One integral part of our daily lives is the clothes we wear. Before, humans used to create their clothing. Now, it has become one of the largest industries in the world. Still, those passionate about making their clothes at home have a niche in the market. That is where the fabric, craft, and sewing supplies store help fill that niche for the everyday consumer. More and more people are sewing every year, and the market is growing.
According to IBIS World’s statistics, the US’s fabric, craft, and sewing supplies stores have grown to 4.6 billion USD and will continue to grow. Additionally, eCommerce sales make up to 15% of it. That shows there is still growth in the industry and new avenues in the online market where businesses can thrive.
Today, we will highlight a retail store under the sewing giants of Berina called the Bernina Of Naperville. They are a successful store under the Bernina franchise in Naperville, Illinois. They run both a brick-and-mortar store and an online Shopify store. However, their success story is not without overcoming hurdles on Shopify. So, let’s see how they overcame those challenges and ran a successful online store.
From Owning A Bernina To Opening A Bernina Store
At the heart of Bernina Of Naperville is Gayle Donahue. She always wanted a sewing machine but was always denied by her parents. Her passion for sewing ignited when she owned her first Bernina sewing machine, eventually leading to the opening of her first Bernina store, Strawberry and Rhubard. That venture turned heads at Bernina, who eventually bought the store and employed her at Bernina of America.
But after 10 years of working there as the marketing manager, Gayle wanted to return to her roots and open a Bernina store again. But this time, the store would be different. From making her costumes and various cosplays, she wanted to spread the joy of sewing to others. Enter: Bernina Of Naperville.
Bernina Of Naperville: The All-In-One Sewing Store
Bernina Of Naperville is a one-stop shop for all your sewing needs. Here is a look at what the store provides from their online store:
All the Bernina products related to the sewing machines are in the products tab. New and upcoming models and accessories for sewing machines are included. To compliment that, Bernina Of Naperville also sells sewing kits and fabric to get sewist started in on their sewing adventure. Here is a list of fabrics, threads, and notions sold by Bernina Of Naperville:
- Pre-Cuts
- Apparel
- Project and Embellishment Kits
- Patterns
- Thread
- Notions
- Embroidery Essentials
- Batting
- 108″ Wide Quilt Backing
And finally, Bernina Of Naperville provides its customers with services and classes. Sewing machines are expensive and last up to 2 decades if appropriately maintained. To help with that, Bernina sewing machine owners can visit the store to get their machines looked at and serviced. Bernina Of Naperville also provides classes for all types of sewing enthusiasts. They even hold events where the actual owner of Bernina, Hanspeter Ueltschi, comes to the store to unveil a brand new Bernina machine to community events for all sewing enthusiasts.
But even being an all-in-one brick-and-mortar store, Bernina Of Naperville had one big problem on their Shopify store that they needed to overcome to allow their eCommerce store to shine as much as their physical store.
The Problems Of Selling In Fractional Quantity On Shopify For Bernina Of Naperville
Some stores sell their products based on fractional quantities. Think of grocery stores selling products based on weight. The price of the product depends on its weight. That is how the stores can price the product based on weight and be able to sell in fractional quantities or not-whole-number quantities.
The 1st Problem: Selling Fractional Quantities For Fabric
Let’s say you sell fabric in your eCommerce store and want to sell a quarter yard of fabric. But when you go on Shopify to list it as such, the quantities in the admin panel do not support fractional quantities. This makes it rather difficult to maintain inventory on the backend while selling correct amounts to customers.
Bernina Of Naperville faced this issue when they started their eCommerce journey in 2019. Traditionally, Shopify does not divide the products into fractional quantities, and there are reasons for this. It would cause a massive mess if fractional quantities were counted for all products. So, to simplify, all products are set up as multiples of 1 and can only be sold in quantities of one. Meaning no fractional quantities can be sold.
The 2nd Problem: The Variant Limitation On Shopify
To address this problem with native Shopify options, Bernina of Naperville has to set up fabric variants in quarter yard, half yard, three-fourth yard, and one yard. However, there is another problem with this: Shopify’s variant limitations.
Shopify store owners are only allowed up to 100 variants with 3 options per product. 100 variants are acceptable at first glance. But then you realize that if Bernina Of Naperville has to sell in quarter yards as they intended, they could only go up to 25 yards before running out of variants.
Then you also run into the problem of multiple variants that add up, and it would be too many variants for Shopify. Keeping count of all the different value variants is another problem that Bernina Of Napier would have to deal with, creating more logistic issues for the store. Combine them all, and you can understand how problematic it is to sell products by measurement.
MultiVariants Bulk Order App: Bernina Of Naperville’s Fractional Quantities Solution
However, the great thing about Shopify is the advantage of the app store, which allows store owners to add third-party apps to help solve such a problem. Few apps can help with such a problem for the store’s unique problem of selling fabric by measurement. That is where the MultiVariants Bulk Order app became Bernina Of Naperville’s solution. Let’s see the product page for one of their fabric Speckled: 108-Metallic Wide Navy (1/4 Yard), and how Bernina Of Naperville is now able to sell fractional quantities for their fabric:
You can see a dropdown menu on the product page showing all the fractional quantities that Bernina Of Naperville has set for this product. It goes up in quarter yards, and each quarter counts as 1 quantity, as mentioned by the store owner. So what does this do? Bernina Of Naperville can count in fractional quantities to sell accurate fabric measurements.
Now, when you go over to the checkout page:
You can see that the 1.75 yards of fabric counts as 7 quantities as 7 quarters make up 1.75. This helps the store manage the inventory and sell accurate fabric measurements. The inventory count on the Shopify admin panel is being correctly counted, and Bernina Of Naperville can sell fabric length to its customers easily. At the same time, the store owner does not need to worry about running out of variants to list for their measurements.
With just one app, Bernina Of Naperville solved their two pressing issues: being able to sell in fractional quantities and get around the variant limits for each measurement variant. There is no mess up on the backend, and the company provides a seamless shopping experience for its customers who purchase fabric.
What Bernina Of Naperville Had To Say About Their Experience With MultiVariants Bulk Order App
You don’t have to take my word for it. Hear what Bernina Of Naperville had to say about their experience working with the MultiVariants Bulk Order app:
We started using this app to sell fractional quantities of fabric, and it’s solved a major headache since we opened our store in 2019. It would be great if Shopify were to support fractional quantities natively, but this gets us close enough. The setup was a little confusing, but the support was truly amazing. I used the online chat to get my questions answered, and they were terrific. It was timely and very helpful in getting us set up and running. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions; they are accommodating and friendly.
With MultiVarianats, Bernina Of Naperville can get around Shopify’s limitations and sell its fabric ideally.
Bottom Line
Bernina Of Naperville may have started in 2019, but they have owners with a wealth of experience in Gayle leading them. Sewing might be a niche hobby, but Bernina Of Naperville ensures they provide their customers with an unforgettable experience in their physical and online stores. Whether a customer wants to take up sewing for cosplay or is a veteran sewist, Bernina Of Naperville is the place for everyone.
