COVID-19 forced a family to close their shop. Typeform + Stripe helped get it online—in just 48 hours.

From marketers to marketing

These days when we talk about marketers, we think of people eyeing dashboards trying to square their CAC with their LTV. But there was a time when marketing actually meant going to the market to sell physical products.

The Schmahl family are the latter type. They buy fresh produce from local farmers, and sell it at weekly markets in the Chamonix Valley area of the French Alps. It’s been their livelihood for over 35 years. And they love it.

Their son, Florent, grew up helping with the family business. Then in his 20s, he became a marketer himself—the digital kind. Now he's Head of Growth at Shoelace, a Canadian startup focusing on customer journeys.

For years, he’s been asking his parents to take their business online. Running a farmer’s market stall in a 100% traditional way is hard work—and they’re not getting any younger.

That was until COVID-19 happened.

Market stalled

The French government responded to coronavirus with a national lockdown. This forced the markets where the Schmahls set up their stall to close indefinitely—just as prime business season was starting in March-April.

As head of the local market union, Florent’s father tried to negotiate fair conditions to re-open the markets—but was unsuccessful. With their livelihood potentially suspended for months, things looked bleak.

Florent finally had a chance to show how valuable taking the Schmahl family business online could be. But he needed to act fast. Selling strawberries on the internet wasn’t his day job, and it was already Saturday night.

So he came up with a simple plan:

1. Create a typeform to collect orders for fruit & veg boxes.
2. Set up the Stripe integration to take payments within the form.
3. Send customer contact and delivery info from Typeform to Google Sheets automatically.
4. Connect Google Sheets to Sendinblue for email and SMS communication with customers.
5. Use Circuit to automatically find the best delivery routes based on the Google Sheets info.

Well, simple if you work at a startup at least. Florent had already used Typeform for an acquisition project, which was how he discovered the Stripe integration.

In just "four or five hours," Florent had thrown together a potential solution. By Sunday evening his father was sharing the typeform with their 30 most loyal customers—via SMS, as not everyone in the French Alps always has access to email.

Would they embrace this new online solution?

The Stripe fruits of labor

TL;DR: yes. Orders started coming in almost immediately. Then Florent’s brother posted the typeform on Facebook, along with the picture he took so people could recognize them. 50 people shared it.

Within 48 hours, they had 130 orders.

But what amazed Florent’s father even more was the simplicity of taking online payments with the Typeform + Stripe integration:

The typeform helps calculate the exact quantities of each product he needs to buy too, “so the whole thing is waste-free.” It also has the picture of his parents on the Welcome Screen, which reassures less internet-savvy customers that they’re still buying the same produce from the same people.

Even with his digital marketer’s hat on, Florent is impressed:

And customers aren’t the only ones being converted by Typeform:

The Schmahl family online shop made 23,000 euros in their first month. That's a bit more than a typical month—working only two days a week instead of five.

While Florent predicts this will decrease when things go back to normal, he plans to continue scaling the online side of the business. Right now his parents still have to make deliveries themselves, but the goal is to slowly wind down until they don’t have to do the markets anymore.

Which means that in a few years they’ll be eyeing their dashboards, trying to square their CAC with their LTV. Just like Florent.

How Florent did it

Looking to set up your own online shop? Here's a few features that Florent and family put to work for them.

1. Stripe integration

La Famille Schmahl typeform uses Stripe to take payments towards the end of the typeform. Find out how to use Payment questions yourself by integrating with Stripe.

2. Calculator

The Calculator feature automatically adds up the total cost of customers orders based on their typeform answers. Learn how to make your own typeform order form using Calculator.

3. Google Sheets integration

Once customers complete their order, their contact and delivery info is beamed straight to a Google Sheet. Setting up the Google Sheet integration yourself is a breeze.

4. Welcome Screen

The Schmahls open their typeform with a message to their customers—along with their friendly faces. Make your typeform more personal by adding your own Welcome Screen.

Looking to set up your online shop? Get started with an online order form template here.