate the most profit and which products are ordered infrequently, which can lead to unnecessary inventory and maintenance. Ruby uses this information to make day-to-day decisions from in-store product placement to online advertising and marketing efforts, and works with micro-influencers to elevate C products into a category. When a product’s placement isn’t improving, the data can give you insight into which products Ruby isn’t restocking or discounting in upcoming marketing campaigns.
result
Still Life Story has maintained broad appeal to a broad demographic while strategically growing its product line through a deep understanding of customer needs. Using data to identify best-selling products and sales trends, sales during the winter holiday period increased by 50% compared with the previous year.