A $300 wine glass doesn’t sell itself from a photograph. Bert Youn spent more than a year learning that, posting carefully shot Japanese craft goods to an Instagram account that never cleared 500 followers.
Bert started The Good Liver after years of traveling to Japan and obsessing over everyday objects—the chopsticks and cups that restaurants there chose with real care. A decade later, the business is profitable, with a store in the Los Angeles Arts District and a website that does a very specific job. It has never spent a dollar on SEO or ads.
Below, Bert explains why the internet couldn’t sell his products cold, what the physical store changed, and how he now runs both channels for different reasons.
On the year he spent believing good photos would be enough:
I was very cautious. I didn’t have the funds to immediately open a physical store, so the only way to do it was to start an online store first and see where that goes. I didn’t have the budget to hire anybody either, so I pretty much did everything myself. Photographed all the products, edited them, uploaded them, and designed the website.
The only marketing tool I knew was starting an Instagram account. I thought taking good-looking photos and being able to talk about your product in an interesting way would automatically bring in customers, but that was not the case.
No traffic on our website, and less than 500 followers on Instagram for over a year. That’s what made me realize I needed to start a physical store.
On why his products have to be held before the price makes sense:
The products we sell are very particular. I don’t think people get the value of it unless you see it in person, hold it in your hand, feel the weight of it, see the detail, see the craftsmanship.
At the time, they would see the products online and have a reaction: “What? This for this much? This is ridiculous.” But I was sure if they held it in their hands, they would be able to justify the price.
On how a product earns a place in the store:
It really was just stuff that I liked. Price mattered to a point. If it was ridiculously expensive, something I couldn’t afford myself, obviously we wouldn’t carry it. But if it was something I would want to save up for a few months and purchase, then I could justify putting it on our store.
We didn’t start off with crazy expensive products. We started with products from manufacturers that have a rich history or an interesting story to tell. It may not be the most convenient product to use, but a product that gives you an interesting story to think about when you’re using it.
Something that feels nice to have in your home, where you’re appreciating the history, the story, the time you put into using it. Interesting, and hard to find.
On the different jobs the store and the website do:
The physical store is there to have customers come in, see the products in person, feel it, hold it in your hand, feel the real value, and see the craftsmanship that was put into them. The online store is there for accessibility, for those who cannot come into the store.
We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries from customers who don’t live in Los Angeles, and it’s been very helpful to guide them to our online platform.
Most of our customers are like-minded people. We get a lot of artists, designers, architects, musicians, and I feel like we’re all creators, so they understand the pain and the thought process that gets put into a product they’re holding.
On photographing products so customers can almost feel them:
The way we lay out our products online, I’m hoping it simulates the experience in store, where they can see the product from multiple different angles. I try to photograph the products in detail, where they could see the texture, like they’re feeling that texture in their hands.
Then writing down the facts, the interesting story that drew me into the product. The online platform is really there for us to fully tell that story.
On the marketing advice everyone told him he was stupid to ignore:
I knew nothing about SEO. I still don’t know anything about it. Everybody thought I was stupid for not looking into that.
We consulted a few people—actually, a lot of people—and the result was always the same two things. One, we can’t spend that money. Two, this seems like we’re gambling toward a goal that doesn’t seem realistic. You’re spending thousands of dollars every year just hoping for something to blow up.
That didn’t really make sense for us, because the line of products we carry aren’t products that can sell in bulk even if it does blow up. A lot of the parts are made to order. We’ve had a couple of posts on Instagram blow up and inquiries come in from everywhere, but then it immediately sells out in a couple of hours because we had four in stock. So we’re not really benefiting from these things that are happening online.
On the only marketing he’s kept doing for 10 years:
I knew the value of being consistent in uploading stuff and just notifying everybody that we’re still here, and we have a new product here and there. Newsletters, stories, posts.
But we heavily relied on our customers just organically advertising for us. We were very lucky to have our customer base, because everything, I believe, happened by word of mouth. People started visiting our store, and that influenced a lot of like-minded people to come check us out.
Bert covers more on Shopify Masters, including how he traveled to Japan to convince craftsmen to let him represent them, the magazines he turned to when COVID ended his sourcing trips, and why he went back to animation full-time to keep the store open.
