Felix: Today I’m joined by Rory Westbrook from True Vintage and Shoppex. True Vintage is a leading vintage clothing retailer growing at a rapid rate and providing global customer base of eco-friendly approach to fashion, and was started 2014 and based out of London and annual revenues of 2 million pounds. Welcome Rory.
Rory: Hi Felix
Felix: Yes, so you guys have always been fans of vintage and rare clothing. How did this manifest into owning a vintage clothing company?
Rory: So it all started while I was studying at university six years ago, I was a collector of vintage clothing myself so I was always into fashion before that, but particularly the things I liked about vintage is you wouldn't see anyone else wearing the same thing. I loved the 90s era and the designs around that and the sustainability factor was something I liked that we were saving clothing from landfill and you could actually wear the clothing a few times and it would keep its value if not sell for more. So that was the original reasons I got into vintage clothing in the first place.
Felix: Got it. Now, did you guys, either you or the founding team have started businesses before or was this the first project that you guys worked on?
Rory: So this was my first project, so I was in second year at university and I was studying business, and I formed the company myself. So, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a collector and I saw that there wasn't many vintage clothing companies around doing a good job online. So I set up the business mainly on Instagram, is the first channel we started utilizing. So I actually started out selling my personal collection to see if there was appetite for these products. So yeah, I saw a great success early on. Within the first few days I sold out my whole collection, and that was simply just from putting the items on Instagram. I was following people using hashtags and word of mouth. We quickly gained a strong following. So within a few days of setting ourselves on Instagram, I then set up a website. We quickly grew from there.
Felix: Okay, so this is a great way that I think you've laid out how to validate with low risk, low cost to get rolling on seeing if a business idea has legs. So you started an Instagram account, was this like a brand new account that you started from scratch or like how much, I guess of a momentum did you already have at this point with your Instagram account?
Rory: So, as a brand new Instagram account, I just thought of the name, Mature Vintage and pictured the existing items I had in my collection and, yeah, just went from there, just built the following by following people and yeah, it really, really quickly grew so once we started selling from Instagram we then set up the website and pushing everyone from our Instagram channel to our website. And early on we did things like Instagram competitions as well to win store credit and got people to share our page and that, again, helped us to gain new customers.
Felix: Okay, so Instagram, you said a brand new Instagram account, and you mentioned that you put up all of the, I guess, product photos of the products that you wanted to sell out of your personal collection, what did your actual feed look like as you were building up the Instagram following?
Rory: To be honest, back then the seed didn't look amazing. So, yeah, this was six years ago. It was very simple what I was doing, just taking pictures of clothing on the floor or on a hanger, and, yeah, we've come a long way since then. I suppose the product did the talk in themselves. They're all exciting and loud designs, so yeah, even though my imagery wasn't great back then, they certainly sold themselves and I was also running this out of my university bedroom so I didn't really have a great space to do it, and yeah, I also started the business literally with a few hundred pounds savings. So, again, I didn't have use of great equipment or photography or anything like that.
Felix: Got it. Now what about the captions on those photos or those images, how important was that? Did you put much thought into those?
Rory: To be honest, back then, many years ago, I was posting on Instagram 20 to 30 times a day, every single product that I put up. So that was before the days of the Instagram algorithm came into play. So I was actually posting a lot and didn't actually have much time to get creative, the captions, but the use of hashtags and I guess friends were tagging their friends in products they thought they would like, that seemed to work really well for us.
Felix: Okay. So 20 or 30 times per day, you mentioned this was pre-Instagram updating the algorithm, which now doesn't necessarily give you as much reach as before, now, were you posting the same product over and over again or did you have that big of a collection where you were putting out that many product photos?
Rory: Oh, yeah, so I wouldn't ever put up the same images again, and each product we do that is unique, one of one. So every day there was, new content going up on Instagram, and what I did early on with the business to keep it exciting for our customers is we would get say a few hundred products in at once from a supplier and we would spread the out and make sure that we had new items going up every single day. So that would give people a reason to keep coming back to the website or keep coming back to our Instagram to see what was new.
