PROJECT SUMMARY
I began to develop the StormWhisper shop brand, as an extension of my Studio, focused on developing a line of physical merchandise inspired by my designs with themes ranging from nature to video game lore. I started a shopfront via Etsy with a line of enamel pins and within a few months sales grew so quickly that I was able to branch out, open a second storefront powered by Shopify and offer different product categories including digitally illustrated art cards, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, apparel, tech accessories, and jewelry worldwide.
A CHALLENGING REWARD
Learning to run both an shopfronts had been a rewarding challenge. I quickly had to adapt to ever changing e-commerce pain-points, be able to adapt to changes from the pandemic in 2019, governmental laws in different countries, navigate through inherit limitations with using both platforms, utilize social media as a marketing driver, collect leads for email newsletters, trial and error with manufacturing vendors, and all while prioritizing the user experience for customers to access high quality products to how they would receive their item upon delivery.
To keep the shopfronts consistent, whether the customer orders via Etsy or through Shopify, my theme was focused around earning "loot". A gaming term commonly found in the video game industry as an item collected by the player during their gaming journey. For my shop(s), this meant "loot" should feel like a reward or treasure that each customers would for progressing in the game, and for myself storefronts I wanted customers to feel their orders were 'rewards' of superior quality to items that are purchased.
INSPIRATIONS TO DESIGN BY
As my customer base grew new demands allowed for my creative to expand into new categories that included: illustrated art cards, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, and more. This even lead to collaborating with other artists and designers through contests and charities via streams and social media.
Designed, illustrated, and wrote out my own lore cards inspired by the lore from Destiny the Game..
Invited to join a Instagram giveaway
Resin piece from @OfStarlightDesigns
Resin piece from @OfStarlightDesigns
A NEW HOBBY SPROUTS
As my shop grew a few customers asked to create began to take on a new hobby, jewelry making. This fun hobby lead me to design and build a variety of wearable accessories including earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.
A FUN WAY TO BUILD RETENTION
My “loot" theme carried over into a variety of loyalty programs. This included earning points from purchases made in my main shop to be redeemable for discounts, Twitch stream rewards for my viewers for shop events, and designing a membership club that would act as a loyalty punch card. This membership club, customers would get Pixels (a mascot, I illustrated) as a thank you for joining my club and with enough purchases customers would receive a free pin.
As I refined my shop and brand, I established that a hand-written thank you note goes a long way. It builds a unique impression between B2C that results in many customers returning to continue their support of my artworks and brands. Using my marketing background, I got to work illustrating a total of 8 collectible postcards that would depict a “loot crate” (aka care package) design customers are able to keep as an additional thank you. Each order receives 1 random postcard design that not only acts as my thank you card but also my shop’s business card that is more likely to be displayed.
