ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.
Listen "eCommerce MasterPlan | 568: Growing a Fashion Brand: Lavender Hill’s Approach to PR, Sustainability, and Profitability with Isobel Ridley"
Episode Synopsis
Isobel Ridley is the founder at Lavender Hill, a women’s fashion brand focused on ethically made luxurious staples. Founded in 2013 then now sell exclusively via their Shopify store, turning over around £500,000 a year.
In this episode, Isobel shares how she built a profitable, sustainable fashion brand by focusing on what works—core products, smart use of AI, and old-school PR that still delivers.
Hit PLAY to hear:
How focusing on fewer products made Lavender Hill more profitable
The clever ways Isobel uses AI (including ChatGPT!) to run her store smarter
Why she ditched 3PLs and still fulfills every order in-house
The surprising reason she cut product lines and boosted brand value
How traditional PR still drives sales in a digital-first world
The data-driven mindset behind every major business decision she’s made
Key timestamps to dive straight in:
[04:50] “Sustainability Over Excess Colors”
[07:03] In-House Operations Over 3PL
[10:40] “Shifting PR: Magazines to Influencers”
[14:25] Early Struggles of a Business
[18:05] “Adapting Strategies for Profitability”
[21:17] Listen to Isobel’s Top Tips!
Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/568
—
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
00:00.551 –> 00:18.558
[SPEAKER_00]: If I was starting over again, I would probably spend three quarters of my marketing budget on PR because it’s all about building a reputation and you need the editors and journalists to give their opinion on your product because it’s all about building that trust.
00:19.118 –> 00:23.540
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s absolutely vital if you want to build a long-term established business.
00:23.600 –> 00:27.081
[SPEAKER_00]: You’ve got to build it through those old media channels.
00:29.966 –> 00:32.350
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast.
00:32.891 –> 00:36.977
[SPEAKER_01]: Here to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business.
00:37.498 –> 00:43.006
[SPEAKER_01]: Cutting through the highly to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond.
00:43.286 –> 00:45.290
[SPEAKER_01]: Here’s your host, Chloe Thomas.
00:48.640 –> 00:49.681
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome.
00:49.721 –> 00:50.822
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s great to have you here.
00:50.902 –> 00:54.804
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests.
00:55.325 –> 00:59.468
[SPEAKER_02]: Our guest for this episode is here because they applied to be on the show.
00:59.488 –> 01:12.156
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you’ve got something you’d love to chat with me about and share with the brilliant audience who tune into this, then just go to ECMP.info4sashguest to apply and maybe we’ll be chatting very soon.
01:12.677 –> 01:15.319
[SPEAKER_02]: Now in this episode we’re exploring
01:16.119 –> 01:30.482
[SPEAKER_02]: a small business in fashion that has a luxury angle that’s done brilliantly with PR over the last decade that’s had some fascinating shifts and changes all based on looking at the data and focusing in on the profitability.
01:30.982 –> 01:41.965
[SPEAKER_02]: My guess will be sharing her take on all of that and how she’s done it all, she will also be sharing how she uses AI in her business and why she hasn’t outsourced her
01:43.625 –> 01:45.507
[SPEAKER_02]: I had a fascinating time chatting with Isabel.
01:45.567 –> 01:50.911
[SPEAKER_02]: I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this one and make sure you listen to the end of the episode so you don’t miss out on her top tips.
01:57.052 –> 01:58.953
[SPEAKER_02]: and now to introduce our special guest.
01:59.513 –> 02:06.677
[SPEAKER_02]: Isabelle Ridley is the founder at Lavender Hill, a women’s fashion brand focused on ethically made luxurious staples.
02:07.257 –> 02:15.261
[SPEAKER_02]: Founded in 2013, they now sell exclusively via their Shopify store, turning over around half a million pounds a year.
02:15.981 –> 02:16.782
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello Isabelle.
02:17.422 –> 02:19.503
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi Chloe, thank you so much for having me.
02:19.683 –> 02:20.864
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m looking forward to our chat.
02:25.712 –> 02:38.635
[SPEAKER_00]: So I set up Lavenda Hill back in 2013, but before that I was working at Burberry in their head offices in London, and I worked in quite a few of their different departments.
02:38.735 –> 02:50.718
[SPEAKER_00]: I worked in their corporate merchandising, sourcing in their showroom in their head office, and then also in their e-commerce department, as well, which is where I gained probably 90% of my knowledge.
02:52.589 –> 02:56.733
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, so that’s why you went high end with your product when you went to launch.
02:57.193 –> 02:58.074
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, absolutely.
02:58.794 –> 03:16.129
[SPEAKER_00]: I always knew I wanted to set up my own business and when I was working at Burberry, I saw a gap in the market for really good quality basics to wear underneath smart jackets and coats because every day when I was working in corporate merchandising, I’d walk up.
03:16.529 –> 03:16.930
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was
03:17.650 –> 03:35.671
[SPEAKER_00]: six floors to the department and I would be really hot and sweaty by the time I got to the right floor and I’d have to take off all of my layers and I just couldn’t find a decent t-shirt to wear or a decent top to wear and a lot of the tops I could find where from Brant
03:38.354 –> 03:41.677
[SPEAKER_00]: which are fine, but they aren’t necessarily that smart.
03:41.737 –> 03:48.264
[SPEAKER_00]: So I started looking into the market and I saw a gap and that’s why I decided to set up Lavenda Health.
03:48.964 –> 03:53.829
[SPEAKER_02]: And so 10 years on, how easy has it been to stick to that?
03:54.309 –> 03:58.874
[SPEAKER_02]: We’re doing the classic basics and not go crazy with a full range.
03:59.837 –> 04:27.854
[SPEAKER_00]: Lavender Hill has got bigger and then it’s got smaller over the years because I’ve tested a lot of different products and but when I really look at the business and what the sales and what are most profitable products are they’re all our classic white navy black t-shirts in three or four of our styles and every time I try and expand I look back at that and I just think no this is the product the just sales and because we’re living in quite an uncertain climate
04:29.276 –> 04:39.959
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s really important just to stay focused on the profitable products that we have, which is why I’m very, very much keeping to selling our call classic t-shirts.
04:40.877 –> 04:50.583
[SPEAKER_02]: it’s so easy to get excited with the latest color, but then 90% of the customer base won’t white, navy, or black, and it’s so easy to get distracted from that, isn’t it?
04:51.123 –> 05:00.029
[SPEAKER_00]: It is, and when I bought out lots of different colors, what I’ve also discovered is, yes, it’s great for on the marketing side, I have that pop, that interest.
05:00.549 –> 05:14.298
[SPEAKER_00]: But actually on the sustainability side, we end up having 10 boxes of hot pink t-shirts, which isn’t very good because you have to sell them to third parties to get rid of them or significantly discount them online.
05:14.418 –> 05:17.400
[SPEAKER_00]: And that brings down the whole brand value.
05:17.520 –> 05:21.283
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for me, I very much want to just stick with the classics.
05:21.363 –> 05:26.146
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure that we are in stock when customers want to buy the product throughout the year.
05:26.586 –> 05:27.567
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we also sell
05:29.668 –> 05:34.190
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for instance, when it’s cold in the UK, it’s lovely and sunny in Australia.
05:34.290 –> 05:40.792
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we’ve always got to make sure that we are stocked in our linen tops or our lovely silky soft roll net tops.
05:41.712 –> 05:47.595
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, the vast, it’s difficult to stay focused on the core range and to not get excited about the things.
05:47.835 –> 05:50.556
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s actually a lot easier in terms of workload.
05:50.756 –> 05:51.076
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it is.
05:51.236 –> 05:57.078
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m going to definitely over the last two to three years after I’ve really looked into what, what are profitable.
