This month, our Customer Spotlight shines on The Perfume Spot, a premier online retailer in the fragrance arena. Since its inception in 1999, The Perfume Spot has evolved from a family wholesale fragrance business into a top-10 retailer of perfumes, colognes, and beauty accessories, thanks to the visionary expansion by Steve and Jeff Kraidman.
From Humble Beginnings to Digital Pioneers
The early days of online selling were like being a cowboy in the wild West, consumers didn’t yet trust purchasing online, Amazon was only selling books, and the dominant search engine was Yahoo, SEO was a mere fever dream of the future. It was in this environment that The Perfume Spot identified their core strengths, great prices, quick fulfillment, and an in house customer service team so they can control the customer experience. Great experiences mean repeat buyers.
Embracing Automation: A Leap into the Future
By the mid twenty teens The Perfume Spot had a strong brand as an online seller, and was already well into the coming multichannel revolution. When it came to customer service or warehouse management Steve used his self taught coding chops to build systems in house, however stitching together inventory, tracking, product information, and orders was a daunting task . Steve surveyed the market for a channel automation platform and settled on the big guys.
Steve continued for several more years, however he began to notice a trend, his vendor didn’t treat him the same way he treated his customers. When he submitted a ticket, like clockwork they would tell him it wasn’t their problem. If a feed wasn’t showing up in a channel they would ask what browser he was looking in, like it should even matter! After several years of using the big guys it was clear that the initial automation failed to align with their customer-centric ethos and so it was time for a change!
Enter StoreAutomator
Steve called StoreAutomator and led with a big ask – an extremely abbreviated onboarding timeline despite having some of the highest order volumes of any StoreAutomator customer. After several weeks of meeting every day, sometimes multiple times a day, the Perfume Spot was in! When asked by our CEO Gökhan what the difference between StoreAutomator and the other guys was, Steve didn’t hesitate to say the service! When he called in, Steve was pleased to find that it wasn’t “that isn’t our problem,” but rather “let’s figure this out together!” (We try not to ask what browser he’s using either!)
The Perfume Spot Difference Beyond Software: Mastering Customer Experience
While StoreAutomator plays a crucial role in processing nearly ten thousand daily orders for The Perfume Spot, the true essence of their success lies in their unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction. From managing a sophisticated, home-grown warehouse management system to ensuring rapid delivery, even during the frenzy of Cyber Monday sales, The Perfume Spot excels in logistics.
The most important thing is to deliver and deliver quickly! When you can get ten thousand orders on Cyber Monday, delivering can be quite the challenge. The Perfume Spot does its part by running a home brew warehouse management system that you can learn more about in our vlog of our visit!
StoreAutomator’s Perfume Spot Visit
StoreAutomator for our part stepped up to the challenge as well, making sure our system could handle tens of thousands of orders a day. After a year together our journey with The Perfume Spot has been enriching, proving that collaboration and innovation are key to scaling the heights of online retail. Their story is not just about selling fragrances but about crafting memorable experiences for every customer. Join us in celebrating The Perfume Spot’s remarkable journey and stay tuned for more inspiring stories in our Monthly Customer Spotlight.
Check out https://theperfumespot.com/ and don’t hesitate to reach out to sales@storeautomator.com to inquire about powering a digital ecommerce transformation of your own!