We dive into the heart of green innovation and how a plant-based alternative to traditional glitter was born. Kath opens up about the trials and triumphs of running a business during the pandemic, and how she successfully leveraged technology to serve customers better.
When you think about glitter, it's all about the shine and shimmer. But what if that shine could be eco-friendly? EcoStardust has made it possible. Listen as Kath shares the company's journey since its 2017 launch, the influence of impactful video content, and the importance of educating customers on what biodegradable glitter really means. Discover how EcoStardust ensures their products are independently tested and their creative approach to sustainable packaging.
The conversation doesn't stop there. Kath spills the secrets of how her team stays connected and productive even while working remotely. From using collaboration tools to her top tips for organization and efficiency - dive in to learn about maintaining a smooth workflow in a digital workspace.
Kath also offers an engaging insight into EcoStardust's expansion into new product ranges and a sneak peek into their commitment towards sustainable growth. Tune in for a conversation that sparkles with innovation, sustainability and resilience.
Subscribe to the Lightning 50 E-commerce Growth Hacking Podcast and get an instant notification when a new episode is released. We’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our Sponsors Peoplevox is the warehouse management system that helps ambitious e-commerce businesses scale.
Peoplevox offers proven increases in accuracy and transparency across your warehouse, lightning-fast pick-and-pack methods based on industry best practices and a proven track record partnering with some of the most successful brands of the e-commerce era. All with simple set-up and user training, - exactly what you need to take control of your warehouse and wow your customers.
Inventory Planner by Sage is the premier inventory planning software for e-commerce businesses. The top-rated solution helps thousands of entrepreneurs and enterprise businesses like yours to reduce their time investment, adapt quickly to market shifts, and bolster their profits through smart purchasing decisions generated by our demand forecasting capabilities. If you want to avoid spending countless hours toiling over tedious spreadsheets, prevent costly stock planning mishaps due to product outages, and reduce unnecessary expense in terms of overstock and low-performing items, then get in touch today.
We dive into the heart of green innovation and how a plant-based alternative to traditional glitter was born. Kath opens up about the trials and triumphs of running a business during the pandemic, and how she successfully leveraged technology to serve customers better.
When you think about glitter, it's all about the shine and shimmer. But what if that shine could be eco-friendly? EcoStardust has made it possible. Listen as Kath shares the company's journey since its 2017 launch, the influence of impactful video content, and the importance of educating customers on what biodegradable glitter really means. Discover how EcoStardust ensures their products are independently tested and their creative approach to sustainable packaging.
The conversation doesn't stop there. Kath spills the secrets of how her team stays connected and productive even while working remotely. From using collaboration tools to her top tips for organization and efficiency - dive in to learn about maintaining a smooth workflow in a digital workspace.
Kath also offers an engaging insight into EcoStardust's expansion into new product ranges and a sneak peek into their commitment towards sustainable growth. Tune in for a conversation that sparkles with innovation, sustainability and resilience.
Subscribe to the Lightning 50 E-commerce Growth Hacking Podcast and get an instant notification when a new episode is released. We’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our Sponsors Peoplevox is the warehouse management system that helps ambitious e-commerce businesses scale.
Peoplevox offers proven increases in accuracy and transparency across your warehouse, lightning-fast pick-and-pack methods based on industry best practices and a proven track record partnering with some of the most successful brands of the e-commerce era. All with simple set-up and user training, - exactly what you need to take control of your warehouse and wow your customers.
Inventory Planner by Sage is the premier inventory planning software for e-commerce businesses. The top-rated solution helps thousands of entrepreneurs and enterprise businesses like yours to reduce their time investment, adapt quickly to market shifts, and bolster their profits through smart purchasing decisions generated by our demand forecasting capabilities. If you want to avoid spending countless hours toiling over tedious spreadsheets, prevent costly stock planning mishaps due to product outages, and reduce unnecessary expense in terms of overstock and low-performing items, then get in touch today.
Speaker 1:
Hello, I'm Caroline and welcome to the Lightning 50 e-commerce growth hacking podcast. Today we're speaking with Kath Sr. She's the founder and managing director of EcoStardust, a biodegradable glitter, which she launched back in April 2017. But before we get into the interview, a quick message from our sponsor. We have an exciting sponsor today PeopleVox, the warehouse management system helping ambitious e-commerce businesses scale.