05:57.398 –> 05:58.259
[SPEAKER_00]: products are.
05:58.879 –> 06:05.943
[SPEAKER_00]: And with automation and AI actually now running and online store it’s just so much easier than it used to be.
06:06.304 –> 06:16.030
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to have to hire about six or seven people and now I got a team of three and we’re not overworked because we just have our core product.
06:16.150 –> 06:21.273
[SPEAKER_00]: We’ve got everything, we’ll set our whole of our product pages and collection pages all optimized for
06:26.656 –> 06:30.842
[SPEAKER_00]: the workload is a lot less than if we were bringing out some addresses.
06:31.823 –> 06:36.349
[SPEAKER_02]: So what are you and your three team members doing and is there anything you’re out sourcing?
06:37.106 –> 06:43.570
[SPEAKER_00]: We obviously work with lots of different partners as well, but it’s three of us who work within the business full-time.
06:43.990 –> 06:57.217
[SPEAKER_00]: I very much spearhead most things, and then I have a lady who does all of our marketing and social media channels, and then I have a gentleman who does all of our picking and packing and looks after the warehouse.
06:58.327 –> 06:59.148
[SPEAKER_02]: very simple.
06:59.308 –> 07:00.248
[SPEAKER_02]: I like it, I like it.
07:00.288 –> 07:03.531
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you have, you run your own warehouse then.
07:03.951 –> 07:04.691
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we do.
07:05.252 –> 07:06.152
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we always have.
07:06.593 –> 07:08.994
[SPEAKER_00]: I’ve looked at I’m going to 3PL.
07:09.415 –> 07:20.903
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I do the numbers and for the size of the business, it doesn’t work for us because also when I also look at our customer base as well, our customers tend to order three or four different sizes.
07:21.403 –> 07:22.984
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they’ll return
07:25.746 –> 07:51.403
[SPEAKER_00]: can I have it in this colour or actually I’d like to size up in that one and so actually just having one person looking after everything is a lot easier than if it was in a 3PL and they’ve got a team of 50, 60 people and no one really understands or knows the brand it’s a lot more and complicated and then also when you look at their fees the what the 3PL’s I’ve looked at you know there are charges all over the place and
07:51.723 –> 08:17.613
[SPEAKER_00]: when you’re being charged and per box coming in to the warehouse that that’s you know that’s yeah your money’s just going to disappear and I guess if it’s not broke why change it yeah my team’s been with me for at least seven eight years so yeah don’t want to change anything but you are clearly using AI for things so how have you approached bringing that into the business because I know a lot of our listeners are dealing with that conundrum right now
08:18.413 –> 08:18.974
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, of course.
08:18.994 –> 08:35.408
[SPEAKER_00]: So I use it all like in different areas of the business, whether it’s Shopify side to kick, for instance, I went on to that this morning and I was asking it questions about our conversion rate, you know, what is our sales performance looking like this month compared to
08:35.888 –> 08:37.429
[SPEAKER_00]: the last two to three years.
08:37.449 –> 08:40.210
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked it all about our stock flow as well.
08:40.630 –> 09:00.777
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we need to replenish urgently in the next couple of weeks and it bought up the right numbers but I definitely have to say you’ve got a triple check everything because it does make mistakes but I use Shopify sidekick for just end-general admin and list-call work and then also I use chatGPT as well a lot of
09:01.757 –> 09:06.621
[SPEAKER_00]: but a lot of it is very much I ask it to create a marketing plan or something like that.
09:07.081 –> 09:17.268
[SPEAKER_00]: Just to see what it comes up with, just like just for another perspective, I will also pop in a couple of competitors and I will say to them, look, these are our competitors.
09:17.629 –> 09:23.393
[SPEAKER_00]: Please can you tell me what they’re doing, what they’re doing differently, what is there something that we could adopt as what they
09:23.673 –> 09:25.894
[SPEAKER_00]: as well that it could resonate with our customer.
09:26.375 –> 09:30.397
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, sometimes we can look at our email campaigns as well.
09:30.477 –> 09:36.080
[SPEAKER_00]: We can input all the data from our email campaigns and say, can you see any synergies here?
09:36.120 –> 09:37.061
[SPEAKER_00]: What’s going on?
09:37.081 –> 09:39.122
[SPEAKER_00]: So I use it throughout the business.
09:39.967 –> 09:43.671
[SPEAKER_02]: and have you enabled or freed up your team to use it as well?
09:43.731 –> 09:46.934
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you handle the letting go of it?
09:47.575 –> 09:49.717
[SPEAKER_00]: I think everyone should adopt it and learn from it.
09:49.998 –> 09:51.439
[SPEAKER_00]: What is quite scary?
09:51.479 –> 09:54.803
[SPEAKER_00]: What I have found personally is that it’s changing so quickly.
09:55.403 –> 10:04.753
[SPEAKER_00]: So even though I would say I was an early adopter to make the business run more efficiently, even nowadays I just think, oh my gosh, I don’t think I fully understand it.
10:05.194 –> 10:11.000
[SPEAKER_00]: So I definitely recommend everyone to use it as much as possible and just learn from it now.
10:11.420 –> 10:17.927
[SPEAKER_00]: But it’s ever changing and I think if you can get on board with it early, it’s going to help you a lot more.
10:19.132 –> 10:26.475
[SPEAKER_02]: And you’ve completely outside, I suppose, of the world of AI, you do very well with PR.
10:27.175 –> 10:29.816
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you’ve been teaching a lot of great magazines.
10:29.876 –> 10:30.676
[SPEAKER_02]: So, has that?
10:31.477 –> 10:33.617
[SPEAKER_02]: I suppose, now I know you came from Burberry.
10:33.637 –> 10:35.598
[SPEAKER_02]: It makes more sense that PR would be a big part.
10:35.638 –> 10:40.020
[SPEAKER_02]: But has that always been, is it continue to be a big part of your marketing plans?
10:40.740 –> 10:48.564
[SPEAKER_00]: So fun the enough for the first eight years we did, I had a freelance pill later who worked with us full time.
10:48.704 –> 11:02.231
[SPEAKER_00]: But actually in the last two to three years I’ve really rained it back just because I’ve noticed the market has changed quite a lot, we used to focus quite heavily on getting into magazines and newspapers, but less and less people are actually reading them.
11:02.731 –> 11:06.773
[SPEAKER_00]: So we switched our focus slightly more to working with influences.
11:07.253 –> 11:13.477
[SPEAKER_00]: We don’t pay, I’ve never paid an influencer and that’s not a strategy we will adopt any time soon.
11:13.517 –> 11:16.398
[SPEAKER_00]: If someone likes a product, then that’s amazing.
11:16.438 –> 11:24.082
[SPEAKER_00]: Please like, speak about it if they would like to, but we’re never going to be like here’s 5,000 pounds and I would like you to say these things about the product.
11:24.542 –> 11:28.104
[SPEAKER_00]: So for PR, it was very much brand building.
11:28.604 –> 11:34.826
[SPEAKER_00]: But it’s changed in the last few years, actually we haven’t worked with any PR freelancers in the last two to three years.
11:35.246 –> 11:48.590
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we’ve seen is because we built up a reputation and we built up those connections over the first eight years that are a lot of that are quite a few of the journalists still talk about us because our product is still relevant.
11:50.017 –> 11:56.960
[SPEAKER_02]: So bearing in mind that the journalist is still getting in contact with you and you did invest heavily in it for eight years.
11:57.541 –> 12:04.784
[SPEAKER_02]: Given the way the PR landscape is now, if you were starting the business today, would you go deep on PR?
12:05.384 –> 12:07.305
[SPEAKER_02]: Or would you do something else instead?
12:07.325 –> 12:13.168
[SPEAKER_02]: So whatever I’m trying to say I guess is are you dropping the PR because you’ve already built up all that?
