Founded in 2007 by Brigitte and Scott Rouleau with a mission to "help adults reclaim recess," Morsel Munk began as an online-only retailer with their flagship brain teaser puzzle book and has evolved into a lifestyle brand offering apparel, drinkware, and accessories that celebrate fun and adventure. Today, the business operates under multiple brand lines, including Morsel Munk (their original brand focused on outdoor adventure and playful living), Docktails (a nautical-themed line featuring shatterproof drinkware and sun shirts for boating enthusiasts), and Have Fun Grow Young (an apparel line celebrating the philosophy that age is just a number).
What started as a simple concept to remind adults that life doesn't have to be all work has grown into a thriving business that operates both online and through a physical retail presence—maintaining a showroom space that's open by appointment and during special events, while also serving customers through popup events, boat shows, and farmer's markets.
Like many owner-operated businesses, Morsel Munk struggled with managing multiple disconnected systems that made running their business more difficult than it needed to be. After years of juggling Yahoo's ecommerce platform, QuickBooks Desktop, and Lightspeed POS, the company made the strategic decision to migrate to Shopify POS. The transformation has delivered significant results, including:
- Cut operational expenses by an estimated 80%
- Unified 5+ sales channels into one commerce system
- Achieved reliable operations with only one instance of downtime in seven years
- Created seamless inventory management across dual locations with simple location switching
The Challenge: Maintaining growth with complex and unreliable systems
Morsel Munk's old systems made running their business harder. They couldn't grow the way they wanted. The company's journey began with Yahoo's ecommerce platform, where "anytime we needed any feature, any functionality, that was an extra fee," says Brigitte. As someone with ecommerce experience, she found the constant fees for basic functions frustrating. When Morsel Munk opened a physical store, it introduced a new layer of complexity with QuickBooks Desktop managing inventory across both channels.
Running two separate systems meant inventory was constantly out of sync. "If we sold something in store and didn't update it correctly online, it was not a great customer experience," says Brigitte. The two systems required constant attention to ensure accuracy and avoid disappointing customers and missing out on sales.
Morsel Munk soon migrated to Lightspeed, bringing over their entire product catalog of approximately 8,000 SKUs. However, Lightspeed's ecommerce capabilities were "nothing close to Shopify's, including all the app functionality," says Brigitte. She adds that the brand also got locked into expensive contracts with their new platform. But even worse, the system was unreliable, with frequent technical issues that required time-intensive support calls.
Brigitte and Scott also found the platform difficult to use at times, even for basic tasks. "I can't tell you how many times I would have to be on the phone waiting for help with something like printing a packing slip," says Brigitte. Perhaps most significantly, Lightspeed experienced a major outage during a critical season for Morsel Munk, during which the brand generates the majority of their annual revenue. The outage left them unable to process sales for an extended period, forcing them to keep a manual credit card processor as backup at all times. Brigitte and Scott needed a platform that they could have more confidence in as they continued to expand.
The Solution: Shopify simplifies all aspects of operations
Morsel Munk migrated to Shopify’s unified commerce platform as the best solution to scale with their evolving needs. The migration process was remarkably smooth, taking just two weeks despite the complexity of transferring 8,000 SKUs and historical data. Brigitte shares how Shopify provided a migration plan that covered important details like gift cards and customer information, ensuring the brand didn't lose any valuable data during the transition.
I didn't need to hire anybody. I built the website and got everything in place. The data migration was easy. Shopify provided all the templates to get historical data and our product data. It was very seamless. There was no confusion about what I had to do to get migrated over.
Shopify's unified platform eliminated the dual-system complexity that plagued operations in the past. As Morsel Munk expanded their business model to split time between Connecticut and Florida—with inventory stored in both locations—Shopify’s cloud-based architecture gave them seamless inventory management across locations. "We can flip a couple of switches and say, 'Okay, we're filling orders from Florida, not Connecticut,'" says Brigitte, highlighting how they easily avoid selling inventory from the wrong location.
Mobile-first capabilities have transformed how Morsel Munk operates their business and provide more personalized service. "I love that everything's just so easy. I literally have the POS with me 100% of the time," says Scott. “We can walk around the store and meet people where they are or even at shows," adds Brigitte.
Shopify's third-party app ecosystem helped eliminate the need for costly external service providers. "We don't have to hire anyone to do things like SEO. We spent so much over the years—$3,000 here, $5,000 there—on SEO marketing and saw zero results," says Brigitte. Instead, they can "download an SEO app and it'll do a lot of the work for us.” She adds how her and Scott also use the AI capabilities built into Shopify for writing product descriptions and creating unique content for similar products, saving them a significant amount of time and effort.
Morsel Munk is also taking advantage of the native email capabilities of Shopify instead of relying on expensive email platforms like they did in the past. "The automations and workflows save us a fortune every year because we can use the built-in capabilities that we're already paying for with our platform," says Brigitte.
The reliability of Shopify has been a game-changer. In seven years on Shopify, they've experienced only one brief outage. "One time in seven years. No joke," says Brigitte, compared to the frequent issues she reports facing with their previous platform. This reliability is crucial for a business that operates across multiple channels and locations, ensuring they never lose sales due to technical problems.
The Results: Flexible long-term growth
Morsel Munk's journey to unified commerce with Shopify has delivered measurable improvements across the business while enabling the founders to achieve their vision of flexible, location-independent operations.
The cost savings from eliminating external service providers are substantial.
We've probably cut over the years 80% of expenses because of Shopify. We don't need a web developer or a developer of any kind. We don't need a marketing guru. We don't need an SEO specialist. We don't need any of that.
The business has achieved complete operational flexibility, enabling the founders to pivot their strategy without changing platforms. "We are in a transition period, shifting from 'retail forward' to really starting to launch and grow our online presence while having a small and intermittent retail presence and doing pop-up markets," says Brigitte. "Our value obtained from Shopify is still incredibly strong, especially enabling us to do this pivot without switching platforms."
The unified customer experience has strengthened brand loyalty and streamlined operations. "One of the biggest things is that it's transparent to the customer. That's what makes it a good experience. You have one inventory, one catalog. Whether you see it in the store or online, it's there. There's no disconnect in terms of what's available," says Brigitte. Shop app integration has been particularly effective. Brigitte estimates that half of customers checking out at their most recent large event were Shop users, enabling seamless checkout and instant email verification.
Morsel Munk's migration to Shopify highlights an important distinction in platform usability that's crucial for owner-operated businesses. The platform's intuitive design means founders and staff can effectively use the system regardless of their technical background, maintaining operational consistency regardless of who's handling day-to-day operations.
Sending shipments, delivering orders is easy. Printing is easy. With Shopify everything is easy.
By moving from disconnected systems to integrated operations, Brigitte and Scott Rouleau have created the operational foundation necessary to serve customers across channels while preserving the fun-loving, adventurous spirit that defines their brand. The combination of streamlined operations, enhanced customer experiences, and location independence positions Morsel Munk to continue growing on their own terms.
There aren't many solutions where we can shift our strategy and not only stay with the same provider, but have all the tools in place to enable our growth.