We recently connected with Malia Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Malia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

### New Habits, New Space

As restrictions eased, walk-in traffic didn’t return to pre-pandemic levels. The way people shop has changed, with many now opting for the convenience of online shopping over leisurely browsing. In response, we chose not to renew our lease at our large mall location. Instead, we moved to a smaller, more affordable space owned by locals, freeing us from percentage rent obligations.

Our website, Sedona-hi.com, has seen a remarkable shift in sales. Once accounting for just 1% of our revenue, it now brings in about 20%. Customers often pre-shop online, then visit our store to see items in person before making a purchase. This behavior shows how an online presence can complement a brick-and-mortar store, as many customers come in already set on buying.

### Building Our Online Inventory

One of the biggest challenges we faced was getting our vast inventory online. Pre-pandemic, only about 1% of our products were listed on our website. Hiring a photographer for every item proved too costly, so we took matters into our own hands post-COVID, focusing on uploading items with deeper inventory and adding unique items as time allowed. Now, around 30% of our inventory is available online, and this has significantly boosted our e-commerce sales.

### Customer Loyalty: The Heart of Sedona

Twenty-five years ago, we introduced a customer loyalty program as a response to the influx of big-box retailers in Hawaii. The goal was simple: foster customer loyalty and develop deeper relationships. Unlike most retailers, we don’t look up customers by phone number or email; we use their names. This personal touch helps us truly connect with our customers, who feel like friends rather than just shoppers.

Today, this program includes over 20,000 customers, and our top 20% of clients play a crucial role in our business’s success. We’ve found that knowing our customers on a deeper level helps us provide a more personalized experience. Many of these loyal customers even bring us gifts—an unexpected but heartwarming testament to the relationships we’ve built.

### Looking Ahead: The Power of Community

The pandemic forced us to rethink everything, from how we sell to how we connect with our customers. While we may be operating in a smaller space today, our loyal following—both locally and across the U.S.—continues to grow. We’ve found new ways to bring our unique offerings and heart-to-heart connections to customers, whether they shop with us online or in-store.

At the end of the day, it’s our adaptability, community, and customer loyalty that have kept us strong through these challenging times, and those will continue to be the values that drive us forward.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Malia Johnson, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Sedona, has built her entrepreneurial journey with resilience, creativity, and a commitment to personal and spiritual growth. Her career began in the bustling fashion world of New York City, where she worked with brands like Ann Taylor and Itokin Co. Ltd., a Japanese fashion conglomerate. During her time at Itokin, Malia played a pivotal role in expanding the brand from a flagship store on Madison Avenue to 16 locations across the tri-state area. Her work took her to fashion capitals such as Paris, Milan, and Hong Kong, where she developed a keen eye for style and quality.

When Malia and her husband relocated to Honolulu, she launched a boutique that mirrored the success of Itokin’s New York store. However, her first venture in Hawaii presented unique challenges—most notably, the reality of spending personal money versus company funds. Despite early setbacks, Malia’s adaptability shone through. She transitioned from her boutique to a smaller kiosk, focusing on fashion jewelry, crystals, and gemstones. Her decision to embrace the growing trend for crystals proved to be a game-changer, with half of the kiosk’s sales coming from these items. Customers from across the island traveled just to purchase crystals, solidifying her product offering and setting the foundation for Sedona’s future.

As demand grew, Malia expanded Sedona into a 2,000-square-foot retail space that became a staple in Honolulu for 30 years. The store not only sold crystals, gemstones, and spiritual tools but also offered a variety of services, including psychic readings and feng shui consultations. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Malia made the tough decision to close the large store and downsize to a more manageable, locally owned design center, continuing to serve her customers with the same dedication.

