UnBoxed

Scaling Success: Shipping, E-Commerce Growth & Customer Loyalty with momAgenda

In this episode of UnBoxed, host Deb Menter sits down with Nina Restieri, Founder and President of momAgenda, to discuss the evolution of her business—from trade shows, selling in brick-and-mortar stationery shops, to e-commerce dominance. Nina shares insights on shifting fulfillment strategies, optimizing shipping workflows, and managing peak seasons in a competitive digital landscape.

They also explore the impact of free shipping, return policies, and the importance of customer loyalty. Tune in to learn how momAgenda has mastered the art of efficient shipping and adapted to the ever-changing e-commerce industry.

Key Takeaways:

• The transition from wholesale to e-commerce and how it changed momAgenda’s business model
• Strategies for choosing fulfillment centers and optimizing shipping costs
• Managing peak sales seasons, from back-to-school to the holidays
• The role of free shipping promotions in boosting sales and customer retention
• The power of customer loyalty and why repeat buyers keep coming back

Guest speaker: Nina Restieri, Found and President, momAgenda
Nina has grown momAgenda to include a diversified range of products that help organize the lives of mothers and others, including day planners, home organizers, pads, journals, and accessories. The collection is sold at leading national retailers and regional boutiques throughout the US. Today, momAgenda encompasses a vast range of organizational products, many inspired by its loyal devotees. Nina gets immense joy out of helping the pieces of everyone's personal puzzle — family, career, home and social life — come together.

Host: Deb Menter, Pitney Bowes
Deb is on the Client Lifecycle Team at Pitney Bowes, where she helps clients navigate complex rate changes, mailing system migrations, and greater shipping savings and value. You’ll also find her moderating Pitney Bowes webinars, where she addresses common client concerns and provides actionable solutions.

The material, opinions, and information presented in the podcast are for general information purposes only and is not professional advice. Listeners should consult appropriate professionals for specific advice tailored to your situation. The podcast and its content is provided as-is and any use is at the listener’s own risk. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests or hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of any company.

The material, opinions, and information presented in the podcast are for general information purposes only and is not professional advice. Listeners should consult appropriate professionals for specific advice tailored to your situation. The podcast and its content is provided as-is and any use is at the listener’s own risk. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests or hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of any company.

Deb Menter
Hi, everyone, and welcome to UnBoxed, presented by Pitney Bowes. I'm so excited to be here today with founder and president of momAgenda, Nina Restieri. Unboxed is your source for all things shipping, and we are super excited to get into it today.

So, Nina, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Nina Restieri
Thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here.

Deb Menter
Wonderful. So, let's get right into it. Can you give me a little bit of background and tell me how you got started with momAgenda? I know this is your baby. And so, I'm sure there's a great story.

Nina Restieri
Yeah. So, momAgenda started as a company built out of necessity, it was 20 years ago, mom of four young kids under seven and just super disorganized. And I really needed a way to control the chaos and the overwhelm that I felt every single day.

So, I developed a system of organizing for myself and I ran it by some of my friends and I realized that it was something that could help other people too. So, I turned it into a company.

Deb Menter
I love that. I think having something born out of necessity and realizing you're not the only one that needs it is one of the best ways we come up with ideas. So, seeing as you've been in the game for quite some time, I imagine the way you sell these has shifted quite a bit from when you started up to now. Can you talk to me a little bit about that?

Nina Restieri
Well, it's interesting because when I first started, so it was 2005, we launched a big trade show. And a trade show, you know, by definition, it's to the trade. So, hundreds of stores, store buyers go to these trade shows. This was the national stationery show.

So, it was all stationery buyers and, you know, gift store buyers. And we sold out of I remember we had printed 6,000 units and we sold out of the whole print run.

It was 120 stores that placed orders with us. So that was year one. It was all stores. We didn't even have an e-commerce site. And in fact, I was discouraged by outside advisors.

I was discouraged from starting an e-commerce site. 100% stores year one, 2005. And then we kind of started to see the writing on the wall right away that e-commerce was coming and it already existed, but it just seemed like a relic of the past to not have an e-commerce site.

So, we invested in developing one. And at the time it was, it was very archaic. It's our first website.

Deb Menter
Wasn't everybody's {laughs}

Nina Restieri
But it worked. And now, you know, it's sad to say stores make up a pretty small percentage of our business and e-commerce is, the vast majority.

Deb Menter
Yeah, I can imagine. So, you can't even you can't even imagine not having an e-commerce site today.

