eCommerce Master Plan

Trying to work out how to acquire more customers? Need to improve customer retention? Or just looking for some reassurance you’re on the right track? That’s what the eCommerce MasterPlan is here for.

eCommerce Master Plan is a business podcast hosted by Chloe Thomas, with 10 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Chloe Thomas hosts eCommerce Master Plan, a business show with 10 episodes published.

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  eCommerce Master Plan

  eCommerce MasterPlan | 608: How &Sons Built an 8-Figure Menswear Brand Through Community

  Aug 16, 202635 min

  James Cowdale is the co-owner and marketing director at &Sons, a fashion BCorp brand selling vintage style clothing, primarily menswear. Founded in 2016 they now sell via their Shopify site, 2 stores in the UK, and wholesale, doing 8 figures in sale a year. In this episode, James shares how &Sons has grown from an £80 Shopify store into an 8-figure brand by putting community at the heart of the business. He also reveals how the team navigated US tariffs, expanded into new markets, achieved B Corp certification, and why investing in people has been their biggest competitive advantage. Hit PLAY to hear: How &Sons built an 8-figure brand by creating a thriving customer community The smart strategy that helped them replace lost US sales with new international growth Why customer retreats can deliver a bigger ROI than another ad campaign The simple mindset shift that turns customers into passionate brand advocates What it really took for &Sons to become a certified B Corp How to turn a major business milestone into a powerful marketing opportunity Key timestamps to dive straight in: [04:37] Choosing Shopify for Online Sales [09:14] Launching Australian Market Website [12:49] Building a Community for Men [16:47] Hosting events for marketing [19:39] Achieving BCorp Certification [22:31] Reflecting on 10 years in business [24:15] Listen to James’s Top Tips! Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/608 — Download our ebook… https://ecmp.info/ebook 500 Tips to Increase Your Profits Get all the links and resources we mention and join our email list at https://ecmp.info Love the show? Chloe would love your feedback – leave a review here: https://ecmp.info/review or reply to the episode QandA on Spotify. Interested in being a Sponsor? go here: https://ecmp.info/sponsor Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy WEBVTT 00:00.211 –> 00:08.054 [SPEAKER_00]: What you’ve got to realise is as a business grows and we’ve gone from two of us, you know, and our agency is supporting the business to over 50 people that we have employed. 00:08.194 –> 00:10.015 [SPEAKER_00]: Every single one of that person comes into the business. 00:10.175 –> 00:19.619 [SPEAKER_00]: There are no the human and they have different traits and you have to learn of how to communicate with those people and not just to get the most out of them but just to build teams that work brilliantly together. 00:22.254 –> 00:24.638 [SPEAKER_02]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast. 00:25.179 –> 00:29.265 [SPEAKER_02]: Here to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business. 00:29.786 –> 00:37.638 [SPEAKER_02]: Cutting through the hinder to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond, here’s your host, Chloe Thomas. 00:40.956 –> 00:42.076 [SPEAKER_01]: Hello and welcome. 00:42.096 –> 00:43.277 [SPEAKER_01]: It’s great to have you here. 00:43.357 –> 00:47.238 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests. 00:47.758 –> 00:53.520 [SPEAKER_01]: Huge thanks to Paul Ryzenov from Mage Cloud for introducing us to this brilliant guest. 00:53.640 –> 00:54.780 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much, Paul. 00:54.800 –> 00:55.660 [SPEAKER_01]: We appreciate it. 00:56.200 –> 00:59.041 [SPEAKER_01]: In this episode, we’re chatting about men’s fashion. 00:59.061 –> 01:00.882 [SPEAKER_01]: We’re talking about community B-Corp. 01:01.502 –> 01:06.929 [SPEAKER_01]: tariffs and the dangers of it importing into the U.S. and how to then survive past that. 01:07.469 –> 01:13.897 [SPEAKER_01]: We’ll also be talking about what to do with the 10-year celebration in your business and a whole heap of other bits and pieces, too. 01:14.057 –> 01:16.240 [SPEAKER_01]: hugely interesting guest coming up for you all. 01:16.360 –> 01:19.724 [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you listen to the end because you do want to hear his top tips. 01:25.529 –> 01:27.530 [SPEAKER_01]: And now to introduce our special guest. 01:27.710 –> 01:31.693 [SPEAKER_01]: James Caldale is the co-owner a marketing director at And Sons. 01:32.133 –> 01:36.496 [SPEAKER_01]: A fashion B-Corp brand selling vintage style clothing primarily men’s wear. 01:36.936 –> 01:45.482 [SPEAKER_01]: Founded in 2016, they now sell via their Shopify site, two stores in the UK and wholesale, doing eight figures in sales a year. 01:45.642 –> 01:46.342 [SPEAKER_01]: Hello, James. 01:47.263 –> 01:47.943 [SPEAKER_00]: I’m Chloe Haydum. 01:48.884 –> 01:51.906 [SPEAKER_01]: I’m good, it’s a treat to have you on the show. 01:56.372 –> 01:57.493 [SPEAKER_00]: a good start. 01:58.074 –> 02:03.899 [SPEAKER_00]: Background for both Phil and I, who is the founder of Anson’s, was agency. 02:04.179 –> 02:05.981 [SPEAKER_00]: So we both came from an agency background. 02:06.021 –> 02:07.803 [SPEAKER_00]: One was a branding agency creative agency. 02:08.623 –> 02:11.926 [SPEAKER_00]: And Phil’s was photography production and CGI. 02:12.767 –> 02:15.449 [SPEAKER_00]: And he commas for us was for simply drawn 02:16.430 –> 02:18.251 [SPEAKER_00]: We were drawn to because of budget. 02:18.851 –> 02:41.540 [SPEAKER_00]: We wanted to launch Phil had the idea for Anne Sun’s had been getting sound pulling and it actually came to me originally for the branding to help him on the branding and I did fall in love, genuinely fell in love with the early samples, the idea of this layered look that he’d been searching for for years from various e-commerce websites and brands. 02:43.363 –> 03:01.650 [SPEAKER_00]: And I just thought we were such a cool concept, and I was at an age of 35 at the time, I was at an age where I thought I was starting to feel a little bit lost by the high street, so I really did really resonate with me, I guess it’s what I’m saying, and but because of us both still being agency owners and doing everything on a shoe string, 03:02.230 –> 03:04.932 [SPEAKER_00]: The only option we had was to open an e-commerce website. 03:05.272 –> 03:18.239 [SPEAKER_00]: There was no opportunity at that point to do a brick and mortar stall or anything other than the cheapest possible website, hence the $80 that we started with and we found Shopify. 03:19.239 –> 03:25.383 [SPEAKER_00]: which is obviously now for us 10 years on the, you know, the, I think one of the leading econ platform. 03:25.423 –> 03:28.625 [SPEAKER_00]: So that’s how econ kind of found us really. 03:28.645 –> 03:36.530 [SPEAKER_00]: It was this need state of how do we launch a business as quickly as possible with, you know, having both come from created backgrounds. 03:36.570 –> 03:40.773 [SPEAKER_00]: We had fantastic content and we had fantastic photography and 03:41.413 –> 03:49.580 [SPEAKER_00]: and a great brand and tone of voice but we need something to get us off the ground so that’s how we found ourselves in any commas. 03:50.621 –> 03:54.024 [SPEAKER_01]: I think anyone who looks at your website or your shops 03:54.951 –> 03:58.294 [SPEAKER_01]: We’ll go, of course, they both came from creative backgrounds. 03:58.314 –> 04:06.981 [SPEAKER_01]: That makes so much sense now because the style and the design of both iterations of the brand are so strong. 04:07.542 –> 04:14.087 [SPEAKER_01]: But I guess I can imagine if the Shopify solution wasn’t there and I totally remembered 10 years ago there were those. 04:14.287 –> 04:20.512 [SPEAKER_01]: We created a Shopify store in three days and sold $1,000 and all those blog posts that we all poured over at the time. 04:20.532 –> 04:21.673 [SPEAKER_01]: And this is insane. 04:22.914 –> 04:36.782 [SPEAKER_01]: If you hadn’t have had such a simple straightforward tool to use, if you’d have been trying to do it on a Magento build or an acting build or whatever else, you’d have got lost, I think, completely with that creative background, and you would never have actually got live potentially. 04:37.543 –> 04:38.504 [SPEAKER_00]: No, potentially not. 04:38.564 –> 04:48.876 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, in fact, we were the agency I was running, we were predominantly brand and creative, but we did dip into an online, more sort of marketing sites, I guess you would call them. 04:49.477 –> 04:54.883 [SPEAKER_00]: So we even had people that were available to us, but Shopify was definitely what made it. 04:55.697 –> 05:20.441 [SPEAKER_00]: the quickest point to entry and you know back in the day we were looking at it saying well it was just simply lots of lovely imagery in a square box with a buy button and that was sort of all this is the this is the right move this is the the right thing to do so um that’s like yeah that’s that’s that’s Shopify for you I think so 10 years on obviously a lot has happened and tell us a bit more about the business as it is today 05:23.947 –> 05:28.029 [SPEAKER_00]: So we are UK-based, we’re based in a small town called Chelten. 05:28.049 –> 05:31.710 [SPEAKER_00]: I think known really for the horse racing, I think that’s about it. 05:32.210 –> 05:38.072 [SPEAKER_00]: Another brand, another clothing brand that is rather successful, called Superdry. 