eCommerce Master Plan

eCommerce MasterPlan | 558: How Alara Jewelry Doubled eCommerce Sales by Blending In-Store and Online Experiences

Listen Later

Babs Noelle is the Ringleader at Alara Jewelry, sellers of artisanal, eco-conscious fine jewelry both designed in house, and supplied by renowned designers too. Founded in 2004 they now sell via their physical retail store, atelier by appointment only, at special events AND via their Shopify store. In total the company does $2.9m a year with 13% year on year growth, and the eCommerce store is booming – seeing 138% year on year growth. 

 

In this episode, Babs shares the secrets behind building a purpose-driven brand, blending in-store magic with online strategy, and creating growth that’s both ethical and explosive. 

 

Hit PLAY to hear: 

 

  • How Babs turned a brick-and-mortar store into a booming Shopify success  
  • The clever reason everyone on her team works on eCommerce  
  • Why Montana sapphires are the hidden gem of ethical jewelry  
  • The simple service that makes virtual shopping feel personal again  
  • How Alara built 138% online growth without sacrificing brand integrity 
  • The real difference between using “eco-conscious” as a word vs. a mission  

    •  

    Key timestamps to dive straight in: 

    [05:13] Eco-Conscious Jewelry for Global Tourists 

    [09:04] Diverse Roles in Jewelry Business 

    [12:44] Three-Person Marketing Team 

    [16:30] Virtual Custom Appointments for eCommerce 

    [20:14] Artisanal Appeal: Unique and Sustainable 

    [22:39] Ethical Jewelry Practices Explained 

    [24:05] Listen to Babs’ Top Tips! 

     Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/558

    This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

    Spotify Ad Analytics – https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

    —

    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

    00:00.311 –> 00:04.537

    [SPEAKER_00]: There is a true story in it because there’s a human behind it.

    00:05.078 –> 00:07.521

    [SPEAKER_00]: None of this is corporately made at all.

    00:08.382 –> 00:17.275

    [SPEAKER_00]: And there is so much that I can’t translate to a person who doesn’t have their literal fingers on the product.

    00:20.027 –> 00:22.391

    [SPEAKER_02]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast.

    00:22.952 –> 00:27.018

    [SPEAKER_02]: Here to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business.

    00:27.559 –> 00:35.270

    [SPEAKER_02]: Cutting through the highly to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond, here’s your host, Chloe Thomas.

    00:38.681 –> 00:39.782

    [SPEAKER_01]: Hello and welcome.

    00:39.822 –> 00:40.923

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s great to have you here.

    00:40.983 –> 00:44.847

    [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests.

    00:45.248 –> 00:47.129

    [SPEAKER_01]: In this episode we get to talk jewelry.

    00:47.290 –> 00:48.531

    [SPEAKER_01]: We get to talk luxury.

    00:48.571 –> 01:00.402

    [SPEAKER_01]: We get to talk customer experience with a fascinating lady from the US who is talking to us about her fast growing online store that’s part of a much bigger bricks and clicks operation.

    01:01.143 –> 01:11.828

    [SPEAKER_01]: I’d say a little bit of a thank you to her team so she was recording this episode in the back of the store as they were getting ready to open for the day and the team were like ghosts.

    01:12.148 –> 01:16.271

    [SPEAKER_01]: I could see them wandering around in the background but you’ll pretty much not hear them at all.

    01:16.691 –> 01:23.274

    [SPEAKER_01]: So amazing work from Babs and her team on the audio side of things there are really impressive.

    01:24.054 –> 01:27.036

    [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing makes me more nervous than other team will turn up part way through.

    01:27.476 –> 01:31.179

    [SPEAKER_01]: No, but they did absolutely brilliantly and really cool.

    01:31.219 –> 01:35.203

    [SPEAKER_01]: So huge thank you to Babs and her team for being so quiet.

    01:35.643 –> 01:36.684

    [SPEAKER_01]: So what are we going to be talking about?

    01:36.784 –> 01:40.227

    [SPEAKER_01]: We’re going to be talking about how she runs the team.

    01:40.247 –> 01:42.849

    [SPEAKER_01]: We’re going to be talking about the purpose that drives through their business.

    01:42.929 –> 01:47.453

    [SPEAKER_01]: How they’ve been trying to build the same customer experience online as they have offline.

    01:47.933 –> 01:56.118

    [SPEAKER_01]: We will be talking about product provenance, running services as well as physical products, lots of cool stuff in this episode.

    01:56.178 –> 01:58.919

    [SPEAKER_01]: I think you’re going to enjoy it because I thoroughly enjoyed recording it.

    01:59.439 –> 02:05.803

    [SPEAKER_01]: Please listen to the end though so you don’t miss out on my guest top tips which are very good and my take on this episode.

    02:12.003 –> 02:13.924

    [SPEAKER_01]: and now to introduce our special guest.

    02:14.344 –> 02:25.231

    [SPEAKER_01]: Babs Noel is the ringleader at a Lara Jewelry, sellers of artisanal eco-conscious fine jewelry both designed in house and supplied by renowned designers as well.

    02:25.651 –> 02:36.197

    [SPEAKER_01]: Founded in two thousand and four, they now sell via their physical retail store, a tellier which is by appointment only at special events and via their Shopify

    02:36.317 –> 02:36.637

    [SPEAKER_01]: store.

    02:37.138 –> 02:50.487

    [SPEAKER_01]: In total, the company does two point nine million dollars a year with thirteen percent year on year growth and the e-commerce store is booming, seeing a hundred and thirty eight percent year on year growth as we record.

    02:50.587 –> 02:51.488

    [SPEAKER_01]: Hello, Babs.

    02:52.008 –> 02:54.050

    [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, good morning.

    02:54.550 –> 02:56.892

    [SPEAKER_01]: Very cool to have you on the show.

    02:56.912 –> 02:58.833

    [SPEAKER_01]: I love a bit of jewelry chat.

