Starlight Knitting Society: Saving 20+ Hours Weekly and Elevating Customer Experience

Background

In 2015, Melissa Nelson opened Starlight Knitting Society in Portland, Oregon. What started as a small neighborhood yarn store grew into a national reference point for knitters. Classes, community gatherings, and an annual Camp Starlight retreat helped the shop build loyal local followers while sparking interest across the U.S. Demand rose, and online orders began to swell – yet the systems Melissa relied on were held apart by separate platforms.

The Challenge

The shop ran on Squarespace for its website and Lightspeed for in-store sales, each with its own inventory count. Every sale meant manually adjusting two ledgers. Stockouts were common, canceled orders frustrated customers, and staff burned hours reconciling numbers. Loyalty points lived in spreadsheets, gift cards didn’t carry between channels, and even basic reporting required piecing together various exports. When top-selling yarn sold out online but sat on a shelf in the shop, Melissa realized fragmentation was costing more than time—it was damaging her reputation.

Implementing Shopify

Melissa teamed up with ICEE Social and chose Shopify Plus and Shopify POS to bring everything under one roof. The migration involved:

• Setting up a unified inventory system so each sale deducts stock in real time.
• Integrating loyalty and gift card functionality across web and store channels.
• Rebuilding the website with SEO best practices for proper indexing.
• Leveraging Shopify’s “save cart” and local pickup features for out-of-town and in-store shoppers.

Training seasonal or event staff on the new POS took minutes. The team quickly mastered adding products, tracking stock levels, and offering ship-to-customer options—all from the same dashboard.

Results & Impact

The changes delivered immediate and measurable gains:

• Inventory reconciliation tasks dropped from an hour each morning to almost zero.
• Product listing time fell by up to three hours per day.
• Loyalty enrollment and reward redemptions became automated across channels.
• Seasonal hires were up and running on the POS in minutes.
• Daily Google impressions climbed from zero to over 4,400 after proper SEO implementation.

With freed-up staff hours, the team now focuses on creative displays, customized samples, and one-on-one customer service calls instead of data entry. Visibility into sales by promotion or channel has sharpened inventory planning and improved reorder decisions.

Next Steps

Armed with Shopify’s unified data, Melissa plans targeted ad campaigns, seasonal product drops, and expanded wholesale offerings. The goal is to leverage organic search momentum and tap into new markets—while continuing to deliver the in-person charm and hands-on expertise that define Starlight Knitting Society.