Felix: Right. Okay, that makes sense. Now I just want to make sure I kind of lay out the timeline on all of this, so there's a validation phase where you're just selling your own personal collection first and, what was that, you said like to 15 pieces or how many pieces did you sell before you realized that there was a validated business model?
Rory: Yeah, it was literally... put it about 15 pieces out of my collection. They sold so quickly that I knew there was definitely appetite for this. So yeah, with all of the money I got from selling those, I then quickly found suppliers and knew that I needed to set up a website, so just a matter of days really.
Felix: Okay, that makes sense. And you mentioned that you use a lot of hashtags, which it got you the initial following, can you say more about that. Like how important are hashtags on Instagram today?
Rory: We still do it and yeah, they worked really well for us when we first started the company. It definitely helps our show up on the other Instagram feeds and it's something I would recommend, but nowadays actually how it's changed is due to the algorithms that we're actually spending more time on making sure our content's looking as good as possible to get that rage. But yeah, definitely you'd say hashtag's still important.
Felix: Okay. So it sounds like you're shifting now from more quality content and less quantity versus before where it was just about getting as much content as possible and using hashtags much as possible, now you're focused more on the content individual posts itself. Can you say more about that, what kind of conscious decisions do you make when you want to create a high performing, high quality post on Instagram?
Rory: So the things we look at for our particular business, we have a look into the analytics of our website just to see what's trending well at the moment. So in terms of brands, we look at what our customers want to see. So, that's something that we make sure we're on top of trends, and then ultimately when we're looking at doing the pictures, something that's really grabbing, colorful and a bit different. I mean, yeah, there's many fashion retailers out there at the moment, and yeah, posts on Instagram feeds can get lost in each other so we go for the really bold edits as well, and, I'll call it do some great work on Photoshop to make our product stand out.
Felix: Got it, now, you mentioned that you are looking at your own data, your own analytics looking at this site and are you looking at the products that people are viewing a lot or purchasing a lot? Like what is the biggest determination of how you should curate the content on your Instagram?
Rory: Yes, so, we look at a range of things to see what categories got lots of views in the previous month. We look at products which, again got lots of views and what's being bought regularly. So from that as well, we then look at ourselves what stock we've got coming in, and because we are our own target customer, everyone that works with me is into, vintage clothing, so we've got a good idea of what will sell well to our customers and what they'll want to see.
Felix: Now, how quickly or how often does the trends change where you're looking at the data on your website one day and then how soon after does it change materially where you guys have to start say, "Okay, let's focus our content and also focus our curation differently?
Rory: I suppose within seasons, really. Some trends can go on for a long time, so brands are doing particularly well for us at the moment with the Nike, Adidas, lots of the sports wear brands, so they seem to be doing well for a long time, but other brands can come and go pretty quickly. So we make sure we stay up to date with that, and, as I mentioned earlier, staying on top of the season so that people are seeing relative content where they are in the world.
Felix: Got it. Okay, so again, 15 pieces of your own that you first sold, you saw that there was a demand for it, what was the next step that you took? So you went to set up the website, but did you have to kind of take a pause for a minute while you curated or got more inventory in? Like what was that next step after you validated the business?
Rory: So the next steps, I moved pretty quickly to be honest. I got a hold of some surprise and I had stock arriving within the next few days. So I had a few days to get the website up and running and get our domain sorted, and then from there, I was just focusing on getting as much stock as possible and as soon as it was coming, getting it online and selling it straight away. So yeah, there wasn't much of a delay. The only thing I had to juggle was university at the same time. So I was studying full time as well as trying to work full time on the business.
Felix: Now when you don't have a lot of data, especially in those early days about what kind of products people like, how did you make informed decisions on what to stock up on from the suppliers?
Rory: I was literally just going for what styles I liked at first. So, I got together a good buying guide for my suppliers for the things for them to stick to and at first it literally was items that I liked and then after a while as you mentioned then data that was more relevant and I could actually start to see what was doing well.
Felix: Okay. And these suppliers, you mentioned that you got new stock in within just a matter of days, did you already know the suppliers or how did you find suppliers to stock up the inventory on your brand new site?