    02:59.173 –> 03:01.835

    [SPEAKER_01]: I love a bit of e-commerce chat, so very excited to have you here.

    03:01.895 –> 03:04.317

    [SPEAKER_01]: How did you end up in the world of e-commerce?

    03:05.520 –> 03:08.983

    [SPEAKER_00]: Originally, prior to moving to where I am now, I lived in Denver.

    03:09.884 –> 03:16.970

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I had two customers who had built the back end of the Universal Studios website.

    03:17.450 –> 03:17.690

    [SPEAKER_00]: Wow.

    03:17.951 –> 03:19.892

    [SPEAKER_00]: And so this was in two thousand two.

    03:20.753 –> 03:24.556

    [SPEAKER_00]: And they were just enamored with me and the store I had there.

    03:24.916 –> 03:29.540

    [SPEAKER_00]: And so they gifted me, which was very, very expensive at the time.

    03:29.580 –> 03:30.962

    [SPEAKER_00]: And it was very much a one-off.

    03:31.682 –> 03:49.917

    [SPEAKER_00]: a back end, and so I actually had a very, very early, you know, O-II sounds really, really didn’t mean e-commerce store, and it ran for a couple of years, and then I moved here, and I had a lot of other things to take up my time than that.

    03:50.497 –> 04:03.147

    [SPEAKER_00]: So then I would say I really, after I moved to Boseman in two thousand four, I really had more of a brochure site for a number of years, but a lot of flash, you know.

    04:05.268 –> 04:10.012

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I started, I started up again in two thousand fifteen.

    04:10.072 –> 04:17.037

    [SPEAKER_00]: I would say an earnest in twenty eighteen and in its current incarnation it was more like twenty twenty.

    04:17.497 –> 04:18.178

    [SPEAKER_00]: I managed to

    04:19.819 –> 04:23.483

    [SPEAKER_00]: upgrade my site just in time for the pandemic.

    04:23.543 –> 04:25.365

    [SPEAKER_00]: It was complete.

    04:26.006 –> 04:33.314

    [SPEAKER_00]: Just that’s when I happened to decide to do it and pandemic hit and that new site was up and running in April of that year.

    04:33.414 –> 04:37.518

    [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, literally to the wire of to the wire.

    04:37.538 –> 04:37.899

    [SPEAKER_00]: I know idea.

    04:37.939 –> 04:38.079

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

    04:40.321 –> 04:41.662

    [SPEAKER_01]: Fate can be a great thing.

    04:42.103 –> 04:53.111

    [SPEAKER_01]: For our younger listeners, Flash just in case what we wanted, what we were laughing, Flash created the most beautiful websites, but they were completely nightmareish for on every other front.

    04:54.132 –> 04:55.914

    [SPEAKER_01]: Thank goodness that one disappeared.

    04:57.014 –> 04:59.937

    [SPEAKER_01]: So you dabble back in two thousand and two.

    05:00.157 –> 05:01.538

    [SPEAKER_01]: Then you did more of a brochure.

    05:01.718 –> 05:07.683

    [SPEAKER_01]: Then you luckily put it all together for the pandemic, just in time for the pandemic on the Shopify store.

    05:08.747 –> 05:12.788

    [SPEAKER_01]: Why did you feel it was worth getting back into the commas game?

    05:13.968 –> 05:21.749

    [SPEAKER_00]: At that point, since I live in a tourist heavy area where the Boseman is kind of the gateway to Yellowstone National Park.

    05:22.989 –> 05:28.210

    [SPEAKER_00]: And we have visitors here literally from every corner of the globe.

    05:29.251 –> 05:36.852

    [SPEAKER_00]: And once you start seeing that what you’re carrying in your physical store has that broad of an appeal

    05:38.377 –> 05:43.840

    [SPEAKER_00]: Initially, my thought was, well, it would be great if I could keep the momentum going with these people.

    05:43.980 –> 05:45.201

    [SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, well, wait a minute.

    05:45.281 –> 05:46.982

    [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, what it’s telling me is that

    05:48.104 –> 05:53.728

    [SPEAKER_00]: There’s people from all over the world looking for things like this that haven’t been to this store.

    05:54.469 –> 06:12.703

    [SPEAKER_00]: And so my thought on it was, since I am super passionate about jewelry being made eco-consciously, and I have been engaged in that effort since nineteen eighty five when everyone thought it was the weirdest thing that I cared about it.

    06:13.564 –> 06:17.508

    [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the eighties was just all flash and not a lot of substance.

    06:17.568 –> 06:22.833

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I was worrying about where were the diamonds coming from, how was the gold being produced?

    06:22.893 –> 06:26.457

    [SPEAKER_00]: You know, oh my gosh, I hope the labor isn’t my small children.

    06:26.937 –> 06:29.099

    [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, it was cookie then.

    06:29.200 –> 06:33.484

    [SPEAKER_00]: But now I get to look back and say, hey, I was a real leader in this.

    06:34.124 –> 06:37.147

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I just knew that if I could get

    06:37.948 –> 06:53.593

    [SPEAKER_00]: these products that I have so carefully either made or curated into the hands of more people that is literally one way to help in the entire endeavor of making jewelry more eco-friendly and more sustainable.

    06:54.394 –> 06:57.715

    [SPEAKER_00]: So I just figured any commerce store was the way to do that.

    06:58.669 –> 07:01.170

    [SPEAKER_01]: That’s one of the best reasons for embracing e-commerce.

    07:01.210 –> 07:04.210

    [SPEAKER_01]: I think I’ve ever heard so many bits and pieces coming into the mix there.

    07:04.290 –> 07:07.551

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I definitely want to get into that sustainability bit a little bit later.

    07:07.651 –> 07:11.372

    [SPEAKER_01]: First off though, let’s cover off some of the basics of the business as it is now for the audience.

    07:11.392 –> 07:15.093

    [SPEAKER_01]: So you’re based in America, you’re selling globally.

