The Coronavirus continues to devastate lives and livelihoods all over the world. Many companies and owners have had to react quickly to make the most out of selling their goods and services. The Coronado Times recently spoke with Kari Ursitti about launching the online version of her “temporarily closed” physical store, Sweet Soles, which is located at 957 Orange Avenue.
Congrats on your online store! Can you give us a little background on getting it launched?
We have been interested in creating an online presence since December. Of course we had no idea the scope of such a project. In our naive approach to this project, we thought we could convert the store over a weekend with a concentrated effort. As we were thrust into a full stop from our ability to sell from our storefront, we quickly took on the project to add all of our shoes to the website. We greatly underestimated the magnitude of what we had committed to. My husband and I took a crash course on web design, bar coding, inventory management and marketing online. From the day we closed the store until yesterday, we barcoded over 350 shoe styles which is approximately 3,000 individual boxes of shoes in every shape, size and color. This allows us to track all shoes sold online and still maintain exact inventory counts when people are back to shopping on Orange Ave. Unfortunately, March and April are extremely busy times of year for us and we are feeling the same economic impact as the rest of the world at the moment.
Can you share the type of products you now offer online?
All types of shoes. I like to compare us to the variety of Nordstrom without the depth of inventory. I offer everything from athletic to a night out. We have On Running, one of the most popular running shoes available today, Steve Madden, Sam Edelman and had just started selling Paul Green shoes which is a high quality shoe that woman who wear them, know how comfortable they are the that they last for years. I hope to be adding some of my athletic brands to the website soon.
Any specials we can share with our readers?
I have a huge sale section with 40% off and will be adding to that ongoing. I am also offering free delivery in Coronado.
Parting thoughts?
We are optimistically hopeful we can find an audience during this time of quarantine. We are doing our best to support the local restaurants and hope those who like to shop online, might consider Sweet Soles first.
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