Rory: So, yeah, I was speaking with one already that I bought some personal items from and did they were in a position to start wholesaling to me, and yeah, I just just had various other ways that I found a few surprise and quickly got a few lined up. So yeah, I was able to move really quickly on that.
Felix: Got it. Now what did you find that made them want to work with you? Again, a brand new store, a brand new business, was it hard to convince them to want to supply to you?
Rory: No, it wasn't too difficult to be honest. I mentioned what our plan was for the business and that we wanted to buy in large volumes from them as soon as possible. We gave fair prices and have good relationships with them early on, always staying in regular contact, always paying on time. So it wasn't too difficult, no.
Felix: And you mentioned that you started off with just a few hundred pounds and then of course, whatever revenue and profits that you generated from selling your initial personal collection, how much was that initial production run where you ordered pieces to stock up the website?
Rory: So, that was just a few hundred pounds. The first mini-stock drop to come and then from there I had very limited costs when I first set up the business and was running out of my bedroom so all the money I made I was reinvesting at and then yeah, within a matter of weeks to months, I was having huge boxes turn up with a... they brought a hundred items at a time and yeah, it quickly grew from that.
Felix: Mm-hmm (affirmative), Okay, so then the website is set up, you had the earliest success of Instagram, how did you drive traffic to the website? Was it from Instagram or some other means?
Rory: Yes, so literally the only way was from Instagram in those initial few months, Instagram and Twitter, I was running Facebook as well, but Instagram has always been the dominant channel for us. So I focused more more than that area. So yeah, something I touched on early was the competition that really helped get our name out there and word of mouth and yeah, no money spent on marketing. Not even within the first few years of our business operating.
Felix: Now, when you said these Instagram competitions, you mentioned it was to win store credit on this brand new store you had set up, can you talk more about this competition, how was it set up?
Rory: So, we run a number of different competitions, but on the whole it would be for customers to win store credit or a special product that we had. It was just as simple as on Instagram, liking the picture and sharing it or tagging friends and yeah, that got us a huge reach. W also ran the competition in partnership on our Twitter page as well, just a simple favorite and retweet. Yeah, so I think we used to run those every couple of weeks and within the first few months we were up to 30,000 followers on Instagram.
Felix: Wow. And the goal of these Instagram competitions was to get more followers, at least initially, is that correct?
Rory: Exactly, yeah. So yeah, once we've got those followers then we were just marketing to them on our Instagram page daily. So new follows, we quickly turned into customers.
Felix: Now, it sounds like you had kind of different tweaks or different ways to run an Instagram competition, looking back on the experience of all the things you've done, is there the perfect model for you now where you have realized that this is the best setup in terms of what kind of prize to give away, what kind of requirements people need to take and be entered into the giveaway? Like what is that perfect competition, Instagram competition that you would set up again in terms of getting more followers?
Rory: We're always open to try new things, but I would say our most recent one that we did with a company called Mob Kitchen, we paired up with them and we gave away 3000 pound store credit, so by far the biggest competition we've ever done and that was simply people liking the pitcher and tagging their friends and we gained a lot of new fellows doing that. So, yeah, I would say partnering up with another company if possible, it works really well.
Felix: What does that do? What does partnering up with another company do for increasing the success of Instagram competition.
Rory: So they were also posting the competition on their channel as well, and how we set that up was to be entered into the competition, all follows had to make sure that they were following both ourselves, True Vintage and Mob Kitchen. So we were then put in front of all of their followers, all of their customer base and likewise they were put in front of ours and it really helped gain a lot of new followers.
Felix: Got it. Now, you said, is it called mob kitchen? What was the name of the brand new partnered with?
Rory: Yeah, Mob Kitchen.
Felix: Is that like a similar audience as you or how did you determine who to partner with?
Rory: So, yeah, you don't want to, I guess partner with any direct competitors. So we wanted someone in a different space. They've got a great following, a young customer base similar to ourselves and they focus on university shootings and create some amazing meals and ideas for cooking and recipe books, et cetera, so, it was like a really, really good fit with in terms of I guess their actual customer base, although they had nothing to do with fashion. It did work really well.