12:14.008 –> 12:19.604
[SPEAKER_02]: Brand Awareness and you’ve got everything you could out of it, are you dropping PR because it’s just a bad strategy in 2025.
12:21.757 –> 12:24.498
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I definitely do not think it’s a bad strategy.
12:24.578 –> 12:43.745
[SPEAKER_00]: If I was starting over again, I would 100% I’d probably spend three quarters of my marketing budget on PR because it’s all about building a reputation and you need the editors and journalists to give their opinion on your product because it’s all about building that trust.
12:44.345 –> 12:48.109
[SPEAKER_00]: it’s absolutely vital if you want to build a long-term product.
12:48.169 –> 13:08.427
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean if you want to quick win you can just pay some influences and then put some advertising spend behind the UGC ads and you could probably drive a lot of sales but actually in reality if you would like to build a long-term established business you’ve got to build it through those old media channels.
13:09.146 –> 13:09.787
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it’s interesting.
13:09.967 –> 13:14.192
[SPEAKER_02]: I don’t know how one would actually, I do know how one would test it.
13:14.212 –> 13:15.113
[SPEAKER_02]: What am I talking about?
13:15.573 –> 13:24.083
[SPEAKER_02]: It would be fascinating to do an A-B split test where you remove the brilliant PR logos, you know, Vogue, etc, from your home page.
13:24.703 –> 13:28.688
[SPEAKER_02]: see what that does to the conversion rate and then turn it back on.
13:28.768 –> 13:31.251
[SPEAKER_02]: And which would be a bit of a indicator.
13:31.331 –> 13:40.260
[SPEAKER_02]: But of course then the ecosystem knowledge of the fact you get featured in these magazines would you couldn’t test that quite so well, but I bet I bet it delivers.
13:40.420 –> 13:41.221
[SPEAKER_02]: I bet it delivers.
13:42.142 –> 13:43.563
[SPEAKER_00]: I am pretty sure it does.
13:43.764 –> 13:46.346
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it’s really important to have that.
13:46.726 –> 13:51.450
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s almost like a trust stamp to say, okay, that it is a real company.
13:51.871 –> 13:53.793
[SPEAKER_00]: It has been endorsed by these people.
13:54.373 –> 13:55.434
[SPEAKER_00]: It must be good quality.
13:55.494 –> 13:58.697
[SPEAKER_00]: So I will put my money behind this and buy a product.
13:59.986 –> 14:05.409
[SPEAKER_02]: On that, it must be a good quality, which of course is, you know, we have two issues we buy fashion online.
14:05.569 –> 14:08.871
[SPEAKER_02]: One is, will it fit and one is, is the quality where it should be?
14:09.631 –> 14:12.433
[SPEAKER_02]: Which you can’t really work out unless you actually touch it.
14:13.233 –> 14:25.060
[SPEAKER_02]: Or you get social previously just said, if you ever been tempted to do real world activity, pop-ups, physical store, anything like that, or if you just been, we are online and we are online only.
14:25.900 –> 14:29.844
[SPEAKER_00]: No, so we still actually have a showroom in Central London.
14:29.904 –> 14:31.606
[SPEAKER_00]: I had that for two and a half years.
14:32.106 –> 14:43.397
[SPEAKER_00]: When I first set out as well, back in 2013, I was incredibly naive and I just thought, you know what, I’m going to set up an online store and I’m going to get all of these visitors and they’re just going to buy the product.
14:44.157 –> 14:53.402
[SPEAKER_00]: and I set up the store, I had no visitors and I had no what hardly any sales and the business just was not going to survive.
14:53.963 –> 15:07.110
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to go out to consumer shows and I would say I probably spent the first six, seven years going to the likes of Burley Horse Trials and Badminton Horse Trials.
15:07.630 –> 15:29.610
[SPEAKER_00]: spirit of Christmas, the country living shows, you know, I went all around the country, I packed, I used to pack up my old polo and put everything in and then go off and set up a stand and sell some t-shirts and that’s actually how, yeah, that’s basically what I did for marketing for the first five, six years and then COVID hit and that completely changed everything.
15:30.150 –> 15:31.431
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone had to go online.
15:32.672 –> 15:40.038
[SPEAKER_00]: and we got a lot of really great press during that time and so we could then focus our energy on being solely online.
15:40.078 –> 15:58.151
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I had the showroom, I stepped the showroom up, it was only very small because we were selling around the world and we would have lots of customers asking about style and fit and I actually just thought, you know, what if we can have a online appointment where we can just have a camera in the showroom and we can show
15:58.671 –> 16:11.015
[SPEAKER_00]: the customer, the items, it would be a lot quicker and easier and then also if people want to come in, that would be a great opportunity for them to actually come and see and feel the items.
16:11.575 –> 16:27.360
[SPEAKER_00]: However, once again, I did the numbers and the staff in costs and after two and a half years, I felt it was more of a vanity project to be able to, for me, just to be able to say yes, I got a showroom in Central London, but actually the numbers weren’t there and when I looked
16:27.960 –> 16:29.342
[SPEAKER_00]: where the business was profitable.
16:29.502 –> 16:32.467
[SPEAKER_00]: It was online and actually it was with a smaller team.
16:32.587 –> 16:39.437
[SPEAKER_00]: So that’s why I decided to go and focus more energy online and targeting customers that way.
16:40.053 –> 16:49.739
[SPEAKER_02]: So it’s super clear to me as about that you have a really great process for going, let’s actually look, is this profitable?
16:49.779 –> 16:51.801
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this not a making the hard decisions?
16:52.641 –> 17:07.491
[SPEAKER_02]: And you said you stopped doing, I was thinking of those shows, you know, burly, et cetera, spring, I’m not spring fair, spirit of Christmas, as being like a caravan of people, traipsing around the country with their stands and their products,
17:08.351 –> 17:10.172
[SPEAKER_02]: You stopped doing that because of COVID.
17:10.692 –> 17:14.134
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think you’d have stopped if it hadn’t been for COVID?
17:15.175 –> 17:19.957
[SPEAKER_00]: I think probably when you think about the consumer mind shift change.
17:20.577 –> 17:28.762
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is, you know, it goes too and too because if we didn’t have COVID, I wonder if customers wouldn’t purchase so much online.
17:29.202 –> 17:33.064
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, to I’m talking about perhaps the the older customer,
17:33.904 –> 17:40.406
[SPEAKER_00]: who very much like to go out and see and feel the product and have that shopping experience.
17:40.426 –> 17:43.347
[SPEAKER_00]: But they didn’t have that choice drink over it.
17:43.387 –> 17:46.227
[SPEAKER_00]: So if they wanted a product they had to buy online.
17:47.068 –> 17:48.708
[SPEAKER_00]: So that definitely did help.
17:48.928 –> 17:52.369
[SPEAKER_00]: But we have stopped going to all the shows.
17:52.449 –> 17:55.710
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I do occasionally do shows.
17:56.250 –> 18:17.136
[SPEAKER_00]: but they’re not a key part of our strategy at the moment because also once again looking at costings and actually if it’s profitable by the time you have gone and you’ve paid for the stand, you’ve paid for the electricity, you’ve paid for the staff, you’ve paid for the van, you’ve paid for the people putting everything into place.
18:17.996 –> 18:37.416
[SPEAKER_00]: and then you look at the fall and the conversion and nowadays it’s that the sales steps are a lot longer people come and they view, they want to then go and have a look on the website to see the product and then purchase and that will cost a lot of money up front and it’ll I think it will depend if you’ve got
18:37.936 –> 18:48.201
[SPEAKER_00]: external finance and as well but for me I’ve I’ve grown as business I said to top with 10,000 pounds back in 2030 and I’ve taken no external investment.
