Hi Reader,

Katherine Raz, a retail expert in our community and the owner of Fernseed, recently shared her insights with us about launching a new retail shop. If you’re considering a new retail venture, this is a must-read!

Remember when we thought our kids would actually play with Haba wood toys? When we thought we’d use our maternity leave to make healthy smoothies and wash cloth diapers while the baby napped?

You have no idea what parenting will be like until that baby arrives. Before that, it’s all Pinterest boards and assumptions. The baby is what makes your choices real.

Retail is no different. You go in telling yourself all the cute ways in which you’re going to engage the community and decorate, but none of it means anything until you open the doors and real customers interact with your business.

Q&A

Here's a reader question about Shopify Collective, from Jala, as answered by Arianne, CEO & Founder of our team:

Q: Is anyone using Shopify Collective? Can you tell me if it's a competitor to Faire and a replacement for Handshake? I'm trying to understand if it's of value to me because I don't allow 3rd party online sellers to buy and sell my products. I only work with physical stores.

A: My understanding is that if you wanted to collaborate/cooperate with another business, Shopify Collective would be a great tool to use to sell each other's inventory. Or, if you have an online gift shop, an easy way to sell products from your merchants.

It might work better as a collaboration tool than a discovery tool (i.e. you and your partner business both use this tool to work together, not you use this tool to find other shops to work with).

Anyone using this successfully? I'd love to hear from you!

Question: Answered

Our team includes experts in branding, design, development, email & SMS/text marketing, search engine optimization, copywriting, conversion optimization, ecommerce strategy, business growth and more. Email me back with your question! I'll consult one of our experts and share one response per week over email.

Interesting Clickables

⚓️ Read past issues of Aeolidia's newsletter here

According to Klaviyo, integrated marketing campaigns launched across 4+ channels outperform single- or dual-channel campaigns by 300%!!
American Craft Council’s Emerging Artists Cohort is a three-month program that cultivates the next steps for independent craft artists to advance their professional practices. Apply here.
Looking for a little boost of color inspiration? Check out Pantone's Autumn/Winter color trend report.

Recent Aeolidia Launch

Website for a. favorite design.

a. favorite design creates vintage-inspired, handcrafted letterpress goods. We designed their original website back in 2014. Amber shared her thoughts about the redesign here on her blog.

SHOP THE SITE