    07:15.573 –> 07:19.834

    [SPEAKER_01]: The product, all I’ve said about it so far is that it’s eco-conscious fine jewelry.

    07:20.474 –> 07:28.276

    [SPEAKER_01]: You’re fairly high price point and you’re your mainly around, would it be fair to say higher end materials with your jewelry?

    07:29.196 –> 07:30.277

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes.

    07:30.457 –> 07:34.198

    [SPEAKER_00]: We actually are our range is pretty broad.

    07:34.258 –> 07:42.641

    [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I literally have things and I think they’re even on the website in the forty fifty dollar range, but I still put them through the same scrutiny.

    07:43.102 –> 07:48.824

    [SPEAKER_00]: So, but yes, our average order value is over sixteen hundred dollars.

    07:49.804 –> 07:59.668

    [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, we’re definitely a lot more in gold, platinum, diamonds, a lot of Montana sapphires because they are fair trade naturally.

    07:59.788 –> 08:02.109

    [SPEAKER_00]: So that’s a big deal and they’re from here.

    08:02.329 –> 08:06.091

    [SPEAKER_00]: So that’s, they’re starting to gain a lot of traction all over the world.

    08:06.231 –> 08:07.752

    [SPEAKER_00]: So we’re excited about that.

    08:08.132 –> 08:08.352

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

    08:09.092 –> 08:12.114

    [SPEAKER_01]: And you get to use a local resource as well, which is kind of cool.

    08:12.154 –> 08:12.514

    [SPEAKER_00]: We do.

    08:12.854 –> 08:13.074

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

    08:13.934 –> 08:17.396

    [SPEAKER_01]: You can’t often, I feel like you can’t often say that in jewelry in the West.

    08:18.130 –> 08:19.732

    [SPEAKER_00]: You’re one hundred percent right.

    08:20.172 –> 08:25.957

    [SPEAKER_00]: There’s almost every state in the fifty states that all have like a state gem.

    08:27.173 –> 08:32.394

    [SPEAKER_00]: But it would be a gem that if you went to somewhere another state, they’d be like, I don’t want that.

    08:32.534 –> 08:42.157

    [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it’s more of a, it’s somewhat gimmicky, kitschy, maybe, you know, but not generally considered something fine.

    08:42.377 –> 08:52.900

    [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like Maine has termileens, but Montana is the only place in the union that produces a truly durable gem like Sapphire in gem quality.

    08:53.220 –> 08:53.360

    [SPEAKER_00]: So,

    08:53.880 –> 08:54.340

    [SPEAKER_01]: Nice.

    08:54.481 –> 08:54.821

    [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

    08:54.861 –> 08:56.742

    [SPEAKER_01]: And then what does the team look like?

    08:56.802 –> 09:02.747

    [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, across the whole business, because you’re doing production and design right the way through to dispatch.

    09:02.787 –> 09:04.528

    [SPEAKER_01]: So what does the team look like?

    09:04.648 –> 09:04.988

    [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

    09:05.048 –> 09:06.610

    [SPEAKER_00]: So there’s twelve of us.

    09:07.110 –> 09:10.653

    [SPEAKER_00]: So two of them do strictly metal smithing.

    09:11.917 –> 09:23.845

    [SPEAKER_00]: And then we do have other people on the team who do smaller tasks involving repair and just some smaller things in terms of production or repair.

    09:24.866 –> 09:33.631

    [SPEAKER_00]: And everyone on staff with the exception of the two full-time metal smits are doing something on the website.

    09:33.992 –> 09:38.614

    [SPEAKER_00]: But they’re also doing your typical brick and mortar type of work.

    09:38.655 –> 09:39.995

    [SPEAKER_00]: We’re waiting on customers.

    09:41.096 –> 09:42.557

    [SPEAKER_00]: greeting doing all that.

    09:43.117 –> 10:02.010

    [SPEAKER_00]: So pretty much everyone is involved with product photography, writing descriptions, categorizing things which is super important for jewelry, filling the orders, customer service because we just have our channels open all day long when we’re here.

    10:02.230 –> 10:10.075

    [SPEAKER_00]: So via chat, via text, phone, email, we’re doing that all day long and all of us do that.

    10:10.695 –> 10:19.278

    [SPEAKER_01]: So what was your rationale to not have a web team and a store team, but to have everyone involved in every element?

    10:20.358 –> 10:25.220

    [SPEAKER_00]: Well, jewelry in general, but I think very specifically artisanal jewelry.

    10:25.540 –> 10:28.901

    [SPEAKER_00]: So our expression at the store is no McJewelry.

    10:29.041 –> 10:33.083

    [SPEAKER_00]: That’s what I’m not really supposed to use that.

    10:34.703 –> 10:37.844

    [SPEAKER_00]: So you know, we won’t tell the lawyers it’s fine.

    10:37.864 –> 10:38.744

    [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

    10:40.485 –> 10:45.128

    [SPEAKER_00]: is that there is a true story in it because there’s a human behind it.

    10:45.308 –> 10:48.349

    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s none of this is corporately made at all.

    10:49.210 –> 10:58.715

    [SPEAKER_00]: And there is so much that I can’t translate to a person who doesn’t have their literal fingers on the product.

    11:00.182 –> 11:14.885

    [SPEAKER_00]: So it never really crossed my mind, because I knew I would need to have people in store to do the work, the way I want it done, and with them touching the product, I flat out don’t ever room for more here, teeny tiny place.

    11:15.585 –> 11:20.806

    [SPEAKER_00]: So instead I wrapped it into the general running of the business.

    11:21.807 –> 11:28.048

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I think what has happened is definitely during our interview process,

    11:28.989 –> 11:31.525

    [SPEAKER_00]: If someone has previous retail experience,

    11:32.422 –> 11:38.627

    [SPEAKER_00]: I’ll tell them if you’re used to standing around and doing a lot of nothing, you’re going to hate this job.

    11:39.188 –> 11:44.752

    [SPEAKER_00]: We are always wearing a lot of hats and what’s happened is I’ve reached stasis.

