Designer Showcase
Dominic Cassidy & Keith Stirman
About Dom & Keith
All Things Fun
Peterlee, UK
Dom & Keith have operated a balloon & party store for over 18 years in the UK, but you may know them from our Balloon Magic feature article or the Q Corner YouTube Channel. While they were busy hosting the Q Corner Conventions during the pandemic, they were also facing their own challenges of keeping their business afloat!
With a closed storefront, but continuing demand for their balloon designs, Dom & Keith quickly realized that back and forth conversations with customers via social media platforms was a less than efficient way to take orders!
In their business ventures, they maintain an ‘always evolving’ mentality, ensuring they were ready to quickly adapt to the changing situation. They spent time to discuss and set out a new business plan to be actioned, part of which was to develop an e-commerce website. They chose Shopify as the platform for their online store because of the ease of the app plugins, and went to work simplifying their balloon offerings to focus on small packages for house parties. They offered free local delivery within a short radius of their store, with an option for paid delivery outside of that area.
They were pleasantly suprised by how quickly their customers (especially some of the long-standing customers) adapted to booking everything with them online!
The new online store allowed customers to ‘self-serve’ and book delivery slots with little input from our side.
Dominic Cassidy & Keith Stirman
A life-changing pivot
By adding e-commerce to their website, they say they "massively" reduced the number of hours working ‘in the business’ by spending a little more time working ‘on the business’. "This made us far more productive and effective as we tried to follow the Pareto Principle which states that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results," they said.
As we exit the final stages of Covid, they have adopted a ‘hybrid’ approach. "Our customers have become used to using our new online booking system for both local deliveries and in store collections. This has allowed us to reduce the opening hours of our store and achieve a far better work/life balance without loss of trade," they said.