Shop Lovely - a shopping site to give the brides, fobs (friends of brides), and really just any girl enamoured with pretty, what she really, really wants...more Lovely in her life.
Lovely was born in the West Village of New York in April 2010. Opening its first bridal shop, Lovely answered the call from frustrated brides-to-be who couldn't find dresses from some of their indie favorites in a cool, hip atmosphere. Three years and four stores later, Lovely continues to outfit brides in stylish bridal gowns and accessories. After hanging with these cool brides through their dress shopping experiences and their big day, we thought'Hey what if we can hang out with them some more, the big day and beyond?'
Starting with a curated collection of dresses, jumpers, and separates, Shop Lovely is a haven for all things unapologetically pretty. Dresses, accessories, and gifts perfect for all of those wedding related events for which a bride or fob finds herself having to dress for: showers, bachelorette parties, cake cutting, bridesmaids duties, or attending someone else's big day.
How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you?
We were lucky enough to already have friends in the fashion industry thanks to our connections from Lovely Bride. Daily Candy and Joanna Goddard were amazing at helping us get the word out. A friendly initial push doesn't keep a store open however! Our brick and mortar stores generate some attention for us thanks to our huge network of brides. Those Lovely ladies alone can also not do the trick. We are hugely dependent on generating new interest through, email blasts, facebook, instagram, and pinterest platforms.
We are happy to be able to offer sales and promotions at least once a month and we do our very best to post new items monthly as well. Having a fresh assortment of gorgeous images really helps with our draw and we are constantly working on improving our marketing and SEO endeavors.
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?
Chimpified, MailChimp, Reportified, and Back in Stock are hugely important to us for reaching our customers and mastering our inventory and accounting! The shopify support staff has also been an amazing resource. All of my questions and concerns have been dealt with really quickly and by people who seem to really care about what they are doing and the service they are providing.
What are your top recommendations for new ecommerce entrepreneurs?
Never underestimate the power of timely customer service! Take advantage of all of the apps that shopify is able to offer you to grow your business. Elbow grease and the drive to network is so incredibly important when it comes to increasing the number of eyes you get on your page everyday and making those industry connections also allows you to grow in organic ways you may have never considered on your own.