Learning to Pivot S’More

When Lindzi Shanks and Kat Connor opened the world’s first marshmallow cafe in 2017, they anticipated the summer season would be a business bonanza thanks to the public fascination with s’mores, but they came to learn that XO Marshmallow truly thrived in the fall and winter weather seasons when guests craved hot chocolate.

In order to capitalize on these customer beverage trends, they pivoted and responded in a number of ways including:

Adding limited edition/specialty flavors in late fall Creating a December Advent calendar  Searching for collabs that aren't time-sensitive for later in the yearTo learn more about how these profitbable pivots and more, Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine reached out to  brand co-founder Shanks.

When did you realize you needed to pivot and how quickly were you able to do so?When we first started XO Marshmallow, we expected summer to be the busiest time of the year for us. S’mores are summer, right?

Turns out, holiday was our…