Felix: So basically the same demographic, same audience, but the partner that you are partnering up with is ideally selling a different product or meeting a different need for that audience?
Rory: Exactly, yes.
Felix: Okay. Now, you mentioned you grew this within just a few months to 30,000 followers, which is a huge, huge, you know, start for any business, what worked to drive them to your store? So you had a following, like what did you actually do to get people to go to your store and check out the products there?
Rory: So, back then on Instagram, we didn't have any of the fancy shopping bar on Instagram or anything like that. That was on the early days. So if anyone saw products they liked, they knew they had to go to the website anyway to get a better view of it. What also worked well for us was that all of our items are unique, one of one, so people knew they would sell out really quickly. So people were almost rushing to buy that garment before anyone else. That worked well for us so driving agency bar, Instagram, regular content spread throughout the day and people tagging their friends to let them know about new clothing. That really worked well for us.
Rory: But, we didn't really vary our content or anything back then, it was simply just product focused but it worked very well for us. And I know that's not the norm. When I was looking into how other companies approach Instagram, no one was doing it how we were posting that, did that amount of times and not regularly just that product focus but that really worked well for us, and as we've seen the changes recently in Instagram, I think the other companies have seen how important it is as a tool for selling.
Felix: Can you talk a little bit about how your Instagram advertising strategy has shifted these days?
Rory: Yes, I've chosen the strategy in terms of marketing to our followers already. We now have the use of Instagram stories, which is great to put lots of content in there and then within the actual product, within the actual Instagram feed, we are only posting up to four times a day and we make sure that content is different from you've seen before and make sure it's really exciting and we spend a lot more time creating something special for that. So, that's in terms of marketing to our current customer base, but what we do now as well is Instagram advertising, which again works really well for us and thus obtaining new potential customers through through adverts. We've been doing for a few years now and helps generate new followers and sales.
Felix: Got it. So definitely want to talk about the Instagram paid advertising in a second, but before we get there, let's talk about marketing to current followers. You mentioned Instagram stories, how's that produced? Like how do you guys produce the content that goes into the Instagram stories?
Rory: Instagram stories, we try and use what we've got already. So, for instance, product photos, we've still got new items going up every day. So we use that imagery and we use call to actions, whether that's swipe, pop or we include gifts just to make those stories stand out a bit more, and then within that we'll give out certain information to our customers to split up the stories so it's not just product focus. So we'll have information about shipping, we'll have information about payment methods, we will then push other things which new followers might not know about, for instance to download our app and get a discount on there. So there's a number of different things we push on the stories.
Felix: And you mentioned that on the feed you post a max of four times a day. Do you guys limit yourself or feel like you limit yourself when it comes to the posts that go in the stories?
Rory: On the stories, not so much. I mean we, yeah, we still do lots of stories but we probably wouldn't go over 20 or 30 a day. I think that's probably an acceptable amount of stories, but we don't want to go overboard on that.
Felix: Yeah. So certainly it's still a lot of content to produce. Do you have like a dedicated member that works on producing the content that goes into the stories and the feed or what's the process for everyday basically making sure that you have new content that goes on your Instagram?
Rory: That's the job of my brother, Guy, who's been working with me pretty much since we started and he's got the task of content creation as well as other things. But, yeah, content creation is a daily task for us and something we have to stay on top of just as I mentioned before, all of our products are unique. So once we create the content for that, we can only sell one of those pieces. So it's a constant battle to keep our Instagram page exciting and try and drive as many of our followers to the website to find some of the products as possible.
Felix: And what's the metric that you'd like to look at to measure if the content is successful or not?
Rory: Ultimately, we're looking at the likes and the rage, yeah, are the two main things we look at. But, again, so main thing we'd expect is the products that are being pictured in particular that at least they have sold, but yeah, if we're reaching more people we'll see a spike in website heads for that day.
Felix: So you mentioned as well that you also have an app that you guys have developed and that also helps a lot with marketing to existing customers, existing followers, can you say more about that?