Nina Restieri
It's impossible to imagine. And I think there are brands that manage to do it and stay in business, but I don't know how they do that.

Deb Menter
Same. I constantly go to sites and I'm like, why don't they have an e-commerce part of the site? I'd be willing to buy anything right now. 

Nina Restieri
Right? Because you're leaving money on the table because lots of people can't get to a store or, you know, and the sad fact is a lot of the store, the stationery and gift stores that used to stock mom agendas are no longer around.

So to me, having an e-commerce site gives our customers the gift of being able to have a momAgenda no matter where they are on the globe.

Deb Menter
So as it comes to production or ordering, when you've made that shift from being in store to now being e-commerce, can you talk a little bit about how that process has changed or how your timing has changed with production and ordering of mom agendas?

Nina Restieri
So the timing of ordering hasn't changed. Unfortunately, the process has because when we used to work with stores, we could get orders in advance, and we could know in advance what we were going to need for the upcoming year.

So, we place orders in the fall for a season that starts in April, a selling season that starts in April. because of the location of where the factories are.

So now I kind of have to have a crystal ball and predict the future and like in the fall of 2024, have to be pretty sure about what we're going to in 2025. So it's like a little bit of science, a little bit of art, you know, coming together and like fingers crossed, I make the right choices.

Deb Menter
Absolutely. It's tough. And it's interesting. You were talking about your selling season because, and I think this is also very unique to momAgenda. The agenda starts for the school year and I believe you said it runs 18 months, right? So, the selling season and the peak selling season, it sounds different than a lot of our other e-commerce businesses. Can you talk a little bit about that as well?

Nina Restieri
Yeah. Well, we have kind of three peaks, and one of them is really surprising. So the holidays definitely is a big time of year for us. We also have our launch season, which coincides with Mother's Day.

But the really big surprise is July and August, which I think for every other brand. They don't sell anything until May and August because, you know, no one's really buying stuff, but it's back to school season. So that's when moms are really thinking about planning for the upcoming year. And that's when we sell the bulk of our planners.

Deb Menter
That's interesting. So let's dive into the shipping aspects of your business. And let's talk about the actual workflow of shipping your products. You were saying the product is actually made overseas, correct? So it arrives in the U.S. fully made or do you put it together here in the U.S.?

Nina Restieri
It arrives here fully made. Yes. And we do our, our factory overseas. You know, we, we pick the paper and the cover material and the ribbon material, you know, all the different components, but they put it all together and ship it as the same way someone would buy it.

Deb Menter
Yes. Gotcha. Okay, great. And then all of those go directly to a fulfillment center or do they come to you and you ship them out? How does that part work?

Nina Restieri
They go to a fulfillment center and our fulfillment center is in Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas. And one of the reasons we picked it is for shipping reasons. It's basically just two days to ship via ground, or you know, the cheap method from just, you know, to just about everywhere in the country from Arkansas. So, people receive their planner faster than if we were like on the West Coast or the East Coast.

Deb Menter
That makes a lot of sense. And it's super helpful. And when it comes to how things get shipped out by a carrier, do your customers have an option of how it gets shipped? Can they expedite? Do they have an option of different carriers? Or does your fulfillment center make those decisions for you?

Nina Restieri
We narrow it down for the customers. We have like one ground option and one two-day option and one overnight option. But yes, we do offer expedited and we also offer, you know, just regular ground shipping, which is great and what most people primarily choose, because obviously it gets so expensive to do expedited.

Deb Menter
Absolutely. Absolutely. And then do you, let's just say, for example, you're typical, are you typically using multiple carriers for each of those options? Or is it all the UPS options for ground one day overnight? And then potentially in six months, if FedEx is cheaper, you're going to switch. Do you, how does that work?

Nina Restieri
It really is our warehouse that makes that call. And it's based on the deals that they're getting from UPS, FedEx, you know whatever we tend to have... It's between UPS and FedEx and what are the deals that we're getting. But they there will only be one company doing expedited at a given time. But they might come to me and say, we're getting a better deal from UPS now. So we'll switch.

Deb Menter
Gotcha. Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, the rates change, as we know, all the time. and there are a lot of different reasons why the rates might change and why you may need to make another make another choice.

Nina Restieri
And customers care a lot about that, about what it costs. you know. Everyone is so now used to free shipping because of Amazon and Amazon Prime, unfortunately. For small businesses like mine, but we don't have the kind of shipping efficiencies where we can do that, but we have to always keep in mind how price conscious our customers are.

Deb Menter
Absolutely. Speaking of free shipping, do you, as many businesses do, do you ever do free shipping, free shipping sales? And how does that work for you?

