Larissa Loden is the CEO and visionary of Larissa Loden Jewelry, a handmade jewelry business she launched 15 years ago, and has been full-time in for the last 5 years. They sell via wholesale over 600 retailers and via their own eCommerce store. This year sales are on track to hit $2m.
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About Larissa
Larissa got her start in eCommerce about a decade ago when she launched her brand.
She started her website and before the pandemic began, she says sales from eCommerce were only at 15% of their total business. Right now it’s at 35%, while wholesale makes up about 55% of their sales.
About The Business
- Sells primarily in the U.S. and Canada but ships worldwide
- Caters to both retail and wholesale clients
- Aside from selling online, Larissa also owns a physical retail store
- Runs on Shopify Plus
Larissa says while Shopify Plus is expensive, the flows and analytics are more robust and it also has a wholesale channel which is linked to their product catalog, keeping their inventory synced.
The Team
There are ten people on Larissa’s team: five, including Larissa, have leadership roles while the rest handle production or customer service.
Larissa mentions that instead of an organizational chart, they use an accountability chart to guide their team on where the business is headed and who is accountable for what. This setup also enables them to find people who are the right fit for the company.
Shifting To eCommerce
There has always been talk of growing the eCommerce side of the business but not much time and effort were put into it.
What the pandemic did was accelerate the brand’s pivot to the online space, and Larissa and her team dove deep into email and social media.
While they’ve gone back to doing specific in-person events, finding the right balance between having these events and doing eCommerce has been great for her and the entire company.
The Power Of Email
Larissa had already been using Klaviyo for the business but it was only when Jessica Totillo Coster of the eCommerce Badassery Podcast was brought on board that their email campaigns were really optimized.
With good templates and on-point branding, their email marketing has been bringing in a good and consistent return on investment. So for Larissa, combining Klaviyo with an expert like Jessica has really made a difference.
Jessica Totillo Coster is one of our eCommerce MasterPlan Crew — find out more here
Automations Done Right
Making the effort to setup segmentation correctly and all the necessary flows such as welcome sequences, back-in-stock emails, and abandoned cart flows will bring in the revenue continuously.
Make sure you do them right and your email strategy will create revenue for the business.
Visionary VS Integrator
When the pandemic started, Larissa began to invest more in herself as the leader.
In the company, they’ve implemented the Entrepreneur Operating System, where the roles of the visionary and the integrator are defined and differentiated.
The visionary is the person at the top projecting where the business is going, while the integrator takes care of doing what needs to be done.
When the visionary and integrator are one and the same person, that person can easily get worn down. Having this mindset of separating the work of the visionary and that of the integrator can help grow the company in the right direction.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts by Brene Brown
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Larissa’s top tip is to use email.
Tool Top Tip
- Airtable for optimized spreadsheets
Growth Top Tip
- Do the accountability chart so that you, as the person growing your company, can really focus and work on growing the business.
Interview Links
- Business
- Get 20% off on one order at Larissa Loden Jewelry! Use the code MASTERPLAN upon checkout.
Related episodes
- 329: Shifting from F2F to 90% eCommerce with Vanessa Ungvarsky from Taylor Made Polish
- 336: How to capitalise on a sudden shift to eCommerce with Julie Macken from Neve’s Bees
- 344: Side hustle to 150% profitable growth with a team of 3, how did Eliska from Sparkle Moments do it?
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