Named over 35 years ago, long before the Arizona town became synonymous with spiritual energy, Sedona has grown into a sanctuary for those seeking personal growth and balance. Malia’s vision has always been about more than retail—it’s about creating a space for self-discovery, learning, and transformation. Sedona’s tagline, “a unique place to find yourself,” reflects this mission, which has resonated with generations of customers. Families that once visited the store with their children now return with the next generation.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Malia shares hard-earned wisdom: “Invest wisely, and if something isn’t working, do some soul-searching, focus on what is working, and keep moving forward. Let go of what no longer serves you, and trust in the process of transformation.” Her 35 years of growth, learning, and adaptation are a testament to Sedona’s enduring success.

Today, Sedona continues to offer carefully curated products and services aimed at helping individuals live with intention and balance. Malia wants visitors to know that Sedona is more than just a store—it’s a space for transformation and conscious living.

How did you build your audience on social media?

**The Shift from Followers to Engagement: Building a Loyal Social Media Community**

Before COVID-19, I had been devoting minimal attention to our social media presence at Sedona, even though we had built a following of around 20K on Facebook and close to 18K on Instagram. Like many businesses, we followed the trend of focusing on building our follower count, believing that the more followers we had, the better our chances were for success. However, after working with social media experts for over a decade, I learned a valuable lesson: followers don’t necessarily equal customers.

In the early days, I wasn’t very familiar with social media strategies. So, I hired outside consultants to help build our audience. They were successful in increasing our numbers, but the reality was that many of these followers weren’t actual customers. It was all about having “shiny” numbers to present, and back then, follower count was the main metric people focused on. However, these consultants didn’t take the time to understand our brand or our customer base. They would often promote items that we had in limited stock or didn’t need to push, taking pretty pictures but missing the mark in terms of driving meaningful engagement or sales.

Looking back, I realize this was partly my fault. I didn’t devote enough time to providing guidance, and I saw social media more as a billboard than a tool to drive revenue. I wasn’t tapping into its full potential to build relationships with our customers. That changed when I decided to take a more hands-on approach.

Instead of relying on external consultants, I hired an in-house social media specialist. This person’s sole focus was to engage with our customers and build a more cohesive social media presence. I diverted some of our advertising budget to make this happen, and it quickly became one of the best decisions I’ve made for our business. Our posts became more frequent, more intentional, and better aligned with our goals. Instead of just promoting items we were excited about, we highlighted products that resonated with our customers—things they were likely to purchase.

Social media also gave us the flexibility to react quickly to trends, make announcements, and run flash sales. We coordinated these efforts with email campaigns and updates to our website, creating a more integrated marketing approach. As a result, we started seeing a real impact—sales coming directly from our social media efforts.

One of the strategies that worked well for us was encouraging customer engagement. We began placing cards in every mail order, asking customers to share their experiences on social media—whether that meant posting unboxing videos or showing how they used our products. The response was incredible. Customers began tagging us, sharing their stories, and we made sure to engage right back—thanking them, reposting their content, and fostering a real sense of community.

We built loyalty with our online customers, treating them with the same familiarity and warmth as if they were in our physical store. We made a conscious effort to engage with our followers by greeting them, answering their questions, supporting them, and sharing useful information. Over time, this approach has led to stronger customer loyalty and increased sales—not because of the size of our audience, but because of the meaningful relationships we’ve cultivated with our core followers.

Today, I no longer worry about having millions of followers. I’m proud that I know many of our followers by name, and they know me and my team just as well. We’ve created a community where we know customers’ preferences, sizes, favorite colors, and even the crystals they like best. We notify them when items come in that we think they’ll love, and we even resize bracelets based on their personal needs. It’s that personal touch, that deeper connection, which has contributed to the success of our online sales.

At Sedona, we’ve learned that it’s not about the quantity of followers, but the quality of engagement. By focusing on building real relationships with our audience, we’ve been able to create a loyal customer base that continues to grow—and that, to me, is far more valuable than follower count alone because they will help you whether the highs and the lows.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sedona-hi.com
• Instagram: Sedona Hawaii
• Facebook: Sedona Hawaii
• Twitter: Sedona Hawaii
• Youtube: Sedona Hawaii
• Yelp: Sedona

Image Credits

photo credit Travis Okimoto