Rory: Yes. So our app we launched last year and it's been hugely successful for us, probably one of the best things we've ever done for the business. But in terms of actually marketing to our customers, and it's by far our best channels. So the post notification, most of our customers just sign up to those straight away because we offer an app only discount. So, as soon as you download the app, you'll be given a discount code and then from there our customers are then engaged with us and will receive flash sales or product releases, which we'll put out first on the app. So that's something that's been working really well for us, and in terms of the actual marketing, when we're getting to time, we work on our push notifications compared to email marketing and what we're seeing as well as the crowded space of email marketing, even Instagram as well is becoming a bit more challenging for us to reach our customers, whereas with the app, whoever has subscribed to push notifications will receive that notification.
Rory: And it really helps us drive more traffic to the app and helps with sales and as well as the standard push notification, we've actually got automated campaigns. So if customers haven't been on the app in a while, we send them a gentle reminder that we've added new stock or if they are a VIP customer because they've spent a certain amount with us, we'll send them a push notification with the reward. So yeah, as well, a lot of our focus goes and the app really does well for us in terms of marketing.
Felix: So the app is basically like a app that displays all of your latest content or latest products that you guys have put out there and it's basically just like a native shopping experience for the customer?
Rory: Yes, exactly. So yeah, it's a shopping app, but we also have the blog on there as well, and ultimately it's just an improved user experience for our customers. So we actually had 80% of our traffic coming from a mobile device on our website, and I think that's pretty typical for eCommerce companies out there at the moment. So about a year ago we saw how much traffic was actually coming from a mobile device and that was probably down to our customer base being pretty young. Most of our customers are age of between 16 and 30, and, again, Instagram people were coming directly from a mobile device. So we wanted to look at improving that user experience, and we also did regular polls with our customers via Instagram and the app often came up as something our customers wanted to see. So on the back of that, we looked to launch the app as soon as possible and it's far exceeded our expectations in terms of revenue and now makes up a third of our total revenue, which is pretty astonishing considering we've only had it up and running for a year, and what I touched on earlier, how we're engaging with customers is far more effective. But, ultimately we're just providing a better user experience for customers and our loyal customers are downloading the app, and it's easier to check out. I think that's why we're seeing such great results on there.
Felix: That's awesome. So you mentioned that you guys decided to invest in building an app because your customers told you to, and this all came from polls that you guys held, can you say more about this? Like what were you asking your customers that led you to deciding that, "Let's invest," you know, because an app is not necessarily something that's easy to spend time doing, right? It's totally new technology that there're cost that a merchant has to learn how to develop or get developed. So what were you asking your customers to and what were their answers that led you to say like, "This is a worthwhile use of our time and resources to build an app."
Rory: So we used to ask numerous things on our posts, really looking at products. So, the brands that they wanted to see and then we went into how they feel the experience could be improved with True Vintage as well and that's when the app seemed to come up a lot. They, again, mentioned that the mobile experience was good on our website, but they definitely would want to see an improved experience on that so, yeah, the app came up a number of times. We noted down the results from all of these polls and each time we asked our customers for what they'd like to see from us in improvements, the app would be far above anything else.
Felix: It sounds like there's a pretty educated customer base where they have experience using apps, shopping apps from other brands, were there other brands that they referenced that, "=you guys were able to take inspiration from?
Rory: They wouldn't necessarily mention other brands or that would have been a gauge or an idea, back then actually to find out what they liked from other shopping apps. But I think just because our customer base is young and people spend a lot of time on apps nowadays, probably they were used to seeing them and before we actually set up our app, we did some market research and many people, younger people we spoke to, they actually only shopped with brands on mobile apps just because that was their preferred channel. So yeah, just a bit of research into that. Yeah, it was clear to see that we need to, create an app for us.
Felix: Okay, got it. So now that you have determined that this is the next stage of your business to build an app for your customers, how did you build it?
