A M B E R ❤: Tech Thoughts

Entries Tagged as 'Tech Thoughts'

Glossy Box 2nd Birthday Party!

08.05.13

To Covent Garden today where I helped luxury beauty subscription company Glossy Box host their 2nd birthday party! Presiding over a GIANT Glossy Box that opened every other hour to reveal free May boxes, I had so much fun meeting wonderful fans and hanging out with all the glossy girls, sharing beauty tips and tricks!

Launched in the UK in May 2011, Glossy Box has over 36k subscribers in the UK alone, helping consumers discover new beauty products for £10 a month, via luxurious little samples from companies including Givenchy and Nails Inc. In a moment of calm in the air stream trailer we had parked next to the box, I sat down with their uber CEO Kate Cornell to discover more about the business…

AMBER: Kate you joined as CEO in 2012 at the age of 24, what were your main aims coming into the biz?

KATE: Glossy Box had grown rapidly and there was a slight imbalance between demand and the quality of supply. My first focus was to streamline logistics, improve the tech spec and most of all get a great team together.

AMBER: From Netflix to Quarterly, subscription models are a hot ticket in ecomm right now – why?

KATE: It’s an extremely straight forward business models with a transparent revenue stream that makes cash flow easy to manage. A loyal customer database provides us with valuable consumer insights such as, the average woman in the UK spends over £50 a month on beauty related products or that women place more importance on beauty than buying a house! The model does have it challenges though, we found users were unsubscribing after 7 months so we introduced collaborations with celebrities and brands e.g. Pearl Lowe and Harrods which helped retain subscribers.

AMBER: Net-a-Porter have recently delved into beauty- what are your thoughts on this?

KATE: Yes we recently met with them actually- I think if anything it proves there is a growing market for luxury beauty products and that more can be done to emphasize the link between beauty and fashion. What we know is that people want to have luxury but not pay full price.

AMBER: It’s almost like your a decadent pringle once you pop….

KATE: Yes well there is an extremely high conversion rate in beauty between trying and buying.We’re offering you a luxurious experience of discovery for £10 coupled with our online content it makes for an engaging proposition.

AMBER: What are your tips for start ups about managing a team?

KATE: I believe whole heartedly in the importance of a lean team with one vision. Surround yourself with people from all different backgrounds that bring different points of view to the table but ultimately have passion. I like to be harsh but fair and love engaging the team in yoga once a week or group runs and regular team lunches- It’s important to reward your talent and create an atmosphere of unity.

Thanks to Kate and the team and everyone who came down to celebrate with us today! Check out Glossy Box here!

#TODAYIWORE: All Saints Dress and Jacket, Charlotte Olympia Shoes, BARK for MYFLASHTRASH Jewellery

♥ Sunset Palm Tree Hoops £115 ♥

Can I quote you on that?

11.04.13

We are a generation obsessed with phrases , 10% of all pins on Pinterest are Quotes “Pinterest is designed to be a visual experience,” said Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for the San Francisco-based company, adding, “We were surprised by the popularity of these quotes.” Blogger, Bonnie Tsang, like many users, leverages the visual experience by layering quotes on top of images, A recent pin that reads “Don’t Hate What You Don’t Understand!” with an image of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, was re-pinned more than 1,600 times.

Twitter is another popular place for the quote hungry, with hundreds of accounts dedicated to motivational quotes, infact my #amberattitudes tweets are among my most favourited and RT’d tweets. But where do the really die hard quote fans go? WeHeartIt . Favourited by designer Mary Katrantzou, this huge pre-teen social playground is massively under utilised by retailers , at one point, WeHeartIt Founded in 2008 by Brazil native Fabio Giolito,was nearly five times the size of Pinterest.

Ashish Gupta is the man behind quote and sequin tastic Ashish! The tongue in cheek, playful London fashion label that’s known for its craftsmanship and quality just as much as its pop-culture influenced branding. I wore Ashish last night to the wonderful Liberatum dinner in honor of John Hurt ( see below- my real dad?! #couldnotresist) and it got a lot of attention, but moreover it sparked an interesting debate about our appetite for quotes in all forms and what they mean to our culture. Whilst slogans enjoy a continued fashion revival, see Susie Bubble’s recent post revealing Kenzo have sold 20,000 of those Tiger sweatshirts with ongoing waiting lists at stores, designers including Markus Lupfer and Zoe Karssen enjoy growing commercial success with their witty phrase tees and sweaters.