18:48.221 –> 18:52.423
[SPEAKER_00]: So if a channel is not working we have to adapt, we have to change.
18:52.963 –> 18:57.464
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m right now when I look at doing all the shows, we don’t make that return quick and off.
18:57.864 –> 19:05.246
[SPEAKER_00]: A long-term strategy, it is still very good to go out to as many as possible, but for a small business and trying to be profitable.
19:05.506 –> 19:12.808
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn’t quite stack up at the moment, but I’m not saying we won’t start going to more and we will stop completely.
19:13.228 –> 19:15.469
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s just not part of the wider strategy.
19:16.389 –> 19:20.590
[SPEAKER_02]: So looking to the future, what’s got you excited on your radar?
19:21.547 –> 19:47.002
[SPEAKER_00]: do you know I feel incredibly privileged with the business I built because we have got the most phenomenal repeat customer rates so actually we have to spend very little on marketing but I think we now at that stage where we can start looking at growth, looking at how we can get in front of the new customers yeah more profitably because I think we’re at a written at a good spot at the moment but I think
19:47.442 –> 19:52.288
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, e-commerce has just changed so much in the last 12 to 18 months.
19:52.368 –> 19:53.349
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s extraordinary.
19:54.150 –> 19:58.655
[SPEAKER_00]: I’ve had to build as a completely new website in the last six months.
19:58.835 –> 20:01.679
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is changing so quickly.
20:01.719 –> 20:02.540
[SPEAKER_00]: The platform’s
20:03.020 –> 20:11.564
[SPEAKER_00]: are changing on a weekly basis and it’s really exciting to see what’s going to happen next in the e-commerce world.
20:11.824 –> 20:22.790
[SPEAKER_00]: I think people will still definitely shop in bricks and mortar as well as online but I just wonder what the online experience is going to be like in future if it’s going to be
20:23.270 –> 20:48.492
[SPEAKER_00]: more virtual, I think I haven’t seen anyone do it really well yet, but I think there’s such an opportunity to have a virtual school online, say you’re walking in, you’re walking into a lavender hill showroom and you can pull out a nighter and you’re a picture of you there and you can put this on, see what it looks like and yeah, a customization as well in personization, I think it’s is ever changing, it’s going to be really exciting to see what really does take off.
20:52.317 –> 20:57.082
[SPEAKER_01]: E-commerce Masterplan is supported by some of the greatest companies in the E-commerce sector.
20:57.222 –> 20:58.624
[SPEAKER_01]: Here’s a reminder of who they are.
21:09.972 –> 21:15.314
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I love this section because it gets me and I’ll list us some really quick ideas for taking our businesses to the next level.
21:15.494 –> 21:17.154
[SPEAKER_02]: Isabel are you ready for the top tips?
21:17.695 –> 21:18.475
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, absolutely.
21:18.875 –> 21:20.175
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, the book top tip.
21:20.355 –> 21:27.438
[SPEAKER_02]: If everyone listening to this podcast agreed to take Friday off and read a book to make their business better, which book would you recommend?
21:28.458 –> 21:33.303
[SPEAKER_00]: I would recommend a book by Dana Thomas called fashion opolis.
21:33.883 –> 21:43.613
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks into the murky world of the fashion supply chain and it will really make you stop and think about how clothing is made.
21:44.504 –> 21:46.786
[SPEAKER_02]: sounds like a tough read, but a necessary one.
21:47.687 –> 21:54.472
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, the traffic top tip, which marketing method do you either prize above all others or think doesn’t get the press it deserves?
21:55.813 –> 22:06.783
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, it’s definitely organic search, it’s the backbone of our business, you type in quality, or a women’s quality t-shirts we pop up, it’s super important for us.
22:08.083 –> 22:19.430
[SPEAKER_02]: And the tooltop tip, maybe a collaboration tool, a social media plug-in, a phone app, or just a way of working, is there a cool little tool you use that makes you and your team more efficient from day to day.
22:20.816 –> 22:34.345
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I was originally going to recommend automatic discounts and bundling as well just to help increase basket size, but something to make us more efficient is definitely slack.
22:34.746 –> 22:37.968
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s just so quick and easy and an efficient way to communicate.
22:38.731 –> 22:44.852
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the most recommended tool on this podcast ever as well, the carbon top tip.
22:44.952 –> 22:48.753
[SPEAKER_02]: What’s your favorite way to reduce the carbon footprint of an e-commerce store?
22:49.794 –> 23:06.898
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, I think it’s very much looking at every single practice and process that we have, whether it is making sure that we recycle all of the packaging that we receive in, making sure that all of the packaging we send out is either already recycled and still is recyclable.
23:09.399 –> 23:12.701
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it’s turning over every rock, isn’t it?
23:12.741 –> 23:14.222
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to look at the whole piece.
23:14.282 –> 23:15.523
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s not just a one shift.
23:15.583 –> 23:17.004
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s everything.
23:17.364 –> 23:17.564
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
23:18.105 –> 23:25.190
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, it’s about before we say goodbye, could you please let the listeners know where they can find you and your business on the web and social media?
23:25.897 –> 23:26.838
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, absolutely.
23:26.998 –> 23:34.582
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you go to www.lavenderhillclothing.com, you can find our website there.
23:35.002 –> 23:42.226
[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, if you go on to any of the social media channels and look up at Lavenderhillclothing with it.
23:42.967 –> 23:44.007
[SPEAKER_02]: Brilliant.
23:44.307 –> 23:46.088
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s been a pleasure chatting with you.
23:46.128 –> 23:49.090
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for being on the e-commerce boss plan podcast.
23:49.770 –> 23:50.931
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for having me.
23:56.905 –> 24:07.948
[SPEAKER_02]: Loving is about focus on making the profitable decisions and the hard decisions within the business on what she’s going to focus on what her team are going to focus on and where they’re going to spend their time and their money.
24:07.968 –> 24:14.810
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought that was fascinating and also how she’s bringing AI into the mix is super cool too.
24:15.550 –> 24:19.131
[SPEAKER_02]: great to hear the actual ins and outs of how someone’s really doing those things.
24:19.511 –> 24:22.472
[SPEAKER_02]: So an absolute treat to get to chat with Isabel.
24:22.592 –> 24:29.795
[SPEAKER_02]: You can get your hands on the notes from this episode, including the top tips and links to what we mentioned by heading over to ecommercemasterland.com.
24:30.195 –> 24:40.038
[SPEAKER_02]: You could also use our direct episode short link to get to the right page of the website, just put ECMP.info4 such the number of this episode into your RR bar and you’ll be there.
24:40.798 –> 24:43.819
[SPEAKER_02]: When you get to the website, why not add yourself to our email list?
24:43.899 –> 24:44.159
[SPEAKER_02]: Go on.
24:44.511 –> 24:45.211
[SPEAKER_02]: Go on, do it!
24:45.751 –> 25:10.001
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, if you like this episode and want to dive into a couple more case that he’s a brand focused on wardrobe basics, we’ve got Episode 434, where I’m chatting with Lindy Benson from Blue Salt to doing something very similar in the USA, or you can go way back into the archive with Episode 49, where Matthew Parvis from Fresh Creek Clean T’s talks about
25:12.862 –> 25:18.265
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you want all our fashion episodes then head to ECMP.info forward slash fashion.
25:18.705 –> 25:22.687
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for tuning into this and every episode of the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.
25:23.087 –> 25:33.352
[SPEAKER_02]: I bring you a new interview every week because I want to inspire and help Ecommerce business owners just like you to succeed and thrive with your businesses, including progressing along the path to net zero.
25:33.693 –> 25:38.035
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you know someone this show can help, please tell them to listen to the Ecommerce
25:45.658 –> 25:48.964
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening to the e-commerce Master Plan podcast.
