When Peggy Plante, owner of Paris Cartier, bought the business not much had changed since it first opened its doors in 1987. “Everything was done by hand—in writing,” says Peggy. “Every customer receipt was written by hand. Inventory was the same, nothing was [digitized].”

She recognized the opportunity to grow the business by bringing it into the 21st century—but she’d never even worked in retail before. She knew the learning curve was going to be steep.

“There’s a lot of things I didn’t know at the beginning,” she explains. “And there’s a lot of things I’m still learning, even now. But the biggest challenge is that I’m doing everything myself.” With so much to do, and only herself to do it, the right technology partner was essential.

Choosing a point of sale system when you don’t know all the features you might need can be seriously challenging. But while she didn’t have a list of nice-to-haves, she knew her must-haves.

A cornerstone of Peggy’s growth plan was ecommerce, and she had no interest in spending hours—hours she didn’t have—manually reconciling two disconnected systems.

“I knew that if I wanted to have ecommerce, it was important that the [POS] and the ecom talk together,” says Peggy. “It came down to Lightspeed and [one other provider].”

Top-tier, free customer support was also non-negotiable. “Because I just arrived in this industry and I’m still learning.” As an independent boutique, cost was also a deciding factor. So when Lightspeed agreed to match the old payment processor’s per-transaction fee, Peggy was ready to take the leap.

Paris Cartier’s sales have grown by roughly 20% month-over-month since its digital transformation. And it’s not just because streamlining and simplifying processes have allowed Peggy to sell more to her regular clientele.

With the online store up and running, new customers are discovering the boutique online and coming into the store to shop.

“I get a lot of positive comments from customers about the online store, which I built myself,” says Peggy. “They are looking at the online store before they come in. They’re using it to pre-shop.”
Now that she’s more proficient with the technology, Peggy is already planning her next big move. “I’m not sure if I’ll open more Paris Cartier stores, or if I’ll buy another store with potential to grow,” she says. “All I know is that I want to have more than one store.”