05:38.612 –> 05:48.076 [SPEAKER_00]: So we’re based there, we have our first shop, is actually here, our brick and mortar shop is based in Cheltenham, and our other one is in Soho. 05:48.096 –> 05:50.397 [SPEAKER_00]: So, as an online business, 05:51.815 –> 06:01.298 [SPEAKER_00]: saw a lot of growth early doors in the U.S. a lot of the aesthetics of the brand and the inspiration around the clothing came from America. 06:01.999 –> 06:10.542 [SPEAKER_00]: So we had a very Western workware feel, we’d spent time out there, we love the culture, we love the style of it all. 06:11.182 –> 06:14.163 [SPEAKER_00]: So the U.S. quite quickly adopted us with very little 06:14.854 –> 06:18.637 [SPEAKER_00]: performance approach to it, we just simply organically grew in the US. 06:18.657 –> 06:27.284 [SPEAKER_00]: To the point we ended up about halfway through so full five years ago, we ended up with a distribution center in the US as things started to grow. 06:28.084 –> 06:33.048 [SPEAKER_00]: And until last year, the US is all was about 30% of our revenue. 06:34.429 –> 06:37.132 [SPEAKER_00]: And obviously Trump changed that quite. 06:37.232 –> 06:39.974 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it the Trump and tariff scenario? 06:39.994 –> 06:42.035 [SPEAKER_00]: Trump is a tariff scenario. 06:43.272 –> 06:51.555 [SPEAKER_00]: But like any econ brand, and I guess still very entrepreneurial and still very grounded, we have pivoted. 06:51.775 –> 06:55.937 [SPEAKER_00]: So we know we have a really strong audience in the US, and we still have that. 06:56.177 –> 07:02.239 [SPEAKER_00]: But we have had to look at other markets to help build and fill the gap that’s been left behind. 07:02.860 –> 07:06.041 [SPEAKER_00]: Ultimately, the tariffs make a lot of our garment. 07:06.825 –> 07:08.366 [SPEAKER_00]: unrealistic for a lot of people to buy. 07:08.846 –> 07:09.927 [SPEAKER_00]: We’re not pocting that money. 07:10.027 –> 07:25.376 [SPEAKER_00]: We are simply passing it over to the US government and it’s been painful to watch because it was such a growth market for us and we really enjoyed having such a strongholding in it for a small brand, you know, in America. 07:25.596 –> 07:26.857 [SPEAKER_00]: So it’s a real shame 07:27.677 –> 07:31.699 [SPEAKER_01]: Would it be fair to say that America is active but on pause? 07:31.879 –> 07:36.861 [SPEAKER_01]: So there’s no, you’re not proactively going at it, but you’re still serving the customers who want to buy for me. 07:37.141 –> 07:37.541 [SPEAKER_00]: Correct. 07:37.581 –> 07:39.061 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the site still exists. 07:39.102 –> 07:43.003 [SPEAKER_00]: The commerce, we’ve got a separate site since having the distribution center out there. 07:43.423 –> 07:44.984 [SPEAKER_00]: So it’s still functioning. 07:45.004 –> 07:50.666 [SPEAKER_00]: We’re still marked into the Mon every other channel, other than really the paid channels, because it’s just too costly right now. 07:51.166 –> 07:53.527 [SPEAKER_00]: So we are making sure all of our customers are well looked after. 07:54.047 –> 07:55.188 [SPEAKER_00]: We have reduced 07:56.155 –> 08:05.140 [SPEAKER_00]: the pricing is much as we can, you know, it cost to us to ensure that our customers aren’t being completely done over by all, but it’s there. 08:05.300 –> 08:07.741 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s been a real challenge in a real shame, I think. 08:08.825 –> 08:17.731 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it seems to have caused nothing but pain and problems on both sides of the Atlantic and further afield as well. 08:17.911 –> 08:28.579 [SPEAKER_01]: It’s, yeah, that we’ve had a few interviews with companies in America, Rita, as an America who’ve been massively hard hit by as well, huge, huge issues, huge cutbacks, too. 08:29.980 –> 08:35.063 [SPEAKER_01]: So if you have the downturn in the US sales, presumably you’ve already got the products being created. 08:37.485 –> 08:38.806 [SPEAKER_01]: keeping the stock moving. 08:39.767 –> 09:00.527 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s a good question, so as I say, the downturn has happened, but we’ve looked at other markets, so we’d already been warming up a number of markets last year anyway, without knowing the tariffs were coming, places such as Australia, Europe, because obviously Europe for us we had Brexit, which also had the similar effect, so we’ve been slowly building up 09:01.268 –> 09:10.476 [SPEAKER_00]: certain countries in Europe, in particular Germany, as growing markets, Australia, like I said, is another growth market force. 09:10.876 –> 09:15.220 [SPEAKER_00]: So we’ve doubled down over there, we’ve got the pay channels out there with… 09:15.815 –> 09:22.558 [SPEAKER_00]: putting together dedicated website for the Australian market because of course their seasons are different to us. 09:23.338 –> 09:32.262 [SPEAKER_00]: So it’s great in a way because not only were able to hopefully pivot and fill the gap that the America left behind, we are also able to sell out of 09:38.505 –> 09:46.489 [SPEAKER_00]: So, I used to this line when we first started was, well, one of the views was it’s money whilst you sleep, because we’re a 24-7 business for online isn’t that fantastic. 09:47.089 –> 09:51.632 [SPEAKER_00]: And the other was, it’s always cold somewhere, and that is true to a degree. 09:52.132 –> 10:01.296 [SPEAKER_00]: So, now with Australia, we’re able to provide them with a, you know, our winter season, all of our winter content, and we’ve just, um, flipped it. 10:01.897 –> 10:03.858 [SPEAKER_00]: So, that also avoids us having to do, 10:04.758 –> 10:13.640 [SPEAKER_00]: more marked down to clear that excess stock that we have left over from the American downturn and also stock that you have left over generally from river seasons. 10:14.520 –> 10:19.981 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if you if you play it right a fashion play in Australia can be a bit of a margin win. 10:20.481 –> 10:30.242 [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously it’s a bit bit more expensive to get the product there, but it can be that margin winner for you can sell what would have had to go into sale at full price because the seasons don’t match up yet. 10:30.302 –> 10:31.963 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, yeah, it can be. 10:32.563 –> 10:33.203 [SPEAKER_00]: That’s a theory. 10:33.744 –> 10:34.745 [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, that’s the theory. 10:34.785 –> 10:50.112 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, before we, I could ask you about 20 million questions about what we’ve talked about so far, James, but before we hit the record button, you said one of your great passions at the moment has been shifting the business from being custom-driven to community-driven. 10:50.192 –> 10:55.315 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think most brands are struggling to be custom-driven, and you’ve gone beyond that. 10:55.335 –> 10:59.357 [SPEAKER_01]: So what is the differentiation between custom-driven and community-driven? 11:00.113 –> 11:00.974 [SPEAKER_00]: That’s a good question. 11:01.754 –> 11:05.858 [SPEAKER_00]: For us, we started our, the entire business started on Kickstarter. 11:06.218 –> 11:16.707 [SPEAKER_00]: I don’t know if you recall, it’s still around, but I think there’s just many more now, but we love the side there of creating a community back to business in many ways. 11:17.307 –> 11:19.929 [SPEAKER_00]: So it was an opportunity to test the market and you see, 11:20.730 –> 11:23.352 [SPEAKER_00]: people liked what we were selling and if there was an audience for it. 11:24.113 –> 11:31.739 [SPEAKER_00]: So we raised 50,000 in on Kickstarter to get a successful project in those in those early days, 10 years ago now. 11:32.479 –> 11:45.249 [SPEAKER_00]: And from that point onwards, we kind of assumed for the doors open, we’ve got a lovely $80 Shopify website, we’ve picked up a few hundred people from the Kickstarter campaign. 11:46.070 –> 11:47.070 [SPEAKER_00]: This is going to explode 11:51.082 –> 11:53.427 [SPEAKER_00]: There were no lightning strikes for the first few years. 11:53.447 –> 11:55.371 [SPEAKER_00]: We still run our agencies around that time. 11:55.792 –> 11:58.998 [SPEAKER_00]: And it was always a kind of community business. 11:59.059 –> 12:01.484 [SPEAKER_00]: But what I mean by from customer to community is 12:02.550 –> 12:08.072 [SPEAKER_00]: We have always been helping on the customer being the center of our universe. 12:08.132 –> 12:12.794 [SPEAKER_00]: So we, even in the early days, had live chat with real human beings. 12:12.834 –> 12:16.835 [SPEAKER_00]: It was me, filled with answer every question and comment on Instagram. 12:17.656 –> 12:23.598 [SPEAKER_00]: We were a little bit obsessed with our customer base and we wanted to know everything there was to know about them. 12:24.118 –> 12:27.059 [SPEAKER_00]: And we still do now, I still read every single trust pilot review. 12:27.079 –> 12:29.941 [SPEAKER_00]: We’ve got, and I think it’s nearing 30,000. 12:30.521 –> 12:31.081 [SPEAKER_00]: Good unbad. 12:31.721 –> 12:41.326 [SPEAKER_00]: And for me, it was always understanding what they liked, what they didn’t like, what the motivations were for buying, and what, but more importantly, the connection they made with the brand. 12:42.266 –> 12:48.149 [SPEAKER_00]: So when I talk of communities, what we started to see with our customer base was, it was a certain demographic. 12:49.112 –> 12:57.335 [SPEAKER_00]: There was a certain age group, both when Phil and I feel a little older than I am, but both find ourselves in a position where brands were no longer talking to us. 12:57.835 –> 13:02.497 [SPEAKER_00]: We felt a little alienated when we walked into that cool, independent men’s w

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  eCommerce Master Plan

  eCommerce MasterPlan | 607: Building a Purpose-Driven Brand to £15m: How Asket Scaled Without Chasing Trends

