FlintFinds is a vintage clothing reseller who primarily sold on marketplaces such as Deepop and Ebay but as their brand grew and their stock increased they decided to invest in their own ecommerce store to grow their existing customer base and manage inventory more effectively so approached Build a Brand after a personal recommendation.

The Problem

FlintsFinds was established by Issy Flint, a dedicated enthusiast of sustainable fashion and vintage clothing during COVID in 2020, who whilst working from home like many of us during those times decided to start selling pre-loved vintage clothing online.

Issy initially began selling on various marketplaces like eBay, Deepop, and Instagram. However, as FlintsFinds expanded its product range and received more orders, Issy realised the difficulties associated with managing product merchandising and orders spread across multiple platforms. Whenever she listed a unique item on multiple platforms, it would quickly sell on one, causing a poor customer experience for those enquiring about the same item on another platform. Additionally, the influx of customer service enquiries from different platforms hindered Issy's efficiency, resulting in missed opportunities and potential sales losses.

As FlintsFinds continued to grow rapidly, they had the chance to establish a physical store in Thornham, Norfolk, which would bring about additional challenges in terms of managing their inventory.

During a pop-up shop event, Issy encountered someone with whom she shared her difficulties, realising that her own website could offer a potential solution. This individual happened to have prior experience working with our team and thus recommended Build a Brand to Issy. After conducting online research and reviewing our feedback, Issy reached out to us for assistance.

The Solution

After meeting with Issy it was decided that a hosted ecommerce store on the Shopify platform would be the best solution for FlintsFinds.

The Benefits of Shopify for ecommerce

Shopify provides merchants like FlintFinds with a streamlined store setup process and simple day-to-day management using powerful content management systems (CMS). This is in contrast to what most open-source platforms offer, along with built-in hosting, shopping cart features, and sales channel integrations, all without extra costs or integrations, thus saving time and money.

• Endless customisations:  Fully customisable website, online store, and blog 

• Grow without limits:  Unlimited bandwidth, product inventory, and customer data 

• Sell everywhere your customers are:  Integrate with sales channels like Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and more 

• Access world-class support:  24/7 award-winning customer support 

• Industry leading security and reliability:  256-bit SSL certificates, Level-1 PCI compliance, and 99.99% uptime

Issy provided the website images and content, which helped cut down on the costs for her project. By using a free theme, she was able to cover the expenses without needing any financial support or external investments, unlike many other businesses. This allowed Issy to concentrate on launching her brick-and-mortar store while we developed her online store.

.

Design and UX

For FlintsFinds, we opted for the free Shopify theme 'Taste,' which provides a strong brand presence and a vintage aesthetic. The theme features bold headlines, delicate lines, industrial fonts, and a high-contrast colour scheme against a subtle backdrop, creating an atmosphere of premium vintage.

Within the Taste theme, product sections are designed to accommodate larger product cards, perfect for showcasing clothing items, highlighting special products, and using accordions to assist customers in making well-informed purchase decisions.

Moreover, the theme's product filters allow visitors to easily search for products based on type, colour, and size.

Inventory Management

Issy visited us at Build a Brand HQ to learn how to effortlessly add products to her store and efficiently manage her inventory for both her online and physical locations. Additionally, she was shown how to easily expand her reach by publishing to various sales channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest with just one click. By utilising a product feed, FlintsFinds Shopify catalogue can now be seamlessly shared across Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms, eliminating the need for duplicating content and enabling smooth multi-channel inventory management.

Managing sales across multiple channels is no longer optional; it’s essential for staying competitive with other online retailers. This makes inventory management both critical and more complicated. Customers don’t care about where your products are stored, they just want to know if they’re available and when they can get them.

Ongoing Help and Support

We produced a PDF guide for Issy’s reference for the basic management of her store as well as signposting to Shopify's extensive online library of resources. This will help her in the future as she grows her team that she has a PDF to use for training new team members.

Great service from start to finish! Really happy with how my website has turned out, and how well it was all explained to me!

Issy Flint - Founder of FlintsFinds

If you are looking for an ecommerce solution for your business Build a Brand are Shopify Partners with extensive knowledge of the platform and have been helping businesses set up online stores for over 5 years with great success.

Visit our website -  Build a Brand - for further information and additional case studies. We can also help you with your brand identity, positioning and marketing materials too!

If you’re ready to discuss your ideas then you can book in for a free consultation with Build a Brand’s founder, Gemma Alexander - BOOK NOW