Speaker 1:
If you have a growth mindset, like lounge underwear in the style or O-Poly, you know how important it is to have industry leading fulfillment and customer experience. Peoplevox offers proven increases in accuracy and transparency across your warehouse Lightning, fast pick and pack methods based on industry best practice and a proven track record, partnering with some of the most successful brands of the e-commerce era, all with simple setup and user training Exactly what you need to take control of your warehouse and wow your customers With established integrations into Shopify, bright Pearl, inventory planner and more. Just search PeopleVox and chat to their WMS experts today. Fantastic, and now on to the conversation. Ecostardust is a female founded and award-winning business that sells a plant-based alternative to traditional plastic based glitter. It biodegrades in the natural environment within weeks and it helps people to glitter without the litter, which is just the most fantastic phrase. And Kath, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. Hi, caroline, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:
So tell me a little bit about how you came up with the business and where you are today in terms of the company.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so I love festivals, going to parties and events. I grew up outside Blastombury, so going to Blastory Festival has been like a part of my upbringing and, yeah, dressing up wearing glitter was just something that I loved doing. I was throwing a big party with my friend and I was actually in charge of deckwalk and one of the things I wanted to buy was like kilos of glitter. And when it arrived in these large quantities, there was this large ingredients label that said like polyester plastic and I was like hang on a minute, like I've been throwing this around like littering everywhere and just took the shine out of it for me really, and I had assumed it was made of like a metal sheet. So, as someone who cares about the environment, we never used it.
Speaker 2:
I still have that glitter to this day and it just got me thinking well, there's a lot of movement at the time in bio plastics and new plant based plastics. So I started doing some research and was going to develop one for actually found a company that were already doing it and had developed a product called bio glitter. So I was like, great, can I buy some? They're like, yeah, 12 kilos. I was like that's probably a little bit much to put on my face for a festival. So I actually got talking with them and partnered with them back in 2016 to become a director consumer brand and that's when I came up with Eco Stardust and then launched in April 2017. And we've just grown and growing from there and survived COVID and Brexit and festivals being shut down, which is our main bread and butter. But, yeah, we're still here and going strong and very excited to be entering another festival season now.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's so great to hear so many of the brands that we've been speaking to. They had such when COVID happened. Lots of people were buying furniture or doing up the homes or buying gym kits and things like that. Was that actually not necessarily a growth period for you in COVID, because, as you say, festivals were closed, and or did people still need a bit of shine in their lives during those dark, dark days of lockdown?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we did see people still buying the glitter for personal use. They would still be. I mean, it was a very nice summer we had that year. The people were still out in their gardens having like their own little mini festivals with their family. They were using it as something to make themselves feel good at a time when they were trapped inside. But yeah, it wasn't a huge growth period for us, although we did pivot to other areas which helped us to continue growing. So we then started selling more to people that were making things like bath bombs and soaps, because a lot of crafting became really popular in lockdown and so that was what we then focused on with servicing that area. So that sort of helped keep us going in a time when festivals weren't happening.
Speaker 1:
Of course, but then more recently. So you've been seeing some great growth. So we've got here that the last financial year was 16% year prior, only year prior and yeah, that's a fantastic number. How do you think you? Was it a case of coming out of COVID and then everything started again and people were you know, I'm going to Glastonbury now for the first time in ages. I am going to do it Right. So was that kind of a lot of the key area of the growth?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so one of the things is, yeah, people coming out of lockdown. I think they just wanted to go to festivals and maybe even party a little bit harder. So, yeah, we saw people buying quite a bit of glitter. For that reason, we had pivoted into the other area, like I said, of crafting. So we saw that continue to grow.
Speaker 2:
And one of the things that we did while we were in lockdown was worked on the website a bit, because obviously in these periods of time where you've got a bit more time on your hands, I was able to go through the website, review content, do a bit of SEO optimization, look at our Google ads. So we were ready for when people were wanting to come and find us. It's like we're here, we've got a new and improved website, improved the navigation, because we've got actually four different types of glitter, so it can be a bit confusing to people. So it's making sure that the website is like clear about the different types, what they're used for, their different effects. So, yeah, working basically on our website and being there ready to go when people needed us.