  Aug 9, 202632 min

  Jonatan Ehn is the Chief Commercial Officer at Asket, a fashion brand that doesn’t think of itself as a fashion brand. With the goal to liberate daily life from clutter and excess. Their men’s and womenswear rangers are sold via their Centra website, and stores in Stockholm & London, that also offer repairs and alterations. Founded in 2015, last year they did £15 million in sales. In this episode, Jonatan shares how Asket has built a growing eCommerce business by staying true to its mission. He discusses balancing purpose with profit, navigating a major rebrand, and the performance marketing lessons every online retailer can learn from. Hit PLAY to hear: How Asket grew a £15M brand while encouraging customers to buy less The biggest lesson from launching a rebrand, new website, and new store all at once Why your Meta ads can suddenly stop working—and how to turn them around The one-change-at-a-time testing strategy that rebuilt Asket’s marketing performance How to balance purpose and profit without sacrificing business growth The brand discovery tactics helping Asket win customers in the UK, US, and beyond Key timestamps to dive straight in: [05:36] Independent Swedish clothing brand model [08:15] Balancing business goals and ethics [12:37] Rebranding and closing perception gap [15:31] Updating brand visuals and identity [18:22] Identifying marketing strategy issues [22:38] Focusing on brand discovery strategy [25:19] Listen to Jonatan’s Top Tips! Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/607 — Download our ebook… https://ecmp.info/ebook 500 Tips to Increase Your Profits Get all the links and resources we mention and join our email list at https://ecmp.info Love the show? Chloe would love your feedback – leave a review here: https://ecmp.info/review or reply to the episode QandA on Spotify. Interested in being a Sponsor? go here: https://ecmp.info/sponsor Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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  eCommerce Master Plan

  eCommerce MasterPlan | 606: Calla Shoes’ Winning Formula: SEO, Customer Feedback, and Strategic Partnerships