    11:45.272 –> 11:51.117

    [SPEAKER_00]: I end up attracting people to this job that don’t like to lack for things to do.

    11:51.137 –> 11:59.984

    [SPEAKER_00]: I attract people who want to be busy and want to increase their skills and people who really do like to just sit

    12:00.890 –> 12:04.471

    [SPEAKER_00]: they don’t, they don’t show up, so it’s worked out pretty well.

    12:05.311 –> 12:26.797

    [SPEAKER_01]: I love how that’s both say, you know, like product driven decision-making, but also mentality and culture driven decision-making as well, because it’s, I imagine to some extent, it’s a little bit easier to keep a cohesive team when everyone’s doing all the same stuff, you know, there’s not, why did they get to sit in the backwriting copy all day?

    12:27.157 –> 12:28.458

    [SPEAKER_01]: Doesn’t really occur.

    12:29.298 –> 12:29.498

    [SPEAKER_00]: No.

    12:30.018 –> 12:32.720

    [SPEAKER_00]: And we definitely, I’ll hear conversations amongst them.

    12:32.780 –> 12:34.781

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, can I do that?

    12:35.221 –> 12:36.822

    [SPEAKER_00]: Can we swap?

    12:37.202 –> 12:37.983

    [SPEAKER_00]: I’m all for it.

    12:38.523 –> 12:40.304

    [SPEAKER_00]: Find your happy in my place.

    12:40.404 –> 12:40.924

    [SPEAKER_00]: That’s great.

    12:41.404 –> 12:44.106

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I get some one thing I need to mention is regarding marketing.

    12:44.346 –> 12:49.188

    [SPEAKER_00]: There’s basically three of us that do everything regarding the marketing of the website.

    12:49.208 –> 12:50.489

    [SPEAKER_00]: So I have a marketing manager.

    12:50.909 –> 12:51.710

    [SPEAKER_00]: She’s off site.

    12:51.810 –> 12:52.950

    [SPEAKER_00]: She used to live here, though.

    12:53.050 –> 12:57.373

    [SPEAKER_00]: So she knows the ethos of the store, which matters to me.

    12:58.193 –> 13:01.474

    [SPEAKER_00]: and myself and then my manager, Shantel.

    13:01.734 –> 13:03.474

    [SPEAKER_00]: So she also is on that team.

    13:03.614 –> 13:17.038

    [SPEAKER_00]: So we execute, we kind of do the strategy and we have a outside team that does email flows and we have an outside team that guides us on SEO.

    13:17.138 –> 13:25.280

    [SPEAKER_00]: They do some of our SEO work but then the main thing they do is assign us things to do so we can do it in our own voice.

    13:26.108 –> 13:30.070

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s very easy to spend a lot of time on SEO without doing the things you should do.

    13:30.550 –> 13:35.112

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s kind of like, you know, or trying to teach your SEO agency how to write the copyright.

    13:35.693 –> 13:38.954

    [SPEAKER_01]: If you get them to do the strategy and tell you what to do, then you execute.

    13:39.074 –> 13:41.275

    [SPEAKER_01]: Seems like a pretty good way of going about it to me.

    13:41.576 –> 13:44.377

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I just need to buy more hours in the day, but that’s okay.

    13:46.109 –> 13:48.090

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we don’t, we all, don’t, we all.

    13:49.050 –> 13:56.632

    [SPEAKER_01]: So how do you balance focus between the retail’s physical retail space and the online world?

    13:56.732 –> 14:00.792

    [SPEAKER_01]: Because I imagine it, as you’re talking to me now, you’re sat in the back of the retail space.

    14:00.813 –> 14:04.913

    [SPEAKER_01]: We’ve just said, you know, the team are there doing the online task as well as the offline tasks.

    14:05.554 –> 14:10.575

    [SPEAKER_01]: So therefore, visually around you, the physical space, the physical retail space is there all the time.

    14:10.615 –> 14:15.456

    [SPEAKER_01]: So how do you balance it so you’re getting the focus right between the two sales channels?

    14:16.497 –> 14:27.256

    [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, I imagine as opposed to it being that I have some sort of actual approach to the balance is I go where I needed

    14:28.305 –> 14:38.754

    [SPEAKER_00]: So obviously if we’ve just seen an online order come through and we have a whole bunch of people walk in the store, I call it that a bus opens up.

    14:39.255 –> 14:46.961

    [SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes that’s what it feels like in brick and mortar, you’ll have a law with literally zero customers, then you’ll have fifteen people in the store.

    14:47.742 –> 14:49.343

    [SPEAKER_00]: and for staff to help them.

    14:49.903 –> 14:53.665

    [SPEAKER_00]: So some of it is dictated from outside of me.

    14:54.325 –> 15:03.290

    [SPEAKER_00]: The fact that I have maintained my sanity means I guess I’m okay with this at this time.

    15:03.870 –> 15:13.035

    [SPEAKER_00]: I would imagine that if it got to the point where all of us were saying, okay, this is just beyond the pale we cannot possibly execute anymore, that would be time to hire.

    15:14.035 –> 15:17.996

    [SPEAKER_00]: and then I wouldn’t need to look out where I was going to put them.

    15:19.077 –> 15:29.280

    [SPEAKER_01]: That makes sense, because sometimes it’s, if you’ve not got the customers appearing, then you can go right choose day and Wednesday, I will spend working on this and Thursday and Friday will spend working on this.

    15:29.521 –> 15:35.883

    [SPEAKER_01]: But when you’re in that retail space, there is so little opportunity to do that.

    15:36.643 –> 15:37.323

    [SPEAKER_00]: That is correct.

    15:37.383 –> 15:41.384

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, what I do is very much dictated by the warm bodies for sure.

    15:42.204 –> 15:53.647

    [SPEAKER_00]: But obviously, if I’m engaged in a virtual appointment with someone, that is regarded here with as much, it has complete sanctity.

