A small, low clothes rack divides the office in two. Beyond dots, staring eyes and gaping zips sits Salla Romppanen. She loads paper in the printer and gets packing another order.
The Polish family company Zombie Dash was only at the beginning of its clothing conquest when Salla fell in love with the brand. The company’s idea, values and impact spoke to Salla and she started importing Zombie Dash clothes to Finland as part of her import company’s range.
“Zombie Dash and I met when a mutual contact brought us together in 2015. I went to meet them for the first time to see what kind of range they had and whether their product would suit my import business. You could tell that they had found their idea brilliantly and that they had clearly developed something new,” Salla remembers.
Demanding fan base gets an online store
Zombie Dash is aimed at toddlers and children. It has also made clothes suitable for adults following customer requests. Salla thinks little boys’ fathers and mothers, in particular, love the clothing range.
“People have been wanting something new, particularly in boys’ fashion. Even though Zombie Dash is leisurewear, it’s still stylish. The patterns and models are dramatic, but you’d still dare to go to the shop wearing Zombie Dash,” Salla says with a laugh.
What drove Salla to start up an online store was that as an importer alone, the clothes found their way to Finnish shops too slowly. The growing Zombie Dash “fan base” on social media began to demand more.
“Opening an online store was based purely on the customers’ desires. They can order products easily and they are now available from more places than just resellers.”
The Zombie Dash online store has garnered customers’ respect for such things as having a good mobile site. Over 80% of Zombie Dash site visitors have browsed products on a mobile device.
“Shopify is smart”
A varied background in customer service roles prepared Salla for her own online store, including the launch phase. She had some idea of what the day-to-day running of an online store would entail.
"The Shopify online store template is quite smart. It thinks about things for me."
“Maybe on surprise has been how much updating, page maintenance and servicing there is to do every day. More content needs to produced and the product information needs to be exact.”
The online store was built for Salla on the turnkey principle. However, she kept closely abreast of Woolman in the planning and content building.
“I wouldn’t have had the technical know-how to set up an online store. A working online store is the fundamental basis for business.”
An online retailer’s working day consists of gathering, packing and posting orders. Is there anything that could be done even more easily?
“The Shopify online store template is quite smart. It thinks about things for me. I’ve found Shopify easy and very functional,” Salla says.
Towards new things: content production and blogging
With Zombie Dash, it’s been important for Salla to ensure that product information and descriptions are accurate.
“The product information has to be informative for the customer. The customer knows what they’re ordering and the product matches what the description says. A lot has been invested in that, as it has in good product images.”
Salla is planning to start blogging on her Zombiedash.fi site. She thinks it’s important for the site to have diverse information that is not just there for search engines.
“The blog generates natural content for the site. It’s an easy way for customers to find out about products, and about events and fairs that the online store is taking part in.”
Customers can also shop for Zombie Dash products on Instagram. The main social media channel for the company is Facebook, however. Something that eases the clothing brand’s social media work is that its relaxed, colourful product images engage people to like, comment and share.
“I’ve found making content and posts very easy. Content production and marketing on social media channels comes surprisingly naturally.”
Salla Romppanen believes that in future she will need Woolman to support the technical maintenance of her online store. When she finds help for that, she can focus on what’s most important: customers.
“As an entrepreneur and merchant there’s no real working time. Customers’ messages get answers quickly. Working days can be of any length and any nature. This job is not nine-to-five,” Salla says.