  Aug 2, 202638 min

  Jennifer Bailey is the CEO Founder at Calla Shoes, sellers of women’s shoes for bunions, wide feet and problem feet. Founded in 2016 they now sell via their Shopify store and are on track for £2million in sales this year. In this episode, Jennifer reveals how Calla Shoes grew from a personal frustration into a £2 million global eCommerce brand. Discover the customer-first mindset, SEO strategy, and partnership approach that helped the business scale to customers in 92 countries while staying laser-focused on solving a real problem. Hit PLAY to hear: How Calla Shoes grew into a £2M brand by solving one overlooked customer problem Why SEO still drives most of their traffic after nearly 10 years in business The surprising customer research method Jennifer swears by (and it’s not AI) How a niche footwear brand expanded to 92 countries worldwide The partnership strategy that’s turning podiatrists into powerful referral partners How customer feedback directly shaped some of Calla Shoes’ best-selling products Key timestamps to dive straight in: [06:15] Embracing constant learning in eCommerce [07:49] Global marketing on a budget [10:09] Searching for wedding shoes with bunions [13:15] Embracing unique needs in footwear [16:43] Listening to customer feedback [20:50] Collaborations with podiatrists and influencers [23:02] Listen to Jennifer’s Top Tips! Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/606 — Download our ebook… https://ecmp.info/ebook 500 Tips to Increase Your Profits Get all the links and resources we mention and join our email list at https://ecmp.info Love the show? Chloe would love your feedback – leave a review here: https://ecmp.info/review or reply to the episode QandA on Spotify. Interested in being a Sponsor? go here: https://ecmp.info/sponsor Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy WEBVTT 00:00.572 –> 00:09.482 [SPEAKER_00]: Ever since I started the business because I had no marketing budget, I focused heavily on SEO even today, like most of our traffic still comes from organic. 00:09.702 –> 00:12.806 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s so expensive to acquire customers through Metal and Google now. 00:13.407 –> 00:20.255 [SPEAKER_00]: You need that underlying baseline traffic that’s just finding you through Google or wherever I think. 00:22.963 –> 00:25.347 [SPEAKER_02]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast. 00:25.888 –> 00:29.974 [SPEAKER_02]: Here to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business. 00:30.495 –> 00:36.023 [SPEAKER_02]: Cutting through the hide-off to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond. 00:36.283 –> 00:38.347 [SPEAKER_02]: Here’s your host, Chloe Thomas. 00:41.583 –> 00:42.823 [SPEAKER_01]: Hello and welcome. 00:42.843 –> 00:43.884 [SPEAKER_01]: It’s great to have you here. 00:43.944 –> 00:47.724 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests. 00:48.145 –> 00:52.266 [SPEAKER_01]: In this episode, we’re talking shoes, but we’re talking all full lot more than shoes. 00:52.646 –> 01:02.048 [SPEAKER_01]: We are talking about marketing to a niche that has a real problem that you are fixing in a great way and how you leverage that. 01:02.088 –> 01:08.229 [SPEAKER_01]: We’ll be talking about referrals, we’ll be talking about community, we’re talking about customer research. 01:11.530 –> 01:21.376 [SPEAKER_01]: affiliate schemes and influencer schemes and leveraging experts in that arena to help you build PR and to help you build sales. 01:22.177 –> 01:29.701 [SPEAKER_01]: Lots of stuff going on in this one and do, I know I say this every time, make sure you listen to the top tips, but the tooltop tip in particular this week. 01:30.261 –> 01:35.225 [SPEAKER_01]: I guess is running through the four key tools across team comms. 01:36.085 –> 01:44.131 [SPEAKER_01]: returns email and reviews and loyalty that she uses and giving some very honest feedback about why she’s chosen to use the ones she’s chosen. 01:44.151 –> 01:55.659 [SPEAKER_01]: So well worth listening through to the end there and she’ll also be talking about how they’re going about the circular economy embracing as well loads in this episode coming up great guest. 01:56.059 –> 01:57.040 [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you listen to the end. 02:03.045 –> 02:05.107 [SPEAKER_01]: and now to introduce our special guest. 02:05.508 –> 02:08.791 [SPEAKER_01]: Jennifer Bailey is the CEO founder at Calla Shoes. 02:08.992 –> 02:12.515 [SPEAKER_01]: Sellers of women shoes for bunions, wide feet and problem feet. 02:12.976 –> 02:20.404 [SPEAKER_01]: Founded in 2016, they now sell via their Shopify store or on under on track for £2m in sales this year. 02:20.444 –> 02:21.145 [SPEAKER_01]: Hello Jenny. 02:21.625 –> 02:24.028 [SPEAKER_00]: Hello lovely to be here, Chloe. 02:24.348 –> 02:25.590 [SPEAKER_01]: Brilliant to have you here. 02:25.931 –> 02:35.945 [SPEAKER_01]: I always love a guest who’s focused on a niche and you have one fascinating niche So it’s really cool to explore your business, but before we get into that, how did you end up in e-commerce? 02:35.985 –> 02:39.551 [SPEAKER_01]: Is Kalashuse your first foray or were you in the industry before that? 02:40.677 –> 02:50.446 [SPEAKER_00]: So before Calla Shoes, I had never owned my own business, so I owned my own business before, and no one in my family had had their own business before. 02:50.846 –> 02:55.130 [SPEAKER_00]: So this is all that we knew to me, and I knew nothing about footwear or fashion either. 02:55.750 –> 02:58.152 [SPEAKER_00]: So it was all quite new. 02:58.433 –> 03:00.654 [SPEAKER_00]: The only thing I did have is that I’d background 03:01.575 –> 03:02.295 [SPEAKER_00]: is marketing. 03:02.395 –> 03:08.157 [SPEAKER_00]: So my career up till starting the business at 36 was in marketing. 03:08.197 –> 03:09.958 [SPEAKER_00]: So at least I had that. 03:10.078 –> 03:13.919 [SPEAKER_00]: So I didn’t know how to make shoes, but I had an idea of how I wanted to sell them. 03:14.499 –> 03:16.560 [SPEAKER_00]: I wasn’t in E-Con before before. 03:16.620 –> 03:20.261 [SPEAKER_00]: I was actually head of marketing at E. So we did like student recruitment, 03:20.821 –> 03:26.706 [SPEAKER_00]: marketing brand, investor brand, guardianship, that kind of thing. 03:26.966 –> 03:37.254 [SPEAKER_00]: We didn’t really do eat e-commerce such at the university, but I was part of my role was looking after the university website, making sure it’s on brand and looking at the customer journeys, that kind of thing. 03:37.714 –> 03:42.758 [SPEAKER_00]: But it’s a bit new, digital marketing wasn’t, but e-commerce totally get it. 03:42.778 –> 03:44.799 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think having looked at your business, it makes sense. 03:44.839 –> 03:45.400 [SPEAKER_01]: You had that 03:46.480 –> 04:05.512 [SPEAKER_01]: bigger marketing experience, the top-level marketing experience rather than nitty-gritty experience you started because your business does a really great job with the top and stuff, which if I know a lot of people coming into e-commerce get very into all the nitty-gritty, but the bigger brand, customer feeling, emotional part gets left behind. 04:06.212 –> 04:10.134 [SPEAKER_01]: So this business was your first journey into e-commerce. 04:10.315 –> 04:12.236 [SPEAKER_01]: I’m tell us a bit about how it is now, 04:14.497 –> 04:15.858 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. 04:16.658 –> 04:20.939 [SPEAKER_00]: So 2016 was the first year started selling. 04:21.019 –> 04:30.203 [SPEAKER_00]: So if we went, I went live with pre-orders in September 2016 and then the shoes didn’t actually arrive until like November, because then we did pre-orders. 04:31.223 –> 04:32.204 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, 10 years. 04:32.824 –> 04:33.704 [SPEAKER_00]: That’s bonkers, isn’t it? 04:33.864 –> 04:34.825 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s bonkers, yeah. 04:35.225 –> 04:35.525 [SPEAKER_00]: It is. 04:36.118 –> 04:41.541 [SPEAKER_00]: I would, in some respects, it’s gone really, really fast and in all those, it’s gone quite slowly. 04:41.601 –> 05:01.810 [SPEAKER_00]: So it’s always, but I judge it on my kids because I was pregnant when I started the business, because it took about two years before we actually had products sell, you know, just kind of getting everything, all the prototyping done because it’s, because it’s product, you know, that that isn’t a quick turnaround and it’s because it’s a product in a niche, 05:05.372 –> 05:07.294 [SPEAKER_00]: but yeah, so I and she’s 11 now. 05:07.574 –> 05:12.578 [SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of like that’s how I understand how all my business is, but then I told her. 05:12.958 –> 05:14.079 [SPEAKER_00]: It makes two of a sudden. 05:14.800 –> 05:15.240 [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah. 05:15.720 –> 05:18.723 [SPEAKER_00]: It comments out here and it’s changed so much. 05:18.743 –> 05:27.350 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I always say to people that if I had a year off, I would be coming back and going, what is going on? 05:27.510 –> 05:29.872 [SPEAKER_00]: Why is actually going on right now? 05:30.652 –> 05:32.672 [SPEAKER_00]: everything is changing at such a pace. 05:33.373 –> 05:36.153 [SPEAKER_00]: I even faster than it has done before. 