Tapri Chai – a café serving Indian chai and street food – opened as a pop-up during the COVID-19 pandemic before it moved into a physical location.Naina Kansal/Supplied
Like so many eateries, Ottawa-based café Tapri Chai Canada, which offers authentic Indian chai and street food, uses third-party food delivery apps like UberEats, DoorDash and SkipTheDishes.
However, relying on these platforms can occasionally result in misunderstandings. In one case, a customer who spent $100 on an UberEats order complained that they didn’t receive their food, warning others to “avoid [Tapri] at all costs,” says co-founder Naina Kansal.
But rather than trying to cover up the situation, Kansal took to social media, seeking advice from Tapri Chai’s community. “So many of our customers came to us with ideas,” she says, including the suggestion to take pictures of delivery orders before handing them over to couriers.
How a pop-up café became a local favourite
Naina Kansal and Parth-Shah are husband-and-wife and the co-owners of Tapri Chai in Ottawa. The two are on the lookout to open a second location and are preparing to sell spice blends.Naina Kansal/Supplied
By inviting her social media followers into the café's day-to-day operations, Kansal has built a strong online community. Tapri Chai Canada is also popular among Ottawa’s social media influencers. For example, last year, the café hosted its first-ever influencer meetup for Diwali, which is just one example of how the business is using technology for growth.
Kansal’s co-founder and husband, Parth Shah, has a computer engineering background, which she says has been very helpful as the business evolves. Tapri Chai uses the software Homebase for employees to clock in and out and to track their breaks. Plus, all the café's accounting and recipe creations are done on the Cloud, with project management tools like Notion keeping everything on track.
“We’re streamlining all of our processes if ever we’re ready to franchise, open more locations or other businesses,” says Kansal.
Launched during the pandemic, Tapri Chai started out as a pop-up offering five menu items, before it expanded to its physical location. “Over the weekends, we never have a spot [open] – it’s full in terms of takeout and dine-in orders,” Kansal says. The team is currently on the lookout for a second location and is preparing to sell Tapri Chai’s spice blends.
Reinventing how shoes are sold
Maguire Shoes, an independent direct-to-consumer footwear company, first opened in Montréal and now has stores in Toronto and New York City.Raphael Thibodeau/Supplied
Also using a mix of online and offline growth strategies is Maguire Shoes, an independent footwear company that operates direct-to-consumer, with no intermediaries between the stores and factory. Headquartered in Montréal, the company has opened shops in Toronto and New York City.
Co-founded in 2017 by sisters Myriam and Romy Belzile-Maguire, Maguire Shoes has built a loyal fan base for its high-end, fair-priced products. The idea for the business was sparked when Myriam, a shoe designer by trade, visited factories for work and saw both expensive and cheaper shoes on the same production line.
Realizing there were no direct-to-consumer shoe companies at the time, Myriam says she saw an opportunity and launched Maguire Shoes on Instagram.
“[Someone] offered to create a custom website for me in exchange for a share in the business,” Myriam says. “My friend told me: ‘Don’t do that – you can set up an e-commerce website in like an hour’ – and that’s actually what we did.”
A digital growth toolbox for small- to mid-sized businesses
When you launch a website, nothing happens at first, Myriam says. “You might have your uncle or aunt, or friends of the family [visiting the website], but that’s pretty much it.”
To boost engagement, the two sisters invested $1,000 a month into advertising, hiring a company to sponsor select posts from Maguire’s social media accounts through Meta. “That was a lot of money for us at the time, but right away, it brought people on the website,” says Myriam.
In addition to a rapidly-growing online presence that boasts more than 54,000 Instagram followers, Maguire now has three physical storefronts. Opening its Toronto branch during the pandemic, the store had to remain closed during lockdowns.
“We saw that in the worst-case scenario – even with a closed store in Toronto – we were making more sales in Ontario than before,” Myriam says. “It makes a huge impact to be physically present in a market.”
While around half of Maguire’s sales happen online, Myriam doesn’t believe online shopping will completely replace the company’s physical stores. “There’s always a need to try shoes in person because people’s feet are so different,” she says.
Myriam’s vision is to open a Maguire store in every major North American city, including Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago. Despite being headquartered in Montréal, the team travels to Toronto and New York, meeting new social media influencers and journalists, and hiring locals.
“It’s a game changer, and that’s why it’s part of our strategy,” she says.
Recently, one of Maguire’s managers was on vacation in Portugal, where he met a group of women travelling from New York. “They knew about us, and they thought we are a huge company, when in fact, we’re still a tiny company,” Myriam says. “[In] moments like this, I’m like, ‘oh my God’. It’s really like happening – people are starting to know about us, and it makes us proud.”