Editorial Team
4 min read
“It turns out when you’re raised by entrepreneurs, no matter what job you do, you take it home at the end of the day.” Reluctant entrepreneur Jennifer Oosterhoff was between jobs when presented with a unique opportunity. Her favorite flower shop in Alberta, Canada went up for sale unexpectedly.
And while Oosterhoff was a loyal customer, she had zero experience in the floral business.
Fortunately, both of Oosterhoff’s parents are entrepreneurs. Their wisdom assured her that buying the shop was a good idea. All she needed was to tap into her superpowers: a combination of organizational practicality and creative instinct.
“Thankfully,” she explains, “I am both left- and right-brained and was able to merge those worlds together.”
In 2021, she became the proud owner of 3B’s Flowers.
The shop is located in Stony Plain, about 30 minutes west of Edmonton in Alberta’s picturesque tri-county area. The original owner named 3B’s after her beloved dogs, Buddy, Bailey, and Barney. Not only did Oosterhoff retain the business name, she also commissioned portraits of the canine trio to honor their memory. The floral shop now has a new mascot: Edison, Oosterhoff’s energetic Corgi.
Oosterhoff worked hard to win the trust of the talented staff of floral experts. The business was a Stony Plain staple, and she had big plans for rebranding and modernizing the physical space. It was crucial that her staff was comfortable with all of these changes and that their workspace was efficient. In addition, Oosterhoff rearranged the layout to create a cozy break room where everyone could relax and enjoy a meal.
However, the shop’s original sales technology was another matter. It was hopelessly inefficient. “They had to use different merchant and POS services, so you were forced to handle a bunch of extra work to tie them together.”
After researching her options, Oosterhoff opted to bring in Clover.
“Changing over to Clover completely streamlined our process,” she says. “On holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day, the shop has person after person coming in and the Station Duo is so fast and easy. I’m grateful to have a gorgeous-looking machine that actually works.”
The staff eagerly embraced their new Clover POS system.
“My team ranges in age from younger than me to close to retired, and I really wanted something that would be easy for everyone to learn. Clover integrates the complete inventory, which is huge because nothing was inventoried in the past.”
Oosterhoff admits to being “picky” about Virtual Terminal integration due to renovating the online shop as well. Formerly a Teleflora hub, 3B’s Flowers had become an independent business, which meant they could develop a streamlined and user-friendly website to maximize sales.
She also noticed that people put a lot of effort into greening their homes during the pandemic, so the shop and the website were reconfigured to feature more houseplants.
“I saw great value in offering more than floral arrangements. We’ve really grown the plant community in Stony Plain, and we even get people coming from the city just to shop for plants. Managing inventory through Clover is huge, because of the store/website integration. People order a lot of plants online.”
Her entire staff is comfortable working with their Clover Station Duo.
“They use all the connected features like Homebase. When our plant containers arrive, there’s an Easy Labels app which auto generates SKUs and adds them to the Clover inventory. Everything is synched, so we update Ecwid automatically, print the labels and get product photos onto the website in record time.”
Modernizing and expanding the shop’s offerings has paid off in many ways. In her first six months of business, Oosterhoff was nominated for the “Young Entrepreneur Award of Distinction” with the Greater Parkland Regional Chamber of Commerce. Not bad for a small business novice.
Read more about the ways that entrepreneurs use Clover’s services to reduce inefficiency and accelerate their business growth in our Meet the Merchant series.
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