Find out how one successful wholesale brand uses a digital sales app to increase speed and profit at trade shows, in the back office, and in the field.

1. Post Link: How a Sales App Will Impact 3 Key Areas of Your Business
How a Sales App Will Impact 3 Key Areas of Your Business
Sugar Paper is an L.A.-based luxury letterpress stationery company with a focus on high quality
materials and beautiful, sophisticated design. After getting started with custom wedding
invitations, baby announcements, and other made-to-order products, Sugar Paper began
moving into the world of wholesale sales in 2012. Since then, the business has grown
significantly––Sugar Paper now sells to boutiques and independent retailers across the United
States and internationally.
For Wholesale Key Accounts manager Emily Benedetto, a digital sales app has always been a
part of how Sugar Paper has done business. While the company first started out using paper
order forms, they were early adopters of Handshake’s mobile sales app and have been using it
since Benedetto started at the company.
Here’s how Sugar Paper uses Handshake's sales app to
their advantage:
1. At Trade Shows
Sugar Paper adopted order management software when they began their wholesale business.

2. According to Benedetto, “We’ve been using Handshake since we debuted our wholesale line at
the National Stationery Show in 2012.”
Today, at trade shows like the National Stationery Show in New York, the company is never
without their iPads. The team is able to scroll through their entire product line on their devices,
quickly draft and confirm orders digitally, send confirmation emails, and save their buyers’ time
in the process. “I think that people in the booth are always impressed by the technology. More
and more companies are taking down orders on iPads,” says Benedetto.
Sugar Paper has also used the sales app to track sales at trade shows. For each show, they
can separate repeat customers from new customers, run sales reports, and send them back to
headquarters for review.
This has helped the company meet some of the biggest challenges in their industry, like scaling
the production of their handmade products, shipping more quickly, and making sure they have
enough inventory to meet demand. “We do a new line twice a year, so we always have to figure
out how much product to make for those lines. We also want to have accurate projections for
big holidays,” says Benedetto.
So at trade shows, when the booth staff sends reports back to L.A., the team in the back office
can see what the top sellers are at the show and begin the process of building up that
inventory. They can also begin fulfilling orders immediately––while the show is still going on.
When the show ends, the dust clears, and the team makes it back to their home office, all of the
orders they wrote in the last few days are already being processed. The company also gets
many orders with future ship dates, so they can do projections for upcoming seasons.
2. In the Back Office
In addition to using the software at trade shows, Sugar Paper also uses it every day in their
back office. When the customer service team receives orders over the phone, they enter it into
Handshake on their iPads.
“Every single one of our orders goes through Handshake,” says Benedetto. “With the high
resolution images, it’s so easy to write an order on the interface. We’re a letterpress printer, so
we need that level of detail.”
The company also has their own retail store. In the past, when that store needed more
inventory, they used to send emails to order more product. Now, they also use Handshake to
communicate with headquarters. “The best thing about it is the constant connection and ease of
use,” says Benedetto.
Recently, Sugar Paper has also integrated Handshake with their back office system,
QuickBooks. Orders now sync directly from Handshake to QuickBooks, making the fulfillment
process even more streamlined.
3. In the Field
Sugar Paper relies on independent sales representatives and independent rep groups for their

3. field sales. While most of these reps have their own systems for submitting orders, others
simply send emails to the back office. “There is a lot of confusion and back-and-forth
communication when orders come in as emails or faxes,” says Benedetto. She is now hoping to
improve the process with Handshake.
“We’ve already on-boarded two rep groups with Handshake, so that they can submit orders
remotely into our system. I can’t imagine going back. It’s so easy, professional, and convenient,
and everything works efficiently.”
Want to know more about how order management software can help streamline sales, order
fulfillment, and operations for your business? Let us know in the comments or reach out to
info@handshake.com.
Post originally located at: https://www.handshake.com/blog/sales-app/
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