eCommerce is not easy, it requires lot of hard working, investment in time and money, and many of online stores close their business within the first year, however, we would love to hear some real success stories, today we are featuring the success story of Bonnie Burns Giangrande
Could you Introduce your business ? How did you decide on what to sell, and how did you source your products?
The more I read about the dangers of chemicals that go into our personal and beauty care products, the more I knew something had to be done. I was simply horrified to learn that some of the most common chemicals found in our shampoos and skincare products today, such as Cocomide DEA, Lauamide DEA, Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate (SLS/SLES) and Parabens, which create that rich foamy lather, are absorbed through the skin where they have been found to form cancer-causing nitrates and impair the normal function of the brain and nervous system over time.
Researchers found evidence these chemicals can interfere with the body’s hormones and can bring on early puberty in young girls. Early pubertal development in girls can have adverse social and medical effects, including the development of cancer and diabetes later in life.” The study was published in Environmental Health Perspectives.
After reading this, I strongly felt this is not acceptable, and we can do better for ourselves and our families! We all need to be more concerned and aware of what we put into our bodies. But these studies hit home personally for me because I have young children who are living in an age where they are exposed to many more environmental toxins than we ever were growing up. I realized that if I want change, then I had to be a part of it; and that positive change will not only be good for ourselves, but good for our planet and our families. And this is how The Laughing Tree Organics came to be.
Founding The Laughing Tree Organics has allowed me to formulate a family of face, skin and body care products that I could use for myself and my family, and recommend without reservation, to others. The Laughing Tree Organics line contain only simple, clean, pure natural ingredients infusing the significant healing properties of fresh, hand-picked, organic and/or wild crafted herbs from British Columbia. These products are non-GMO and are cruelty-free. Our uncompromising quest for quality means that all creams are handmade and blended in small batches.
The Laughing Tree Organics wants to be a catalyst for positive change in this world, one botanical product at a time. There is only one earth, and we are all on it together.
Has it been a smooth road?
Let’s just say if it comes easy, you probably aren’t doing it right. LOL. I can honestly say that I wasn’t prepared for some of the pitfalls that I have run into.
When the line was picked up by 2 Distributors, I was like “Oh my, how am I going to handle all of these orders?” But the truth is stores will only carry a minimum number of your products to begin with, and do test runs to see how well they perform on the shelves. So the old saying “Build it. He will come” from the movie Field of Dreams isn’t necessarily true in this market.
Once your products are on the shelves the real works begins. You have to do everything in your power to let people know about them, and why they need to buy them! There is a real educational piece to getting people to understand the benefits of using natural products over synthetic. The latest trends in Social Media and having the ability to connect with your followers has really helped us communicate these beliefs, which in turn has helped us grow over the past couple of years. People want to hear from you today and they want to build a relationship with the brands they use.
I also was not prepared for the lack of FDA oversight in Personal Care Products. You can pretty much put just about anything in a product and claim “Natural” if you use only 1 or 2 natural ingredients, and fill the rest with synthetics. This was a real eye-opener for me, I wasn’t prepared to see so many Companies making false claims about their products. The FDA leaves it up to consumers to educate themselves, read the labels and understand the ingredients that go into the products and know whether they are safe for your family or not.
How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you?
The past couple of years have been the most successful yet for LTO. We were really starting to sell consistently to spa’s and small Mom & Pop Stores around the Country. We were gaining traction on Wholesale portals like FAIRE and TUNDRA and we were seeing organic growth. And then COVID hit ! We lost one of our largest accounts that we were in negotiations in to bring our brand international, and all the wholesale sales virtually stopped. Not to mention my website at the time which was created in WordPress and being managed in the Philippines by someone I had hired, got hacked ! I knew very little about how to manage my website. And my programmer was nowhere to be found. I could not reach him and there was nothing I could do ! I had to regroup and think what can I do to get my website back up and keep the few online orders that were trickling in.
The eCommerce success story on Shopify
I reached out to Shopify and figured this would be a good opportunity to make the change, Spent 4 days re-building my website in its entirety in Shopify and I was pretty proud of myself. I was receiving orders again and they were starting to come in again. But it wasn’t enough. I was not regaining my wholesale orders as retail stores were not re-opening due to the virus and I had to make up for this loss with my online sales. I knew I needed a more robust website. So I began looking at the different themes that Shopify offers. But I knew it didn’t need to just look pretty, it needed to perform. And it needed to perform faster and better than my competition. So after doing much research, I settled on PLAK Theme and I haven’t looked back ! PLAK gives your website visitor an Experience, not just a Visit. “I am so amazed with all the special bells & whistles my new site has” ! And since I knew nothing about how to get my website to rank better, PLAK was influential in helping me set up the proper “tags” and “content” that helps websites rank better on Google. This has truly been a game changer for me ! I can now just sit back and watch the orders come in ! This was my eCommerce success story ^^
By Bonnie Burns Giangrande
Founder at The Laughing Tree Organics
Conclusion
More than 95% fail in Ecommerce, however with a determination, knowledge and perseverance, you can increase your chance to success.
You would like to tell the world about your eCommerce success story ? Get in touch with us
[yasr_visitor_votes]
Such an inspiring story ! Congratulations ! I hope I can live off my site soon 🙂
Love all your products. You have done a fantastic job in starting out on your own. When you have a wonderful product it will sell itself! I cannot believe how many products you have. It takes patience and you have to believe in your product. Thank you..