What does SAGE do?
SAGE is an operating and marketing assistant for independent retail shops: bookstores, comic shops, record stores, thrift stores, craft shops, and related local retailers. It reads the parts of your shop you connect, watches shopper intent across the SAGE storefront and aggregate search surfaces, then turns that signal into five practical actions for the day.
5-minute launch path
New owners get a short launch path before the full dashboard: add one item or upload a catalog, bring in customers or one starter customer, connect one live source, look at Today's list, and learn where the workbench lives. It is not a permanent checklist; it is just the first-session path to make SAGE useful quickly.
Today's list
Today's list stays focused on five actions. It mixes marketing work with operational tasks: draft a campaign, post a new arrival, pull an item for pickup, restock something shoppers are searching for, or resolve a connection issue. Each row has an urgency color so owners and staff can tell what needs attention first.
Quick List, catalog, and storefront
Quick List lets any vertical add one real item from a photo. Catalog CSV is the bulk path. Those items land on the SAGE-hosted storefront, become searchable on SAGE aggregate pages, and can power holds, recommendations, alerts, and product-specific suggestions.
Storefront reserve and buy policy
Published storefront items can be reserved or bought by shoppers when the shop has enabled the matching workflow. Public guide and agent discovery stay read-only; they do not reserve, buy, or change inventory.
- Reserve requires a card, holds 36 hours, no charge before pickup.
- Paid online orders are held longer and reminded before unclaimed review.
- Cardless pickup requests do not lock inventory. If payment setup is not finished, SAGE asks the shopper to contact the shop directly.
Email campaigns
SAGE drafts campaign email from a prompt or Today's list item. You edit, pick the audience, and send or schedule. Delivery runs through SAGE's email rails; Mailchimp can be connected to import and sync an existing audience, but shops do not need to route campaigns through Mailchimp by default.
Social publish
SAGE drafts social posts from photos, prompts, or inventory. Buffer is the owner-facing bridge for social publishing while direct Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok approvals stay behind the scenes. That keeps the Connections card clean: owners connect the usable bridge, not every blocked provider.
Team and payroll
Owners can add employees, assign PINs, review shifts, and export payroll-ready CSV. Staff get a stripped-down clock page instead of the full owner dashboard. Their hours and task activity roll back up to management for review.
What SAGE is not
Not a replacement for your POS, accountant, or payroll provider. SAGE reduces manual work by collecting signals, surfacing tasks, sending campaigns, logging activity, and exporting clean data to the systems owners already use.