There are many ways to enter a growing market or new category. Some founders might come up with a new product, while others might dream up new retail experiences. Taken away as if by magic founder Douglas Watters chose the latter, opening one of the first non-alcoholic bottle stores in New York.
As is often the case in entrepreneurship, the idea for Spirited Away was born from a personal problem. Douglas had no place to buy non-alcoholic wines, beers and spirits in person. “I wanted the experience of going to a neighborhood bottle shop and browsing a curated selection,” he says.
Douglas learned many lessons starting a retail-focused business, and that experience helped him grow the brand online.
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Observe the emergence of new brands
Douglas figured that if he had trouble finding soft drinks in stores, other New Yorkers probably did too. He also believed that the growth of new brands and products in the soft drinks sector meant that customers would be curious to try them.
Companies like Seedlip, Kin EuphoriaAnd Ghia launched more products nationally. “That to me was a pretty good indication that there was indeed strong consumer demand and that this could be applied to a brick-and-mortar retail store,” Douglas says.
![Interior of Spirited Away](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/IMG_3387_1.jpg?v=1705390048)
Educate customers to make the sale
Douglas’s intuition was correct. Customers were interested in this emerging category and often didn’t know where to start. “We’re much more focused on education and discovery than a traditional bottle shop,” says Douglas.
Its sales team hosts tastings and helps customers find the products that meet their needs. “Starting in a retail store was the best way for me to establish myself in the industry and become, in many ways, an expert on consumer preferences and desires,” he says.
Navigating tricky arrangements with suppliers
In the early days of Spirited Away, sourcing products was a think-it-up-as-you-go endeavor. Soft drinks were not governed by the same laws as alcohol, so there was no vending infrastructure to rely on.
“I was ordering products directly from the brands themselves, which is great from a savings standpoint, but it also adds a lot of headaches and a lot of operational and financial confusion,” says Douglas. Many brands didn’t even have wholesale pricing or a wholesale strategy. But by placing a few orders, Douglas was able to develop good relationships with brands.
Invest in local sales
Douglas wanted to focus on his local community. As a result, Spirited Away does not ship drinks and customers cannot order online: they must either pick them up in store or pay for local delivery by bike. This helps simplify inventory management and allows Spirited Away to continue to prioritize its New York audience while letting brands manage direct-to-consumer online sales themselves.
![Bottles on the shelves of Spirited Away](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/mid-angle.jpg?v=1705390011)
Build a directory
Douglas hopes to use what he learned building Spirited Away to grow his business. “With Spirited Away, my goal was to solve a problem I knew I could solve before scaling up and tackling bigger problems,” says Douglas.
He is currently on a year-long trip around the world to learn about different drinking cultures and alternatives to alcohol in different regions. This research helps Douglas create content for Spirited Away’s sister website, Dry Atlas, a directory of more than 1,000 non-alcoholic drinks. “I saw a much bigger, more global need for education,” Douglas says.
To hear more about Douglas’s experiences building Spirited Away, listen to his full interview on Shopify Masters.