Tagged entrepreneurship
Proper Socks for the Modern Gentleman: An Interview with Bertrand’s
This week we have another eCommerce interview out of the UK, this time with Bertrand’s Proper Socks.
Bertrand’s Proper Socks is using WooCommerce and WooCommerce Subscriptions to sell funky, high-quality men’s socks to the discerning online customer.
I spoke with Founder Xixi Zhu over Skype about the origins of Bertrand’s Proper Socks, what they’ve been up to recently and their plans for the future.
ModCloth’s Inspiring ECommerce Story
If you’re an eCommerce store owner, particularly in the fashion industry, you’re probably an admirer of the vintage online retailer ModCloth.
What started as a college side business for Susan Gregg Koger and her then boyfriend (now husband) Eric Koger has become an eCommerce success story. Today, ModCloth has:
– over 7,500 items listed on its site;
– shipped more than 2 million orders last year; and
– a team of over 350 employees across San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Las Angeles.
Susan spoke on May 27 as part of the Stanford DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series. She shared the ModCloth story and offered a range of thoughtful and honest advice for young entrepreneurs.
What’s Life Without Risks? Our Interview with Snaps
Josh Gare is the founder of Snaps, an eCommerce retailer of high-quality, yet affordable, sunglasses in the UK. We were excited when Josh reached out to us about Snaps, and jumped at the chance to hear more of his story.
You see Josh isn’t your typical entrepreneur (if there’s such a thing). He’s currently finishing his final exams for his economics degree at the University of Bristol. He’s also had a number of successes building iOS apps, something he’s been doing since he was 16 years old.
Read on to hear more about how Snaps has used clever partnerships to overcome early marketing challenges, the process they went through to find suppliers, and their plans for the future.
Content Marketing For Subscription Businesses
Content marketing is a form of marketing that any subscription business can use to its advantage. The great news is that there are very low barriers to entry, meaning any online subscription entrepreneur can give it a go.
When done well, content marketing can help you attract new customers to your online store. It can also allow you to add value to your existing customers’ experience.
There are four main areas of content marketing that we will cover in this post:
1) What is content content marketing?
2) Content is easy in WooCommerce/WordPress.
3) What is SEO and why does it matter?
4) What’s relevant? Making sure your content adds value for customers.
Renting Out Clothes With WooCommerce
Clothing rental subscriptions make a lot of sense. Customers are happy, because they receive regular deliveries of new items to wear. They also get to benefit from the expertise of professional stylists.
When a customer gets tired of a particular item, they can easily send it back for somebody else to enjoy. That means less waste and fewer items sitting forgotten in the back of cupboards.
I recently spoke to one such business owner, Vladimir Paniouchkine, the CEO and Co-Founder of The Mr Collection, a clothing rental subscription business for men.
Vladimir gave me some great insights into the origins and experience of running The Mr Collection and its sister business The Ms Collection.
WooCommerce and the Chocolate Factory
With WooCommerce businesses scattered all over the world, it’s not often I get to do an interview in person. But this is an entrepreneur story that could only come from San Francisco.
Last week I spoke Dandelion Chocolate founder Todd Masonis, at their factory location in San Francisco’s Mission District.
After selling their consumer internet business to Comcast in 2008, Todd and business partner Cameron went down a path of experimentation and discovery that eventually led them into the business of fine, small batch chocolate making.
Read on to learn more of Dandelion Chocolate’s unique story.
WooCommerce, Subscriptions and Good Karma: the Story of Alpha Dog Food
Royce Reed has taken his passion for healthy pets and harnessed the power of WooCommerce to build his pet food subscription business, Alpha Dog Food.
I had the pleasure of chatting to Royce last week about his experience starting and running Alpha Dog Food. Some of the highlights include: how they’ve implemented their Ambassador (affiliate) program, which benefits Alpha Dog Food and many of their clients, including great animal charities like the Humane Society of Atlantic City; Royce’s seven favourite things about WooCommerce (we agree Royce, it’s so hard to choose!); and how Alpha Dog Food wound up accepting Bitcoin payments, and Royce’s experience with that so far.
I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it!
From the Artist to the Businessperson: WooCommerce for Artists
If you are an artist, one thing you might want to think about is setting up a website to showcase—and potentially sell—your work.
You could also consider using your expertise to offer online art courses and/or creative mentorship, or booking out your available time for in-person lessons.
If all of this sounds good to you—and you’re looking for a bit of inspiration—below are four examples of art websites using WooCommerce to power their online businesses.
Global eCommerce Business: Learn from Birchbox, Braintree and HotelTonight
Do you sometimes wonder how you would expand your online store into a global eCommerce business?
We often hear how eCommerce is wonderful because you have the opportunity to tap a global market. While this is true to some extent, often a business will derive the majority of their success from a single market.
And just because something has worked well in the U.S., it won’t necessarily be a winning strategy in China, Brazil or Indonesia.
If these sorts of quandaries sound familiar to you, keep reading.
A Saucy Pet Business, Powered By WooCommerce
Do you wish you had something you could pour over your pet’s dry food, which would not only make it delicious, but also provide them with the nutrition they need?
After all, condiments have been used by people for years to help convince children and fussy eaters to finish their vegetables.
Bringing the power of condiments to pet nutrition is the idea behind a Colorado-based pet business Petchup, which was started by Anthony (Tony) Williams and his wife Toni.
Petchup is a fantastic idea, executed with fun and humanised branding. And we’re happy to report that the online store is powered by WooCommerce.