May 23, 2024
EDISON, N.J. – As CEO of New Jersey-based Perfume Spot LLC, Steve Kraidman has occasionally seen relatively small problems lead to significant headaches. For example, when eBay mysteriously added an extra line to Perfume Spot’s order files, Prosper Show exhibitor Store Automator “fixed it on the back end” in relatively short order.
That type of speed is one of the reasons Kraidman (pictured) switched from a well-known company to the more nimble Store Automator (team members pictured below at Prosper Show 2024 in Las Vegas), which also happened to be based in the Garden State. “When I send an e-mail to customer support at Store Automator, I usually get a response in a half hour or less,” Kraidman says. “We’re more on a boutique level and it seems to work really well for us. Store Automator understands how we operate.”
The Prosper Show newsletter sat down with Kraidman to learn more about Perfume Spot, as well as the ways that Store Automator is helping on the operations side.
Prosper Show: How many platforms do you sell on these days?
Kraidman: We currently sell on six platforms.
Prosper Show: What other projects are you working on with Store Automator?
Kraidman: Store Automator is helping us launch on Shein right now, and it is a bit odd to set up products on the platform. Store Automator has been working with us to convert our items to fit the Shein requirements. Many of these requirements make sense in some worlds, but not in the perfume business.
Prosper Show: How did you find Store Automator?
Kraidman: I think it was a Google search, and we eventually met them in person at Prosper Show. We loved them from the beginning. They were very straight-forward and simple.
Prosper Show: How long did it take to transition to Store Automator?
Kraidman: I think we went from demo to signing up in 48 hours—and actually making that transition from the other company in less than 30 days, which is unheard of. Their onboarding team understood what we were doing.
Prosper Show: How long have you been working with Store Automator to improve the business?
Kraidman: We’ve been with them for over a year now, and I probably have sent 10 support tickets—and they always get resolved quickly. Matt Manzanella is up here in Connecticut near us and I can give him a call. It’s such a different world than working with the previous company. Support was our number one priority and they are standing behind it every time something comes up.
Prosper Show: What is your background?
Kraidman: My background is IT, although I’ve also been in the car business.
Prosper Show: What are the origins of Perfume Spot?
Kraidman: My parents actually started the business in 1986. It was a wholesale perfume business selling to mom-and-pop shops mostly in New York and New Jersey. We were in a lot of stores and doing really well. Somewhere around 1999 a lot of those mom-and-pop pharmacies were kind of disappearing in this area. CVS and Rite Aid were eating them up like crazy.
Prosper Show: How did you respond?
Kraidman: Right around the dot com boom we said, ‘Why don’t we put a website together’ so that’s what we did in 1999. By 2000 we realized it was the right decision. We had a retail store in Staten Island, but wound up closing it very quickly because it wasn’t worth the aggravation. We switched everything to online. We made the transition at the right time. As they say, 25 years later the rest is history.
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