Rory: So what we looked at doing, we were getting quotes for having an app custom built and the quotes were coming back hugely expensive. So we were shopping around and I was looking on the app store, on the Shopify app store to see if there was any technology where we could build our own mobile app, and at the time I couldn't find anything. So that's why we wanted to look into what could be done about that. So we got the technology for ourselves and did connects directly to our Shopify store, which is great that all the products and collections and orders are synced in real time, and then we had a dashboard to then create our own app. So we linked up the collections, we designed the app and then we also had a section where we could manage the push notifications from as well and an analytics section.
Rory: So we initially build the app for True Vintage and just on the back of the success, as I mentioned earlier, it's got off to a great start and already makes up a third of our total revenue, and we're engaging with customers far better than any other channel. I thought that there's an opportunity here for a new business to open this software up to other Shopify stores. So that's when we formed a new business called Shoppex, and we now sell that technology to other Shopify stores to set up mobile apps for them as well.
Felix: Got it. So now when you created your first app for True Vintage, how did you actually launch it and promote it to your customer base to get people to try it out and adopt using this new method of buying?
Rory: So there's a number of things we did to get our customers to download the app. One thing that worked really well was a first time app discount. So what we set up is a discount code that would only work on the app and not on the main Shopify website. So that encouraged people to download and get the discount code. We also had a, still do actually, a mobile sticky header at the top of the website, just letting anyone know when they come onto the mobile website that we do have an app available, and for an improved use experience and new features, we recommend downloading that.
Rory: We include the app in our email marketing and also we have a section on our website as well, and yeah, ultimately we're just personally on all channels just to let our customers know that we've got an app out there. The user experience is far better and there's yet access to discounts and flash sales. So we quickly gained a large following on the app and it's still growing at a phenomenal rate at the moment. And as I mentioned earlier, it's the main thing we're pushing. So we're not surprised that it keeps doing well for us in terms of downloads and revenue.
Felix: Yeah. You mentioned that 30% of your revenue now after about a year comes from the app. How far do you see this growing over the next year?
Rory: So we anticipate that it's going to, by the end of the year, make up 50% of our revenue, but still pushing people towards that channel. We're making some improvements to our app as well to make an even better experience, and yeah, ultimately, once we get customers over to the app, they're more likely to convert, they're actually five times more likely to convert on our mobile app than our website, which is was quite surprising once we saw how much better the app was doing. So we're just continuing to get people across that channel.
Felix: You mentioned that there's a discount code for them using the app, I think I see here in the website there's a 15% off for the first order using the app, now, how do you use the discount code to encourage people to enable push notifications on the app?
Rory: So as soon as they download the app, they are prompted to accept for the push notifications from there, they're given a welcome series, which will have welcome to the True Vintage app and their discount code, and then from then on we offer exclusive discounts and early access to products, so that way, we keep giving to our customers so that they always like having the notifications because they know they're going to be getting good deals or good content regularly.
Felix: And you mentioned that the conversion rate is... is it four or five times greater than through the website by using this app?
Rory: Yeah, so our conversion rate on our app is 3.5% and on our website it's actually down at 0.6%, which I know isn't high for a website but given our business model of vintage clothing and items only being available in certain sizes, that's why we see typically lower conversion rates. But yeah, it's far high on the app.
Felix: Got it. And you mentioned also seven times the open rate through the app compared to like email, what are you sending them through these push notifications through the app?
Rory: So what we send on the app would be flash sales or new products, and then we also do automated push notifications, which can be set up on our Shoppex dashboards. So we have wishlist campaigns so if someone's liked a product and it's running low on stock or just a reminder that that's still available, they'll get sent an automated push or we have automated push campaigns for abandoned cart, which work really well for us, and then we have other ones like win back series if someone hasn't been on the app in a while or VIP customers, if someone's spent a certain amount, we will then send them a push notification just prompting them to come back to the app or offering them something such as discount code.
Felix: Got it. Anyone who wants to learn more can go Shoppex, S-H-O-P-P-E-X.co. Now we'll talk a little bit about marketing to new followers who are not your customers yet. You mentioned that you guys are advertising on Instagram. Could talk to us a little bit more about this, like what goes into the ads when it comes to the creative and the copy itself when you are advertising on Instagram?
