Universal Hockey is a professional hockey training institute based in Canada, owned and run by Daniel Bochner. This is his story.

Daniel is a professional hockey player-turned-elite trainer. With his business, Daniel has been offering elite camps, private/semi-private lessons, clinics, consulting, coach mentoring, and off-ice training, amongst other professional training services, for many years now. He has had plenty of clients and has been successful for a long time before he decided to get online with PowerStores.

And yet, Daniel says PowerStores changed everything for him!

It sounds a bit dramatic, but he is very clear in his explanation. “I am a hockey player and trainer. That’s what I do. But I used to spend so much time in the administration side of my business, that it sapped the joy out my work. You see, customers would show up to classes and pay with cash or cheque in person. It was really difficult to manage because I had to keep track of everyone’s information on the spot, handle transactions, update records, and get ready to teach at all the same time. Saying that it was inconvenient is an understatement.”

So, when he decided to get a website which allowed for customers to book their classes and pay online, everything changed and the whole process became streamlined. Now, he spends more time with the students on teaching and training, and both he and his students are happier for it!

So, how did PowerStores work for Daniel?

In Daniel’s own words, “PowerStores was great from step 1 right up to the finish line. They helped me design and setup my site, and their ongoing support when I need it is always fast and helpful.”

According to Daniel, as much as it was a hassle to collect payments from his students, he also didn’t want the hassle of chasing web developers to get his website up and running - or the cost of paying someone each time he wanted to make changes to the dates and availability of his classes, update latest events and news, etc.

He needed a system that was easy, quick, and cost-effective, and PowerStores checked all the right boxes. And the customer support he has received from PowerStores has made the whole experience easy and even - in his words - enjoyable!

Thank you, Daniel! We are here to make sure your online store succeeds and helps your business to grow! We wish you all the very best!

Meet Radhika, Jagriti & Deepika. They are young, talented and passionate about what they do - providing luxury skin care. In fact, they are so passionate about it, they decided to get into business together and take their passion to the world audience. 

What they needed was an online store to launch their business. They acknowledged that technical skills were not their strong suit and were on the lookout for an easy solution to create their online store. They did not come to PowerStores first, however. They chose a different service provider who offered a similar service as PowerStores. However, there was one big drawback…

“While they did have some cool features, the biggest issue with them was efficiency and weak customer support,” says Jagriti. “I often had to talk to multiple people on the same phone call to explain what I wanted. Even the smallest queries often took days and many, many phone calls to get resolved.”

The problem, as Jagriti explains, is that it took up too much of their time and their limited resources. “This is a new business and we are only the 3 of us managing it. Spending so much time just to get our website done was simply not working out for us. We needed to spend that time getting our business up and running” she rues. 

That is when they made an executive decision to simply look for another service provider rather than continue to spend more and more time to get the website completed with their existing ecommerce platform.This is where PowerStores came in and this is the website that got created for SkinYoga.in.

“You guys have an excellent customer support team,” gushes Jagriti. “Not only did we get all the support we needed in a timely and efficient manner, your customer support Guru also provided us with a lot of insight on user experience and how to make our website better and more effective. They gave us the benefit of their extensive knowledge of how ecommerce works to ensure that our customers had the best possible experience on our site.”

However, the thing that Jagriti is most thankful for is that neither she nor her partners had to waste any time or effort in the process of setting up the website. “We would not be where we are today in the short span of time since we launched our website if we wasted all our time on the website instead of focusing on our business.”

Thanks, Jagriti! We wish you and your partners good luck in tending to and growing your business by leaps and bounds! 

John Pollard, widely acknowledged as the pioneer of White Water Rafting in South India, has 5 successful projects under his belt. Starting with Dandeli in 1999 and including 2 in Coorg and 1 in Maharastra in the subsequent years, John is now plying his trade in 2 locations in Goa, a spectacular addition to the myriad attractions that this beach-side state has to offer to its tourists.

John has been extremely successful in transforming sleepy, river-side locations into thriving tourist areas, creating a host of prosperous local tourism-related businesses in his wake. However, he has had to deal with one major setback in all locations until Goa.

“My business always depended heavily on third-party promoters. Whether it was the state government or travel companies and agencies who offer tourist packages, the people who came for river rafting were always their customers, not ours,” laments John.

