When we were an e-commerce success story in Spain through Shopify

A little over a year ago I received an email informing us that Shopify, one of the largest online commerce platforms in the world, chose us as a success story in Spain. This news meant enormous emotion and great recognition for us in this tough and competitive world of online service.

I leave you with the interview that Frank Calviño did with so much affection and was published by Pablo Golán from Shopify in December 2019. You will understand a little about how we were born, how hard the beginnings were, the work behind all this, which is not everything is Pinterest and who accompanies me every day (in the shadows) behind La Fiesta de Olivia.

I really hope that it will help you if you are about to start a business, or if you have been breaking stone for some time, or even if you are about to throw in the towel... I almost threw it twice! And here we are... THANK YOU ⚡️❤️⚡️

Marcela Coo Success Story

Spain in 2009 was in the midst of an economic emergency, hit by the worst housing bubble in its history. The general mood was one of absolute decay. The words "crisis" "cuts" "YOU" and "evictions" were the commonplace of all the news. That is why it is doubly incredible that Marcela Coo has chosen precisely that moment to start her online project: Olivia's Party . An idea full of light, which came in complete darkness. An idea that is the fruit and reflection of his passion: Making the great moments of our lives memorable.

Olivia's Party It is an innovative project, a completely new business model in Spain, of which Marcela was the pioneer and of which she continues to be, almost alone, its only and greatest exponent. This project detected a need and a market that for the vast majority of people did not exist or was very hidden. Selling ideas for a party at your house, with the associated products to bring it to fruition - tablecloths, glasses, balloons and other joyous material - does not exactly sound viable or profitable. However, Olivia's Party it has broken all the paradigms and has established itself as an unquestionable reference in the Spanish market. This is his story.

Normally, when you talk to an entrepreneur who has set up an online store, you always find something fairly similar to other stores, with a twist that gives you a competitive advantage if the entrepreneur is successful and resourceful. But in your case it is incredible, because you have created an entire business model from scratch. How was Olivia's Party born?

M: Olivia's Party was born about ten years ago, in 2009, in the midst of the real estate crisis in Spain. I am a stylist and product designer, an industrial designer by profession, and I had an office where I was dedicated to interior design and when I saw the crisis I said: I have to do something that I enjoy and that I believe will continue to be a business. Because mothers in the end stop spending on other things, but they will always celebrate their son's birthday.

The theme produced parties, what is said produced, is not very common in Spain. Here… that was not in style. Or am I wrong?

M: Not at all, you're absolutely right! I have a Swiss mother and a Chilean father and the truth is that in Chile, where I grew up since I was little, decoration for parties and events was always given great importance . But here in Spain there was no tradition or culture of that. I saw that a very American and English trend was coming, that they have a lot of culture of celebrations and beauty, and I said, I am going to bring products that I can design that are not licensed and that will take you back to the children's party in all life: cowboys, pirates, princesses.

And then you started selling the products needed to set up your own children's party at home. What audience were you targeting with this?

M: Look at the beginning nobody believed in this. Everyone thought I was crazy. Nobody understood the business model. But I thought that maybe there was a profile of a woman who likes "art and craft", who liked to cook and throw her party like me. I thought: there must be more women like me who have a great time with this. Olivia's Party was born after I threw my eldest daughter's party. Something I enjoyed and still enjoy very much, I am passionate about it. So nothing, I was encouraged to pursue this idea, and I set up a website by myself. That first website was super basic and I prepared some party kits and at the beginning Olivia's Party was called “Your Party in a Box”.

Marcela's beginning in the world of e-commerce instinctively already touched one of the keys to the success of any online venture: offering a service that makes life easier for the customer. Beyond the product to be sold, beyond its quality, what really makes Marcela's idea powerful was the fact of placing everything you needed to put together the party, in the same box. This vision, of offering the client a collection of products that would allow them to set up their party without the need for anything else, is precisely one of the keys to the success of an online venture: not offering products, offering solutions.

And how was that first store? Was it a very strong investment that you had to make to start?

M: No, not at all. It had many product references and very few units of each one. It seemed that my website had a lot of products but in reality it had very few units of each product. It seemed that it was super big but in reality everything could fit in a closet - he laughs -; then Shopify came along and for me it was brutal. Because it was easy to use. I am a designer and I half took my photos and I did everything myself, because for me it was fantastic. Mine was the first website or the second in Spain to use Shopify.

Marcela is living proof that to undertake what you must have is a will of steel, a good idea and a lot of dedication. Money is secondary. Especially when we talk about e-commerce. That is one of the great advantages of Shopify stores: that they allow you to do the experiment with a very small investment.

And I imagine that at first you were alone. TRUE?

