Brightpearl’s Lightning 50 E-Commerce Growth Hacking podcast, hosted by Caroline Baldwin, gets under the hood of highly successful e-commerce brands to discover the key technologies they are using to power growth.
In series 1, episode 2, we caught up with Holland Cooper, a British luxury lifestyle brand specializing in country-inspired, women’s fashion. Launched in 2008, the brand started out on the events circuit, promoting its statement tweed garments at the likes of top events like Cheltenham Races. Since then it’s built huge popularity in the premium sector for its country-inspired ‘investment pieces’, and operates DTC via its Shopify Plus website, as well as wholesale to independent outlets such as Jules B and Millbry Hill.
During the podcast, the brand’s Founder & CEO, Jade Holland Cooper, shared tons of unmissable insight into how the brand achieved a whopping 243% growth during 2019/20 and ranked 22nd place on the Brightpearl Lightning 50. She also revealed how the business plans to maintain high levels of growth going forwards, and how the right tech is integral to their strategy.
Here are some of the highlights from the transcript…
- “British tailoring is at the heart of the business and why I started in the first place. I noticed women tend to buy a luxury key piece but everything else high street – so I wanted our products to be at a price point that meant they could wear everything by us.”
- “In lockdown I started to personally engage with our customers through Instagram, and they started to really connect with our brand and who we are. I now respond to every single customer message, even if it’s 400 a day.”
- “My main advice is when your business is growing, don’t be afraid to change up your systems. Every year you’re almost a different business, so your requirements will be different. Something we’ve been good at is picking systems that will grow with us, and Brightpearl has been great for that. When you’re multichannel it’s a challenge to find a system that fits with everything, but for five or six years Brightpearl has been a great connector for us and I think it will continue to be.”
- “We’re also using great tech for B2B like JOOR [a wholesale management platform], because wholesale has grown dramatically for us. There are further things we’re putting in place for other parts of the business, like more advanced warehouse systems, sample development and sample trackers.”
- “As you get bigger, all departments need streamlining systems. You need transparency, connectivity and communication across all of your departments so the business flows seamlessly.”
- “We’re striving to be bigger and better every year and getting the Lightning 50 recognition along the way is fantastic. Our consumers love the brand, we’re extending into overseas markets and it’s an incredibly exciting place for us to be in.”
Want to hear more of what Jade had to say? Catch up with the full episode, and subscribe to upcoming ones, here.
