Introduce your business and tell us your story: How did you decide on what to sell, and how did you source your products?
When I opened Urban Waxx, my wax-only salon in 2007, I started researching all of the current products available for my clients. I could not find any that were effective, so I decided to create my own. I developed Serious Serum in 2009, and launched it on the website in 2012. We work with an excellent chemist and packaging company. They fill the bottles and ship to Portland, where we ship to the individuals.
How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you?
We first sold the product in salons and at esthetics trade shows. Pinterest has been incredible. One month Olivia Palermo pinned a picture of Serious Serum and our sales went from $2800 to $25000 the next month!
Tell us about the back-end of your business. What tools and apps do you use to run your store? How do you handle shipping and fulfillment?
Lettuce for shipping. MailChimp for marketing. We handle fulfillment internally.
What are your top recommendations for new store owners?
You have to ALWAYS be marketing. Designing a sleek, beautiful, effective product comes first, but you also need to get it into the publics hands. With social media we are so lucky because we have so many outlets and it is so easy through Shopify to track the sources.