25:49.425 –> 25:54.213
[SPEAKER_01]: Find out more at e-commercemasterplanned.com slash podcast.
In this episode, Isobel shares how she built a profitable, sustainable fashion brand by focusing on what works—core products, smart use of AI, and old-school PR that still delivers.
Hit PLAY to hear:
How focusing on fewer products made Lavender Hill more profitable
The clever ways Isobel uses AI (including ChatGPT!) to run her store smarter
Why she ditched 3PLs and still fulfills every order in-house
The surprising reason she cut product lines and boosted brand value
How traditional PR still drives sales in a digital-first world
The data-driven mindset behind every major business decision she’s made
Key timestamps to dive straight in:
[04:50] “Sustainability Over Excess Colors”
[07:03] In-House Operations Over 3PL
[10:40] “Shifting PR: Magazines to Influencers”
[14:25] Early Struggles of a Business
[18:05] “Adapting Strategies for Profitability”
[21:17] Listen to Isobel’s Top Tips!
Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/568
—
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
00:00.551 –> 00:18.558
[SPEAKER_00]: If I was starting over again, I would probably spend three quarters of my marketing budget on PR because it’s all about building a reputation and you need the editors and journalists to give their opinion on your product because it’s all about building that trust.
00:19.118 –> 00:23.540
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s absolutely vital if you want to build a long-term established business.
00:23.600 –> 00:27.081
[SPEAKER_00]: You’ve got to build it through those old media channels.
00:29.966 –> 00:32.350
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast.
00:32.891 –> 00:36.977
[SPEAKER_01]: Here to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business.
00:37.498 –> 00:43.006
[SPEAKER_01]: Cutting through the highly to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond.
00:43.286 –> 00:45.290
[SPEAKER_01]: Here’s your host, Chloe Thomas.
00:48.640 –> 00:49.681
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome.
00:49.721 –> 00:50.822
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s great to have you here.
00:50.902 –> 00:54.804
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests.
00:55.325 –> 00:59.468
[SPEAKER_02]: Our guest for this episode is here because they applied to be on the show.
00:59.488 –> 01:12.156
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you’ve got something you’d love to chat with me about and share with the brilliant audience who tune into this, then just go to ECMP.info4sashguest to apply and maybe we’ll be chatting very soon.
01:12.677 –> 01:15.319
[SPEAKER_02]: Now in this episode we’re exploring
01:16.119 –> 01:30.482
[SPEAKER_02]: a small business in fashion that has a luxury angle that’s done brilliantly with PR over the last decade that’s had some fascinating shifts and changes all based on looking at the data and focusing in on the profitability.
01:30.982 –> 01:41.965
[SPEAKER_02]: My guess will be sharing her take on all of that and how she’s done it all, she will also be sharing how she uses AI in her business and why she hasn’t outsourced her
01:43.625 –> 01:45.507
[SPEAKER_02]: I had a fascinating time chatting with Isabel.
01:45.567 –> 01:50.911
[SPEAKER_02]: I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this one and make sure you listen to the end of the episode so you don’t miss out on her top tips.
01:57.052 –> 01:58.953
[SPEAKER_02]: and now to introduce our special guest.
01:59.513 –> 02:06.677
[SPEAKER_02]: Isabelle Ridley is the founder at Lavender Hill, a women’s fashion brand focused on ethically made luxurious staples.
02:07.257 –> 02:15.261
[SPEAKER_02]: Founded in 2013, they now sell exclusively via their Shopify store, turning over around half a million pounds a year.
02:15.981 –> 02:16.782
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello Isabelle.
02:17.422 –> 02:19.503
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi Chloe, thank you so much for having me.
02:19.683 –> 02:20.864
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m looking forward to our chat.
02:25.712 –> 02:38.635
[SPEAKER_00]: So I set up Lavenda Hill back in 2013, but before that I was working at Burberry in their head offices in London, and I worked in quite a few of their different departments.
02:38.735 –> 02:50.718
[SPEAKER_00]: I worked in their corporate merchandising, sourcing in their showroom in their head office, and then also in their e-commerce department, as well, which is where I gained probably 90% of my knowledge.
02:52.589 –> 02:56.733
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, so that’s why you went high end with your product when you went to launch.
02:57.193 –> 02:58.074
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, absolutely.
02:58.794 –> 03:16.129
[SPEAKER_00]: I always knew I wanted to set up my own business and when I was working at Burberry, I saw a gap in the market for really good quality basics to wear underneath smart jackets and coats because every day when I was working in corporate merchandising, I’d walk up.
03:16.529 –> 03:16.930
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was
03:17.650 –> 03:35.671
[SPEAKER_00]: six floors to the department and I would be really hot and sweaty by the time I got to the right floor and I’d have to take off all of my layers and I just couldn’t find a decent t-shirt to wear or a decent top to wear and a lot of the tops I could find where from Brant
03:38.354 –> 03:41.677
[SPEAKER_00]: which are fine, but they aren’t necessarily that smart.
03:41.737 –> 03:48.264
[SPEAKER_00]: So I started looking into the market and I saw a gap and that’s why I decided to set up Lavenda Health.
03:48.964 –> 03:53.829
[SPEAKER_02]: And so 10 years on, how easy has it been to stick to that?
03:54.309 –> 03:58.874
[SPEAKER_02]: We’re doing the classic basics and not go crazy with a full range.
03:59.837 –> 04:27.854
[SPEAKER_00]: Lavender Hill has got bigger and then it’s got smaller over the years because I’ve tested a lot of different products and but when I really look at the business and what the sales and what are most profitable products are they’re all our classic white navy black t-shirts in three or four of our styles and every time I try and expand I look back at that and I just think no this is the product the just sales and because we’re living in quite an uncertain climate
04:29.276 –> 04:39.959
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s really important just to stay focused on the profitable products that we have, which is why I’m very, very much keeping to selling our call classic t-shirts.
04:40.877 –> 04:50.583
[SPEAKER_02]: it’s so easy to get excited with the latest color, but then 90% of the customer base won’t white, navy, or black, and it’s so easy to get distracted from that, isn’t it?
04:51.123 –> 05:00.029
[SPEAKER_00]: It is, and when I bought out lots of different colors, what I’ve also discovered is, yes, it’s great for on the marketing side, I have that pop, that interest.
05:00.549 –> 05:14.298
[SPEAKER_00]: But actually on the sustainability side, we end up having 10 boxes of hot pink t-shirts, which isn’t very good because you have to sell them to third parties to get rid of them or significantly discount them online.
05:14.418 –> 05:17.400
[SPEAKER_00]: And that brings down the whole brand value.
05:17.520 –> 05:21.283
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for me, I very much want to just stick with the classics.
05:21.363 –> 05:26.146
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure that we are in stock when customers want to buy the product throughout the year.
05:26.586 –> 05:27.567
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we also sell
05:29.668 –> 05:34.190
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for instance, when it’s cold in the UK, it’s lovely and sunny in Australia.
05:34.290 –> 05:40.792
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we’ve always got to make sure that we are stocked in our linen tops or our lovely silky soft roll net tops.
05:41.712 –> 05:47.595
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, the vast, it’s difficult to stay focused on the core range and to not get excited about the things.
05:47.835 –> 05:50.556
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s actually a lot easier in terms of workload.
05:50.756 –> 05:51.076
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it is.
05:51.236 –> 05:57.078
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m going to definitely over the last two to three years after I’ve really looked into what, what are profitable.
05:57.398 –> 05:58.259
[SPEAKER_00]: products are.
05:58.879 –> 06:05.943
[SPEAKER_00]: And with automation and AI actually now running and online store it’s just so much easier than it used to be.
