We sat down with Emily and Bucky Sparkle, the owners and operators of Inspirit Common to discuss the nature of their hybrid business and their decision to explore going from a brick and mortar business to a Bricks and Clicks business model - incorporating a web store in their already existing business.

About Inspirit Common

Inspirit Common is more than a metaphysical supply store. It's a veritable playground for seekers who are searching for something different from their shopping experience. Our serene shop is full of gifts with intention and everyday, practical tools for spiritual growth. Just entering the store gives most people a feeling of calm centeredness. Though we have thousands of items in stock, our merchandise is carefully selected by our buyers. We value locally produced wares and artful objects of high quality.

What made you start your brick and mortar presence?

After working in the corporate world for a combined 23 years, my partner and I decided it was time to do something different. He was a civil engineer with a new MBA and studying to be a yoga instructor. I was a creative-corporate-marketing-type who worked for a mind-body-spirit center on the weekends. The shop I worked in was in the process of closing, and we often fantasized we could create a center just like it based on a participatory model inspired by Burning Man. In April of 2004, I had one of those incredible medical experiences that makes you re-examine your life. It was clear to me that I could no longer sit behind a desk. By April of 2005 we were working on papers of incorporation, creating capital from a real estate sale on the good side of housing bubble. and planning our first buying trip.

Maya's Dream, the center that my shop was inspired by, was a respite for me when I was searching and finding my spiritual path. I learned so much there about alternative paths to the Divine and the magnificence of Mother Earth and the overlaps of the stories in ancient religions and neo-pagan tribes. I was drawn to elements of Goddess Spirituality, Bhuddism, Shamanism, Magic(k), Crystals and pretty much everything I learned about. In our business, we really want to provide that experience for others. So many people are searching for gentle alternatives to the religious paths of their youth, it's important to have safe places for seekers to learn, create and inspire themselves.

How have you managed getting physical traffic into the store?

We're on the busiest road in the area.  Most people transit by to the commerce and academic centers located a couple miles each side of us.  But we're something of a 'destination' store/center, so people make the trip for us.  We have a large and beautiful sign that draws positive attention and will soon have a readerboard on it.  We advertise in several print publications, online and using flyering and other local outlets. We've done radio commercials and television advertisements. Our clientele often hear about us from other people, which is our favorite type of referral. We also do many things other than just sell things in a shop. We host as many as 16 workshops per month, weekly yoga and movement classes as well as a slate of healing arts professionals who do their work in our two healing rooms.

When did you launch the website for the store?

We launched the first version of our site about 4 months before we opened. It was not an online store at that time, it just had a little bit of pre-opening information.

What made you decide to launch the clicks part of your business?

We've had a lot of requests for online shopping and we've done a little bit of mail order. We get a fair amount of distance business for our life readings from internet searches. The first version of our online shop will actually be a drop-ship situation with one of our larger vendors with a few of our specialty items, like high-end crystals, featured.

How are you choosing your platform and shopping cart?

I'm going to choose a shopping cart that won't cost very much and is easy to set up to start out because I don't want to spend a lot of money on what we're looking at as an experiment. If it seems like our store will get some traffic, we'll probably stop-down and get something a little more robust than some of the low-cost options currently being considered.

How did you begin marketing your business? How do you hope the clicks and bricks model will help the business?

See the above answer of how we get people in the store for many of our marketing techniques. We also do some festival and tradeshow vending as well as working with healers in the area to provide products they might suggest to their clients. We are hoping the addition of the webstore will allow us to move more product through the sales cycle and create a wider customer base.

How have you managed growth? Do you plan to grow?

We are growing steadily and find ourselves often with way more than we can do than we can physically accomplish. We've enlisted the help of some friends and family, but frankly, I think we'll have to have a better plan soon.

What are the best things you’ve done and the best learning experiences (some call them mistakes) that you feel you’ve made and learned from?

I think having a robust, professional website is a great asset for our company. We look big-time and we will grow into that image. I think people trust you if you have a well presented website, brand and a coherent corporate image.  With an online store, I imagine this helps as well. I know a lot of e-retailers who have sites that have that 'home-grown' look and they have established successful businesses on the internet.

We are learning lessons everyday about what our customers want and how to stock our shop. Opening up to a wider audience will continue to teach us in this way.

The biggest lesson we learned is to make sure contracts are current and clear.