M: The first three years really yes, but then my husband Guillermo Martorell, who now has a Shopify Experts agency, joined the project. By the way, he messed with Shopify precisely because of Olivia's Party . Guillermo worked for many years at Apple and is very used to things done well, with excellence, with quality. And one day he came to me and said “hey, I got this e-commerce platform that's as good as Apple, but for e-commerce and it's called Shopify” and so we started working with Shopify.

Marcela's husband is indeed one of the most solid and recognized partners of Shopify in Spain. Your company WINC is a powerful ally that helps Iberian brands to develop their e-commerce platforms with Shopify and is part of the ecosystem of Partners and Experts in Shopify, which guarantee the confidence and efficiency of Shopify as an e-commerce platform in Spain. .

M: Guillermo, when he saw Shopify, told me "I have found a platform that works in the United States and it is much better, let's go to the best one"; Guillermo became such a fan of Shopify because of how easy it was to set up a website. We are talking about 8 years ago, I promise you that in Spain at that time there was nothing. And so, through Olivia's Party, many people began to arrive who were interested in the way we had set up the online store, in the store itself, and customers began to arrive.

 Olivia's Party , more than selling the props to create a theme party, what it sells are memories for the future. It sells you the opportunity to build a memorable moment. To create that memory that you and your loved ones will carry with you for the rest of your lives. It is to feel the celebrations again for what they really are: a space to share with the family, something that must be born from us, from our hands and our hearts, something intimate made by ourselves and offered to our friends and family to enjoy. about it in public.



There is a whole tide of people who follow you through blogs. Why do you think the blog has hit so hard?

M: Olivia's Party was born as a 100% online shop. And I to generate content, because I couldn't afford Google Adds or anything, I became strong in the blog. There is a large audience of women who are open to listening and putting into practice the things we talk about on the blog . Making the party with your own hands for your child, your loved one, is very powerful. So, as a result of the blog , Editorial Planeta approaches and asks me to write a book . And so from the book the line of the party planner brand was born.

That is, now in addition to offering all the products you need for the party, you also offer the service of setting up the party as such. Correct?

M: Yes. Now if we do the parties, we set up the parties. That new product is the Olivia Events Party. And we don't want to separate it from the brand because Olivia's Party is so well positioned, we think it might be a mistake to separate the new business unit from the original.

Many people see the parties that you show as examples on the blog and are surprised. Sometimes it seems that there is too much work behind it. Is La Fiesta de Olivia a brand only for people who have plenty of time to invest in organizing a birthday?

M: No. Look, I'm Chilean and my idea of ​​La Fiesta de Olivia was that it was born as a very open brand. When we started, nine years ago, these super-detailed parties where everything is in its place, they did not exist. My brand was never focused on that type of party, it was focused on recovering that festive part of life, of cowboys and Indians, of being able to set up a cute corner in a communion , that mothers set it up themselves, that they enjoy the process of mount it and that with four things well arranged and well assembled you achieve a super memorable day. And not this bombastic thing that we see through Instagram and Pinterest. and in that sense Olivia's Party continues to be that: recovering the joy of creating with your hands that special moment for your loved ones. The idea is that you set up the store yourself and give you all the options so that you can set it up.

One walks through your online store and realizes that there is a huge inventory. How do you manage the issue of logistics and inventory? What guarantee do I have that if I buy a product from you it will arrive on time?

M: We guarantee that everything you buy in the store will arrive within 24 hours. That is a real challenge. Because right now we have more than 3,000 references in Stock. And in order to fulfill that promise we have had to make sacrifices and set limits, for example, we do not sell anything that we do not have in stock. We don't do dropshipping or anything like that. What I have in my hand is what I am selling you.

Do you feel that not doing dropshipping has harmed you?

M: Sometimes it hurts you at the billing level. But I believe that good service is worth it. 65% of our customers repeat. That is a very good number. And they repeat because the quality is felt. Our box that arrives to you is made with love, a pretty box arrives well assembled with its tissue paper, with a cute note. We are obsessed with service. We cannot compete in speed against an Amazon, but in care and affection. We are a team of seven people who make sure that the order goes out and that it goes out as you would like to receive it. Many times it has made me want to store everything in an industrial warehouse and have a company come to do everything, shipping and ticking, but for my product it is very complicated. And first is the quality of our service and the satisfaction of our customers. We are not selling party balloons and napkins, for that go to a Chinese, my goal is to sell you an experience, give you joy that you can share with your family and friends. We want to sell you a memory in the future.

"We cannot compete in speed against Amazon, but in care and affection. And first is the quality of our service and the satisfaction of our customers."

