Hello, and welcome to issue 8 of our 10-part What’s in Store marketing automation series! I’m your host, Melissa. Today, I’m going to tell you how jewelry designer Cynthia Rybakoff uses Mailchimp’s order notifications automation to give her customers a seamless e-commerce experience while looking polished and professional.
Why Cynthia Rybakoff Loves the Order Notifications Automation
Learn how the jewelry designer's strategy creates a seamless e‑commerce experience while looking polished and professional.
I typically try to remain unbiased in my What’s in Store journeys, but I’m a sucker for good jewelry, so I was especially excited to visit Cynthia’s Manhattan studio. A veteran designer and native New Yorker with 30+ years of experience, Cynthia has worked with fashion icons like Ralph Lauren, Isaac Mizrahi, and Oscar de la Renta.
Cynthia has learned a lot in her years as a business owner, but perhaps her greatest lesson has been how to adapt.
“You have to change with the times,” she tells me. “Years ago, business changes were infrequent, and you could go 7 years conducting business in the same manner. Today, we have to learn new ways of doing business all the time and have to keep up with a world that’s moving faster.”
Here are a few ways Cynthia has adapted her business model to a changing marketplace:
Cynthia is always on the lookout for a way to differentiate herself from her competition. In fact, being a fashion ring specialist is what put her on the map.
“It was really just an adaptation to a category that started to trend for me,” she explains. “I began to invest more and more into building my ring assortment, because I knew most other designers would not go the distance. Now, I make sure I have rings for every size finger out there.”
Cynthia still has brick-and-mortar stores (including a shop at one of NYC’s most popular marketplaces, Artists & Fleas, inside Chelsea Market), but most of her business takes place online these days:
“I first launched a series of e-commerce stores, experimenting with online marketplaces like Etsy, before deciding it was necessary to have a stand-alone e-commerce store as a showcase for my aesthetic.”
For Cynthia, changing with the times also means implementing new technologies to improve efficiency and customer service. That’s where Mailchimp automations come into play, specifically order notifications.
“As soon as this feature was introduced, I was excited because order notifications are an essential part of the e-commerce shopping experience,” she says. “My platform offers generic notifications that I can’t easily customize, but with Mailchimp, I can customize them with my own branding. I use the same fonts and colors to coordinate them with my website for a seamless shopping experience.”
“It certainly makes my business look more polished and professional,” Cynthia continues, “but it has also improved the quality of information I give to my customers.”
And because the automation saves her so much time, Cynthia is able to devote more of her energy to launching new products and updating her website so she can keep up with the ever-changing marketplace.
“That’s where my focus needs to be,” she says.
