Mark Lippmann is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Deborah Lippmann. Deborah Lippmann, the eCommerce business, sells a makeup range focused on nails designed by Deborah Lippmann herself – one of the most sought-after manicurists in the world. Mark is in charge of the eCommerce side of the business (amongst more) and has grown it to a multi-million $ company with distribution in over 20 countries.
Click to Tweet: Mark Lippmann tells us how Deborah Lippmann have nailed mobile eCommerce on this week’s @eComMasterPlan #podcast
About the business
- eCommerce Business Structure – Boutique Bricks and Clicks
- Product Range Scale – niche
- On a Magento platform
- 1 person in the eCommerce team
- Based in the US, sell globally in over 20 countries
- One of the first beauty eCommerce sites in the US
Listen to hear how Mark Lippmann got started in eCommerce
Most Awesome Thing Right Now
Mark is really impressed by the growth in the eCommerce side of the business. Nail polish in general has been a fast growing category in the US since 2008 so they have seen a growth overall but the eCommerce section is really impressive.
On the Radar for the Coming Months
Deborarh Lippmann are in the process of launching a revolutionary platform. Mark reconises one of the issues with mobile shopping is the checkout – this new platform removes a lot of the barriers to buy. It allows customer to easily purchase through Deborah Lippmann’s mobile/desktop sites, YouTube channel, emails or Facebook account. Visitors simply click on a product they like and using the free Equipay app purchase it with their thumb print.
Listen to hear more about mobile payments
Other eCommerce topics we cover include:
- Deborah Lippmann have been lucky to have a number of HBO tv tie ins including True Blood, Girls and currently Empire. They have also been approach by a number of celebrity partners to create special products for them these have included Sarah Jessica Parker, Cher, Rene Zellwegger and Pat Benetar – a percentage of all the profit goes to a charity of the celebrities choice.
Top Tips for e-mail marketing
With a limited marketing budget Deborah Lippmann rely heavily on their e-mail marketing so we asked Mark his top tips for success:
- Look at the competitive landscape – they are successful and have big teams behind them
- Look at what the competitors are doing in terms of styling, number of products and scroll length
- Keep an eye on your unsubscribe rates – are you emailing to often/ at the right time of day
- Look at when customers have previously opened an email and programme to send they are more like to open
Deborah Lippmann stumbled across Dotmailer and have found it has been invaluable with their email marketing.
You can hear about all this on the podcast, for free – right now…
eCommerce Book Top Tip
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
As a small business Deborah Lippmann implement very few direct marketing campaigns beyond their marketing lists. They have found that remarketing, Google product listings, retargeting and cross selling has been really effective, showing people products they might like. They have recently started using Adroll seeing an incredible return on interest in the first month.
Tool Top Tip
Deborah Lippmann use Basecamp for their project management software – it allows them to create timelines, lists, milestones and due dates ensuring we keep everything on track. As it is all online you can access it from mobile anywhere in the world. Like with a lot of business Dropbox has also revolutionised the way Deborah Lippmann do business.
Start Up Top Tip
You might be sensing a theme here – Mark’s top tip for start ups is think mobile! It may have used to be desktop first but Mark believes it is all about mobile now. He also recommends considering video and user generated content to capture an audiences imagination.
If your business didn’t exist, which eCommerce Business Would you like to be Running?
Mark is one of the lucky ones he is not sure if their is another eCommerce business he would like to run. He has a great passion for what he is doing and as fashion and beauty are one of the highest shopped mobile segments right now there is lots of exciting things to keep him busy.
Interview Links
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