Rory: So in terms of the creative, again, similar to what we do on our standard Instagram posts, but we're looking for products which we think are going to grab attention and bright and colorful and we like to use a mixture of product types as well so that whoever this ad is going out to, we're more likely to engage with them. So yeah, we use a range of product types and try and keep it exciting for our customers. That's pretty much it.
Felix: I just want to talk a little bit about, so your business model just by the nature of it is selling one off products, can you talk to us about the complexities and the difficulties with scaling up a business that sells one off products?
Rory: Yes, so it's a very manual process in terms of what we do in pro business model. So every item that comes in to our store, we need to prep for sales. So we need to wash it, measure it, picture it and list it, and then once that's listed online, we may do some marketing content on it if it goes to our Instagram channels or we'll push on our social media and then it's sold. But it's a lot of effort going into selling one piece and what is frustrating is when we have some products which we know we could sell hundreds of and you only have one of them. That is, the thing that is frustrating, but it's, a manual manual process. I think we're very slick at what we do here now that we get up at least 150 items onto the website every day. So we're also working out a very efficient level on that. But again, we still want to scale the business, but it just means, a lot more people to make sure that we can get the stock listed online and shipped out as well.
Felix: Wow, so 150 new items every day, any given time, like how many skews do you have up on the website?
Rory: It ranges from around 4,000 anywhere up to 8,000 skews.
Felix: Wow, that's definitely a ton to manage. Now when you are getting 150 new items, again these one off items, most of the time, what's your method for sourcing it as scaly, how do you source for a business like yours?
Rory: So we've got a number of suppliers that work for us from around the world. So it is a constant battle making sure we stay on top of it and make sure we've got enough stock coming in and that can be quite difficult to manage, but ultimately we've got many suppliers who know what we're after and we stay in regular contact with them to make sure that they're looking for the stock that we want. So yeah, again, we try and have a broad product range as well so that our customers are seeing a range of brands, a range of product types and we control new brands out pretty easily and see how they sell, and yeah, there's a lot of stock that we have coming in. We have at least a thousand pieces coming in every week. So it's a lot of work staying on top of it.
Felix: Amazing. So we mentioned, we talked about Shoppex already for the mobile shopping app experience, what are other some apps that you use to help run the business?
Rory: Say some other apps for our Shopify apps, we love Loyalty Lion. That's a really good loyalty program for us which we've been running for a few years, and another one is Klaviyo or Klaviyo, however you pronounce it. That's really transformed our email marketing. And yeah, you mentioned earlier Shoppex is another one of our important tools.
Felix: When it comes to your loyalty program, how does that work? How do you set up your loyalty program to incentivize people to keep on returning and purchasing?
Rory: So we offer points for a range of things. Obviously refer a friend is one that we really like so we give points out for that. We even do a few points for visiting the website, just to keep people coming back on a regular basis and that keeps our website views high and then we offer points for birthdays as well and of course on purchases so yeah, we offer extensive loyalty points on those various reasons [crosstalk 00:42:14].
Felix: Got it. Which action is your favorite for your customer to take? Is it referring a friend, is a visiting the website? Which one do you think is most impactful for the business?
Rory: Referring friend is probably the one we try and push and get more points too, just as it gets us in front of potentially a whole new customer who we've never engaged with before, and then making a purchase as well. We like to reward people for that as well.
Felix: Awesome. So again, we mentioned Shoppex, which is the mobile app, a shopping experience, truevintage.com is the website. And I'll leave it as last question, what do you think needs to happen this year for you to consider this year a success?
Rory: This year, we are looking to upscale and increase our revenue by 30%. So we've got pretty ambitious targets, but we're moving to a new warehouse space and we think that can definitely be achieved. So we're looking at increasing the product offering and the amount we're putting online, and then going from there. But that's our main goal is just to get our revenue up and provide a better experience for customers in terms of our website and our app, and yeah, there's a few things we've got on the horizon, which are exciting, but our customers will see those later this year if they stay tuned to our social channels or app.
Felix: Awesome. Thank you so much for your time, Rory.
Rory: Cheers, Felix.