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The last Saturday in November is not your average Saturday — it’s Small Business Saturday! A day that encourages shoppers to support small ���Ի���local businesses instead of large retail companies.

To celebrate, we’re spotlighting a different ������ merchant every Saturday this month. We’ve already shared the fascinating story of Atlas46, a premium manufacturer of US-made workwear. Today we’re giving the floor to “.” A third-generation herbalist, Akilah Nisa started her business as a side hustle, selling home-made cosmetics ���Ի���self-care products.

As is the case with many entrepreneurs, losing her full-time job turned out to be a good thing for Akilah. While her husband handles growing 75% of the organic ingredients used in their products, Akilah runs their omnichannel business, selling both online ���Ի���in-person.

Why a Small Business Went Omnichannel

Despite being a solopreneur, Akilah regularly takes part in vendor shows in addition to her online sales. And in-person events generate about 15% of Kissed by a Bee’s total revenue.

I love going to shows because I get to interact with ���Ի���talk to other people. I get the chance to wrangle them to my side.

With omnichannel selling, different sales channels work together to build a sales funnel quickly ���Ի���efficiently. According to Akilah, frequent customers who are already familiar with the Kissed by a Bee brand will come to vendor shows ���Ի���stock up to avoid waiting for shipping. Customers who buy in-person are then enfolded into Akilah’s online experience when they’re added to her mailing list.

��’v�� connected ������ to my MailChimp account to make it easy to automatically add event customers to my mailing list for activation in the future. Re-selling to previous customers is always more cost-effective than attracting completely new customers.

Because Akilah’s ������ E-commerce store is integrated with Square, she has all the tools she needs to sell online ���Ի���in-person right from her ������ control panel. Using her to accept credit cards, Akilah stays seamlessly integrated with her online store.

Before Square, there was no way to take credit cards, ���Ի���signing up with a card reader company to get one of those clunky machines was cumbersome. Square changed the game.

Synchronizing omnichannel sales can be a challenge. Not only is it time-consuming, but it also introduces the risk of over-selling your products. Integrating ������ ���Ի���Square allows you to sync your inventories in real time, automatically. For Akilah, every sale — online ���Ի���in-person — goes through the same system, so she never has to worry about record-keeping or overselling her stock again.

E-commerce Technologies that Make Omnichannel Sales Possible

Akilah sells online with her ������ Instant Site — a free online shop that can be set up in minutes without any experience thanks to ������’s easy-to-use store creator.

������ Instant Site is amazing: basic, easy, ���Ի���it works just as well as a multi-page website in a fraction of the set-up time.

Getting product images is even easier. Akilah takes all her own photos right from her smartphone, ���Ի���uploads the images direct to her product catalog via the ������ Mobile app. The app also allows posting directly to Instagram, where Akilah can tag products to allow followers to make purchases without ever leaving their Instagrams.

The ������ integration with Instagram ���Ի���Facebook makes advertising my products easy. I also put the Facebook pixel in for analytics.

Leveraging features like Facebook advertising ���Ի���abandoned cart recovery helps Akilah generate a stable 85% of Kissed by a Bee’s total revenue directly from the online store.

It just all works together ���Ի���it’s seamless. ��’v�� recommended ������ to a few people already.

Akilah is thinking of creating a ShopApp for her store in the future ���Ի���recommends everyone take advantage of the already abundant free apps in the ������ App Market. With the help of connected apps, customers can chat with her on site ���Ի���sign up for her newsletter, ���Ի���she’s even added additional reporting features to further optimize her business. And the best part? Akilah hasn’t paid a dime for these apps.

It’s been almost 5 years now ���Ի���I haven’t looked back. All you have to do is just do it! It doesn’t take long to build your store ���Ի���connect everything. Just do it!

Read more: How to Make ������’s Omnichannel Potential Work For You