This episode features Lucie Harrild, founder of Comhla, a sustainable fashion marketplace built on Shopify. She shares insights from her first year in business, focusing on balancing physical and digital strategies to educate consumers and drive sustainable choices in fashion. The discussion highlights the importance of providing solutions for conscious consumption rather than just highlighting problems, and the power of omnichannel approaches in this niche.
Key takeaways
Embrace an omnichannel strategy early on: Lucie found physical pop-ups and now a brick-and-mortar store are crucial for customer connection and validating sustainable fashion concepts, which then fuels online marketing efforts.
Offer tangible solutions for sustainable consumption: Instead of just talking about the problems of fast fashion, provide clear pathways for consumers to buy better, repair, and resell, like Comhla does with its integrated platform.
Leverage your "why" to attract early adopters and partners: Comhla successfully launched by articulating a clear vision for sustainable fashion, attracting brands willing to partner with a new marketplace.
Start with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and iterate: Comhla launched quickly on Shopify and continuously tests different approaches, from diverse offerings to events, to understand what resonates with customers.
Recognize that sustainable business models require educating the customer: The journey is not just about sales; it's about shifting consumer behavior and demonstrating the appeal of sustainable alternatives.
Lucie Harrild is the founder of comhla, a one-stop shop for sustainable fashion built on Shopify. Lucie shares the initial challenges of pitching her idea without a visual representation and how she decided to create a website early on to showcase her concept. The focus of Lucie's business is on demonstrating behaviour changes in sustainable fashion such as repairing, upcycling, and buying and selling pre-loved items. She aims to show that sustainable fashion can still be beautiful without sacrificing personal style.Lucie discusses her plans to open a physical store and use it as a platform for online marketing. She reflects on the importance of telling a unique story, the growing awareness of the environmental impact, and ways to help consumers make better purchasing decisions,In this episode we discuss:How can a website bring a concept to life?Why you need a physical store as a marketing platformWhat is ‘choice editing’?Mainstream vs sustainable fashionSupporting customers through the (often) confusing landscape of sustainable fashionDive In:[04:44] Launching a fashion platform with a sustainability focus.[09:50] Lessons learnt from a challenging pitch.[14:55] Having different customer profiles.[17:54] How choice editing makes sustainability accessible and inspiring.[25:52] Leveraging Canva and teamwork for collaboration and carbon tracking...This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/ ---
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What does this episode say about shopify & ecommerce platforms?
Embrace an omnichannel strategy early on: Lucie found physical pop-ups and now a brick-and-mortar store are crucial for customer connection and validating sustainable fashion concepts, which then fuels online marketing efforts.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Offer tangible solutions for sustainable consumption: Instead of just talking about the problems of fast fashion, provide clear pathways for consumers to buy better, repair, and resell, like Comhla does with its integrated platform.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Leverage your "why" to attract early adopters and partners: Comhla successfully launched by articulating a clear vision for sustainable fashion, attracting brands willing to partner with a new marketplace.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Start with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and iterate: Comhla launched quickly on Shopify and continuously tests different approaches, from diverse offerings to events, to understand what resonates with customers.
What does this episode say about shopify & ecommerce platforms?
Recognize that sustainable business models require educating the customer: The journey is not just about sales; it's about shifting consumer behavior and demonstrating the appeal of sustainable alternatives.
