Don's Photo grows its online presence with dakis

Where they started

Through the late 1990s and early 2000s, Don's was strictly brick and mortar, with no catalog and no mail order. As e-commerce grew, Mike's team built and ran a website themselves and quickly found its limits. They knew how to sell in person, but running a real online store was a different discipline, one that needed more focus than the team could give it alongside daily operations.

The turning point was a trade show, where Mike met dakis after reading about a Canadian company built for photo-industry e-commerce. The fit was clear: a platform made for how photo retailers sell. Setup was straightforward, and dakis handled the build from there.

"In today's day and age, you need to have a strong website... a platform that is consistently staying up to date with the different tools and features being offered, and the only way to do that is to have a company that you trust."

Bringing it together

Through the late 1990s and early 2000s, Don's was strictly brick and mortar, with no catalog and no mail order. As e-commerce grew, Mike's team built and ran a website themselves and quickly found its limits. They knew how to sell in person, but running a real online store was a different discipline, one that needed more focus than the team could give it alongside daily operations.

The turning point was a trade show, where Mike met dakis after reading about a Canadian company built for photo-industry e-commerce. The fit was clear: a platform made for how photo retailers sell. Setup was straightforward, and dakis handled the build from there.

"I got sales coming in. I got customers walking into a store saying I saw this on your website. At the end of the day, that's all I need."

Key results

Mike measures success simply: orders coming in, and customers walking through the door because of something they saw online. 

He also values directness: clear recommendation from a team that knows his business and the photo industry.

I don't need a sales pitch. I don't need somebody to try and sell me a lot of fluff. I need somebody to say no, Mike, don't do this, do this.”

With dakis managing Don’s website and Google services, Mike and his team stay focused on what they do best: running the stores and serving the photo community across Western Canada.

Nearly fifty years in, Don’s Photo has grown by trusting the right partners and staying close to the photo community. dakis is part of how it keeps doing that.