The main reason for this was that he had no real channel to reach out to his target audience directly. “We always had a website, but we were also always dependent on the site developer to maintain it and update it. It was not possible to use the website as a marketing channel because of the heavy reliance we had on the site developers(who were often unreliable) to keep the website vibrant, dynamic and up-to-date,” remarks John. “As a result, we were never really able to use our website to build a relationship with our existing clientele, or to promote the business to attract new customers on our own.”

So, what changed in Goa? “PowerStores,” offers John quickly. John claims that with the help of PowerStores, he was able to create a website that was exactly as he had envisaged, without making compromises. But more importantly, he now has complete control of the website and is no longer dependant on developers or designers to maintain it.

“PowerStores platform is so easy to use that I am able to make any and all changes to the website on my own. So whether it is changing the dates and timings of the tours or adding the latest pictures or engaging the customers with social media, I am in full control of the site.”

So, how has this impacted the business?

“I have a lot more control over my business. Now that I can actually use the website as a marketing channel, I am able to reach my target audience directly and attract new customers on my own. This means I am no longer at the mercy of third-party vendors for business. I also have a more meaningful relationship with my existing clientele.”

So, John used PowerStores to transform his role from that of a service provider to a being the owner of a thriving business.

All the best, John! Here’s wishing you many years of driving a successful business!

Meet Nadia Gunardisurya. She is a professional photographer living in the tropical paradise of beach-side Goa. When asked how she came about creating a website to showcase her portfolio, this is what she had to say:

“I used to visit websites of many renowned photographers to browse and to learn. I was well-aware of the importance of having a portfolio website, but I never considered making one for myself. To begin with, it seemed that it was something where people who had ‘made it’ in photography had such websites. I hadn’t quite ‘made it’ yet,” she laughs.

For Nadia, the second biggest hurdle to overcome was undertaking the project of building a website. “I was thoroughly overwhelmed! The project of making a website seemed large and unwieldy and I wasn’t sure if I was up to it.

“Thirdly,” she says, “it was very difficult to identify who to work with. Goa attracts all sorts of people and I had no idea who was trustworthy, reliable and capable of delivering the kind of website I had begun to envision for myself.”

That is when she came across PowerStores.

The first impression she had of PowerStores was “Wow! This is a bona-fide office with a number of people working in different departments and there is a structure and process for everything!” PowerStores had won her trust!

The second thing she remarked upon was the sheer willingness of the staff to help her realise her vision. What she wanted required customization, and she was impressed with the PowerStores team’s effort to create exactly what she wanted. “Even when there was no ready solution at hand, they would work out a way to make the elements I wanted possible!”

Most importantly, Nadia came to see how really effortless it was to work with PowerStores to create her online portfolio. Instead of the dread she had anticipated, she felt enthusiasm for the website that was taking shape.

Finally, Nadia says, “I haven’t quite ‘made it’ in the photography industry here in Goa, but PowerStores helped me realise that I could use a website to get there!”

Thank you, Nadia! PowerStores believes you will definitely ‘get there’! Wishing you best of luck!

The Story:

My Envy Box is a fresh new e-commerce startup focused on luxury cosmetics, based in New Delhi, India. Rishi, Julie and Bharat, the three co-founders, had an idea but no funding; they planned on bootstrapping their business as long as possible before trying to raise funds from outside investors. After resigning from their roles at high paying consulting firms, they set out to build their first startup!

The Challenge:

MyEnvyBox.com’s main focus is to provide a monthly subscription service where each customer receives a custom-tailored box of assorted, sample-sized beauty products. In addition, they wanted to give customers the ability to purchase the products they received in the monthly box while also providing relevant content around best beauty practices.

The Results:

Rishi, Julie and Bharat turned to PowerStores for an all-in-one solution that would get them up and running quickly. By selecting a theme from the PowerStores theme store, they were able to have an affordable and attractive webstore in minutes. PowerStores’ Content Management system and Product Editor helped them add and manage content on their own.

PowerStores’ more advanced features fitted the My Envy Box team’s needs nicely.  The ability to create pages for members only was really helpful to giving MyEnvyBox.com subscribers exclusive content over non-members. They also took advantage of PowerStores’ Loyalty Program management tool, which allows customers to earn and redeem points on every purchase.

Since MyEnvyBox.com went live three months ago, they have sold out of their monthly box subsciptions! They have also seen very strong sales of full size products.

“We would never have got off the ground without the service provided by the PowerStores team,” says Rishi Seth, CEO & Co-Founder of My Envy Box.

Check out Rishi, Julie and Bharat’s amazing PowerStore at www.myenvybox.com!