    15:54.147 –> 16:00.909

    [SPEAKER_00]: So that’s the same as if someone came in the store and had an appointment with me that they had set for an in-person appointment.

    16:01.029 –> 16:06.210

    [SPEAKER_00]: So we can get into a pickle from time to time with not enough

    16:07.251 –> 16:13.736

    [SPEAKER_00]: You know, folks to go around, but it’s rare enough that I can’t recall the last time, so I think we’re all right for now.

    16:13.756 –> 16:15.098

    [SPEAKER_01]: That makes sense.

    16:15.198 –> 16:26.027

    [SPEAKER_01]: And you mentioned that the individual one-on-one consultations, because we’ve only really mentioned the physical products so far, but you do have a number of services you’re offering people as well.

    16:26.047 –> 16:28.670

    [SPEAKER_01]: So can you just explain a quick bit about those, please?

    16:29.502 –> 16:49.990

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, one of the things I really was hoping to do with e-commerce and, you know, bit by bit we’re figuring it out is we would love to emulate what we have here in the store in terms of appointments, which I do things regarding custom work.

    16:50.010 –> 16:55.392

    [SPEAKER_00]: So virtual custom appointments, we can do bridal styling, you know, people trying to figure out what to wear with their

    16:55.552 –> 17:01.119

    [SPEAKER_00]: wedding dress because it is kind of a slightly special day and you’re wearing a lot more stuff than you usually do.

    17:01.139 –> 17:10.049

    [SPEAKER_00]: I’ll do antique reproduction so if you have a very very old piece but it has reached the end of its useful life.

    17:11.058 –> 17:12.360

    [SPEAKER_00]: We can talk about okay.

    17:12.660 –> 17:23.714

    [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yes, I’m going to go ahead and reproduce this, but just so you know, it’s going to look like this piece did when it was new, not like this piece right before it completely came undone.

    17:24.355 –> 17:26.697

    [SPEAKER_00]: So I can’t really do appraisals.

    17:27.789 –> 17:31.391

    [SPEAKER_00]: long distance, but we can guide people on things like repairs.

    17:32.012 –> 17:38.696

    [SPEAKER_00]: As long as they have a good enough camera so they can show us what’s going on, we can sometimes diagnose that way.

    17:38.876 –> 17:55.626

    [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, there’s quite a bit that we can do and since custom work is kind of a cornerstone of our brick and mortar, I thought it was important because many people don’t have a custom jeweler in their town in the States, especially if they’re living somewhere smaller.

    17:56.627 –> 18:03.570

    [SPEAKER_00]: So, because the craft is, we don’t have as many people doing the craft as we need, frankly.

    18:03.710 –> 18:05.811

    [SPEAKER_00]: So, especially for something like one-offs.

    18:06.071 –> 18:11.513

    [SPEAKER_00]: So, but I love meeting people from all over and helping them with their projects.

    18:12.153 –> 18:12.573

    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s great.

    18:12.713 –> 18:13.313

    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s a lot of fun.

    18:14.074 –> 18:24.878

    [SPEAKER_01]: I find it so cool that you are trying to mirror the same services and the same experience online that people get in the physical store, because so often when someone’s running a single store business,

    18:25.818 –> 18:31.382

    [SPEAKER_01]: and they launch an online site, they online site kind of gets forgotten about and it’s just like, we’ll put the products up and it’ll be fine.

    18:32.543 –> 18:47.733

    [SPEAKER_01]: Whereas your approach seems a lot more all encompassing and that we want to make sure people get the same experience overuse word and e-commerce, but the same experience whether they’re in store or they’re on in the online space.

    18:48.559 –> 18:56.564

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is definitely more holistic and hence the way that we use staff makes probably makes more sense then.

    18:56.665 –> 19:02.969

    [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, we’ll do virtual shopping tours because for some people, particularly people who are a wee bit older.

    19:04.064 –> 19:11.034

    [SPEAKER_00]: the clicking and the looking and the filters and the thing, you know, it just, it kind of takes all the fun out of it.

    19:11.615 –> 19:19.986

    [SPEAKER_00]: And so we’re totally happy to send appointment and do something via FaceTime just in the store showing them what’s in the cases.

    19:20.899 –> 19:26.165

    [SPEAKER_01]: That’s such an obvious thing to do, but somewhat mind-blowing at the same time.

    19:28.468 –> 19:33.354

    [SPEAKER_01]: How strange that a customer might want to see the jewelry and me walk around the store, it’s kind of obvious.

    19:34.787 –> 19:36.869

    [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, but somewhat mind-blowing.

    19:38.050 –> 19:51.441

    [SPEAKER_01]: Now you mentioned about how purpose-driven you’ve been right since the eighties the beginning of your jewelry career about creating a more sustainable ethical jewelry and kind of educating the customers as well.

    19:52.682 –> 19:59.890

    [SPEAKER_01]: I think personally, I think we’re in a space where people still aren’t that aware of the ethics of the production of their jewelry.

    20:00.310 –> 20:05.115

    [SPEAKER_01]: Is it moved certainly not as much as people are becoming aware in the clothing fashion space?

    20:05.675 –> 20:11.341

    [SPEAKER_01]: It feels like in jewelry, we know blood diamonds are bad, but the rest of the mix we seem to have forgotten about.

    20:11.801 –> 20:12.943

    [SPEAKER_01]: Do you find that with customers?

    20:14.078 –> 20:22.747

    [SPEAKER_00]: I do find it with a certain number of customers because of course we have our devotees who are like they could preach it probably better than I can ultimately.

    20:23.307 –> 20:28.292

    [SPEAKER_00]: But no, I’ll encounter people all the time that still have a mindset of

    20:29.498 –> 20:36.184

    [SPEAKER_00]: that it’s precious materials and so I’m trying to get them for as little money as I can.

    20:36.204 –> 20:48.775

    [SPEAKER_00]: But it turns out that they actually have more refined taste and that that can be kind of the the opening for me is if they are looking for something that they would consider more

    20:50.056 –> 20:51.758

    [SPEAKER_00]: unique, a little more special.