05:36.473 –> 05:55.057 [SPEAKER_00]: I guess it doesn’t really matter that I don’t really know what I’m doing because I don’t know what I’m doing but it doesn’t really matter if you feel like you’re winging it because everybody is at the moment because everything is changing at such a pace so yeah I love e-commerce and I specifically chose 06:01.159 –> 06:14.549 [SPEAKER_00]: easier, and somewhat is I think, where I think about B2BA always get a little bit like, or would I want to talk to about it or something, that kind of thing is very, what if it’s easy, I think, to go, I’m just going to sell shoes to whoever wants to buy them in the world, I found that an easier concept. 06:15.029 –> 06:22.815 [SPEAKER_01]: I’m completely in that camp with you, but I love you say about how it’s a benefit, not know what you’re doing because actually no one else does, 06:25.237 –> 06:40.034 [SPEAKER_01]: lesson to learn in e-commerce that if you try and be the know it all you will miss stuff you know because it’s the platforms are changing all the time the way the customers behave is changing a little bit all the time what they respond to changes and you have to be you have to have this constant 06:40.915 –> 06:44.538 [SPEAKER_01]: fascination with it and wanting to learn more and wanting to find out things. 06:44.558 –> 06:49.243 [SPEAKER_01]: So as soon as you soon as you start being trying to be a know-it-all, done for, absolutely done for. 06:49.263 –> 06:54.127 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, the basic fundamentals of marketing still stand, they don’t go anywhere. 06:54.868 –> 06:58.391 [SPEAKER_00]: And the basic fundamentals of how to win a business don’t go anywhere. 06:58.711 –> 07:04.796 [SPEAKER_00]: But in terms of how to acquire new customers online, that’s like, that’s an ever-changing landscape. 07:05.657 –> 07:06.377 [SPEAKER_01]: very, very much. 07:06.597 –> 07:08.178 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let’s talk about the business now. 07:08.899 –> 07:11.079 [SPEAKER_01]: Where are you in the world and where are you selling to? 07:12.140 –> 07:27.067 [SPEAKER_00]: So, I live in the Northwest of England near town called Warrington, actually living Newtony Willows, no one’s heard of Newtony Willows, but if you’re all like me, then you’ll have heard of Rick Hassley, and this is the town that he’s from. 07:28.828 –> 07:35.654 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s our only claim to fame, and myself and my whole team work remotely, we don’t have apprentices. 07:35.874 –> 07:43.941 [SPEAKER_00]: We use a 3PL that is also in the north of England, we have a 3PL in America as well, but my team are all over the place. 07:45.242 –> 08:10.561 [SPEAKER_00]: we sell globally and we have done some day one and again that wasn’t it was a conscious decision because I thought well I’m just going to sell the shoes to whoever wants to buy them and I don’t really care where they’re from so I didn’t think particularly geographically at first and that’s because my marketing strategy to start with was I needed to do as much as I could for with no money which is very different from working at university because I had loads of money 08:14.064 –> 08:27.091 [SPEAKER_00]: and so my marketing reach was done mainly via socials, SEO and forums and it’s quite hard to you know, regionally geographically, you know, go down in place in those areas. 08:27.571 –> 08:39.058 [SPEAKER_00]: So when we launched our pre-orders and from the kind of the seeding work that I’d done before, you know, intensive getting the brand concept out there in the year or so prior to the launch, 08:39.898 –> 08:44.340 [SPEAKER_00]: people will like from kind of do America or whatever and just same our buy shoes. 08:44.380 –> 08:46.141 [SPEAKER_00]: Now it’s like I’ll send you my shoes. 08:49.123 –> 08:52.405 [SPEAKER_00]: That’s what that’s what the story is and that’s what the post is about. 08:52.925 –> 08:58.628 [SPEAKER_00]: So we sell globally but at the moment the split is around 40% U.S. 09:00.870 –> 09:03.872 [SPEAKER_00]: 50% UK and 10% rest of the world. 09:04.372 –> 09:09.596 [SPEAKER_00]: And when I say rest of the world, that’s still mostly Australia, Canada, Europe. 09:10.036 –> 09:16.521 [SPEAKER_00]: And then we have a smattering of customers that have found as via Instagram, I think, or TikTok or whatever. 09:17.281 –> 09:20.544 [SPEAKER_00]: And we’ve sold into 92 countries in the world. 09:20.564 –> 09:21.624 [SPEAKER_00]: That way. 09:22.325 –> 09:25.167 [SPEAKER_01]: But two big markets in the UK in the US for you. 09:25.947 –> 09:29.990 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the US was bigger until Donald Trump came in. 09:30.630 –> 09:39.576 [SPEAKER_00]: It was overtaking the UK, and it was overtaking it at a pace, but then the tariff situation came in and it’s ticking a bit of a dip. 09:40.236 –> 09:43.658 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, the T word, the worst word in Ecomas. 09:43.899 –> 09:45.800 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I’m sorry. 09:46.320 –> 09:50.943 [SPEAKER_00]: Tariff’s in Trump, Trump, Tariff’s and Dominimists. 09:51.003 –> 09:53.445 [SPEAKER_00]: Those are like the three ways, but yeah, Trump got. 09:54.662 –> 09:56.023 [SPEAKER_00]: That’s a whole separate podcast. 09:56.963 –> 10:07.069 [SPEAKER_01]: So something we haven’t yet talked about, Jen, is your product, which is click key to the success of your business is the product and the customer base you’re selling to. 10:07.149 –> 10:08.390 [SPEAKER_01]: So tell us about the product. 10:09.312 –> 10:30.580 [SPEAKER_00]: So the whole reason I ended up in this niche and why I started the business is because I suffered from a folk condition called bunions and many years ago when I was getting married, I suddenly realized that I wasn’t going to be able to find a really pretty pair of wedding shoes because I’ve got bunions and up until that point I’ve kind of 10:31.400 –> 10:38.862 [SPEAKER_00]: made done with trainers and augbutes and the odd pair of shoes that I could find that, you know, I could fit into comfortably. 10:39.362 –> 10:45.783 [SPEAKER_00]: But wedding days are kind of about quite specific, you know, shoes, I think, or for me they were anyway. 10:46.223 –> 10:51.205 [SPEAKER_00]: And I had a very specific look in mind and a very beautiful dress getting married in Italy. 10:51.225 –> 10:57.106 [SPEAKER_00]: And I had an idea of what shoes I wanted and then I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to find them because my feet were weird. 10:57.686 –> 10:59.287 [SPEAKER_00]: Or my feet wouldn’t fit into conventional 11:01.767 –> 11:21.454 [SPEAKER_00]: So I started looking online for hours on end and I just thought maybe someone in Australia is doing it or someone in China or do you know if somebody might just be doing something for some bunions and I’d buy them I was happy to pay and buy them for words that they came from but I couldn’t find in him So I decided then I was going to start my own business one day 11:22.694 –> 11:38.725 [SPEAKER_00]: And when I say that it was a throwaway thought throwaway comment to my husband, but when it came to a shoved situation and a shoved situation which is where a lot of women I speak to start businesses because they get to a point in their lives where they go. 11:39.245 –> 11:41.867 [SPEAKER_00]: this is the best solution for me in my lifestyle right now. 11:42.468 –> 11:53.718 [SPEAKER_00]: And I was, and I’ve been working at the University for a while, I’ve worked more way up to acting head of marketing, but then and we had a new boss, it wasn’t particularly nice, it was just a really light ring. 11:54.159 –> 11:55.019 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s been like my team. 11:55.480 –> 12:00.604 [SPEAKER_00]: It got me as all we’ve done, and I found out I was pregnant with my second child at the same time. 12:01.405 –> 12:03.886 [SPEAKER_00]: And it was a lot, you know, at that time. 12:03.906 –> 12:06.968 [SPEAKER_00]: So I thought, right, okay, that was the idea I had years ago. 12:06.988 –> 12:11.631 [SPEAKER_00]: I’m going to, I’m going to see if I can make it fly while I’m on maternity leave, which is what I did. 12:12.111 –> 12:17.674 [SPEAKER_00]: So the shoes are, that’s a story behind it, but the shoes and cells are designed with bunions in mind. 12:18.695 –> 12:26.399 [SPEAKER_00]: It has evolved over the 10 years that we’ve been trading just because of how we’ve responded to, you know, 12:28.540 –> 12:29.360 [SPEAKER_00]: and customer needs. 12:30.180 –> 12:50.445 [SPEAKER_00]: We know from our own research that the majority of our customers buy for bunions, wide feet, and hammer toes, and there’s like the three main complaints that people have, which is why they’ve gone off on Google, trying to find something desperation, or they’ve seen our add-on thought, oh, I didn’t realise there was a solution out there for my problem. 12:51.125 –> 12:53.947 [SPEAKER_00]: At the time of launching, there was really no one else doing what we’re doing now. 12:53.967 –> 13:06.734 [SPEAKER_00]: There were quite a few and Bunions were still very niche, but there’s lots of brands out there that are really leaning into comfort and you know, all of them in Telbeport, sold of their fashion reports. 13:06.814 –> 13:09.976 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s very much going back down that route. 13:09.996 –> 13:15.339 [SPEAKER_00]: So it’s quite a different footwear

