Powered by POSTCART: Vacation SF.
Located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, Vacation sells vintage clothing, shoes, jewelry and an assortment of ephemera. Owned by Kristin Klein, the shop opened in 2011. Sometimes Vacation doubles as an art gallery and often it serves as an underground (literally) showcase for punk, rock, psych, freak, you-name-it bands that come from around the world to play in the shop’s basement performance space.
Kristin has been selling on Instagram from the beginning and was one of our first Postcart users. Her loyal following of customers either call the shop to make a purchase or grab what they want through her Postcart pages. “I like having both options because Postcart allows people to make a purchase any time of day or night, not just when I am responding to calls or direct messages.”
Vacation has two Instagram accounts: one is a selection of photos of the shop, customers, bands, and art; the other is all snaps of products from the shop for sale, which Kristin has linked to Postcart.
Kristin posts about ten posts a day on the shopping feed, and she says, “it’s nice to have a permanent record of things we’ve sold or are selling somewhere other than just in Instagram.” “People who aren’t on Instagram can shop us just as easily as people on Instagram can.”
When asked her about her process Kristin said she trains her staff to manage the orders and help with the shipping. Kristin primarily takes the photos and uses friends and customers who come into the store as her models. She has a photo session twice a week and gets about 50 shots each time. When Kristin goes out of town, one of her staff takes on the photography, and then shares photos with her in a closed Facebook group so she can pick the ones she likes best.
“I like having the local pickup option in POSTCART because it brings customers in,” Kristin says. “Often when they are picking up their purchase they might see something else they like in the shop and grab that too.”
“Consistently posting on Instagram brings new customers in,” she says. “Plus Instagram is instant — if you wait —well…I’m sorry you missed it.”
Vacation is located at 651 Larkin Street in San Franciso, California. Find Vacation’s Postcart shop here: VACATION
