It’s no secret that more retail has become increasingly powered by technology. That’s true even for people-driven businesses like independent dance stores, which can benefit from the efficiency of digital tools such as AI imaging software to point of sale systems. DRN spoke to two storeowners who are embracing contemporary solutions to support their businesses, to find out how these innovations are shaping both their operations and their customer connections.
Tech Tools for Small Shops
“I’m probably dabbling in a little bit of it everywhere—I use AI artwork when I’m working on Canva [an online graphic-design tool] for my ads and promotions,” says Sarah Lewis, owner of J’ai La Pointe in Royse City, TX. “I take Apple Pay, and I use Shopify, [which] kind of thinks for me, in all of my backroom work. It makes it very simple to do invoicing, accounts payable, and all of that stuff.” While Lewis doesn’t think of herself as very tech-savvy, all of this dabbling gives her a tool kit that helps her run the store.
Digital tools also enable Lewis to spread the word about her business—an effort that began even before J’ai La Pointe opened in June 2024. On social media, she chronicled her retail entrepreneurship so that her followers could observe all aspects of her pointe-shoe business, from the in-studio fittings she did prior to setting up the store to the build-out of the physical retail space. “I was told by all of my sales reps, ‘If you do anything, you have to have a presence online, and you have to be out there, so that has been my focus,” she explains. So far, her Instagram account tops more than 550 followers.
Keeping It Human
Technology hasn’t inserted itself into every aspect of the shop: Lewis still writes her own emails and ad copy, and of course fittings are done by humans and tailored for each customer, as it is at the vast majority of dance stores. But the tools expand the breadth of what she can do. This has been crucial for J’ai La Pointe as a one-woman operation. The aforementioned Shopify platform also makes it easy for Lewis to send email blasts to customers by simply loading an email and adding a bit of text. With Canva, she can generate custom images using AI, like her virtual store mascot modeled after her very real, and very popular, dog. “I’ll just type in ‘watercolor, Cavalier King Charles spaniel holding pointe shoes in mouth,’ and that’s how I got my logo… it’ll just generate the picture I want, and I choose one of the options that it creates,” says Lewis, who reports that though the results can be mixed, they seem to be getting better.
Lewis draws the line with other aspects of AI, however, like the prospect of bots fitting pointe shoes. “It kind of scares me, honestly,” Lewis states. “I do believe AI is something we have to stay ahead of, and if we’re creating artificial intelligence to be able to do what we spent years honing skills on, then it sounds like we’re putting ourselves out of jobs.” A more immediate priority for J’ai La Pointe is sorting some server issues with its main website. Lewis also wants to start up a YouTube channel.
Building an Audience Online
Jenny Roman, the proprietor of The Dance Store in Los Angeles, also seems to prioritize her online reach. With more than 1,700 posts and 3,000 followers on Instagram, plus a budding presence on YouTube and TikTok, the store appears to have its social media engine in gear, with daily and weekly goals for posting. Yet while social media may be the primary marketing channel for the 28-year-old store, this is mainly driven by the employees rather than Roman herself. “They do a lot of the posting online and they help me when I get stuck,” she says. “I actually don’t like doing that kind of stuff. I prefer just being in the store, helping customers, and chatting with people, as opposed to dealing with the computer. That’s much more fun for me.”
Roman understands a fundamental rule of business success: Entrepreneurs must acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, and rely on others’ expertise to fill the gaps. And when it comes to social media, Roman’s staffers, which skew younger, are indeed experts. Their skills have been pivotal for building a community, whether by digitally congratulating a customer on their first pointe shoes or sharing promotions.
Systems That Sustain
At one point, The Dance Store tried out search-engine optimization, a strategy designed to boost a website’s visibility in online search results. They saw results, but found it too cost-prohibitive. This means Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok are the store’s best and only means of marketing. The main challenge is in tracking the tangible benefit of this online activity. As a hyperlocal store focusing on pointe shoes, jazz, tap, and school uniforms, the lion’s share of its sales come from in-person shopping. Even large retail chains find it tough to measure the impact of an online presence to brick-and-mortar traffic, with e-commerce being much easier to trace.
Even so, the public face of The Dance Store relies on social media just as much as its back-end depends on its point-of-sale system, Lightspeed POS. For Roman, this may be the piece of technology she values most. The system stores historical customer data, which is invaluable not only to the business but also to her personally. With such a large database, she can easily recall context—like fitting a client who later returns 20 years on with her daughter.
What Tech Can’t Replace
Unlike J’ai La Pointe’s Lewis, Roman doesn’t engage much with AI—except in one unexpected way. “I’ve had some customers come in and tell me they asked ChatGPT what pointe shoes they should be wearing,” she says. “I’ve pulled the shoes, and they’ve been a disaster!” Nine times out of 10, customers end up choosing the pair Roman recommends instead. It’s a reminder that no matter how useful technology can be in a dance store, there are some things it will simply never replace.
A. Dellario is a freelance writer based in California.