    20:52.098 –> 20:55.160

    [SPEAKER_00]: We do a lot of one of a kind, people love that idea.

    20:55.180 –> 21:05.727

    [SPEAKER_00]: The very artisanal and one of a kind nature allows us to open the door on the sustainability part of it.

    21:06.287 –> 21:11.430

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I think we have, we’ve definitely crossed some sort of threshold.

    21:12.351 –> 21:34.385

    [SPEAKER_00]: because to tutelight on horn, we were invited to be the subject of a short-form documentary that will be coming out on US public television over the next year and it’s an episodic show on public television called Empowered with Meg Ryan and we were chosen because of

    21:35.726 –> 21:38.008

    [SPEAKER_00]: producing ethically source jewelry.

    21:38.708 –> 21:48.655

    [SPEAKER_00]: So certainly there are some powers that be that recognize that, okay, we managed to do it with fast fashion, at least to get some people to maybe think twice.

    21:49.870 –> 21:53.272

    [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that doesn’t mean that always buy that way.

    21:53.452 –> 21:56.374

    [SPEAKER_00]: But hey, doing it in increments is fine, right?

    21:56.715 –> 22:03.039

    [SPEAKER_00]: I don’t wherever going to be able to flip the switch and everybody’s doing everything very sustainably.

    22:03.119 –> 22:06.381

    [SPEAKER_00]: But doing it just bit by bit is fine with me.

    22:06.421 –> 22:10.003

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that is now happening with the jewelry business.

    22:10.463 –> 22:15.287

    [SPEAKER_00]: And it’s happening to the jewelry business to the extent that I see brands

    22:15.967 –> 22:21.091

    [SPEAKER_00]: throwing the ethical thing on their website and throwing eco-conscious on their website.

    22:21.511 –> 22:27.015

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I’m like, but really, and you know, I’ll often know where those products are coming from.

    22:27.035 –> 22:30.678

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I’ll be like, not so much, just using it as a word.

    22:30.758 –> 22:32.319

    [SPEAKER_00]: And I use it as a mantra.

    22:32.839 –> 22:33.099

    [SPEAKER_00]: So.

    22:33.500 –> 22:39.104

    [SPEAKER_01]: But like you say, it is progress, at least they think they need to use the word, even if they’re not using it as well as they should do.

    22:39.764 –> 22:40.265

    [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

    22:40.385 –> 22:41.826

    [SPEAKER_00]: I do consider that progress.

    22:41.966 –> 22:49.131

    [SPEAKER_00]: If they think it’s something that should be cared about even if maybe they’re not caring about it through their direct actions, that’s something.

    22:49.451 –> 22:57.597

    [SPEAKER_00]: Still, one of the most ethical things a person can do regarding jewelry that is often not available to them because there’s jewelers who won’t do this.

    22:58.457 –> 23:04.942

    [SPEAKER_00]: is we will reuse your existing materials, your stones, your found objects.

    23:05.883 –> 23:16.912

    [SPEAKER_00]: We have an amazing diamond cutter who can fix a broken diamond, an amazing lapidaris to repolish a colored stone, and we can refine your metal to reuse it.

    23:17.472 –> 23:21.613

    [SPEAKER_00]: But a lot of jewelers don’t want to set stones that they didn’t sell.

    23:21.633 –> 23:26.055

    [SPEAKER_00]: I’m not exactly sure why, probably because of the pressure of the sentimentality.

    23:26.675 –> 23:29.496

    [SPEAKER_00]: But I just manage people’s expectations on the front end.

    23:29.916 –> 23:31.497

    [SPEAKER_00]: Things can go wrong.

    23:32.517 –> 23:36.798

    [SPEAKER_00]: And trust me when I say, your stone is going to be handled with the greatest of care.

    23:37.478 –> 23:41.160

    [SPEAKER_00]: But even with the greatest of care, things can still go wrong.

    23:41.440 –> 23:45.081

    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s just managing expectations, which we have to do in the gallery all the time.

    23:47.665 –> 23:52.449

    [SPEAKER_02]: Ecommerce Masterplan is supported by some of the greatest companies in the Ecommerce sector.

    23:52.589 –> 24:00.695

    [SPEAKER_02]: Here’s a reminder of who they are.

    24:00.876 –> 24:02.737

    [SPEAKER_02]: It’s time for the top tips round.

    24:05.379 –> 24:10.904

    [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I love this section because it gives me an honest to some really quick ideas for taking our businesses to the next level.

    24:10.964 –> 24:12.925

    [SPEAKER_01]: Babs are you ready for the top tips?

    24:13.666 –> 24:15.007

    [SPEAKER_00]: I am ready for top tips.

    24:15.420 –> 24:17.121

    [SPEAKER_01]: Awesome, okay, the book top tip.

    24:17.221 –> 24:23.946

    [SPEAKER_01]: 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?

    24:25.007 –> 24:30.131

    [SPEAKER_00]: I would recommend let my people go surfing by Yvonne Schwenar.

    24:30.991 –> 24:35.154

    [SPEAKER_00]: So for those who don’t know, he was the founder of Patagonia.

    24:35.715 –> 24:40.959

    [SPEAKER_00]: So this story has a lot to do with purpose, environment, craftsmanship,

    24:41.819 –> 24:47.043

    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s a celebration of companies that choose to be great instead of being big.

    24:47.723 –> 24:50.925

    [SPEAKER_00]: Value-driven companies, community-focused businesses.

    24:51.866 –> 24:56.609

    [SPEAKER_00]: I like to think that if Patagonia were a jewelry store, it would probably look like a lot.

    24:59.202 –> 25:03.403

    [SPEAKER_01]: I love that it’s no surprise at all that you would be recommending that book.

    25:03.503 –> 25:06.803

    [SPEAKER_01]: I have to say very, very on message.