06:06.304 –> 06:16.030
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to have to hire about six or seven people and now I got a team of three and we’re not overworked because we just have our core product.
06:16.150 –> 06:21.273
[SPEAKER_00]: We’ve got everything, we’ll set our whole of our product pages and collection pages all optimized for
06:26.656 –> 06:30.842
[SPEAKER_00]: the workload is a lot less than if we were bringing out some addresses.
06:31.823 –> 06:36.349
[SPEAKER_02]: So what are you and your three team members doing and is there anything you’re out sourcing?
06:37.106 –> 06:43.570
[SPEAKER_00]: We obviously work with lots of different partners as well, but it’s three of us who work within the business full-time.
06:43.990 –> 06:57.217
[SPEAKER_00]: I very much spearhead most things, and then I have a lady who does all of our marketing and social media channels, and then I have a gentleman who does all of our picking and packing and looks after the warehouse.
06:58.327 –> 06:59.148
[SPEAKER_02]: very simple.
06:59.308 –> 07:00.248
[SPEAKER_02]: I like it, I like it.
07:00.288 –> 07:03.531
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you have, you run your own warehouse then.
07:03.951 –> 07:04.691
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we do.
07:05.252 –> 07:06.152
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we always have.
07:06.593 –> 07:08.994
[SPEAKER_00]: I’ve looked at I’m going to 3PL.
07:09.415 –> 07:20.903
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I do the numbers and for the size of the business, it doesn’t work for us because also when I also look at our customer base as well, our customers tend to order three or four different sizes.
07:21.403 –> 07:22.984
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they’ll return
07:25.746 –> 07:51.403
[SPEAKER_00]: can I have it in this colour or actually I’d like to size up in that one and so actually just having one person looking after everything is a lot easier than if it was in a 3PL and they’ve got a team of 50, 60 people and no one really understands or knows the brand it’s a lot more and complicated and then also when you look at their fees the what the 3PL’s I’ve looked at you know there are charges all over the place and
07:51.723 –> 08:17.613
[SPEAKER_00]: when you’re being charged and per box coming in to the warehouse that that’s you know that’s yeah your money’s just going to disappear and I guess if it’s not broke why change it yeah my team’s been with me for at least seven eight years so yeah don’t want to change anything but you are clearly using AI for things so how have you approached bringing that into the business because I know a lot of our listeners are dealing with that conundrum right now
08:18.413 –> 08:18.974
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, of course.
08:18.994 –> 08:35.408
[SPEAKER_00]: So I use it all like in different areas of the business, whether it’s Shopify side to kick, for instance, I went on to that this morning and I was asking it questions about our conversion rate, you know, what is our sales performance looking like this month compared to
08:35.888 –> 08:37.429
[SPEAKER_00]: the last two to three years.
08:37.449 –> 08:40.210
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked it all about our stock flow as well.
08:40.630 –> 09:00.777
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we need to replenish urgently in the next couple of weeks and it bought up the right numbers but I definitely have to say you’ve got a triple check everything because it does make mistakes but I use Shopify sidekick for just end-general admin and list-call work and then also I use chatGPT as well a lot of
09:01.757 –> 09:06.621
[SPEAKER_00]: but a lot of it is very much I ask it to create a marketing plan or something like that.
09:07.081 –> 09:17.268
[SPEAKER_00]: Just to see what it comes up with, just like just for another perspective, I will also pop in a couple of competitors and I will say to them, look, these are our competitors.
09:17.629 –> 09:23.393
[SPEAKER_00]: Please can you tell me what they’re doing, what they’re doing differently, what is there something that we could adopt as what they
09:23.673 –> 09:25.894
[SPEAKER_00]: as well that it could resonate with our customer.
09:26.375 –> 09:30.397
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, sometimes we can look at our email campaigns as well.
09:30.477 –> 09:36.080
[SPEAKER_00]: We can input all the data from our email campaigns and say, can you see any synergies here?
09:36.120 –> 09:37.061
[SPEAKER_00]: What’s going on?
09:37.081 –> 09:39.122
[SPEAKER_00]: So I use it throughout the business.
09:39.967 –> 09:43.671
[SPEAKER_02]: and have you enabled or freed up your team to use it as well?
09:43.731 –> 09:46.934
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you handle the letting go of it?
09:47.575 –> 09:49.717
[SPEAKER_00]: I think everyone should adopt it and learn from it.
09:49.998 –> 09:51.439
[SPEAKER_00]: What is quite scary?
09:51.479 –> 09:54.803
[SPEAKER_00]: What I have found personally is that it’s changing so quickly.
09:55.403 –> 10:04.753
[SPEAKER_00]: So even though I would say I was an early adopter to make the business run more efficiently, even nowadays I just think, oh my gosh, I don’t think I fully understand it.
10:05.194 –> 10:11.000
[SPEAKER_00]: So I definitely recommend everyone to use it as much as possible and just learn from it now.
10:11.420 –> 10:17.927
[SPEAKER_00]: But it’s ever changing and I think if you can get on board with it early, it’s going to help you a lot more.
10:19.132 –> 10:26.475
[SPEAKER_02]: And you’ve completely outside, I suppose, of the world of AI, you do very well with PR.
10:27.175 –> 10:29.816
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you’ve been teaching a lot of great magazines.
10:29.876 –> 10:30.676
[SPEAKER_02]: So, has that?
10:31.477 –> 10:33.617
[SPEAKER_02]: I suppose, now I know you came from Burberry.
10:33.637 –> 10:35.598
[SPEAKER_02]: It makes more sense that PR would be a big part.
10:35.638 –> 10:40.020
[SPEAKER_02]: But has that always been, is it continue to be a big part of your marketing plans?
10:40.740 –> 10:48.564
[SPEAKER_00]: So fun the enough for the first eight years we did, I had a freelance pill later who worked with us full time.
10:48.704 –> 11:02.231
[SPEAKER_00]: But actually in the last two to three years I’ve really rained it back just because I’ve noticed the market has changed quite a lot, we used to focus quite heavily on getting into magazines and newspapers, but less and less people are actually reading them.
11:02.731 –> 11:06.773
[SPEAKER_00]: So we switched our focus slightly more to working with influences.
11:07.253 –> 11:13.477
[SPEAKER_00]: We don’t pay, I’ve never paid an influencer and that’s not a strategy we will adopt any time soon.
11:13.517 –> 11:16.398
[SPEAKER_00]: If someone likes a product, then that’s amazing.
11:16.438 –> 11:24.082
[SPEAKER_00]: Please like, speak about it if they would like to, but we’re never going to be like here’s 5,000 pounds and I would like you to say these things about the product.
11:24.542 –> 11:28.104
[SPEAKER_00]: So for PR, it was very much brand building.
11:28.604 –> 11:34.826
[SPEAKER_00]: But it’s changed in the last few years, actually we haven’t worked with any PR freelancers in the last two to three years.
11:35.246 –> 11:48.590
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we’ve seen is because we built up a reputation and we built up those connections over the first eight years that are a lot of that are quite a few of the journalists still talk about us because our product is still relevant.
11:50.017 –> 11:56.960
[SPEAKER_02]: So bearing in mind that the journalist is still getting in contact with you and you did invest heavily in it for eight years.
11:57.541 –> 12:04.784
[SPEAKER_02]: Given the way the PR landscape is now, if you were starting the business today, would you go deep on PR?
12:05.384 –> 12:07.305
[SPEAKER_02]: Or would you do something else instead?
12:07.325 –> 12:13.168
[SPEAKER_02]: So whatever I’m trying to say I guess is are you dropping the PR because you’ve already built up all that?
12:14.008 –> 12:19.604
[SPEAKER_02]: Brand Awareness and you’ve got everything you could out of it, are you dropping PR because it’s just a bad strategy in 2025.
