Cook, Coke & Fork cooking school and gourmet kitchen supply store in Palatine opened nearly 10 years ago.
Provided by John Marler
These days you can shop for anything you want. Just open your favorite e-commerce app, tap, add to cart, and have it delivered to your door within a week.
Nearly 10 years ago, when my wife, Micah, and I first had the idea to start Cook, Coke and Fork, a culinary school and gourmet kitchen supply store in Palatine, we realized that online shopping had never been more of a beast. There was no.
Selling something as simple as a spatula was easier five years ago than it is now. But we've discovered that there's one advantage small retailers have that large e-commerce retailers can never achieve. It's a personal customer relationship.
Even before COVID-19, Micah and I have been focused on customer engagement strategies as part of our winning formula to compete with the big online retailers. That came true when he first started attending his Inspired Home show, the largest housewares trade show in the United States run by the International Housewares Association. For nine years, we've been going to shows and browsed hundreds of new items we'd never seen before. Shop homeware products to get ideas for new retail opportunities at Cook, Cork & Fork.
We have experienced how exciting it can be to participate in person and interact with vendors and their products. Since this is a private industry event, Mica had the bright idea one year to take her customers virtually and have them participate as part of the buying experience, and the rest is history. Ta.
We used Facebook Live to introduce our show to our viewers, highlight our favorite products, and solicit feedback from our viewers in real time. The response was so great that we've since expanded to Instagram Stories to engage more customers in fun new ways, including live polls where you can vote yes or no on products you're considering purchasing. Ta. This is an exciting way to connect with our customers and understand what products they can expect from Cook, Coke and Fork. On the contrary, customers will feel like they are part of our store and will go out of their way to come to our store and buy the very products they voted for.
Product surveys may seem fun and silly, but they certainly influence our purchasing decisions. One example is when she asked her Instagram followers to vote on her two colors of beautiful pakka wood tableware used in her 2023 show. Micah and I liked both the yellow and mint options. Not so for customers. Our poll results show that our viewers feel very strongly about Mint. And that was it.
In an age where Amazon is king, this kind of customer feedback is our advantage and the ultimate currency. When you announce the arrival of a product they voted for at The Inspired Home Show, your customers will be excited and come straight to the store. It brings them to the store and leads to a purchase. Thanks to our online presence, it happens every year. And we look forward to attending the show and doing it again every year.
What advice do you have for small retailers looking to grow their business? If you're in the home goods industry, register for The Inspired Home Show, which is closed to the public, and drive customers to your social media pages. I can't stress enough how important it is to see vendors and products in person. Start by involving your customers in everyday purchasing decisions and new product shipments.
Be sure to follow up with your customers regarding surveys. Tell them you bought a product based on their vote in a poll. Get people looking forward to seeing your products on the shelves by updating them when their packages arrive. As long as you have a strong passion for what you do and have some fun doing it, using social media to increase customer engagement will definitely have a positive impact on your business. We look forward to meeting retailers at the Inspired Home Show 2024 next March.
John Marler is co-founder and co-owner of Cook Cork and Fork in Palatine and can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CookCorkandFork/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram). com/). Cookcorkandfork/Daily, especially as he performs live at his Inspired Home Show March 17-19, 2024 at Chicago's McCormick Place.