Speaker 1:
So let's talk a little bit about what you did to that website during that process. So you mentioned the four different types of glitter. How, what was it that you did from a technology perspective that made that easier for the customer to view your products?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we implemented a new thing. We sent the website out to some people that I knew hadn't been on it before and just sort of got them to do a little bit of user testing for me, just simple videos. We focused a lot more on mobile. We had been before focused quite a bit on desktop, but these days people are always shopping on mobile, so we made sure that the mobile experience was the top notch, and Google ads and Google shopping has just always for us since day one, like worked really, really well.
Speaker 2:
So, yeah, streamlining that, going through keywords, making sure we've got our negative keywords in place, because there was a product that came out that we started ranking for that I never would have considered we'd have to put the negative keyword in for, but it was fire degradable glitter paint, which is not something that we do. So then you know, to make sure that our ads were showing when they need to be showing and were cost-effective. That was something to keep an eye on. Yeah, what else did we do? Oh, focusing on any social campaigns that we could do. So at the time, we did a big campaign around using glitter to help teach children about germs and, yeah, so putting it on their hands and showing how it can spread around the house, and we did a video around that and pushed that out on socials. So, yeah, just lots of different things really like coming together to, yeah, keep us in people's minds.
Speaker 1:
So tell me what are the kind of big projects that you're working on at the moment? We've talked about revamping the website during lockdown, but what's the focus now?
Speaker 2:
for now, so our focus for now is growing the B2V arm of our business. So we're working with websites such as Fair, creo8 and Anker Store, which allow us to upload our products from Shopify, and Fair actually has a plugin which links directly into Shopify. So that's been like. It's super easy to just set up a store on their website and then we can reach a whole new plethora of retailers looking to stock our product, and a lot of the retailers on here are often maybe smaller brands or smaller retailers and independent stores, which is like the perfect kind of store for us to want to get into these other kind of people we want to work with. So that's just being such an easy way to get in front of all of those people. However, we do still want to offer our own on site B2V experience. At the moment it's done on an inquiry form on the website and it's a much more personal experience.
Speaker 2:
Our sales manager, hannah, speaks with people, which is quite archaic really. I think I personally, if I was running a shop, would want a similar experience to what you get on these platforms like Fair and Creo8, where I can just go on, I can place my order, I can see my previous order and I can order again. Yeah, it's nice knowing there's someone there to phone if I want to speak to someone, but sometimes you just want to go and place that order and see the options on screen. So we're looking at setting up. Do we use our current store with a B2V plugin? Do we set up a completely separate store? We have considered re-platforming away from Shopify, so we've been maybe thinking about starting the B2V store on another platform and then moving the consumer store maybe over. So it's something that we're researching at the moment. Like do we Magento? Like WooCommerce? Where do we go? But yeah, shopify do keep bringing out lots of amazing things and features, like their marketplace feature and things like that, so they probably will end up staring yeah we're doing.
Speaker 1:
The APIs and the plugins are so easy. I presume Are there any that you've been using that you would really miss if you maybe left.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, although a lot of them I do think you might be able to get them on other stores. But the marketplace feature of Shopify is just incredible to be able to create dedicated markets for Europe and for us America. America has actually been somewhere that we've seen a lot of traffic from. We did actually even open a USA dedicated Shopify store and we've actually got a warehouse over there, which has been amazing. But we're still seeing so many people purchase from our UK website because we just physically couldn't send the whole catalog over.
Speaker 2:
We've got like thousands of SKUs so we sent like I think it's like the top 200, but because we've offered to so many different markets, we've got the consumer side, where we're dealing with people that want a bit for a festival. We've got the craft customers. We've got the face painting customers. There's all different types of products, all different types of sizes. So we found they're still coming basically to the UK website because that's where the bigger catalog is. So we're thinking of shutting that down and actually using the marketplace feature more and more and just getting an improved shipping provider and to get our orders over to the USA quickly.
Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
So at the moment, we've just set it up as a complete mirror of the UK website. However, when we were reviewing the kind of products to send to the US from our UK website, we found that much more of our bundles and larger packaged products were very popular in the USA. Not 100% sure why. That's probably something we should try and delve into but we just then chose to send over. So we do the sample pack fundals. So we ended up adding extra different types of fundals in for different uses, whether it be crafting, makeup, whether people just want to be able to sample a little bit of all of the different colors that we do. So we've implemented on that website. We've got a sample bundle builder so people can go on and build their own bundles, and we've got an amazing. Luckily, our warehouse partner in the USA, based in Florida, is all awesome and will bundle up products for us there and then. So we can offer what seems like millions of options by just having all of our products there on the shelf and they can bundle them for us Having a USA dedicated store, yeah, so we added the sample bundle builder.
Speaker 2:
Luckily, there's lots of apps out there as well, for because we had to duplicate the store. We had to make sure that we were careful about duplicating content in URLs, so there's lots of apps which help with that, and we then were able to offer much shorter shipping times, work with local shipping providers to get our products into people's hands faster, because it was sometimes taking like five working days to come from the UK, whereas now we can get people's orders to them next day. There's huge festivals over there and there's huge potential with that market, so being able to ship quickly and again, there's lots of face painters, crafters so, yeah, the possibilities for us are just amazing. So, yeah, it's an area that we are going to bring back to the UK, but still try and make sure we're offering all of those different types of products for them.
Speaker 1:
So big focus for the future growth. But let's talk a little bit about your growth today and what do you think has been most crucial. Has it been your people? Has it been the tech, maybe the marketing, or do you think it's just generally the product and the fact that you've got really Really clever product that people are crying out for in a in an age where everyone's talking about sustainability?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So I do think our product is definitely Something that is a big help for us like and, I think, the brand's values, because we're seeing a lot of people Copy, not copy enter the viadigradable glitter market like it has booned, sometimes still like I was right place, right time. Flu panic to came out I think it was October, november of 2017. So I'd been Going to festivals since I launched in April 2017. Like there's Everyone try this glitter, like it's better, and they're like, well, why? And I felt like I was really having to like get out there and try and encourage people to switch. And With the first glitter that came out, it was amazing, but it we didn't have all of the effects like holographic or iridescent, which is something that people were seeing on the plastic flitters. So they're like, well, why do I want to use this one instead? But when you explain to them the ethos behind the company and you know we're packaging it in sustainable packaging it's much better for the environment people then get on board. So Blue Planet 2 came out and just really helped us because suddenly everyone was looking for alternatives to the plastic products in their life. We then actually got approached by business insider to do a video with them and and last time I checked it had had 4.2 million views. So that was just an amazing piece of free marketing for us. That just is out there and just continues to grow and grow and grow and sometimes I look at it and I'm like all foot numbers it on now, like it's just, yeah, amazing. So We've had a lot of competitors come in and try and do similar things.
Speaker 2:
There's been a lot of people saying they're selling biodegradable glitter when it's not as complete green for shing. So there is a type of biodegradable glitter out there right now which is industrial Compost, but only in an industrial environment. So basically that means it needs Temperatures of 70 degrees plus to biodegrade. Well, no one is your home compost bin won't get to those temperatures, so you're basically still using plastic. But people see these like markings on the website of a certificate for being Compostable, but they don't realize it's not home compostable. So we're selling biodeglitter which has been independently tested in a freshwater environment and biodegraded within weeks. And a freshwater environment is like is very hard for something to biodegrade in. It's a low temperature, there's a low level of microorganisms, so that's amazing.
Speaker 1:
So what's when you think that a lot of this glitter is on your body? So you're gonna be washing it down the shower, right? So, yeah, not necessarily scraping it off into a compost bin, even if you an industrial one in your in your kitchen.
Speaker 2:
Exactly so. The fact that we are selling a true product that is truly biodegradable has the independent testing. Our pure range the opal range has been Certified by TV to be micro plastic free, which, like this, is just incredible. So, having this awesome product and being true to our values and packaging it as well, and sustainable packaging we package it in Aluminium tins, which is infinitely recyclable. We offer a refill service. If people want to Send us their plastic face glitter, we've got a scheme called our Bioglitter glitter amnesty. People can send us their guilty glitter. We've been upcycling it into jewelry earrings mainly and to keep it out in natural environment, and then we send people a discount code to use on the website to replace their connection with eco glitter. So, yeah, that's being an amazing thing it's.