12:21.757 –> 12:24.498
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I definitely do not think it’s a bad strategy.
12:24.578 –> 12:43.745
[SPEAKER_00]: If I was starting over again, I would 100% I’d probably spend three quarters of my marketing budget on PR because it’s all about building a reputation and you need the editors and journalists to give their opinion on your product because it’s all about building that trust.
12:44.345 –> 12:48.109
[SPEAKER_00]: it’s absolutely vital if you want to build a long-term product.
12:48.169 –> 13:08.427
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean if you want to quick win you can just pay some influences and then put some advertising spend behind the UGC ads and you could probably drive a lot of sales but actually in reality if you would like to build a long-term established business you’ve got to build it through those old media channels.
13:09.146 –> 13:09.787
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it’s interesting.
13:09.967 –> 13:14.192
[SPEAKER_02]: I don’t know how one would actually, I do know how one would test it.
13:14.212 –> 13:15.113
[SPEAKER_02]: What am I talking about?
13:15.573 –> 13:24.083
[SPEAKER_02]: It would be fascinating to do an A-B split test where you remove the brilliant PR logos, you know, Vogue, etc, from your home page.
13:24.703 –> 13:28.688
[SPEAKER_02]: see what that does to the conversion rate and then turn it back on.
13:28.768 –> 13:31.251
[SPEAKER_02]: And which would be a bit of a indicator.
13:31.331 –> 13:40.260
[SPEAKER_02]: But of course then the ecosystem knowledge of the fact you get featured in these magazines would you couldn’t test that quite so well, but I bet I bet it delivers.
13:40.420 –> 13:41.221
[SPEAKER_02]: I bet it delivers.
13:42.142 –> 13:43.563
[SPEAKER_00]: I am pretty sure it does.
13:43.764 –> 13:46.346
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it’s really important to have that.
13:46.726 –> 13:51.450
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s almost like a trust stamp to say, okay, that it is a real company.
13:51.871 –> 13:53.793
[SPEAKER_00]: It has been endorsed by these people.
13:54.373 –> 13:55.434
[SPEAKER_00]: It must be good quality.
13:55.494 –> 13:58.697
[SPEAKER_00]: So I will put my money behind this and buy a product.
13:59.986 –> 14:05.409
[SPEAKER_02]: On that, it must be a good quality, which of course is, you know, we have two issues we buy fashion online.
14:05.569 –> 14:08.871
[SPEAKER_02]: One is, will it fit and one is, is the quality where it should be?
14:09.631 –> 14:12.433
[SPEAKER_02]: Which you can’t really work out unless you actually touch it.
14:13.233 –> 14:25.060
[SPEAKER_02]: Or you get social previously just said, if you ever been tempted to do real world activity, pop-ups, physical store, anything like that, or if you just been, we are online and we are online only.
14:25.900 –> 14:29.844
[SPEAKER_00]: No, so we still actually have a showroom in Central London.
14:29.904 –> 14:31.606
[SPEAKER_00]: I had that for two and a half years.
14:32.106 –> 14:43.397
[SPEAKER_00]: When I first set out as well, back in 2013, I was incredibly naive and I just thought, you know what, I’m going to set up an online store and I’m going to get all of these visitors and they’re just going to buy the product.
14:44.157 –> 14:53.402
[SPEAKER_00]: and I set up the store, I had no visitors and I had no what hardly any sales and the business just was not going to survive.
14:53.963 –> 15:07.110
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to go out to consumer shows and I would say I probably spent the first six, seven years going to the likes of Burley Horse Trials and Badminton Horse Trials.
15:07.630 –> 15:29.610
[SPEAKER_00]: spirit of Christmas, the country living shows, you know, I went all around the country, I packed, I used to pack up my old polo and put everything in and then go off and set up a stand and sell some t-shirts and that’s actually how, yeah, that’s basically what I did for marketing for the first five, six years and then COVID hit and that completely changed everything.
15:30.150 –> 15:31.431
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone had to go online.
15:32.672 –> 15:40.038
[SPEAKER_00]: and we got a lot of really great press during that time and so we could then focus our energy on being solely online.
15:40.078 –> 15:58.151
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I had the showroom, I stepped the showroom up, it was only very small because we were selling around the world and we would have lots of customers asking about style and fit and I actually just thought, you know, what if we can have a online appointment where we can just have a camera in the showroom and we can show
15:58.671 –> 16:11.015
[SPEAKER_00]: the customer, the items, it would be a lot quicker and easier and then also if people want to come in, that would be a great opportunity for them to actually come and see and feel the items.
16:11.575 –> 16:27.360
[SPEAKER_00]: However, once again, I did the numbers and the staff in costs and after two and a half years, I felt it was more of a vanity project to be able to, for me, just to be able to say yes, I got a showroom in Central London, but actually the numbers weren’t there and when I looked
16:27.960 –> 16:29.342
[SPEAKER_00]: where the business was profitable.
16:29.502 –> 16:32.467
[SPEAKER_00]: It was online and actually it was with a smaller team.
16:32.587 –> 16:39.437
[SPEAKER_00]: So that’s why I decided to go and focus more energy online and targeting customers that way.
16:40.053 –> 16:49.739
[SPEAKER_02]: So it’s super clear to me as about that you have a really great process for going, let’s actually look, is this profitable?
16:49.779 –> 16:51.801
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this not a making the hard decisions?
16:52.641 –> 17:07.491
[SPEAKER_02]: And you said you stopped doing, I was thinking of those shows, you know, burly, et cetera, spring, I’m not spring fair, spirit of Christmas, as being like a caravan of people, traipsing around the country with their stands and their products,
17:08.351 –> 17:10.172
[SPEAKER_02]: You stopped doing that because of COVID.
17:10.692 –> 17:14.134
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think you’d have stopped if it hadn’t been for COVID?
17:15.175 –> 17:19.957
[SPEAKER_00]: I think probably when you think about the consumer mind shift change.
17:20.577 –> 17:28.762
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is, you know, it goes too and too because if we didn’t have COVID, I wonder if customers wouldn’t purchase so much online.
17:29.202 –> 17:33.064
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, to I’m talking about perhaps the the older customer,
17:33.904 –> 17:40.406
[SPEAKER_00]: who very much like to go out and see and feel the product and have that shopping experience.
17:40.426 –> 17:43.347
[SPEAKER_00]: But they didn’t have that choice drink over it.
17:43.387 –> 17:46.227
[SPEAKER_00]: So if they wanted a product they had to buy online.
17:47.068 –> 17:48.708
[SPEAKER_00]: So that definitely did help.
17:48.928 –> 17:52.369
[SPEAKER_00]: But we have stopped going to all the shows.
17:52.449 –> 17:55.710
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I do occasionally do shows.
17:56.250 –> 18:17.136
[SPEAKER_00]: but they’re not a key part of our strategy at the moment because also once again looking at costings and actually if it’s profitable by the time you have gone and you’ve paid for the stand, you’ve paid for the electricity, you’ve paid for the staff, you’ve paid for the van, you’ve paid for the people putting everything into place.
18:17.996 –> 18:37.416
[SPEAKER_00]: and then you look at the fall and the conversion and nowadays it’s that the sales steps are a lot longer people come and they view, they want to then go and have a look on the website to see the product and then purchase and that will cost a lot of money up front and it’ll I think it will depend if you’ve got
18:37.936 –> 18:48.201
[SPEAKER_00]: external finance and as well but for me I’ve I’ve grown as business I said to top with 10,000 pounds back in 2030 and I’ve taken no external investment.
18:48.221 –> 18:52.423
[SPEAKER_00]: So if a channel is not working we have to adapt, we have to change.
