The Future of Retail is Here

Recently both Saltbox and Brea Fullerton, founder of Shinery and a Saltbox Member, were featured in a Bloomberg CityLab article. E-commerce retailers are one of the few winners to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’re happy to provide a space where they can grow and feel supported.

In the article, Brea shares her experience as a “solopreneur” and online retailer. In 2019, while looking at her own wedding photos, Brea realized that her engagement ring was a bit smudged in the close-ups. Unable to find affordable, non-toxic cleaning products for her ring, Fullerton decided to create and sell her own such products by launching an online retail store, Shinery, a few months later.

“We tried to focus on the feel-good side of the pandemic with our messaging,” Brea said. “We wanted to speak to self-care and spending more time at home. My biggest consumer is recently engaged women, so we spoke to the fact that ‘love wasn’t canceled either.’”

Many new entrepreneurs found themselves along the same path as Brea, even in the midst of the pandemic. According to Shopify, one of the biggest digital retail platforms, online store creation rose 79% in 2020 over 2019. However, not every online retailer has a spare room or garage to store their physical products, which is where Saltbox comes in.

Check out the full Bloomberg CityLab article to learn more about how e-commerce winners are changing the face of retail, and revitalizing industrial spaces.

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