Nina Restieri
We do them probably once every month to two months. And they're probably our most popular promotion that we do. Yeah. It's really interesting. I think people wait for the free shipping offer.

Again, people don't think it's, I mean, it doesn't seem like it's, people don't want to pay for shipping anymore, you know? Yeah, it's very popular.

Deb Menter
Absolutely. Even me, I know if it's a, $40 plus $10 shipping or $50 for free shipping, I'm going to spend the extra $10 and get free shipping.

Nina Restieri
Right. And no, it's true. We have free shipping on orders over $65. And I will tell you just about everyone takes advantage of that.

Deb Menter
So, you're kind of okay eating the cost of shipping because they're probably spending more in their entire purchase anyway.

Nina Restieri
That means they're ordering probably two products instead of one. So it helps us.

Deb Menter
Yeah, for sure. Going back to the peak season pieces, how do you work with your fulfillment center to determine your needs for the peak season? Have you ever had any issues with delays during that time or even your free shipping offers when you get a lot of orders at once?

Nina Restieri
Yes, absolutely. The warehouse is very on top of it and they have us submit a document before the holidays because all their other brands are also having a big peak season over the holidays.

Last year, we actually had a pretty big delay because we did a free personalization promotion and personalization is, it's an analog process. You know, a human being has to come in and put a person's name in a machine and stamp it. There's huge margin for error.

Deb Menter
Yeah.

Nina Restieri
And we have very high standards. So if it doesn't look just right, they have to get another planner and do it again. And when we did free personalization, we do it every Cyber Monday.

And when we did it last year, there were so many orders that we were backed up for weeks. Like now, like they know the warehouse knows to be prepared for this. They've got another machine. They've got another person working there so they're prepared. So hopefully it won't happen again this year.

Deb Menter
Excellent news. So you're well prepared for the next Cyber Monday.

Nina Restieri
Absolutely. We're ready.

Deb Menter
I know it's something that a lot of shippers have been talking about now. They're talking about their return process and the cost of returns and do they want the returns back and what that process looks like, even damaged items, whether it's, I just don't want it or it came damaged. How does your return process work and how do you work with your fulfillment center on it?

Nina Restieri
You know, we used to make returns really easy. easy. And we found that to actually ship a product back to the warehouse, it actually was costing us so much money. So now if there's a damaged product or return for whatever reason, we usually tell the customer to just keep their planner.

They can give it to a friend if they don't want it and we'll replace it. We don't have them ship it back anymore because it's so expensive. It just doesn't make sense.

Deb Menter
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's a lot. And I've heard that happening more and more. i mean, it's happened to me with some of my orders as well. People are like, just keep it and we'll send you a new one. We're not concerned about the return. Which is really interesting.

Nina Restieri
Once someone takes it out of the plastic and opens it, we can't resell it. Then it's used. So there's really no reason to bring it back to the warehouse.

Deb Menter
Yeah. Do you or your fulfillment center keep track of if someone has said it's damaged, what those damages were, or even just, you know, was it wasn't an incorrect customization was, you know, who's keeping track of that? So, you can, I'm sure continue making your product even better every time.

Nina Restieri
Yes. That is something we take very seriously. Our customer service team keeps a spreadsheet of every return every person who reaches out about a return, what is the reason for the return? And so we've like one year we had an issue with the binding coming apart.

You know, we had to have a really hard conversation with our factory about that. Like that can't happen. And we ended up moving to a new factory because we had that data from our customers that, there was a significant number of people who had this issue. So we went to another factory and the problems eradicated. But yes, we do keep track of what goes wrong and that's how we, you know, it's quality control.

Deb Menter
Absolutely. Like you don't just know your audience well, but you probably have a lot of repeat customers, which is really nice. Not just your friends, but people who love having this every year. Can you talk a little bit about any anecdotes or stories you have?

Nina Restieri
I am constantly amazed by our customers. I love them so much. And it's true. Once they start using this system, they come back every year. And I receive pictures of stacks of momAgendas.

These women are loyal the brand and it warms my heart. And I also appreciate that you know it's a product that's helping them and that's why. It's not because they're nice people that they're loyal because it's working.

Deb Menter
This was wonderful and enlightening. And thank you so much for joining me today. That's all I've got for you. Thank you so much.

Nina Restieri
I love talking with you and this was really fun. This was great. Thank you so much.

Deb Menter
And if you loved what you heard, definitely like and subscribe to our podcast and we'll be back with our next episode. Thank you.