GRACESHIP is a luxury laptop handbag company for women.
We design, manufacture and sell our product around the world on our website. Shopify has enabled us easily to introduce product to customers across the globe and compete with much larger fashion brands.
Founder and CEO Emily Gimmel left her successful television journalism career to create a product that professional women desperately needed: a laptop bag that was feminine without being tacky, and attractive and functional without breaking the bank. Today GRACESHIP is a mobile lifestyle brand exclusively for women. We believe luxury is a lifestyle, not a price point. True luxury is freedom to go as you please in life, and to do it with confidence. Legally speaking yes, we are a company, but we aim for our customers to think of us as a friend… because shared experiences are what life is all about.
What are the key factors that have helped your store be successful?
Social media was, and continues to be, our most important form of advertising. It’s important to us to be able to interact on a personal level with our guests, and social media in its many forms is a beautiful tool for doing so. We use Pinterest and Polyvore to give our customers styling tips, and track current fashion trends. We use Twitter daily to reach out to potential customers, as well as check in with current customers. We have also used it to communicate with press contacts.
Shopify allows us to easily create blog entries, and stay on top of SEO and analytics using various tools, so we can track what’s really working for us.
What are your top recommendations for new store owners?
First impressions are huge when there is no face-to-face interaction with a customer. It really limits the control the brand has. So, it’s really important to make sure that your website is perfectly designed: great aesthetics, full functionality, and a simple, effective user interface.
Make sure you are set up to be able to interact with each customer individually. We love to contact customers after every sale to let them know their order is on the way, and then later to make sure they’re happy.
Of course, it doesn’t matter how great your site is or how user friendly your brand is, if no one knows about it. Formulate a marketing plan that will work for your product, and be willing to change it if it’s not working. Do research- see what other brands like yours have done- both what worked and what didn’t. Both are equally useful pieces of information to have. Figure out how you can do everything better, and constantly be evolving to fit your customer’s needs.
Any Closing Remarks?
When it comes to business, small is the new big. All it takes is a little creativity, a lot of ambition, and a Shopify store, and anyone with the drive to do so can join the new economy.
The London