Speaker 1:
it's such a great story and what you just even those little things like the glitter amnesty, for instance. How do you use your website to really bolster this messaging home? As you say, there's quite a few and Competitors that are coming on the market, some a little bit more murky than others, potentially and how do you not get lost in the noise now, because it is a bit more of a competitive market than it was back in 2017? Equally, many more people are searching for the search, those search terms and, yeah, google is probably Google has is putting you in a really good place, but how are you really bolstering your marketing to make sure that people get to you?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So one of the things that we're focusing on is, yeah, content throughout the website and having like pages of information for people, breaking it down into bite sized chunks and having all of that data on there and making it sort of user friendly, like explaining the differences. So we've got an area on our website called the glitter guide. It goes into about the glitters, about the different ranges, and what's great is we've got all of this detailed content of people are like looking at, like what's it made from, like like what's the certifications. Our page should hopefully be ranking for educating people. Basically and that's something that we want to do across our socials as well is not just be about posting pretty pictures, but one of the things I wanted to do is always be promoting positive eco news on our socials, because there's a lot of negative talk, I find, all the time about the planet and it can just be very overwhelming, and so it's focusing on all of these little wins that are really positive. So if there's any bit of good news, instead of like thinking, well, could they have done better, we're like, no, that's amazing, they've taken a step in the right direction. Let's shout about it. And then also education educating people, because if we can show people the how to understand the difference between the different types of glitter, then they'll choose us and they'll understand why maybe we are a little bit more expensive, but it's because you're getting a truly biodegradable product. It's packaged properly.
Speaker 2:
So, making sure that messaging is across all of the websites. We do have the content rich area for see the product page, which is where people are making that purchasing decision. We have to have all of that information on there as well. So, using apps like gem pages or page fly, which let you in Shopify, build your own content pages, edit out product pages super easy as drag and drop, so even I can do it without having to use an outside source. Yeah, things like that have been amazing and yeah, I just think have really helped make the website a resource as well as a shopping website.
Speaker 1:
So tell me a little bit about your team. How many people have you got on the books and how do you work with those? Do you have an office or do you or work virtually and talks to me a little bit about workplace collaboration.
Speaker 2:
Okay. So, yeah, there is a team of five. Then we have an office and warehouse in Langport in Somerset. However, we are a lot of us are mums. We work part time, so for us, using collaboration tools has been really, really important, and I'm a big lover of lists and having everything digital. So we've got our system called ClickUp in place, which is this amazing project management tool. I still haven't even got my head around everything that it can do, but so far I'm just blown away and it's so reasonably priced as well I can get my head around it. So it's this amazing space where you can break down projects, work collaboratively.
Speaker 2:
I can be working with the team without being in the office, so things like Slack and Google Drive A lot of these might just seem like obvious to people, but they're amazing for being.
Speaker 2:
I can be out and about that with my two children, but still answering the team's questions or talking to them or jumping in when I need to or seeing what's being done, and I don't have to be there physically. And that has just really really helped because keep us all on the same page, the same agenda, when it's really hard to all actually be able to physically get together or have a lot of meetings. Because I'm currently on maternity need, I don't know when my daughter's going to be able to nap. I can just when she does nap. If the others aren't around, I can just go in touch base with everyone. We've got a lot of automation set up on ClickUp, which is amazing. Or when new leads come in, it's creating tasks for team members, so they know exactly what they do. It's been such a big time saver when we're such a small team that that would be one of like my big, my big top tips.
Speaker 1:
So, when it comes to all those collaboration tools that you're using, what's the one tool that if for some reason, it disappeared tomorrow, it would really make your life a nightmare?
Speaker 2:
ClickUp. Yeah, definitely, that's the thing that we're all using to know what we're working on. It breaks down. It breaks down all of the tasks, who's doing what, the automation behind it and the amount of time it's saved. We've got our lead funnels. It just yeah. We would be lost without it.