18:52.963 –> 18:57.464
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m right now when I look at doing all the shows, we don’t make that return quick and off.
18:57.864 –> 19:05.246
[SPEAKER_00]: A long-term strategy, it is still very good to go out to as many as possible, but for a small business and trying to be profitable.
19:05.506 –> 19:12.808
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn’t quite stack up at the moment, but I’m not saying we won’t start going to more and we will stop completely.
19:13.228 –> 19:15.469
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s just not part of the wider strategy.
19:16.389 –> 19:20.590
[SPEAKER_02]: So looking to the future, what’s got you excited on your radar?
19:21.547 –> 19:47.002
[SPEAKER_00]: do you know I feel incredibly privileged with the business I built because we have got the most phenomenal repeat customer rates so actually we have to spend very little on marketing but I think we now at that stage where we can start looking at growth, looking at how we can get in front of the new customers yeah more profitably because I think we’re at a written at a good spot at the moment but I think
19:47.442 –> 19:52.288
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, e-commerce has just changed so much in the last 12 to 18 months.
19:52.368 –> 19:53.349
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s extraordinary.
19:54.150 –> 19:58.655
[SPEAKER_00]: I’ve had to build as a completely new website in the last six months.
19:58.835 –> 20:01.679
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is changing so quickly.
20:01.719 –> 20:02.540
[SPEAKER_00]: The platform’s
20:03.020 –> 20:11.564
[SPEAKER_00]: are changing on a weekly basis and it’s really exciting to see what’s going to happen next in the e-commerce world.
20:11.824 –> 20:22.790
[SPEAKER_00]: I think people will still definitely shop in bricks and mortar as well as online but I just wonder what the online experience is going to be like in future if it’s going to be
20:23.270 –> 20:48.492
[SPEAKER_00]: more virtual, I think I haven’t seen anyone do it really well yet, but I think there’s such an opportunity to have a virtual school online, say you’re walking in, you’re walking into a lavender hill showroom and you can pull out a nighter and you’re a picture of you there and you can put this on, see what it looks like and yeah, a customization as well in personization, I think it’s is ever changing, it’s going to be really exciting to see what really does take off.
20:52.317 –> 20:57.082
[SPEAKER_01]: E-commerce Masterplan is supported by some of the greatest companies in the E-commerce sector.
20:57.222 –> 20:58.624
[SPEAKER_01]: Here’s a reminder of who they are.
21:09.972 –> 21:15.314
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I love this section because it gets me and I’ll list us some really quick ideas for taking our businesses to the next level.
21:15.494 –> 21:17.154
[SPEAKER_02]: Isabel are you ready for the top tips?
21:17.695 –> 21:18.475
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, absolutely.
21:18.875 –> 21:20.175
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, the book top tip.
21:20.355 –> 21:27.438
[SPEAKER_02]: If everyone listening to this podcast agreed to take Friday off and read a book to make their business better, which book would you recommend?
21:28.458 –> 21:33.303
[SPEAKER_00]: I would recommend a book by Dana Thomas called fashion opolis.
21:33.883 –> 21:43.613
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks into the murky world of the fashion supply chain and it will really make you stop and think about how clothing is made.
21:44.504 –> 21:46.786
[SPEAKER_02]: sounds like a tough read, but a necessary one.
21:47.687 –> 21:54.472
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, the traffic top tip, which marketing method do you either prize above all others or think doesn’t get the press it deserves?
21:55.813 –> 22:06.783
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, it’s definitely organic search, it’s the backbone of our business, you type in quality, or a women’s quality t-shirts we pop up, it’s super important for us.
22:08.083 –> 22:19.430
[SPEAKER_02]: And the tooltop tip, maybe a collaboration tool, a social media plug-in, a phone app, or just a way of working, is there a cool little tool you use that makes you and your team more efficient from day to day.
22:20.816 –> 22:34.345
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I was originally going to recommend automatic discounts and bundling as well just to help increase basket size, but something to make us more efficient is definitely slack.
22:34.746 –> 22:37.968
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s just so quick and easy and an efficient way to communicate.
22:38.731 –> 22:44.852
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the most recommended tool on this podcast ever as well, the carbon top tip.
22:44.952 –> 22:48.753
[SPEAKER_02]: What’s your favorite way to reduce the carbon footprint of an e-commerce store?
22:49.794 –> 23:06.898
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, I think it’s very much looking at every single practice and process that we have, whether it is making sure that we recycle all of the packaging that we receive in, making sure that all of the packaging we send out is either already recycled and still is recyclable.
23:09.399 –> 23:12.701
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it’s turning over every rock, isn’t it?
23:12.741 –> 23:14.222
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to look at the whole piece.
23:14.282 –> 23:15.523
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s not just a one shift.
23:15.583 –> 23:17.004
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s everything.
23:17.364 –> 23:17.564
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
23:18.105 –> 23:25.190
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, it’s about before we say goodbye, could you please let the listeners know where they can find you and your business on the web and social media?
23:25.897 –> 23:26.838
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, absolutely.
23:26.998 –> 23:34.582
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you go to www.lavenderhillclothing.com, you can find our website there.
23:35.002 –> 23:42.226
[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, if you go on to any of the social media channels and look up at Lavenderhillclothing with it.
23:42.967 –> 23:44.007
[SPEAKER_02]: Brilliant.
23:44.307 –> 23:46.088
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s been a pleasure chatting with you.
23:46.128 –> 23:49.090
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for being on the e-commerce boss plan podcast.
23:49.770 –> 23:50.931
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for having me.
23:56.905 –> 24:07.948
[SPEAKER_02]: Loving is about focus on making the profitable decisions and the hard decisions within the business on what she’s going to focus on what her team are going to focus on and where they’re going to spend their time and their money.
24:07.968 –> 24:14.810
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought that was fascinating and also how she’s bringing AI into the mix is super cool too.
24:15.550 –> 24:19.131
[SPEAKER_02]: great to hear the actual ins and outs of how someone’s really doing those things.
24:19.511 –> 24:22.472
[SPEAKER_02]: So an absolute treat to get to chat with Isabel.
24:22.592 –> 24:29.795
[SPEAKER_02]: You can get your hands on the notes from this episode, including the top tips and links to what we mentioned by heading over to ecommercemasterland.com.
24:30.195 –> 24:40.038
[SPEAKER_02]: You could also use our direct episode short link to get to the right page of the website, just put ECMP.info4 such the number of this episode into your RR bar and you’ll be there.
24:40.798 –> 24:43.819
[SPEAKER_02]: When you get to the website, why not add yourself to our email list?
24:43.899 –> 24:44.159
[SPEAKER_02]: Go on.
24:44.511 –> 24:45.211
[SPEAKER_02]: Go on, do it!
24:45.751 –> 25:10.001
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, if you like this episode and want to dive into a couple more case that he’s a brand focused on wardrobe basics, we’ve got Episode 434, where I’m chatting with Lindy Benson from Blue Salt to doing something very similar in the USA, or you can go way back into the archive with Episode 49, where Matthew Parvis from Fresh Creek Clean T’s talks about
25:12.862 –> 25:18.265
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you want all our fashion episodes then head to ECMP.info forward slash fashion.
25:18.705 –> 25:22.687
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for tuning into this and every episode of the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.
25:23.087 –> 25:33.352
[SPEAKER_02]: I bring you a new interview every week because I want to inspire and help Ecommerce business owners just like you to succeed and thrive with your businesses, including progressing along the path to net zero.
25:33.693 –> 25:38.035
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you know someone this show can help, please tell them to listen to the Ecommerce
25:45.658 –> 25:48.964
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening to the e-commerce Master Plan podcast.
25:49.425 –> 25:54.213
[SPEAKER_01]: Find out more at e-commercemasterplanned.com slash podcast.
In God we trust