    25:07.384 –> 25:13.485

    [SPEAKER_01]: The traffic top tip, which marketing method do you either prize above all others or think doesn’t get the press it deserves?

    25:14.365 –> 25:25.027

    [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what we prize the most and from what gives us the greatest results are really, finally tuned, highly segmented email flows.

    25:26.725 –> 25:38.518

    [SPEAKER_00]: And we also do a long-term nurture that is very big surprise, educational in nature about jewelry and jewelry care, that seems to do really well for us.

    25:38.899 –> 25:47.588

    [SPEAKER_00]: What we are pricing that we haven’t yet done, because I want to do it the right way, is a referral program.

    25:48.490 –> 26:00.374

    [SPEAKER_00]: because in jewelry general, like physical, you know, with the brick and mortar store, referrals, we do lots of advertising, but referrals are your strongest type of marketing.

    26:00.414 –> 26:04.415

    [SPEAKER_00]: So we’d like to, that’s something we’re looking forward to doing soon.

    26:05.175 –> 26:11.337

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s a tricky to get that right into, in the online space, and to be confident in what happens.

    26:11.377 –> 26:19.138

    [SPEAKER_01]: There’s loads of different routes you can do, like pure referrals, loyalty programs, VIP programs, there’s almost as small as board to pick from.

    26:19.198 –> 26:22.279

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I love the fact you’re taking your time to find the route that works.

    26:23.139 –> 26:33.082

    [SPEAKER_01]: The tool-top tip, maybe a collaboration tool, a social media plugin, a phone app, or just a way of working, is the record little tool you use that makes you and your team more efficient from day to day.

    26:33.988 –> 26:35.429

    [SPEAKER_00]: So this is a teeny tiny thing.

    26:35.449 –> 26:37.030

    [SPEAKER_00]: I hope lots of people are using it.

    26:37.270 –> 26:42.673

    [SPEAKER_00]: We use the heck out of bitaly, just to be able to track every single blessed thing we do.

    26:42.833 –> 26:44.173

    [SPEAKER_00]: So that’s a teeny, we need one.

    26:44.894 –> 26:53.799

    [SPEAKER_00]: And my other one would be, I would recommend people to take the time and it is considerable, but to take the time to season.

    26:55.102 –> 27:00.727

    [SPEAKER_00]: a chat GPT or whatever your AI thing is into to learn your company voice.

    27:01.167 –> 27:07.653

    [SPEAKER_00]: This brings a lot of efficiency and consistent tone to the various parts of the website.

    27:07.753 –> 27:09.195

    [SPEAKER_00]: I don’t, right?

    27:09.815 –> 27:11.577

    [SPEAKER_00]: But we end up having consistency.

    27:12.037 –> 27:13.678

    [SPEAKER_00]: So I would highly recommend doing that.

    27:13.739 –> 27:17.382

    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s not as quick as you’d think, but I would highly recommend it.

    27:18.225 –> 27:23.487

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, quite a bit of leg work, but it’ll pay off over the coming months and years.

    27:23.547 –> 27:24.428

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I love that tip.

    27:24.528 –> 27:29.630

    [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, the carbon top tip, what’s your favorite way to reduce the carbon footprint of an e-commerce store?

    27:30.872 –> 27:38.034

    [SPEAKER_00]: So I have been buying carbon offsets for our business in general since TerraPass was founded.

    27:38.074 –> 27:40.735

    [SPEAKER_00]: I believe it’s a UK company in two thousand four.

    27:41.596 –> 27:47.938

    [SPEAKER_00]: So I would say consider that and I do it for everything from our staffs.

    27:48.818 –> 27:59.225

    [SPEAKER_00]: travel expense, you know, the amount that they have to luckily a lot of us are able to walk or bike to work, but and most of us are pretty close, but some do not, so that all gets calculated.

    28:00.285 –> 28:10.492

    [SPEAKER_00]: And so I would encourage people to do that and pick something where you feel like the dollars that you’re giving are going to something that is actually helping with your carbon footprint.

    28:11.252 –> 28:13.392

    [SPEAKER_00]: But definitely look at your product.

    28:13.452 –> 28:22.314

    [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, obviously, I have a great ability to do that to recycle gold to use sustainable types of materials.

    28:22.914 –> 28:24.195

    [SPEAKER_00]: But look at your product.

    28:24.515 –> 28:27.395

    [SPEAKER_00]: Is it just headed towards a landfill?

    28:27.775 –> 28:29.416

    [SPEAKER_00]: It would be better if it weren’t.

    28:29.936 –> 28:32.076

    [SPEAKER_00]: Packaging is always an easy way to go.

    28:32.856 –> 28:38.077

    [SPEAKER_00]: And we looked at everything from our mailer bags to we just went from the top down.

    28:38.397 –> 28:40.598

    [SPEAKER_00]: So I strongly recommend that.

    28:41.398 –> 28:43.739

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the question of should your product exist?

    28:44.800 –> 28:45.780

    [SPEAKER_01]: Is a difficult one.

    28:46.541 –> 28:46.941

    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s tough.

    28:47.401 –> 28:47.902

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s tough.

    28:48.382 –> 28:56.506

    [SPEAKER_01]: But when we started caring, or you know, really putting sustainability at the front of a lot of our conversations, maybe five years ago now.

    28:57.486 –> 29:05.030

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I thought it would be decades before we were starting to ask the question, should your product exist?

    29:05.491 –> 29:09.072

    [SPEAKER_01]: But it’s actually come to pass a lot quicker than I thought it would.

    29:10.153 –> 29:10.513

    [SPEAKER_01]: That’s good.

    29:10.553 –> 29:11.094

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you.

    29:11.314 –> 29:11.874

    [SPEAKER_01]: A little bit of good.

    29:12.354 –> 29:13.855

    [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I take no credit for that.

    29:13.975 –> 29:18.617

    [SPEAKER_01]: I don’t think it’s lots, but we’re a small part of the, the raging stream by talking about it.

    29:18.717 –> 29:19.898

    [SPEAKER_00]: You’re, you’re part of it.