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  eCommerce Master Plan

  eCommerce MasterPlan | 605: WWYD as Head of eCommerce Entering the Preloved Market? Andy Ostcliffe

  Jul 26, 202646 min

  Andy Ostcliffe is the Chief at Chiefly, where they’re experts on the Charity Retail Sector and pre-loved sales across product categories. Previously Andy co-created and led two of the world’s largest charity online retailers – Oxfam and British Heart Foundation. Andy joins Chloe for a What Would You Do? episode, exploring what today’s Head of eCommerce should do if their fashion brand wants to enter the growing pre-loved market. Together, they unpack the operational, commercial, and regulatory challenges, and discuss how brands can build a strategy that works for both customers and the business. Hit PLAY to hear: Why launching a pre-loved store is much harder than it looks The surprising reason Marks & Spencer chose eBay over building its own resale platform How AI could make fashion resale dramatically more profitable The regulations coming for fashion brands—and why you should prepare now What really happens to clothes after you donate them (it’s not what most people think) Why live shopping is becoming one of the hottest opportunities in eCommerce Key timestamps to dive straight in: [04:38] Retailers and preloved fashion trends [06:28] Challenges in retail logistics [09:35] Economic challenges for PLC retailers [13:03] Impact of Secondhand Sales [16:55] UK charity shops and new regulations [21:16] Impact of Online Resale on Charities [23:29] Ghana’s role in pre-loved fashion [29:29] Pricing and stock rotation strategies [31:00] Retail strategy for preloved fashion [35:31] Listen to Andy’s Top Tips! Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/605 — Download our ebook… https://ecmp.info/ebook 500 Tips to Increase Your Profits Get all the links and resources we mention and join our email list at https://ecmp.info Love the show? Chloe would love your feedback – leave a review here: https://ecmp.info/review or reply to the episode QandA on Spotify. Interested in being a Sponsor? go here: https://ecmp.info/sponsor Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy WEBVTT 00:00.592 –> 00:04.077 [SPEAKER_00]: AI has made a massive amount of impact. 00:04.577 –> 00:10.726 [SPEAKER_00]: However, we haven’t used AI in mainstream retail for retail itself. 00:10.946 –> 00:15.112 [SPEAKER_00]: So coming forward with an extended produced responsibility, data. 00:15.372 –> 00:17.213 [SPEAKER_00]: will become king. 00:17.773 –> 00:32.720 [SPEAKER_00]: Because data is how the fashion brand retailer will report on what it’s done with a garment, how many they received where they went, how many they sold, how many came back, how many were disposed of data will be king. 00:35.683 –> 00:38.084 [SPEAKER_01]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast. 00:38.625 –> 00:42.707 [SPEAKER_01]: Here to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business. 00:43.207 –> 00:51.011 [SPEAKER_01]: Cutting through the hive to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond, here’s your host, Chloe Thomas. 00:54.442 –> 00:55.443 [SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome. 00:55.483 –> 00:56.685 [SPEAKER_02]: It’s great to have you here. 00:56.745 –> 01:00.529 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests. 01:01.210 –> 01:05.755 [SPEAKER_02]: In this episode, we’ve got a past guest back on for something a little different. 01:05.876 –> 01:14.386 [SPEAKER_02]: Last time Andy was on the show was an epic three years ago and he was here telling us about how they do online retail at. 01:14.906 –> 01:17.889 [SPEAKER_02]: charity, organisation, orksfam, which was fascinating. 01:18.369 –> 01:27.076 [SPEAKER_02]: This time he’s back to get deep into the world of pre-loved, and all the ins and outs of it is one of our, what would you do, episode guests? 01:27.677 –> 01:29.158 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, what would you do with Andy? 01:29.779 –> 01:33.462 [SPEAKER_02]: It’s a big one, and we really are going to be talking all around it. 01:33.842 –> 01:41.428 [SPEAKER_02]: We are doing what would you do if you were ahead of e-commerce at a fashion brand wanting to play in the second hand or pre-loved space? 01:43.550 –> 02:02.335 [SPEAKER_02]: all the things you need to think about as we get into this and maybe come to some conclusions maybe not, but it’s absolutely fascinating to hear from someone who is so deep in the world of pre-loved and the charity sector and how all of that links through to what we do in mainstream, I suppose, fashion retail. 02:02.875 –> 02:04.618 [SPEAKER_02]: So, fascinating stuff coming up. 02:04.658 –> 02:14.010 [SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you listen right to the end because Andy’s got some brilliant top tips including some amazing stats around live stream shopping of all things. 02:20.086 –> 02:22.007 [SPEAKER_02]: and now to introduce our special guest. 02:22.507 –> 02:30.831 [SPEAKER_02]: Andy Oscliffe is the chief at chiefly, where their experts on the charity retail sector and pre-loved sales across product categories. 02:31.351 –> 02:40.895 [SPEAKER_02]: Previously, Andy co-created and led two of the world’s largest charity online retailers, Oxfam and British Heart Foundation, hello, Andy. 02:41.616 –> 02:42.936 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Chloe, what an introduction. 02:43.016 –> 02:44.117 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much indeed. 02:44.501 –> 02:45.601 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, it’s all user. 02:45.641 –> 02:46.442 [SPEAKER_02]: It’s all you. 02:47.342 –> 02:49.843 [SPEAKER_02]: Lovely to have you back on the show. 02:50.223 –> 02:53.785 [SPEAKER_02]: How have things been, since we last caught up in a few years now? 02:54.285 –> 02:55.326 [SPEAKER_00]: It has been a few years. 02:56.226 –> 03:03.429 [SPEAKER_00]: I was just saying I’ve read your book a few times on flights going backwards and forwards across the globe. 03:03.869 –> 03:08.351 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s been particularly busy, but very, very interesting. 03:08.744 –> 03:19.890 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it’s a fascinating time to be in, I don’t think these days I’m not sure whether we call it secondhand or circular or what the right terminology is anymore, but to be in that used fashion space is fascinating. 03:20.287 –> 03:23.868 [SPEAKER_00]: that he’s pre-loved, come on, it’s been a second time. 03:23.968 –> 03:24.888 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah. 03:24.948 –> 03:26.109 [SPEAKER_02]: Sorry. 03:26.189 –> 03:26.829 [SPEAKER_00]: Fascinating. 03:27.089 –> 03:27.669 [SPEAKER_00]: Wow. 03:28.069 –> 03:36.251 [SPEAKER_00]: If you look at some of the stats in terms of, number of views is on certain platforms, of which I’m sure we’ll get into. 03:37.232 –> 03:44.734 [SPEAKER_00]: What people are buying and their price points, then I think it’s an exciting time as a consumer. 03:44.934 –> 03:48.615 [SPEAKER_00]: It could be quite a challenging time as a mainstream retailer. 03:49.284 –> 03:50.706 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think it’s interesting. 03:50.726 –> 03:52.548 [SPEAKER_02]: We’ve kind of got the tech evolving. 03:52.948 –> 03:59.395 [SPEAKER_02]: We’ve got the consumer behaviours evolving and we’ve got completely different business models coming into play as well. 03:59.515 –> 04:07.164 [SPEAKER_02]: And I think for anyone who’s running a fashion brand in particular, because that’s kind of at the bleeding edge of it, is fashion at the minute. 04:07.684 –> 04:09.306 [SPEAKER_02]: Anyone running a fashion brand at the moment? 04:10.467 –> 04:19.733 [SPEAKER_02]: working out how to play in this space for whatever reason they want to play in this space, because that’s a whole other list of questions as well. 04:20.213 –> 04:22.775 [SPEAKER_02]: It’s really difficult to work out what to do. 04:22.855 –> 04:29.379 [SPEAKER_02]: So, you’ve suggested we do what would you do if you were ahead of e-commerce at a fashion brand, wanting to play in the second-hand space? 04:29.399 –> 04:37.424 [SPEAKER_02]: So, and what would you do if you were ahead of e-commerce at a fashion brand wanting to play in the second-hand and I should say pre-loved space right now? 04:38.248 –> 04:39.689 [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, we’re a great question. 04:40.169 –> 04:49.936 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, mainstream retailers are literally scratching their heads because let’s break up what a fashion retailer looks like. 04:50.057 –> 04:56.221 [SPEAKER_00]: You’ve got the value element of the sector, which could be supermarket fashion. 04:56.401 –> 05:00.364 [SPEAKER_00]: It could be love entry such as Primark. 05:00.744 –> 05:14.973 [SPEAKER_00]: who are planning that particular space, but very much from a bricks and mortar perspective, but watch that space because their main shareholder has a few months ago decided to sell off 05:15.673 –> 05:25.736 [SPEAKER_00]: parts of their business, Prime Mark will be separated from that main parent company, who knows you may get some new shareholders coming along saying, why are we not online? 05:25.816 –> 05:29.237 [SPEAKER_00]: So that may change that that view a little. 05:29.857 –> 05:38.660 [SPEAKER_00]: But if you, if you were to look at the market place now and say, who is, who is really serious about pre-loved fashion, I’d have to say 05:40.520 –> 05:45.822 [SPEAKER_00]: and it’s Marx and Sponsors, it’s a third-party resale platform and it’s eBay. 05:46.422 –> 05:49.164 [SPEAKER_00]: And they’re really giving it a good girl. 05:49.324 –> 05:51.044 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, who knew? 05:51.484 –> 05:58.887 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the retail chain where my mum goes for underwear, now experimenting with pre-law fashion online. 05:59.588 –> 06:07.191 [SPEAKER_02]: And I find it so interesting that M&S have, they haven’t gone for the doing it on our website. 06:08.064 –> 06:09.825 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, they’re not doing the buyback. 06:09.885 –> 06:12.867 [SPEAKER_02]: We recondition, we control it on our own platform. 06:12.907 –> 06:15.368 [SPEAKER_02]: They’re doing the, we buy it back. 06:15.809 –> 06:19.591 [SPEAKER_02]: And then we sell it on eBay in the M&S eBay shop. 06:19.811 –> 06:22.452 [SPEAKER_02]: Which is such a, such a surprise. 06:22.673 –> 06:24.574 [SPEAKER_02]: I thought they’d have wanted the brand control. 06:24.694 –> 06:26.755 [SPEAKER_02]: I didn’t think they’d have wanted on a third party platform. 06:26.775 –> 06:28.396 [SPEAKER_02]: I find that strategically intriguing. 06:29.080 –> 06:30.620 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s not easy, it’s difficult. 06:30.661 –> 06:37.102 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you look at, let’s look at some main stream retail brands in fashion. 06:37.663 –> 06:41.324 [SPEAKER_00]: And let’s take one of the supermarket fashion brands. 06:42.484 –> 06:49.266 [SPEAKER_00]: And the way that they’re logistics, they’re entire infrastructure, they’re entire operation works through 3PL. 06:49.326 –> 06:55.708 [SPEAKER_00]: So with Sainsbury’s as a really good example, DHL are one of their biggest 3PL providers. 06:58.809 –> 07:15.297 [SPEAKER_00]: dealing with brand new products, the logistics of it arriving just in time, the distribution into the store network, all the reverse logistics that take place in terms of product that just didn’t sell in the store versus returns. 07:15.878 –> 07:20.300 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes product just doesn’t even arrive at the supermarket 07:26.503 –> 07:34.566 [SPEAKER_00]: new goods were challenging in terms of logistics models and the just in times that have to fall into place for that happen. 07:35.266 –> 07:36.106 [SPEAKER_00]: But you loved is it? 07:36.266 –> 07:45.309 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s just another ball game, different sizes, different styles, different seasons and have you got enough of the same product? 07:45.369 –> 07:51.551 [SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes you may just have a handful of pair of 501s and yet you’re going to 07:55.712 –> 07:57.033 [SPEAKER_00]: x price coming and get them. 07:57.073 –> 08:13.666 [SPEAKER_00]: So I think it is it does have some real challenges and maybe Marx and Spencer’s decided that by offloading that to a third party, they can trial, they can test, they can see, but ultimately if it went wrong, it’s not really our problem. 08:13.686 –> 08:16.809 [SPEAKER_00]: That’s the third party supply who’s dealing with that part of our business. 08:17.653 –> 08:29.063 [SPEAKER_02]: I think you make such a good point there in terms of, even if you want to do it yourself internally, you know, you’re a smaller brand who it’s, you know, it fits with what you do and who you are and everything. 08:30.364 –> 08:34.368 [SPEAKER_02]: It is a completely different business model. 08:34.888 –> 08:45.536 [SPEAKER_02]: Everything is different from product photography to ironing and mending things potentially to having you used to have for the blue blue jeans. 08:45.776 –> 08:52.601 [SPEAKER_02]: You had five sizes and depth of identical product units on each of those five sizes. 08:52.821 –> 08:55.382 [SPEAKER_02]: Now you have five sizes plus three conditions. 08:56.383 –> 09:08.891 [SPEAKER_02]: with potentially individual photography, potentially individual descriptions, you’ve then got items of one, you know, logistically marketing it’s different website, how it behaves and how that functions is different. 09:09.292 –> 09:22.841 [SPEAKER_02]: So I think whether you’re going to do the outsource third party option for where you sell it, who manages it or whether you’re going to do it as a within your existing warehouse space and within your existing team, 09:23.761 –> 09:35.230 [SPEAKER_02]: It’s as complicated as suddenly opening up a retail shop, I think, in terms of how you manage it as a business and the different techniques, it’s not just going to fit into your existing systems. 09:35.831 –> 09:36.731 [SPEAKER_00]: I agree, I agree. 09:36.891 –> 09:40.915 [SPEAKER_00]: And so if we thought the logistics were challenging enough, 09:41.415 –> 10:03.192 [SPEAKER_00]: let’s just look at the economics because when you throw economics at this which is quite clearly where PLC retailers are now heavily focusing what’s the return if we invest what do our shareholders expect and sort of those shareholders are now huge organizations so they’re 10:06.494 –> 10:07.815 [SPEAKER_00]: more than ever before. 10:07.875 –> 10:19.601 [SPEAKER_00]: So the economics and let’s just dive into economics because we all know vintage in terms of the platform is and its success has been phenomenal. 10:19.721 –> 10:23.783 [SPEAKER_00]: So we saw vintage created in Europe. 10:24.323 –> 10:26.724 [SPEAKER_00]: it comes to the UK. 10:27.024 –> 10:32.407 [SPEAKER_00]: It collects in the UK 17.2 million users. 10:32.727 –> 10:40.851 [SPEAKER_00]: That’s almost a third of the population operating on a platform that buys and sells pre-loved fashion. 10:41.191 –> 10:42.112 [SPEAKER_00]: So, they’re 10:48.495 –> 11:01.506 [SPEAKER_00]: fashion platform, and suddenly then out of nowhere, in a very, very sneaky low key PR piece vintage say, or but we’re now operating in Australia. 11:02.267 –> 11:10.134 [SPEAKER_00]: So when you look at the economics, and let’s just take a pair of jeans that you would buy from mainstream retail for £100, 11:11.655 –> 11:26.446 [SPEAKER_00]: and you can buy them on Vinted for 10 Palms, where on Earth would mainstream retail trying get involved with the price dynamics of how that works, all the organisation, all the extra work, 11:27.166 –> 11:33.528 [SPEAKER_00]: all that range in merchandising and you’re going to sell it for a tenth of what it is in the store. 11:34.388 –> 11:46.030 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it just doesn’t fit inside mainstream retail and maybe that’s why we’re not seeing mainstream retail at the moment entering the pre-loved marketplace. 11:46.070 –> 11:47.971 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, just one more point because 11:49.071 –> 11:56.836 [SPEAKER_00]: fashion retailers for quite some time have been very active around, well let’s just concentrate on the sourcing. 11:57.356 –> 12:03.900 [SPEAKER_00]: Let’s make sure that some of the content of the product that were manufacturing has recycled material within it. 12:04.801 –> 12:14.607 [SPEAKER_00]: Let’s show some of our credentials and maybe pick up some of our audience around feeling better, not feeling good, but feeling better about buying new clothing that 12:17.949 –> 12:23.537 [SPEAKER_00]: but you do come to a point that there’s only so much recycled material. 12:23.557 –> 12:24.598 [SPEAKER_00]: This is where we get geeky. 12:24.939 –> 12:34.351 [SPEAKER_00]: There’s only so much recycled material you can actually put in a new piece of clothing where it will keep it safe, it’s texture, it’s form, it’s colour. 12:34.892 –> 12:48.502 [SPEAKER_00]: So the quiet restricted really, and therefore I think we’ve got an audience, we quite clearly in the UK have picked up a shopper who wants value for money, they want to shop on their terms. 12:49.303 –> 12:56.488 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s almost become a social activity and don’t get me started on live if we pick this up 13:03.263 –> 13:04.524 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, oh yeah, completely. 13:04.584 –> 13:11.587 [SPEAKER_02]: But I think the economics, yes, the economics you outlined is clearly the core economics part of this. 13:11.667 –> 13:14.288 [SPEAKER_02]: But then I think we have two other things coming into play. 13:15.489 –> 13:29.935 [SPEAKER_02]: One of which is the data, and I think it was Boston University did the research where customers who are buying second hand and selling back second hand to the brand have a better lifetime value than those who are only buy full price products. 13:32.356 –> 13:36.338 [SPEAKER_02]: trackable impact on customer lifetime value that’s positive. 13:36.999 –> 13:54.649 [SPEAKER_02]: And then we’ve also got the increasing pressure and legislation on brands to deal with their end of life and inverted commerce, end of first use products, be that returns, be that deadstock, be that customer used 14:01.222 –> 14:03.845 [SPEAKER_02]: Ooh, there’s loads of our product on Vintage and eBay. 14:03.985 –> 14:10.952 [SPEAKER_02]: I want a slice of that, which I get, you know, but as you just outline the economic, it’s not big margins, we’re talking about here. 14:11.773 –> 14:19.381 [SPEAKER_02]: But then there’s also the things we’ve got to build anyway so let’s leverage more product through that process, if that makes sense. 14:19.441 –> 14:23.065 [SPEAKER_02]: And then the legislative cost that’s going to be coming in our direction sooner or later. 14:23.085 –> 14:23.525 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 14:23.825 –> 14:43.673 [SPEAKER_00]: Let’s look at legislation because legislation is active in