I understand that the online store is super adapted to its specific audience. Correct?

M: Yes, for us the customization options by Shopify collection have been fundamental, for example. Our client, I say client because 95% of our clients are women, between 25 and 42 years old, or girlfriends or women who have just had a baby and with children of birthday party age, buy by category. Nobody comes to my store to buy a red balloon. They come to my store to buy the complete party. Because we give her everything already chewed up, we give her the balloon that matches the tablecloth, because we are super careful and meticulous with the collections. I guarantee that this fairy party will match everything: napkins, balloons, tablecloth, candles, accessories, everything. We spend all day organizing collections.

On Instagram they have also achieved excellent results. Have you already integrated it into the store?

M: Yes. The truth is that Instagram Shop works very well for us. It opened up a fairly strong fan base for us because our brand sells a lot visually. For us photography is the basics. And in fact it is a very aspirational product, because you see a very nice party set up or you see a very nice wedding set up and you want the same thing. Then it will depend on whether you are good at it or not and you have something similar left. But in principle for us Instagram is something very important.

The page is super visual. You can tell that they have chosen a Shopify theme that allows them to take advantage of the enormous visual appeal that your service and products have. Do you do your own photography?

M: Normally yes. We spend the day doing the photography, updating the page, changing the images or the design. In that, Shopify is also excellent, because it allows us to modify the entire visual aspect very quickly and very easily. Product that we put on sale, and of which we do not have a good photograph, we take it ourselves. At Olivia's Party we work with professional photographers, who know what we are looking for and what we want. Eight years ago nobody gave you photos, the suppliers I mean, and we had to take them ourselves. That's why we have a corner where we do studio photography.

Olivia's Party Instagram Shop

In reference to the fact that 9 years ago none of this business model practically existed. Do you feel like you've fought an uphill battle?

M: Yes, in fact they thought I was crazy. Nobody believed in what we were doing. And online they didn't understand it much either. When I saw that this more or less had a way out, when I saw that it was beginning to take flight and was beginning to have a certain inertia, I was very close to starting to sell licenses - Marcela refers to products with designs of well-known characters, cartoon franchises and superheroes or copyrights of big brands - because they asked me a lot. But I don't want to go near a Party Fiesta or an Amazon, because it would destroy the identity of Olivia's Party. For those licensing products there is already a very competitive market with very narrow margins. We don't want to compete with that. We are seven people who make the box by hand, and if we see that the blue of the tablecloth does not match the blue of the glass, we call the client and talk to her. We don't want to sell you things for the party, we want to have the party with you.

You who work helping others make their moments memorable. What do you think was the most memorable moment of Olivia's Party?

M: I think that the moment when the first order that was not from a family member came in made me very excited, it was super important to me and she continues to be our client. At that time we couldn't deliver so quickly and I called her and told her: don't worry, I'll deliver it to you. We have also gone through very bad times, how we are going to pay suppliers and how we make ends meet, we have broken a lot of stone.

Have you thought about giving up?

M: Yes, I've thought about it twice. I thought: maybe I'm being too stubborn with this and this has no way out. But it has given me a lot of peace of mind to have my husband. Guillermo gives me the financial part, my profile is more creative, and he is much more structured. This has become a family business, it is a couple achievement. And now I know exactly what I can spend and what I can't spend, because this business requires enormous planning. For example, I am now buying Christmas and the summer of next year.

From your experience as a pioneer in Spanish e-commerce and also as an innovator in a business model that you practically invented on your own. Do you feel that the Spanish market has changed?

M: The Spanish public has changed a lot, we now have very loyal clients, clients who every fortnight place orders from 30 euros to 40 euros. And we already know them.

Now you also have a physical store in Barcelona. Do you still have Shopify in the physical store as well?

M: Of course I do! Shopify is basic. We have the POS - point of sale - by Shopify, I think it was the first POS that was bought in Spain. Because they told us that they were going to take it out and we were waiting for it. When they ask me, I tell them in one go: Leave it, I don't know what platform you have, but leave it and come to Shopify. If you want quality something you have to pay. Shopify is quality, they respond to you at the moment. You send a message and they reply. Shopify is versatile, efficient, and for us, it has been a solution and an ally.

Marcela is a ray of light. Her voice is calm and you can tell, without the need for much effort, excited in every word she dedicates to this, her great life project. Olivia's Party works because the idea has been innovative, it has been very well executed, but above all, because the idea has mourners. Because Marcela and Guillermo love what they do, because this online business is more than a source of income, it is a vocation. And when things are done with care and efficiency, the result cannot be other than success.

Interview
Olivia's Party: A souvenir factory
Shopify Blog
Dec 11, 2019