The magic of Greenwood Shop
If you’re ever in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, make sure to stop by Greenwood Shop, a gift shop owned and run by Jaime Morrison Curtis. What started off as a plant shop in 2019 has since expanded into a local attraction, offering a unique curation of ethically-made candles, linens, apothecary items, and more — often hand-made by local women or people of color.
Jaime is driven by an appreciation for the power of local. “As a small business owner, you learn how much work goes into everything and you become more willing to pay more for quality items. When you spend your money in your community, it benefits your community, and it also benefits you.”
Greenwood Shop has become a destination in the area for gifts — but the store’s charm goes beyond that. “Greenwood Shop is a special place, and not just because of the items we sell,” Jaime explains. “It’s a vibe — you just want to be in there. You want to smell the smells, see what’s new, and hang out with the cool people who work there. Sometimes our employees even like to hang out there on their day off!”
Rooted in retail
Formerly a writer, Jaime had a dream of opening up a small plant shop. “I've always loved plants, and I felt like people would really enjoy a shop focused on plants. There weren't a lot of them at the time,” she shares.
In 2019, Jaime opened Greenwood Shop in its original location in nearby Valley Village. The shop did well for a year — and then COVID-19 hit.
Hand-delivered treasures
Luckily for Jaime, the pandemic spurred resurgence of demand for houseplants. Greenwood Shop took operations online and began advertising plants through Instagram. “It became this really fun thing we could do from home, essentially auctioning off plants basically on Instagram,” Jaime explains.
During shutdowns, Jaime turned to delivery as a way to meet customers at home. “We did home delivery by ourselves,” she says. “We put plants in our cars and drove around LA to drop off orders.”
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Partnering with DoorDash
By the end of 2020, Jaime was tired of managing delivery on her own and decided to sign up with DoorDash for plant and retail delivery. It was a no-brainer: “Partnering with DoorDash gave us the opportunity to offer delivery without delivering,” she says. “I don’t have to worry about getting a package to the customer, dealing with buzzers, gates, and doors — a Dasher handles all of that.”
Sales quickly ramped up. On Mother’s Day, Jaime saw her sales go through the roof. She explains, “It was our busiest day of the year. My team was calling me, letting me know our tablet was beeping non-stop! It seemed like every man in LA had forgotten to get his mom a Mother’s Day present, went on DoorDash, and decided between sending her lunch and sending her a plant. It was great for us!”
Curating an online selection
Over time, Jaime’s learned a few things about how to curate her selection of items for sale on DoorDash, leading to increased sales and less stress for her team.
“At first, we tried selling gift sets, but those didn’t take off,” Jaime says. Instead, she’s found more success selling individual items, and simplifying choices for her customers. For example, instead of offering twelve different scents of incense, she notes in the product description that her team will pick the scent — and customers are able to make a request in the comments section.
Overall, simpler is better. “You really want to think about things that are easy to deliver, and that you’re going to always have in stock. The last thing any customer on DoorDash wants is for you to have to call them to confirm something when they’ve ordered it online,” Jaime shares.
Growing online sales
Jaime has seen results from her partnership with DoorDash. Her average order value on DoorDash is about $25 higher than it is in store. Additionally, DoorDash outperforms a competing delivery partner by 700% in terms of number of sales.
Jaime sees DoorDash as an easy way to connect with high-value customers. “DoorDash is another sales channel for us. We even have people that come into the shop who saw us for the first time on DoorDash. Whether they ordered or not, they saw on DoorDash that we were there and then came into the store. From a marketing and branding perspective, having more eyes on your business is always a win.”
What’s next
Looking ahead, Jaime has two goals for Greenwood Shop. The first is building out and optimizing her sales channels, which includes testing out more marketing promotions with DoorDash. The second is to make sure Greenwood Shop stays as magical as ever.
“One of my goals is always making sure we have the coolest, nicest, handmade, awesome things,” Jamie explains. As a business owner, Jaime is passionate about using Greenwood Shop to support other local entrepreneurs and creatives, ensuring that local businesses thrive. “Having a successful business depends so much on luck — I want to help others have the same success.”
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