A STUDIO FOR MODERN RETAILers
The next chapter for modern retailers is relationship. Plot builds the infrastructure.
Gohar World did the Studio Lunch series in 2023, early to the intimacy of this style of content. They'd make lunch in the studio & text recipes to subscribers on Wednesdays with an image of the dish. No call to action, just lunch. Here: Beans, Greens, and Bottarga.THINGS I’M SEEING
Merit's comments section is active because they are known for speaking directly with consumers & making them active participants in launches. Here they also show how they've been listening to what their people want: brown mascara.
Ghia’s founder Melanie surprise calls top customers. Just because. And has an entire conversation with each of them, also inviting them to her book release party.THE NEXT CHAPTER
Modern retailers need to be thinking about relationship. It's the defining feature of this next chapter.
While this includes suppliers, wholesalers, influencers, it's mostly about your relationship with normal consumers & fans, your actual customers — the people buying your products, commenting, talking about you.
Relationship is less a specific tactic, channel, or program, and instead how you orient to consumers and communicate: relating not broadcasting. People are tired of being marketed at, they want to be engaged with, let in, listened to, part of something.
You can't throw money at this the same you can with an ad buy. It's way more human than that.
Performance marketing defined the last chapter & trained brands to expect instant gratification — you do something, you make a sale. Now it looks like multiple touchpoints over more time, non-linear, non-attributable for the most part to any single thing. So a different approach is required.
More than “owning the relationship”, it’s about actually having one.
Plot helps you build the infrastructure for that.
Relationship comes from the infrastructure that supports it.
Our Services
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Your Storefronts
We want offline to inform online, shaping a continuous experience. Your site should sell like you're in the room — personality, POV, story & all the idiosyncrasies that make people choose you, specifically. More than an introduction, it should feel present tense, like we’re looped in, not static or merely utilitarian.
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A Direct Line
Communications can still feel like you’re talking at people not with them. This happens through email, it’s how you are on the feeds, in the captions, comments, DMs. The best brands are taking notes, asking questions, implementing ideas from their fans, leading conversations, inviting us in, not just sharing the recap. They speak as staff and founders, offer things of value, give us gossip & things to talk about.
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Insider Moments
Your customers want to be invited in but are often left on the outside. You need to deliver your unique mix of clubs, exclusives, events, teachings, private channels, casual gatherings, collaborations, chances to try things early, introductions to experts, opportunities to connect with the community, especially locally. So: much more than loyalty program point.
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LAST ITEM HIDDEN * DO NOT DELETE
Kowtow's Pattern Project Challenge for Melbourne Design Week: the community can collect an exclusive, free pattern for The Ascot Top to make themselves, thoughtfully, and share. It connects consumers with not just the ethos of the brand but makes them participants & fellow makers. Things I’m Seeing
LESSE shaped that signature facial that is typically on offer with the shops they carefully select as wholesale partners. You're able to experience the full line of products through a spa treatment. Here they did it as a pop-up at Syk Skin for New York Fashion Week.
A collaborative alley party & friendly game between 33 Acres & Reigning Champ in Vancouver to kick-off FIFA World Cup. 
2019-2023
Grape witches
GW are Toronto's natural wine darlings & favourite educators with an impactful Imports arm as they introduce their community to the wines of some of the world's top producers. Their site now brings together their wine shop, education offers, events, Wine Club, Imports, and whatever else comes up in one place.
2021-2025
Good Cheese
Good Cheese is a neighbourhood cheese, wine & fine foods shop in Toronto’s East Chinatown. Luke doesn’t believe in a high brow / low brow divide, just all the best stuff. They’re one of the only spots in the city with both cheese & wine expertise, offering regular tastings + a Cheese Club (and now Coffee Club) (and soon Tinned Fish Club). I've worked with Luke since 2021 when we first overhauled the site.
There’s Been a Shift
I founded Plot almost 7 years ago when the work was to bring businesses online by building the infrastructure to sell: e-commerce & email. Many retailers were just figuring out how to exist digitally, all accelerated by the pandemic, and we figured it out together.
But things have changed the last few years.
Consumers are tuning out. Feeds are saturated, skepticism is up, loyalty is dwindling, and people are gravitating toward brands that feel genuinely present & human —not like they're running a playbook.
I've been telling founders for years that people don't want to be sold to and they're only just starting to understand what that actually means. You need to be thinking about more than conversion.
The infrastructure required now is for relationship.
That's what I'm beginning to build with retailers in this next chapter. And it's the most interesting work I've done so far.
Health Hut's shop includes a cabinet filled with skincare options with a team known for guiding customers to what's right for their skin, even offering samples to take home. The shop is intentionally designed to try & experience their tight curation of products and have conversations with staff. Things I’m Seeing
Well before opening a shop, Grape Witches began by hosting parties & Education Hours. And they continue to be the foundation of how they build relationship with their community. It has continued to scale up over the years. 
Sky Ting founder Krissy announces studio updates inspired by member requrests, along with the beginning of her maternity leave. They always listen to feedback & make their members feel like friends. Work with Me
Does your brand have the infrastructure for relationship?
New
Relationship
Audit
$2,500
e-commerce on Shopify
$9,500
What’s Next for You
Our Services
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A New Orientation
The point becomes the relationship. Which absolutely translates to sales — but feels very different to consumers than a focus purely on pushing purchases. And will feel different to you too. But you start to see everything through the lens of relationship. Not did this convert, but are we actually in conversation with people, participating, letting folks in, giving them something to talk about and be part of, whether they’re buying right now or not.
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A Continuous Experience
People experience your brand across everything at once — bricks-and-mortar, e-commerce, socials, email, events, in private channels. You likely know that cohesiveness is vital, but not just so that it reads as the same brand: so that a relationship can build up over time. You're not rushing the sale or optimizing every touchpoint for immediate conversion. You're thinking about it altogether with a unifying focus: relationship.
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The Return on Relationship
Relationship is non-linear, slower, harder to measure, but it works & it compounds. It shows up in repeat purchases, word of mouth, active comment sections, people sporting merch, email replies, event attendance, Substack mentions, group chat recommendations, someone finally trying a product after months of thinking about it, opening emails, lurking around. You can't trace it back to any one thing. But you can feel when it's working.
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