The thing that excited me most when actress and former model, Aletha Shepherd, reached out to me to discuss launching her own store, was her passion for the product.
And in this ecommerce case study, I’m going to share with you an overview of the process she went through during the Brazen Profit Lab coaching programme, to launch her new brand to the world.
LeLe London Ecommerce case study
After years of living and working in LA, this British beauty was back living in London. And on a fortuitous trip to the stunning Amalfi Coast in Italy, she discovered a pair of gorgeous Italian leather sandals while scouring one of Italy’s many incredible shoe stores.
At this point, the seed for LeLe London was sewn.
Why should anyone care about LeLe London?
One of the early questions I always ask new clients before we launch their brand is, why should anyone care?
Now, don’t get me wrong, I know this question phrased in this way, can sound harsh and challenging. But launching a new fashion brand in 2017 is no easy accomplishment.
And if you’re not crystal clear about the reason your ideal customer will not only care, but love your product, you’re already starting on the back foot.
Aletha had realised their was a gap in the UK market for high-end, exceptional quality footwear – within an affordable price range.
No stranger to designer footwear brands like Louboutin, Zanotti and Rossi, she also understood that footwear at that price point was often out of the reach of a large group of women.
But she also knew, there were other equally desirable shoes from European brands which, sadly, most British women had never even heard of.
Aletha decided that LeLe London’s unique selling position was – introducing British women to fashion forward European footwear brands. Footwear to treasure – that doesn’t cost a months rent.
8-weeks to the LeLe London Launch
No ecommerce case study would be complete without an outline of the launch strategy, so let’s look at Lele London’s.
When launching a new store, it’s critical to plan how you will build up your audience and mailing list prior to opening your digital doors.
One of the easiest and most successful tactics to build your mailing list in a short space of time, is to offer a giveaway.
However, the success of your giveaway depends on how well you know your audience, and how much thought you put into selecting items for your giveaway most likely to appeal to your audience.
Aletha was very clear about who the LeLe London ideal customer was, so for her giveaway she decided to bundle a designer handbag, smokey-eye makeup pallet, alongside a LeLe London gift card – which customers could redeem during the launch.
To promote the launch of her new shoe boutique, Aletha created a fantastic video and other marketing assets, and we set about promoting the video on Instagram and Facebook with both free and paid methods.
Testing several audiences at the same time (after some trial and error) over 8-days, Lele London’s giveaway campaign was able to generate 781 emails – with the lowest lead cost of 0.60p per lead.
I’ve got 781 email subscribers, now what?
Collecting pre-launch emails is just the beginning.
But when you get down to it, these are just unknown emails on a list, and you need to have a strategy for how you plan to convert these email subscribers into customers.
That’s why it’s critically important to make sure you have an email sales funnel – with educational and inspirational nurture emails – written and scheduled within your email service provider ready to be sent automatically to each new subscriber.
But what about social media?
While I’ll take a mailing list over a social media following any day of the week, in our social age you can’t neglect the importance of building up your social media following and establishing some social proof, prior to launch.
And with so many moving parts to opening your online boutique, your to-do list will get crazy, quickly.
That’s why it pays to choose one social media platform to focus your energies on. And for LeLe London, we decided the right platform to focus on was Instagram.
Aletha started out her Instagram profile with strong imagery right from the very beginning.
With a strategy to repost high-end images from the fashion bloggers her ideal customer were most likely to follow, and a well thought out hashtag plan, she was able to build her following up to over 1k+ in just a few weeks.
Creating the Lele London website
But there was also lots going on behind the scenes.
And while Aletha was working on building her mailing list and social media profiles, in the background, she was also building her website with Shopify.
Shopify have a variety of free themes and paid themes. And after testing out a free theme, she decided on a premium theme and set about creating her product pages. And I gotta say, I love her product descriptions.
Let’s get open for business
Lele London announced the winner of the giveaway and the official launch had begun.
Interestingly, not only was this on the eve of Black Friday, but it was also the final week of our 3-month Brazen Profit Lab Launch coaching programme.
Saying that, I kept an eye of her Facebook campaign over the weekend, sending emails with ways to tighten up certain elements which I hoped she’d find helpful.
She did an incredible job, and I especially loved the flashing gif email graphics she used to promote her black Friday promotions to her list.
With carefully pre-written emails, and good use of the Motion Mail timer, her Black Friday email campaign looked incredible.
At the time of writing this ecommerce case study, LeLe London is now up and open for business, and it’s been such a pleasure to work with Aletha and watch her grow in confidence and direction.
Not only did she have a strong visual eye – which you can see through her visuals – she wasn’t afraid to ask questions or request additional support when she needed it. This made her the sort of client I love to work with.
Another thing that stood out about Aletha, was her work ethic and willingness to learn new skills.
Despite international events, acting castings, and the inevitable technical struggles that every new entrepreneur faces, she dug deep and sought practical solutions – without cutting corners on her brand’s look and feel.
Once Aletha and I completed her coaching programme, I knew that as soon as I could, I was going to write an ecommerce case study on her new brand.
Why?
She’s done such an exceptional job – despite doubting herself at times – I’m excited to see Aletha grow this baby business into a cult brand embraced by the fashion forward women of the United Kingdom looking for footwear to treasure.
To discuss how we can work together to help you launch your brand, here’s the link to schedule some time to speak.
Wanna read another ecommerce case study before you make a decision? Check this out.
