New Shopify App Store Helps Dormify Grow Sales, Streamline Operations

Dormify, a retailer of dorm room decor products, is leveraging apps from Shopify's new App Store to help it more efficiently run its business. The Shopify App Store is a collection of free and premium apps that extend the functionality of Shopify merchants’ online stores, including Dormify, helping them sell more and save time. Through an easy-to-navigate redesign, machine learning algorithms, and improved search functionality, the new Shopify App Store prioritizes discovery of apps through personalized recommendations, enabling merchants to make better and faster decisions for their businesses.

In this interview with Total Retail, Lauren Ulmer, director of product at Dormify, discusses the impact of Shopify's new App Store on the retailer's business.

Lauren Ulmer, Director of Product, Dormify

Total Retail: Why is the launch of the new Shopify App Store good news for Dormify?
Lauren Ulmer: Apps play an integral role in our business, helping us extend the functionality of our Shopify store, make more sales and save time. Our business goals are constantly changing as we grow, and the new App Store is designed with this in mind. By prioritizing discovery, the new App Store will make it easier for us to find the right apps for our business, when we need them most.

TR: What apps from the Shopify App Store is Dormify currently using to help it more efficiently run its business?
LU: One app from the App Store we’re really loving right now is Inventory Planner. Inventory Planner is a daily planning tool for reducing inventory overstocks and understocks. The app helps our buying and planning team forecast which items to purchase with easy-to-read charts and visualizations.

Another really important app for us is Launchpad, a free automation tool for Shopify Plus merchants that makes it easy to schedule and monitor sales events. Launchpad really helped us save time during last year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday by enabling us to schedule our sales event in advance. With that extra time, we were able to focus our efforts on our campaign strategy.

TR: How do you envision that strategy changing with new functionalities built into the Shopify App Store (e.g., machine learning algorithms, improved categorization and search)?
LU: We don’t envision our app strategy changing with the launch of the new App Store, but what will change is how much easier discovering new apps that meet our specific business needs will be. We’re especially excited about the app recommendations feature which will be based on and personalized to our business goals.

TR: What business benefits has Dormify realized as a result of implementing apps from the Shopify App Store?
LU: We’ve seen many benefits by incorporating apps from the Shopify App Store in our business strategy, including sales increases, streamlined workflows and critical time saved. For example, Inventory Planner automatically forecasts the number of units to replenish for each individual product, increasing precision and saving us valuable time that we can focus on more impactful parts of our business. Meanwhile, by using Launchpad to help automate our flash sales during busy shopping seasons, we’ve run over 100 sales events and are on track to double revenue in 2018.