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  eCommerce Master Plan

  eCommerce MasterPlan | 604: How CULT MIA Scaled 5X by Building a Global Luxury Fashion Marketplace

  Jul 19, 202631 min

  Holly Daniels is the Head of eCommerce at CULT MIA & a Drapers 30 Under 30 Alumni. CULT MIA is an independent luxury fashion marketplace, showcasing new designers and unique collections, many of which are exclusive on their Shopify website. Founded in 2019 they won Draper’s Best Independent Retailer in 2022 AND 2023 and last year were named in the UK Fast Growth Index – not surprising since in the last couple of years they’ve scaled sales 5 times. In this episode, Holly lifts the lid on how CULT MIA scaled 5X while navigating global logistics, international expansion, and the unique challenges of running a luxury fashion marketplace. Expect practical insights on data-driven growth, entering new markets, creating exceptional customer experiences, and using AI where it delivers real business impact. Hit PLAY to hear: How CULT MIA uncovered a hidden Middle East growth opportunity through customer data The surprising strategy that helped the luxury marketplace scale sales 5X What most brands get wrong about international expansion and cross-border logistics Why launching in the right season can matter more than your ad creative Practical AI use cases that save hours and improve eCommerce operations Holly Daniels’ framework for testing new markets without risking your entire budget Key timestamps to dive straight in: [04:22] CULT MIA’s global market reach [08:50] CULT MIA’s brand values and products [12:10] Managing international shipping logistics [13:29] Cross-border operations and sustainability [18:01] Understanding Regional Customer Behavior [20:06] Building trust with new markets [23:07] Using AI for administrative tasks [25:15] Listen to Holly’s Top Tips! Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/604 — Download our ebook… https://ecmp.info/ebook 500 Tips to Increase Your Profits Get all the links and resources we mention and join our email list at https://ecmp.info Love the show? Chloe would love your feedback – leave a review here: https://ecmp.info/review or reply to the episode QandA on Spotify. Interested in being a Sponsor? go here: https://ecmp.info/sponsor Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy WEBVTT 00:00.631 –> 00:04.094 [SPEAKER_02]: AB testing and that testing cycle is your best friend. 00:04.634 –> 00:06.996 [SPEAKER_02]: You don’t have to go all in, you can do small amounts. 00:07.236 –> 00:16.122 [SPEAKER_02]: Make a testing budget that’s 90% BAU, 10% testing, and then find a rollout plan that rolls what’s getting hooked back into your main budget, things like that. 00:16.702 –> 00:18.243 [SPEAKER_02]: Always be moving and adapting. 00:18.343 –> 00:19.524 [SPEAKER_02]: I think that’s the key thing. 00:19.584 –> 00:23.307 [SPEAKER_02]: You can’t even trust with a lot of these markets that what you knew a year ago even still works. 00:26.152 –> 00:28.533 [SPEAKER_01]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast. 00:29.093 –> 00:33.174 [SPEAKER_01]: Air to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business. 00:33.674 –> 00:41.477 [SPEAKER_01]: Cutting through the hinder to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond here’s your host, Chloe Thomas. 00:44.790 –> 00:47.251 [SPEAKER_00]: Hello and welcome, it’s great to have you here. 00:47.311 –> 00:51.093 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for being in play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests. 00:51.513 –> 00:56.295 [SPEAKER_00]: Huge thanks to Aleka Carney from Nosto for introducing us to this brilliant guest. 00:56.496 –> 00:57.496 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Alea. 00:57.716 –> 00:58.877 [SPEAKER_00]: We really appreciate it. 00:59.317 –> 01:02.598 [SPEAKER_00]: Now in this episode, we are talking luxury fashion. 01:02.618 –> 01:04.019 [SPEAKER_00]: We’re talking marketplaces. 01:04.459 –> 01:08.561 [SPEAKER_00]: We are talking super complex operations, customs, and tariffs. 01:09.061 –> 01:09.862 [SPEAKER_00]: We’re talking 01:10.442 –> 01:15.284 [SPEAKER_00]: AI, practical AI tips, and we are talking about expansion into the Middle East. 01:15.304 –> 01:18.145 [SPEAKER_00]: There’s a whole lot more we get into, but those are the key things. 01:18.505 –> 01:24.408 [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you listen to the end of the episode so you don’t miss out on my guest top tips and my own take on this episode. 01:30.460 –> 01:32.561 [SPEAKER_00]: and now to introduce our special guest. 01:32.861 –> 01:39.005 [SPEAKER_00]: Holly Daniels is the head of e-commerce at Colt Meer and a draper’s 30 under 30 alumni. 01:39.465 –> 01:49.471 [SPEAKER_00]: Colt Meer is an independent luxury fashion market play showcasing new designers and unique collections, many of which are exclusively to them on their Shopify website. 01:50.011 –> 01:54.314 [SPEAKER_00]: Founded in 2019, they won draper’s best independent retailer in both 01:54.934 –> 02:05.598 [SPEAKER_00]: 2022 and 2023 and last year were named in the UK fast growth index not surprising since in the last couple of years they’ve scaled sales five times. 02:05.738 –> 02:06.598 [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Holly. 02:07.178 –> 02:07.899 [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, how’s it going? 02:08.719 –> 02:09.419 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s good. 02:09.519 –> 02:13.761 [SPEAKER_00]: Great to have you here and you know, sparing some time whilst you’re busy five-exing growth. 02:13.941 –> 02:16.262 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I’m amazed you have time to do podcasts. 02:16.602 –> 02:17.862 [SPEAKER_02]: There’s always a couple of three minutes. 02:19.863 –> 02:23.004 [SPEAKER_00]: But how did you get started in e-commerce yourself? 02:23.972 –> 02:27.854 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I’d been working in e-commerce for the little over 10 years now. 02:27.934 –> 02:30.795 [SPEAKER_02]: So back in 2013, I think it was. 02:31.595 –> 02:35.217 [SPEAKER_02]: I started actually not intentionally. 02:35.577 –> 02:36.958 [SPEAKER_02]: I was studying journals at the time. 02:37.018 –> 02:38.478 [SPEAKER_02]: I worked in a few fashion stores. 02:38.638 –> 02:42.680 [SPEAKER_02]: They needed to help in these e-commerce and online business spaces that were just opening up. 02:43.180 –> 02:46.002 [SPEAKER_02]: And I just honestly found that I was really good at it. 02:46.122 –> 02:48.903 [SPEAKER_02]: So over the years, I scaled up into content positions. 02:49.643 –> 03:01.528 [SPEAKER_02]: operation and positions, quickly scaled into e-commerce management by 2015, I think it was, and it’s sort of been sitting in those in above since then, really working with growth and start at models. 03:01.568 –> 03:02.769 [SPEAKER_02]: That’s my bread and butter. 03:03.249 –> 03:07.811 [SPEAKER_02]: I love seeing the whole ecosystem, how things flow through from acquisition, all the way to post purchase. 03:08.351 –> 03:12.773 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it gives you such a holistic view of the entire business and how to make really good decisions to come forward. 03:13.433 –> 03:13.773 [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, 03:18.207 –> 03:22.889 [SPEAKER_00]: as it is of so many of us, and you call us, if you can’t balance the creative and the analytical. 03:23.470 –> 03:23.830 [SPEAKER_02]: Totally. 03:23.850 –> 03:24.450 [SPEAKER_00]: You’re in trouble. 03:25.090 –> 03:38.077 [SPEAKER_00]: Big trouble, and I totally agree with you about being able to see the whole of that purchase journey because for me, the number one way to improve retentionists to recruit the right people in the first place 100%. 03:38.157 –> 03:43.280 [SPEAKER_00]: Which if you’ve got separate teams on those, it can be really tricky if you’re not got that whole overview. 03:44.220 –> 03:51.821 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think like communication between e-commerce and marketing and brand partners, whatever it is, is fundamental, especially in the start-up. 03:52.322 –> 04:02.423 [SPEAKER_02]: Because nothing works in a silo, you can’t deliver this piece of content through social media or a paid ad, and then not communicate with the e-commerce team about what that learning page is supposed to look like, right? 04:02.443 –> 04:05.984 [SPEAKER_02]: You’ve just broken your entire metric and then one move right? 04:06.604 –> 04:10.345 [SPEAKER_02]: So I think communication across all those work streams is super important. 04:11.076 –> 04:18.278 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so, so true, but let’s update everyone on who Colt Mia is if they’re not familiar with the business. 04:19.479 –> 04:21.600 [SPEAKER_00]: Where in the world are you and where do you sell to? 04:22.120 –> 04:22.620 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, sure. 04:22.660 –> 04:24.341 [SPEAKER_02]: So Colt Mia’s based in the UK. 04:24.861 –> 04:27.702 [SPEAKER_02]: Our major markets are actually the U.S. and the Middle East. 04:28.282 –> 04:31.343 [SPEAKER_02]: We do ship to the UK and the EU as well. 04:32.163 –> 04:33.144 [SPEAKER_02]: But those are our main ones. 04:33.164 –> 04:33.844 [SPEAKER_02]: We actually 04:34.744 –> 04:38.647 [SPEAKER_02]: have about 240 different designers currently in the website. 04:39.127 –> 04:51.336 [SPEAKER_02]: They’re all independent designers, our team, scowers and sources the earth for different designers from Columbia, Vietnam, Turkey, Georgia, really working fashion councils there, independent designers. 