THUNDER BAY — After more than 25 years of running a successful retail business in Thunder Bay, Diane Petryna, owner of Take A Hike and Take Two Boutique, is changing her operation to a digitally-driven company.
Enduring two years of pandemic hardships and the ever-changing retail landscape, Petryna says she has become a “pivoteur,” having to constantly re-adapt.
Out of frustration, she started using the internet to interact with her customers, enabling her to demonstrate her products and make sales without physical contact.
“What I have done out of desperation in the pandemic is started a live-stream shopping show on Facebook which is now on YouTube,” she said. “The show is called Shop with Diane. I explain to my customers, in detail, the non-clothing products that I have in my store, describe the features and benefits and share testimonials of my customers. I was shocked (to see) 75 people actually join me live. I could never imagine that many people in my store.”
In 1996, Petryna operated what she says was the only store in North America solely focused on the needs of women and their families who enjoy a casual lifestyle and the outdoors. After years of good sales, innovative marketing ideas and retail awards, the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions seriously hindered her clothing sales, forcing her to employ the internet.
“I was locked down, I could not sell clothing. My first month being locked down in the pandemic saw sales of under $2,000 for the month,” she said.
“My store has been sitting here with the women’s clothing, fall, winter, spring and summer in the basement because I got stuck in my tracks in a market that is not recovering.”
She says marketing specialists in retail sales determined the top predictions for 2022 focused on the popularity of live-stream shopping on social platforms. Unlike web pages with product pictures and prices, live-stream shopping offers a personal interaction through video.
This is evident with the many problems encountered with purchasing clothing items from a web page.
Petryna expanded her research into the live-stream marketing strategy and looked to Asian markets where she says they have “gone crazy” in terms of growth with this concept. She even self-funded a trip to Hong Kong to visit people who are on the leading edge of this technology.
“The pre-pandemic research showed the problem with selling clothing online is it doesn’t fit,” said Petryna.
“Reports were showing up to 60 per cent of clothing purchased online is returned. Oh my God. That is a huge environmental problem. It is a very costly venture for a business to be into that.”
Petryna says she didn’t go down that path and used her experience working with different brands and her customers to come up with an idea of how to get that fit without the customer physically being there — and her live-stream shopping show was born.
“People would tune in and place an order during or after the show,” she said. “It’s amazing because we’re standing outside (of the store) and the items are already prepaid, we’re physically apart and I’ve seen and helped people through the entire pandemic — coping or not.”
To date, she has hosted 88 shows.
“People come and watch the show regularly. They have built a community,” she said.
The people that comment or interact get to know each other and they feel like a community of kind-heart centred people. And that’s what it is. A beautiful group of people that come together every week and when we’ve given up our social groups physically, we’re using this as a new virtual community of really lovely people.”
Meanwhile, Patryna still has the problem of a store filled with clothes that she needs to liquidate to close down the storefront.
“I’ve got to get rid of that. I’ve got to get unstuck. I am sitting on the Titanic. . . . And I have first-class passage. But we know what happened to the Titanic,” she said, adding that she is not worried.
Located on McKellar Street, across from Fort William Gardens, Petryna’s store is a safe place to shop with an added greenspace for outdoor shopping as well. She will sell her clothing stock so that she can focus exclusively on her live-stream shopping show with her many other products.
The Chronicle Journal