Speaker 1:
So is it kind of like a Trello ball board on steroids, that kind of impression that amazes it? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, great, great tip for our audience. Thank you, incredible. So you know, not not everything is smooth sailing. You know you've talked about a few challenges so far, but what's been the most difficult part? And has there been, has there even been a point where you feel that you've made a mistake and you've learned from it over the course of the business?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So challenges? I think, yeah, all businesses face challenges all of the time, as trying to think of one is really, really hard. I think the first one I came up against was packaging. So I had this amazing plant based glitter. I wanted to launch it to the world, and this was back when eco packaging wasn't quite as popular, and trying to meet the minimum order quantities for a lot of these companies or have, and especially because I wanted something custom was really really difficult, and we actually did originally launch in a little plastic tub, which I hated for to test the market. I just had to have something to put the glitter in, but fortunately, I was then able to use the money we raised from that, plus some funding, to then go out and buy the sustainable packaging that we've got now, which we've continued to improve on.
Speaker 2:
Like all the time, I don't know about mistakes. I like to think of everything, even if it hasn't gone how I had hoped, as a learning experience, and I had a friend give me some amazing advice at once when I was really struggling to make a decision that between two options that she was like whichever one you go for, make it the right decision. There is no wrong answer. Choose one and go 100% behind it and give it everything you've got. So it was the right decision, because there was no like other way it could be done. Like you've put everything into it and I've always loved that. Now it's given me such a less stress over feeling like how to make the right choice in my business.
Speaker 2:
Surround yourself with people better than you when you're starting out and you're trying to do everything. Yeah, utilizing agencies when you need to, employing staff that are skilled in areas. You need to have an amazing marketer who, in 2019, who, like, really really helped the business on socials to grow and we saw some rapid growth that year and some amazing campaigns and getting out there and networking. It was very lonely starting the business and I joined the NatWest entrepreneur accelerator in Bristol, but they run all over the country and that was incredible. They put you in touch with, like other people, other businesses.
Speaker 2:
We formed an e-commerce group and all shared our experiences and ideas. So, yeah, that I learned a lot from that experience and yeah, it really helped me to grow as the leader of my business and then for the business to flourish and staying true to our values. For everything we've done, we've seen competitors come and go. One of our main competitors pivoted into a completely different field, so they're now gone. Another one has closed down. We've just been here constantly just doing what we're doing. We haven't always had like huge growth figures, but we are growing and that I'm really proud of Very very proud of that?
Speaker 1:
I should think so as well. It sounds like you guys are doing such an amazing job in this area and such a niche area as well, where a lot of people might not think to go that, go that niche and think broader with products. But actually how many, how many skews did you say you had? It's thousands. I think two thousand, yeah, amazing. So what is the focus right now? Is it growth or is it profit?
Speaker 2:
So, as I'm currently on maternity leave, we're more focused on being lean at the moment and profit. So, like the amazing team, are keeping everything ticking over so that I can have a little bit of time out, and then we've got lots of ideas which we will work on, basically when I come back. So, yeah, it's a cost of living crisis at the moment, so we haven't put our prices up ever. So, yeah, things are starting to get a little bit tight in some areas. So focusing on where we can cut costs without cutting on our values is something that we're working on at the moment, because I really, really don't want to have to increase our prices.
Speaker 2:
So, hopefully, we can stick to that and then, when I come back from my maternity leave whenever that might be I might come back in September. Then we are going to focus on, yeah, more of this B2B website growth and that area and also like servicing. We've got our trade area of the website where we support face painters and makeup artists, and that's somewhere that I really want to focus on, because our glitter is amazing. For a tub, that's a really long time, so our customer return rate isn't the best, so those people that will do repeat purchases, such as face painters and makeup artists.
Speaker 1:
That's also another area for us that we're going to really really focus on, and how can we service them better on the website, of course of course, and you know, with the, with the cost of living crisis, I've always loved that anecdote, that when, when things are a bit tight, people might still treat themselves to a little luxuries, like a lipstick or something like that.
Speaker 1:
And what is better to treat yourself than a bit of sparkle that will cheer you up when everything's feeling a bit rubbish out there? So I can, I can see our audience can't, can't see you, but you've got a little bit of sparkle this morning and I phone it on a Friday morning. It's great to see. And so we're coming to the end of our conversation, I'd love to and, before I ask you for your top two or three growth tips, before we round up, and when you look at the, the market, the e-commerce market in general, maybe people that you've met through the leadership associations that you're part of, what do you think are the, the major challenges hitting the industry in general at the moment? What are the opportunities that e-commerce traders should be looking for as we're muddling our way through this awful next awful year of Cust, of Living and everything like that?