04:51.876 –> 04:51.997 [SPEAKER_02]: And 04:52.757 –> 04:57.039 [SPEAKER_02]: kind of trying to figure out what is that next big designer and how can we get to them first. 04:57.099 –> 05:05.643 [SPEAKER_02]: So our whole kind of concept we go for is, you know, when you go to a wedding and you see someone wearing a beautiful dress and you go, what did you find that and they always seem to find the brands before you do? 05:06.163 –> 05:08.865 [SPEAKER_02]: Our whole ethos is that we find those brands and we deliver them to you. 05:09.525 –> 05:13.327 [SPEAKER_02]: And we also create a scaling solution for those brands as well, which is our second 05:14.307 –> 05:14.887 [SPEAKER_02]: parts of it. 05:14.907 –> 05:24.173 [SPEAKER_02]: So some of these brands are small enough that they don’t have access to things like operational systems or shipping rates that we can get to ship globally. 05:24.233 –> 05:28.436 [SPEAKER_02]: So we give them a way to raise their business in an integral space. 05:29.636 –> 05:33.619 [SPEAKER_00]: I saw on the site a lot of the products are made to order. 05:34.303 –> 05:41.847 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I guess when you’re working with those tiny designers, they can’t afford to have one of every one of this dress ready to go in every size. 05:42.508 –> 05:49.552 [SPEAKER_00]: So, but that must add a huge amount of complexity to customer services to conversion rate and to the outside of it. 05:49.960 –> 05:50.701 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, totally. 05:50.781 –> 05:57.187 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the two problem that you have is one, it makes it easier for these smaller independent designers to say, this is low risk. 05:57.207 –> 06:01.471 [SPEAKER_02]: We’re not asking you to do a big wholesale order with a big platform that you may or may not sell. 06:01.531 –> 06:03.633 [SPEAKER_02]: What if that order gets canceled? 06:03.753 –> 06:10.639 [SPEAKER_02]: What if, you know, suddenly that big business goes under and they can’t fulfill that wholesale order that you suddenly have 300 pieces for, right? 06:11.340 –> 06:12.721 [SPEAKER_02]: So we take the risk off them as well. 06:12.761 –> 06:17.965 [SPEAKER_02]: We say when you get an order and we’ll bring it to, but the other side of it as well is from sustainability angle. 06:18.305 –> 06:19.846 [SPEAKER_02]: They’re not overproducing anything. 06:19.926 –> 06:22.968 [SPEAKER_02]: We’re not stuck with dead stock, which is great for the environment. 06:23.048 –> 06:24.169 [SPEAKER_02]: Also great for us as a brand. 06:24.189 –> 06:27.652 [SPEAKER_02]: We’re not trying to hawk something that we have too many of as well. 06:27.732 –> 06:32.695 [SPEAKER_02]: So it kind of works for all all three, but you’re right from a conversion rate aspect. 06:33.236 –> 06:34.597 [SPEAKER_02]: It does have more consideration. 06:35.097 –> 06:38.319 [SPEAKER_02]: We’re very lucky that the clientele that we’ve bought into the business. 06:39.420 –> 06:46.405 [SPEAKER_02]: seamless sensitive to it, which is great and I think that comes from really good brand positioning and marketing and also just finding the right customers. 06:47.125 –> 06:51.108 [SPEAKER_02]: But some of these items can take anywhere from seven days to four weeks. 06:51.749 –> 06:58.894 [SPEAKER_02]: And so making sure you really have a really good post purchase journey in there as well to make sure that there’s not that time in between that says we took your money. 07:00.074 –> 07:00.595 [SPEAKER_02]: See you later. 07:01.635 –> 07:06.839 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, it’s making sure, like we all know, that the biggest killer of customers is fear of time. 07:07.380 –> 07:11.283 [SPEAKER_02]: Not communicating with them, making sure that they know this is in the Italian. 07:11.703 –> 07:13.264 [SPEAKER_02]: This is getting its final stitches. 07:13.985 –> 07:17.908 [SPEAKER_02]: This is just gone through Turkish customs and now it’s coming to you and winging its way. 07:18.348 –> 07:20.310 [SPEAKER_02]: That whole process is really, really important to us. 07:20.370 –> 07:22.832 [SPEAKER_02]: But it does make up a considerable amount of our stock. 07:22.852 –> 07:26.034 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it’s about 42% of brands are older men lead. 07:26.574 –> 07:29.737 [SPEAKER_02]: So, they’re either made to order or a pre-order space. 07:30.748 –> 07:36.794 [SPEAKER_00]: But it just has so many benefits on every front apart from immediate customer satisfaction about it. 07:36.814 –> 07:47.346 [SPEAKER_00]: But like you said, if you get that post purchase journey right, then there’s so much more excited to open the parcel and so much more into the product when it arrives than they would have been if it arrived next day. 07:47.946 –> 07:48.587 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, definitely. 07:48.627 –> 07:56.774 [SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, there’s definitely some CRO in front of that as well, which is making sure that’s super clear before purchase, making sure that we’re getting the right measurements. 07:56.834 –> 08:02.460 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, if you’re ordering this and it’s going to take four weeks, you obviously don’t want to get it realize it’s the wrong size and then have to send it back. 08:02.480 –> 08:04.421 [SPEAKER_02]: And with another four weeks for another one, right? 08:05.062 –> 08:07.965 [SPEAKER_02]: So there’s a lot of pre-sale work that goes on there as well. 08:08.915 –> 08:14.716 [SPEAKER_00]: And we’re kind of, we’re scurting around the product, but let’s get really clear on what the product is. 08:14.796 –> 08:17.337 [SPEAKER_00]: It’s women’s fashion in some kind of things. 08:18.177 –> 08:24.618 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, our number one category is always event where it’s a really big moment for us. 08:25.178 –> 08:30.760 [SPEAKER_02]: We have some beautiful designers, especially at a Vietnam, some really gorgeous gown designers like 216, IHF. 08:33.160 –> 08:35.521 [SPEAKER_02]: actually could sure have be clothing, beautiful brands. 08:35.561 –> 08:38.802 [SPEAKER_02]: If you haven’t heard of them, please feel free to come have a take a look at them. 08:38.822 –> 08:42.704 [SPEAKER_02]: They’re really, really stunning designs and some brands from India as well. 08:42.724 –> 08:45.765 [SPEAKER_02]: So, Debbie by Gabriella is also a really nice formal wear brand. 08:45.785 –> 08:46.425 [SPEAKER_02]: We have as well. 08:47.226 –> 08:48.426 [SPEAKER_02]: Really good wedding guest as well. 08:48.626 –> 08:50.107 [SPEAKER_02]: If anyone’s looking to go to weddings. 08:50.907 –> 09:03.836 [SPEAKER_02]: But that’s our bread and butter, but we do also have a plethora of somewhere event where we do beautiful accessories and shoes, and shoes fabulous as a beautiful belly flat brand, which is being gorgeous. 09:04.476 –> 09:09.479 [SPEAKER_02]: And bags we have beautiful ones that come from Lebanon on our hand stitch, like Sarah’s bag. 09:10.100 –> 09:13.322 [SPEAKER_02]: It’s also one of the greatest things I love about working at Colt Meera as well as 09:15.143 –> 09:19.807 [SPEAKER_02]: find are also essentially need to fit into one of our values in some ways. 09:19.827 –> 09:30.376 [SPEAKER_02]: So we have four values for the site, which is called local code called eco, cold conscious, and cold power, and essentially means it in some way they are socially conscious, sustainable, 09:30.736 –> 09:35.960 [SPEAKER_02]: they empower minorities or they do some kind of heritage practice that they preserve within their industry. 09:36.581 –> 09:41.765 [SPEAKER_02]: And so it’s really interesting to see the stories about the least brands and how they weave this into their work. 09:42.426 –> 09:50.632 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean Sarah’s bag is one of them where they only hire ex female convicts to beat the bags to make sure they have a way to get back into the work force as well. 09:51.052 –> 09:52.774 [SPEAKER_02]: But I think it’s like a really cool initiative. 09:53.548 –> 10:13.835 [SPEAKER_00]: And it’s all kind of piles on top of each other in terms of how you get the customers bought and to become advocates and fans of Coltmea, because there’s the exclusivity, there’s the no one else has got this, there’s the sustainability, there’s the, I’ve got a wait for it to arrive, which can be super exciting when it’s pivoted the right way. 10:14.676 –> 10:18.977 [SPEAKER_00]: You must have a really, really passionate customer base. 10:21.438 –> 10:23.219 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, very passionate customer. 10:23.380 –> 10:24.861 [SPEAKER_02]: Very passionate team as well. 10:25.461 –> 10:32.166 [SPEAKER_02]: I think that when you have teams who are passionate about the values that they’re working towards as well, the output so is better. 10:32.487 –> 10:32.867 [SPEAKER_02]: Be right. 10:32.887 –> 10:38.812 [SPEAKER_02]: The customers we have the community within Coltonier there, they’re very gung-ho about the designers they love as well. 10:39.212 –> 10:43.495 [SPEAKER_02]: They can be very devoted to a designer they find wants them there and that becomes their favorite one. 10:43.515 –> 10:45.437 [SPEAKER_02]: They come back and buy it again and again and again. 10:46.268 –> 10:48.709 [SPEAKER_00]: And you’ll roll as head of e-commerce. 10:48.769 –> 10:51.290 [SPEAKER_00]: What does that encompass a notting compass? 10:51.330 –> 10:52.350 [SPEAKER_00]: Where are your lines? 10:53.111 –> 10:54.431 [SPEAKER_02]: This is a very good que

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