For ear-piercing studio Studs, an experiential retail setting was the only natural way to offer (and sell) its services.

Launched by chief executive officer Anna Harman and co-founder Lisa Bubbers, Studs opened its first two stores in 2019, but it quickly closed shop due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

After shifting its focus to e-commerce in 2020 and 2021, Studs began a rapid store expansion in 2022, nearly quadrupling its retail fleet in just four years.

• Since 2022, Studs has opened roughly eight to 10 stores a year, including stores in new cities, relocating storefronts, and expanding within high-volume locations.

Retail now makes up 85% of the brand’s revenue structure, and Harman stated the rapid retail expansion has increased revenue by 2,000% since 2020. Studs declined to share revenue details for this story.

“Strategically, we look for places where we have preexisting customers, so either we have e-commerce customers or we have fans, meaning we have social [media] followers, etc.” Harman said.

Keep reading here.—LI

Back-office positions, which focus on internal tasks rather than on client or consumer needs, are the workhorses of organizations, and they might soon be getting a new corporate carrot.

As companies are looking for ways to get ahead, many are hoping to turn back-office roles into revenue drivers by tying compensation to revenue-related goals.

• OneSource Virtual, which offers payroll services and solutions, changed how its back-office roles get paid and has seen improvements in revenue goals and retention statistics across the company.
• For sales enablement companies like Seismic, which provides the technology for OneSource Virtual, empowering revenue operations through new back-office compensation structures is becoming a more common tactic to unlock new revenue generation.

“Companies are realizing with today’s competitive landscape that you can’t afford to have any role that’s disconnected from revenue outcomes,” Nicole Ward, senior director of revenue enablement and operations at OneSource Virtual, said.

Keep reading here.—BS