How to grow sales as an independent retail store
In this episode of the Tekpon SaaS Podcast, host Cristian Dina interviews Elliot Djmal, the CEO of Material Retail. Material Retail is a company that helps small independent retailers with their businesses both in-store and online. They offer an all-in-one suite of tools, including a POS system, a fashion marketplace, and an agency for marketing services.
The biggest problem that Material Retail solves for its clients is the lack of demand in the e-commerce space. It’s easy for brick-and-mortar boutiques to create a website and put their products online, but generating traffic and sales is difficult. Material Retail solves this problem by providing a high-traffic marketplace where retailers can list their inventory and start getting sales. They also help clients manage the complexities of running a brick-and-mortar shop by syncing all their data and inventory in one place. The system uses this data to automate marketing activities, such as sending automatic text messages based on customer behavior and sending reminders about loyalty reward points.
One of the standout features of Material Retail is its loyalty and testing tool. When customers sign up for a loyalty program at a retail store, their information is captured and stored in the system. Material Retail then uses this data to create customized triggers, such as sending text messages on birthdays, notifying customers about loyalty rewards, and reminding them to shop if they haven’t done so in a while. These triggers can be personalized with the retailer’s tone and language, creating a one-to-one messaging experience. This feature helps bring customers back into the store and increase customer retention.
Our guest was not the founder of the company. He was a customer for five years before joining as a consultant. He eventually fell in love with the company and its mission and became co-CEO in early 2020. The company launched 2012 a marketplace and expanded to offer a SaaS platform in 2018. Material Retail currently has a team of about 18 people working on their overall operations. With their all-in-one suite of tools, personalized support, and high-traffic marketplace, Material Retail aims to help small independent retailers thrive in brick-and-mortar stores and online.
