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In honor of International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8th every year, we thought it’s time to recognize eight ecommerce brands with some strong female founders. Just as women are unique and come in all forms, these brands span across the globe and inspire women everywhere. With ecommerce stores in every industry—from beauty and cosmetics to high-quality athletic gear—it’s clear that women are capable of accomplishing anything they put their mind to.
Let’s dive into some of our favorite brands and the strong female founders behind them.
BizzyB Crafts
Sometimes a great business idea can come right off the top of your head, and that was the case for Brittany of BizzyB Crafts. Her extremely cute headband brand was born out of her need to find a way to go through all the activities of her day effortlessly while still looking adorable!
With a goal to “Make the busy women look put together with the addition of just one accessory”, BizzyB Crafts truly understands their target customer. As a self-proclaimed busy woman herself, founder Brittany decided to take the plunge and start the brand full-time after working on it as a side hustle for 6 years.
Brittany continues to connect with her customers by giving them an inside peek to her journey with a personalized Instagram featuring product and rewards program updates, customer photos, and her own general life updates. Leveraging your social media to connect with your customers is a great way to build authentic long-term relationships.
Senita Athletics
The key to any successful ecommerce brand is identifying a need that your potential customers are facing. Two sisters, Jenna and Maddie, were both new moms when they ran into the issue of having to choose between high-quality and high price or low price and low-quality athletic gear. This is where the idea for Senita Athletics came from—a brand that offers premium workout gear designed “for women, by women” at affordable prices.
Although customers come for the great products and prices, they stay for the “Sisterhood” that the brand has created. Senita Athletics showcases women of all shapes and sizes in their product photos to welcome everyone into their brand community. They even have an entire line dedicated to maternity gear to celebrate all types of women at every stage in their lives!
With their loyalty program’s messaging, the brand invites their customers to “Join the Sisterhood”. By aligning their loyalty program with their values of empowering women, they’ve created a great customer loyalty experience.
Betsy Boo’s Boutique
As one of the thousands of online clothing brands, Betsy Boo’s Boutique has differentiated itself by providing exceptional customer experience. Their goal is to help the women who shop with them to look and feel their best. This is why they sell full outfits styled by their experts to enhance the customer shopping experience.
Betsy Boo’s Boutique also stands out from the crowd with an inspirational business story. The founder shares the story of her humble beginning starting in her basement to her success now. She also lets customers know about the inspiration of her company name, originating from a nickname her mother gave her before passing away from cancer, showing the power of female support and love.
Sharing your brand story lets customers feel like they were a part of your journey from the start.
The Laundress
When you have a founder who believes in their brand, the chance of success is significantly more likely no matter what the products are. Take The Laundress for example: as a relatively-niche brand offering eco-friendly cleaning and laundry products, they’ve really gone the extra mile to help customers get behind their mission.
With an incredibly clean web design and a “Clean Talk” blog to match their brand values, The Laundress provides so much value to their customers. Their blog features a series of posts that are focused on “People we Love” who are often strong women entrepreneurs or their loyal customers who are all inspiring in their own ways. Combining this with their laundry tips and tricks, gift guides, and product recommendation posts, they’ve done a great job at locking customers in with their value-added marketing.
Blue Peppermint Boutique
If you’re looking for a clothing brand that gives you a warm welcome, look no further than Blue Peppermint Boutique. Right when customers land on the brand’s homepage they’re greeted with an on-brand “Hey Minty Girl” message from the founder. This message also assures customers that they’ll receive exceptional customer service, a great brand community, and fashionable products, making them instantly feel valued and welcomed.
Blue Peppermint Boutique also has a very strong Instagram presence where the founder and all-women team post photos of their products and themselves to keep their brand human. This gives customers a chance to connect with the brand on a day-to-day basis beyond their website.
With a brand experience that’s just as “fresh” as the clothing they sell, customers are able to relate to the brand right away.
Healthy Roots
Female empowerment can and should begin when girls are young. Every girl deserves a chance to be confident in their own skin, and that’s exactly where the inspiration for Healthy Roots was born.
The brand’s founder, Yelitsa Jean-Charles, shares her memory of receiving a black doll as a child from her parents who wanted to give her a toy that looked like her as an African-American girl. She remembers bursting into tears because the doll wasn’t “the pretty one” and has since made it her mission to ensure no other young black girls feel that way about their appearance. It’s this type of personal, emotional anecdote that inspires customers to stand behind this brand, its values, and its founder.
Healthy Roots sells dolls named “Zoe” that have dark skin and authentic curly hair to teach young girls with curly and wavy hair that they are beautiful the way they are. The brand’s three main goals are positive representation, to teach self-love, and to provide educational hair play. Building strong, powerful women like the one who started Healthy Roots all begins with building strong, powerful young girls.
Only Human
Every day, hundreds of people worldwide are ridiculed and judged for things as basic as the clothes they wear, the things they say, or even just their gender. Only Human is here to remind us that, at the end of the day, we all have one thing in common: we’re only human.
This clothing company partners with non-profits to “exist to do more good so that together, we can make the world a better place”. Originally starting as a brand to help people live fulfilling lives with workshops and events, they’ve eventually evolved into a clothing brand, but their goal remains the same. The name, Only Human, is sharing the message that we are all human and connected with each other on a vulnerable level beyond all the labels society categorizes us into.
As the founders share in this video, the power of the message that “Only Human” conveys is what connects people from all walks of life. Although their products may appear as “just a shirt”, it’s much more than that to their customers, which is why Only Human has been able to create such a strong brand community. Giving your customers something to believe in that is bigger than themselves is a great way to create true, sustainable loyalty.
Earth-Kissed Beauty
In order to create an exceptional brand, it takes a founder who is an industry expert. For Earth-Kissed Beauty, this was not a problem at all. Kristen Pridgen founded this natural skincare company in order to allow customers to “love their earth-kissed skin and provide products that are safe”. As a successful Certified Health Education Specialist, Pridgen decided to share her passion for holistic health with others through this brand.
Earth-Kissed Beauty has leveraged the power of customer referrals by offering its existing customers $5 off for every referral they make. They’ve also offered the new customers $5 off, relieving some of the stress associated with trying a new brand. This customer acquisition strategy shows a deep understanding of the value women place on their skincare routines and how a referral from a trusted friend can make the purchase decision a little bit easier.
Not only does she want to provide customers with safe products that are great, but she also wants to provide health education to support individuals moving along their holistic health journey. With a founder this committed to the values of their brand, it’s no wonder Earth-Kissed Beauty leaves its customers feeling beautiful.
It’s time to keep the celebration going
It’s clear that women have earned their place in the world of entrepreneurship and are making waves in the sea of ecommerce brands. However, just because today is International Women’s Day doesn’t mean it’s time to end the celebration once it’s over. There are millions of other inspiring women and stories beyond these eight brands that deserve to be recognized every day.
Supporting these women entrepreneurs can start with something as simple as shopping at their brands, and who doesn’t love to shop?
Defining your customer segment can start with something as simple as gender.
Learn how to efficiently build a rewards program for men or women specifically with our guide.
This article originally appeared in the Smile.io blog and has been published here with permission.
