Laura Eisman and her husband, Todd Richter, operate Girlshop, an online retailer that has branched into the men’s and children’s market, and into the brick and mortar world.
Q: How did Girlshop get started?
A: It seems like such a long time ago–1998! It’s hard to remember a time when clothing wasn’t readily available on the Internet, but that’s what it was like six years ago.
In 1996, while I was working at Marie Claire magazine small, independent designers would send in samples that wouldn’t make it into the magazine. And if they did make it in, it was hard to tell the readers where to find them because they didn’t have their own stores and they weren’t in department stores. I thought these designers needed a place to sell. I created the concept with my then boyfriend, now husband, Todd Richter. I focus on the creative aspects. Todd, who is president, focuses on technology and day-to-day operations.
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Q: Where did the funding come from?
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A: Originally I had a business plan, and the few venture capitalists that I approached didn’t believe anyone would buy clothing on the Internet. So initially, we raised only modest investments from friends and family. Our growth was contingent on revenue coming in and not on raising additional money.
Q: How did you choose the designers that you would feature on the site?
A: I went to my own favorites first, local designers like Cynthia Rowley, Amy Chan and Selima. I made cold calls and got appointments to show the prototype. Since we were the first site of this kind, we got a lot of press. Today we feature over 150 independent designer boutiques, we get more than 700,000 visitors per month, we have two successful companion sites, Guyshop.com and Totshop.com, and we’ve just opened a retail store in New York’s meatpacking district.
Q: Who is your customer?
A: Our target demographic is 20- to 30-year-olds. Our customer base is varied, teenagers to 40-year-old women. California and New York are the biggest markets, with 20 percent of our customers.
Q: What is your marketing strategy, and how does it differentiate you from the competition?
A: We place great emphasis on public relations and product placement, which is a huge added value for unknown designers.. Girlshop products receive 20-plus placements per month in popular lifestyle and fashion magazines, which drives traffic to the sites as well as gives exposure to our selection. Also, independent designers choose Girlshop for exposure. We give them a boutique on the site, with a lot of branding instead of just a product here or there on a bigger site.
Q:How are your men’s and baby shops doing compared with your core business?
A: Girlshop.com continues to generate the majority of our business. But I see tremendous opportunity to build on the Guyshop and Totshop brands! Men seem to be more interested in fashion, or at least being individual about what they wear. This brings new appreciation for the indie designer labels that are exclusive to Guyshop.com. For Totshop.com, the current baby boom, and stylish celebrity new-moms create tie-ins for online baby shopping.
Q:What advice do you have for a bricks-and-mortar retailer that wants to start selling on the Web?
A: Money and knowledge are usually the barriers to launching an e-tailing website. If a retailer wants to launch on a large scale, it’s important to get order fulfillment and customer service right the first time. If you don’t please your customers, you can fail easily.
Q:What have you learned about bricks-and-mortar retailing from your new Girlshop store in New York?
A: I love the energy of the store! The experience of meeting the Girlshop customer is tremendous-we get to see how the items fit, plus get valuable feedback on the merchandise. The computer “pods” at the store let our girls do double shopping duty (ordering online and off simultaneously). The two outlets feed off one another-customers are introduced to the site through the store, and of course many visitors to the store are website fans.