👚 Building on Shopify before it was cool: Isobel Ridley from Lavender Hill | D2C Stories

Hey there, great people of the D2C community who are building fantastic things! This is your host Berkay writing.

This Friday on D2C Stories:
👚 Building on Shopify before it was cool: Isobel Ridley from Lavender Hill
🤓 Tweets of the week
🏷️ Discounts on leading Shopify tools
📚 Free resources on inventory management

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👚 Building on Shopify before it was cool: Isobel Ridley from Lavender Hill

Alright alright alright! Here comes our favorite part: D2C success stories!

In the 11th episode we did with successful D2C entrepreneurs, we had an absolutely wonderful conversation with Isobel, founder of UK-based luxury sustainable basics for women brand, Lavender Hill.

Isobel isn’t just new to the business. In fact, she started Lavender Hill in 2013, after spending 2 years in various departments of the world-famous Burberry.

Anndd, what’s more interesting is she built her website with Shopify back in the day and she still sticks to it!

After spending many years in Burberry, Isobel finally saw a gap in the market for high-quality basics for everyday wear. And she seized the opportunity! 

When the pandemic hit in 2020, her brand went through it with the help of face masks they produced. It was the peak of Isobel’s career!

You can listen to the episode on Spotify, Google, or Apple Podcast!

And here are some highlights from our chat:

👚 Identifying a Gap: Isobel started Lavender Hill Clothing to address a gap in the market for high-quality, basic t-shirts and tops designed for women.
She noticed that there was a demand for top-quality basic t-shirts and tops designed for women. 
Plus, most brands catered to the Californian climate, a world away from the UK.

🛒 Starting at Consumer Trade Shows: In the early days, Isobel struggled to make online sales. But she found a way to contact her customers anyways: By participating in consumer shows, pop-up shops, and stalls across the UK.

👥 Customer-Centric Approach: Isobel always listened to her customers while making decisions for her clothing line. She realized her customers wanted to have specific necklines, sleeve lengths, and colors for their t-shirts. And that’s exactly what she gave to them!

🛒 Early Shopify Adoption: Isobel chose to build Lavender Hill Clothing on Shopify when the platform was relatively new, around a year or two old. In fact, she has been using Shopify for so long that she is on a price plan that no longer exists!

🚀 Then vs. Now: Isobel says it’s difficult to start a brand today, with a competitive and saturated market and uncertain economy.

But she also believes the tool stack today’s entrepreneurs have is a commodity she never had back in her day.

🦠 Response to COVID-19: In 2020, the company pivoted into face mask production in response to the pandemic, producing and selling a significant number of masks. And it was the height of Isobel’s career.

Amid the UK's stay-at-home orders, Isobel crafted 100 face masks, sent an email, and sold out within minutes. Then what happened?

In just six weeks, they produced 200,000 masks.

Handling this demand was truly a challenge, but thanks to their supply chain expert, Nuno, they did just fine. They streamlined operations, focusing on quick deliveries, and launched a "give a pack, buy a pack" campaign, initially donating 20,000 masks to a local charity. The website saw a surge of up to 3,000 simultaneous visitors.

🌐 Transparency in Supply Chain: Lavender Hill Clothing prioritizes transparency in its supply chain, particularly through collaborations with Lenzing for sustainable materials like modal and lyocell.
She says it’s quite significant to collaborate with the right suppliers, maintain fiscal discipline to avoid overspending, and closely monitor cash flow, as she believes 

"cash is king."

⛓️ Robust Supply Chain and Inventory Management: Building a strong supply chain is critical to business success. So, Isobel uses Inventory Planner for sales forecasting, but she says a blend of data and business insights is essential for making the right decisions.

🆇 TWEETS OF THE WEEK

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