    29:19.998 –> 29:20.318

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

    29:20.698 –> 29:21.579

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, team Earth.

    29:21.779 –> 29:22.759

    [SPEAKER_00]: We, yeah.

    29:24.820 –> 29:27.101

    [SPEAKER_01]: Well, like, that was before we say goodbye.

    29:27.161 –> 29:31.443

    [SPEAKER_01]: Could you please let the listeners know where they can find you and your business on the web and social media?

    29:31.924 –> 29:32.404

    [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

    29:33.104 –> 29:34.285

    [SPEAKER_00]: I’m at allarajulri.com.

    29:36.946 –> 29:40.131

    [SPEAKER_00]: Our Instagram is also a large jewelry, just one word.

    29:40.391 –> 29:43.295

    [SPEAKER_00]: Our Facebook’s just a large jewelry, one word.

    29:43.976 –> 29:48.582

    [SPEAKER_01]: And perhaps I believe you’ve got a very special offer for a very special audience.

    29:49.415 –> 29:49.775

    [SPEAKER_00]: I do.

    29:50.656 –> 30:00.322

    [SPEAKER_00]: I invite you to partake in a free one hour custom jewelry design consultation done virtually.

    30:00.342 –> 30:03.645

    [SPEAKER_00]: And it’s going to be very easy for you to get to.

    30:03.925 –> 30:09.389

    [SPEAKER_00]: You would just go to a largeulory.com slash master plan.

    30:09.909 –> 30:10.690

    [SPEAKER_00]: No code needed.

    30:11.710 –> 30:14.032

    [SPEAKER_00]: And normally that’s a two hundred dollar service.

    30:14.112 –> 30:26.399

    [SPEAKER_00]: So I hope a few people who have almost everyone does a little bag or box of nibbly little bits that are made of precious metal that can’t be used anymore, you’re wrong.

    30:26.499 –> 30:27.359

    [SPEAKER_00]: They can be used.

    30:27.880 –> 30:28.700

    [SPEAKER_00]: I’m here to use them.

    30:29.521 –> 30:29.921

    [SPEAKER_01]: Love it.

    30:30.321 –> 30:35.824

    [SPEAKER_01]: Awesome opportunity to create some brilliant jewelry and to get some recycling done at the same time.

    30:38.332 –> 30:41.294

    [SPEAKER_01]: Babs, I have thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed chatting with you.

    30:41.334 –> 30:46.076

    [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for coming on the Commerce Master Plan podcast and sharing so much of your insights with us.

    30:46.116 –> 30:47.217

    [SPEAKER_01]: We really appreciate it.

    30:47.637 –> 30:49.478

    [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much, Miss Chloe.

    30:49.618 –> 30:50.699

    [SPEAKER_00]: You have a good rest of your day.

    30:56.717 –> 31:12.293

    [SPEAKER_01]: real treats to get to chat with Barb’s there and explore a business which is in some ways a tiny business, one store, one website, but is doing huge turnover and has seen huge growth online in a sector that is notoriously difficult.

    31:12.793 –> 31:15.035

    [SPEAKER_01]: Jewelry and a high price point, Jewelry.

    31:15.076 –> 31:17.678

    [SPEAKER_01]: We’re talking four figures here people on their AOV.

    31:18.779 –> 31:26.603

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I think, as you listen to Bab’s chatting, you can see why it is that they are succeeding in the way they are.

    31:26.683 –> 31:32.666

    [SPEAKER_01]: They have such clear focus and purpose of what they’re delivering for their customers.

    31:33.246 –> 31:39.910

    [SPEAKER_01]: And such a clear and straightforward, quite frankly, approached building the right experience for those customers.

    31:40.510 –> 31:42.991

    [SPEAKER_01]: super excited to see what they do in the coming years.

    31:43.131 –> 31:50.555

    [SPEAKER_01]: And that documentary, the TV documentary that’s coming up with Meg Ryan, that is clearly going to be a really impressive result for them.

    31:50.595 –> 31:59.660

    [SPEAKER_01]: I should have thought, you can get your hands on our notes from this episode, including those top tips and the links to what we mentioned by heading over to ecommercemasterpland.com.

    32:00.180 –> 32:12.046

    [SPEAKER_01]: You can also use our director episode short links, just put ECMP.info for the number of this episode into the URL bar, and you’ll be redirected straight to the right page of the site.

    32:12.686 –> 32:19.930

    [SPEAKER_01]: When you get to the website, you can also add yourself to our email list, so you don’t miss out on any of the other things I share to help you improve your business.

    32:20.970 –> 32:28.894

    [SPEAKER_01]: If you liked this episode and you want more on jewellery, then go and check out episode three hundred and fifty-five.

    32:28.914 –> 32:32.055

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you’re going to scroll back a little way for this, but trust me, it will be worth it.

    32:32.556 –> 32:37.158

    [SPEAKER_01]: Where I am talking to another super successful jewellery designer Larissa Loden.

    32:37.758 –> 32:43.841

    [SPEAKER_01]: Go and have a listen to that if you’re in the jewellery space, it will give you even more good ideas for your business’s future.

    32:44.421 –> 32:48.643

    [SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to hear more Shopify stories, then go to ECMP.info for us.

    32:48.703 –> 32:54.367

    [SPEAKER_01]: I shopify to find all the many many Shopify stories we have there for you.

    32:55.267 –> 32:59.649

    [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for tuning into this and every episode that you do of the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.

    32:59.730 –> 33:09.395

    [SPEAKER_01]: I bring you a new interview every week because I want to inspire and help Ecommerce business owners like you to succeed and thrive with your businesses, including progressing along the path to net zero.

    33:09.895 –> 33:14.777

    [SPEAKER_01]: So if you know someone this show can help, please tell them to listen to the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.

    33:15.157 –> 33:17.878

    [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you have a great week and don’t forget to keep optimizing.

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    eCommerce Master PlanBy Chloe Thomas