“Personalized products never go out of vogue.”

Mom entrepreneurs impress us all the time, but Shara Danziger seems to truly outdone herself. Shara thought that raising three children and running a unique gift and custom designed stationary and invitation brick and mortar store wasn’t hard enough so naturally she opened an ecommerce site called Confections by Shara’s Paperie.

Shara’s Paperie is Memphis Tennessee’s most original and exciting shop for all things paper! This store launched in 2004 is still alive and well, and she added an ecommerce site in 2008 where she sells direct to the consumer and through wholesale channels.

MO:
Congrats on all of your success, especially on your personalized clipboards being featured in Parents Magazine 2010 Gift Guide! What did that type of exposure do for Confections by Shara’s Paperie?

Shara:
The exposure that we received from being in the Gift Guide was huge! It drew our target market to our website and drove sales up considerably. We have also seen clients return to the site for other gifts that they need.

MO:
E-commerce sites are extremely different than the classic brick and mortar stores of the past. Can you tell us about the experience of opening up an e-commerce store?

Shara:
Honestly I found opening the ecommerce site much more challenging then opening the brick and mortar store. The web is so fluid and there are so many factors that go into designing a site. With a brick and mortar I could instantly tell if I liked what I had done with the store design and merchandise display, it is not as simple with building a site. I knew the look and feel that I wanted the website to have, but it also had to function flawlessly. The smartest thing I did was hire a local web design company to work with me on the project. There were lots of meetings with tons of post it notes to get the flow and functionality correct. Making it look fabulous was the easy part, working through the issues of how it actually performed on the back end was tough. Once it was up and functioning the challenge becomes driving traffic to the site. There was a learning curve about PPC, SEO, SEM, in-bound and out-bound links and so on. We work hard on keeping the site current, the blog updated and the site visible on the web.

MO:
Can you tell us about your background and how it led you to starting Shara’s Paperie and Confections by Shara’s Paperie?

Shara:
I have always been a graphic designer, always had a passion and love for paper, colors, typestyles and design. I was working freelance out of my home and realized that Memphis did not have a retail location for truly custom invitations, stationery and gifts. I recognized that niche and knew that we could open a business that could fill it. We in this case is myself and my husband David. Both of us felt that this was an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up. So we did our homework, got our financing together and opened Shara’s Paperie in October of 2004. Out of the knowledge and expertise that was gained from Shara’s Paperie, Confections was born. Confections by Shara’s Paperie is a line of personalized gifts, stationery and invitations.

MO:
The CFO of Shara’s Paperie is David Danziger. I’m guessing he is your brother or husband? Can you talk about the advantages and disadvantages of doing business with family?

Shara:
David is my husband. We have been very fortunate in that we love the opportunity to build these businesses together. Of course part of the reason it works so well is that the lines of responsibility are clearly drawn. For example, David sets the amount of cash that we can invest into inventory for every year. It is then up to me to decide what merchandise will be brought into the store. He would never suggest what I should buy and I make every effort not to go over budget.

MO:
You told us about purchasing more space for the store in 2007 right before the market crashed and then deciding to open the e-commerce store. Many people try to downsize in a bad economy but you actually expanded online. Tell us about this decision why it was the right decision for you?

Shara:
Looking back with hind site our timing could not have been worse for expanding our physical space. We signed a lease without an escape clause with landlords who are inflexible and not willing to work with us, so we were stuck so to speak. Basically we had to find another way to bring revenue into the company to help meet our obligations. It was apparent to us that we had something special with Confections by Shara’s Paperie, the trick was how to get it to out there. Ecommerce was the obvious solution because it allowed us to bring our product to those who were well beyond the reach of out brick and mortar store.

MO:
One of the most unique things about your company is that almost everything is customizable. How do you manage to offer this service and still keep costs reasonable?

Shara:
Personalized products never go out of vogue. So I knew that if we could offer a very full line of custom printed gifts that we could do well. The trick was finding the right products, printing techniques and vendors to work with us. We are constantly doing research to find products that we can personalize, that meet our quality standards and of course are fabulous!