Markus Lupfer ‘CHILL’ Tee Sweater £298

Ashish himself remarks, “I find Tumblr very inspiring, it’s like an ever-evolving giant scrapbook of ideas from millions of people all over the world. It’s just an incredibly good source for visual research.” taking the trend to display these quotes rendered in beautiful typography and transferring them to tees and sweaters is proving to be a lucrative concept. Whilst cats, one of, if not THE most popular thing on the internet, is seeping its way into fashion- I noticed Topshop have cats on their carrier bags now- will popular hashtags transfer over to be branded over clothes next? #JustSayin either way as Ashish’s Tee says, Je Suis Fatigue. Time for bed.

O bed! O bed! delicious bed! That heaven upon earth to the weary head. ~Thomas Hood, Miss Kilmansegg – Her Dream

Startup Spotlight: Quarterly

01.04.13

‘We spend so much of our lives connecting with people online that we forget the value of tangible interactions that happen in the real world.’

Quarterly, an L.A. startup aims to bridge that gap by allowing anyone to subscribe to influential contributors and receive physical items in the mail from them. Set up by Zach Frechette the editor of GOOD magazine he said recently ‘I want to recapture the romance and impact of a well crafted package, but tie it into existing online communities in an organic way. We think there’s a hunger for analog experiences that complement digital ones, and Quarterly is poised to capitalize on that trend.’

So what do you get if you sign up to recieve a package from say the founders of Cool Hunting or Pharell Williams? Well it could be a bag or in the words of Pharell ‘Whether it’s a book or something I just think is cool, every item I send has inspired me to feed my curiosity.’

Subscription based models such as Glossy Box and influencer led commerce sites such as Shoedazzle or the reward driven Prizeo are gaining huge traction, and I love Quarterly’s ability to add a physical element of surprise. We recently partnered with SheSaidBeauty on a 6 month #FreebieFriday promotion that enabled our customers to get a free beauty sample with their order. Customer’s loved the added extra and we loved facilitating an unexpected discovery.

The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.- O. Winfrey #amberattitudes

Retail Opportunities in Hong Kong

30.03.13

Hong Kong is home to the largest number of billionaires in the world with over 8.8% of it’s 7.2 million populationmillionaire households according to Boston Consulting group. Combined with it’s popularity as an off shore centre of wealth and popularity with tourists, ( over 40 million high spending visitors per annum) it’s easy to see why the retail landscape is dominated by luxury brands.

The current Nick Knight campaign for Lane Crawford aligned perfectly in store

From Hermes to Isabel Marant to luxury department stores Lane Crawford and Harvey Nichols, you would be hard pressed to find a western premium brand that does not have a presence in this former British colony. Whilst this breeds a positive consumer culture of aspiration, in reality there is little shopping choice for the millions of average pay office workers and expats whose spending power, makes up on mass, a considerable opportunity for western mid-tier retailers.

This gap that was identified by Zara back in 2005 and has steadily been filled by H&M, Forever 21, Abercrombie & Fitch (see me looking awkward above) and soon Topshop yet there is a growing demand for affordable fashion and a real opportunity for hip, alternative stores such as Urban Outfitters and dare I say it independents to thrive in this market. Indie surf and skate brands enjoy a strong sales presence whilst outlet malls are springing up all over the outskirts of the city and over 4 vintage shops ( see Select 18 below) have opened in the past 2 years- its an exciting time for smaller brands to enter the market.

My opinion on this open door was bolstered further after a visit to Hong Kong local shopping haven Causeway Bay where I spent much of my teenage years seeking out the secret mini shopping malls. Entered through non-descript doors with staircases leading up to 5 stories packed full of local designers and Korean brands occupying no more than 3 square meters each. Bursting with fashion under £10, when I returned to Hong Kong last week I was impressed by the growth of these malls. Not only are there now more of them, but the little shops have upped their game with sleek visual merchandising and branding that have transformed them from a small space full of clothes to uber-mini uber cool boutiques. Whilst these malls remain largely undiscovered by the expat community and tourists, the local 16-24 year olds acceptance of lesser known and local brands is an incredibly compelling and encouraging sign for indie boutique owners and up coming British brands.

Im eyeing up a popup space in Hong Kong now, as well as speaking to the country’s first fashion e-commerce site ( another huge opportunity) all with a quote from Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher Sun Tzu in my mind- ‘opportunites multiply as they are seized.’

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