Speaker 2:
I'm really intrigued to see how artificial intelligence changes things. Basically, and like chat GPT yeah, I've had a little play on that A lot of people say that it might be a threat to Google. If people are, instead of going on a search engine and searching for a product, they are then asking chat GPT for recommendations. How is that going to affect what products it chooses to recommend? How many is it going to recommend? Is it only going to recommend maybe one? How do we make sure we are that one that it recommends? How is it finding its information to make sure that our website is going to find? That, for me, is something that I'm suddenly like hang on, this is something I need to keep an eye on and it excites me. It really does. I want to see where it's going to go and be a part of that journey and hopefully be a website that can early adopt anything that we need to Using tools like virtual reality.
Speaker 2:
I love it's getting quite common now on lots of beauty websites virtual, virtually being able to try on products, because one of the things we struggle with is people understanding the scale of our product. We can get them to be trying because we offer six different sizes of glitter. People sometimes struggle to understand the different sizes. If we can actually get it on their skin via virtual reality, that would be amazing. Then I feel like a barrier that a lot of e-commerce companies are up against is just couriers at the moment and shipping providers. It's just so tough to find a reliable company and being able to at least trust that once products are leaving your warehouse, they're going to get into your customers' hands in a good condition, in a time-time manner or even at all. I think every e-commerce business I've spoke to is saying that that is a real struggle for them. Hopefully that area will improve this year.
Speaker 1:
Hopefully we can get those standard areas like getting your product to your customer fix. Yeah, crazy technologies out there. I completely agree. I feel like merchants have spent the past 20 years plus trying to learn exciting things directly how Google works so we can take advantage to it to our best abilities. Now something else has come out of the woodwork which is exciting, but again we'll learn with own learnings and challenges Also has come out of the woodwork very quickly. It's really spun a lot of heads. I think it will be really interesting to see how that develops in the next year. Kath, it's been a really great conversation. I know you shared a few tips already, but I need to ask you what your top two or three tips for e-commerce growth and scale are before I can let you go on with your day.
Speaker 2:
Top tips, okay. Well, yeah, making sure you're monitoring your numbers Google Analytics, shopify Analytics both of them yeah, you need to be keeping an eye on the data, because that tells you where you need to be. Yeah, so that helped us highlight how the US was a big market for us to be able to capitalize on that. I'm a lover of organization, so ClickUp, slack, google Drive, google Voice these are all amazing tools for collaborative working as a team. We're a smaller team. We work from home quite a bit, so utilizing these collaboration tools that help us break down tasks and manage everything that has been fundamental to making sure we're all on the same path and working together.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, getting an entrepreneur accelerator any of these accelerators you get to meet investors. You get to meet people that will give you advice. You get to meet other people in the same e-commerce sphere. For me, it was one of the best six months of the business and its growth, and I would love to do it again. So get out there, network and sit in a room with other e-commerce people and chat about your challenges. Often, someone has an idea and it was all for free and just over a coffee.
Speaker 1:
Oh, Kat, thank you so much for sharing your time with us and your expertise with our audience. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:
No, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1:
That was such a brilliant conversation with Kat. She was just absolutely fantastic. It was so interesting to learn about how she's expanded her product ranges, pivoted into new areas who knew there were so many different types of glitter? But really making the most of this push for sustainability and sustainable products that we all want and need. We also learned some great tips about collaboration tools and some really interesting advice on going into the B2B market and also bringing that US customer back to your UK site and improving on the courier. So, yeah, I hope all our audience learned some great tips there.
Speaker 1:
So head over to the usual podcast platforms to listen to previous episodes of the Lightning 50 podcast and don't forget that merchants like Furniture Box, Natural Baby Shower and Beyond Retail are just a few of the ambitious retailers who have integrated PeopleVox warehouse management system to take their e-commerce tech stack to the next level With Lightning, Fast pick and pack workflows, easy user training and 360 degree transparency in your warehouse operation. Anyone who has used PeopleVox will tell you that the platform is a genuine game changer. Not only does using PeopleVox enhance your customer experience by tightening inventory control and cutting out packing mistakes, it also boosts your efficiency and unlocks growth for your business. So if you're ready to transform your business, head over to PeopleVoxcom today.