On February 10, 2021 Fire&Spark President, Dale Bertrand, sat down with Nancy Youssef, Founder of award-winning women’s e-commerce marketplace, Curves With Purpose. The retailer celebrates shape diversity with inclusive options and messaging focused on empowerment, confidence, and body positivity. During the hour-long interview, Nancy told her story of becoming an entrepreneur, founding the business, and the marketing successes that propelled her brand to a partnership with Nordstom. Watch the full recording here.
If you’re short on time, here are some takeaways:
Target an underserved marketplace. Nancy found success with her company because the market barely had options for her community; fashionable clothing at wide size ranges. Nancy knew firsthand the struggle behind finding flattering, comfortable, and stylish clothing, so she decided to create a brand that was meant to make women love the way they looked and felt in her clothing.
Brand purpose is everything. Creating a brand that needed to exist to uplift a community was something Nancy was able to capitalize on. By focusing on a powerful message of self-expression and body positivity, Curves With Purpose was born.
Create content first, then pay for marketing. Like many entrepreneurs, Nancy had to learn the hard way that beginning budgets were tight. She started off her brand’s marketing strategy by paying for external advising. Looking back, she had wasted resources and now suggests content should be created first internally and payments should be made afterward to get the best return on investment.
Real people and real stories sell themselves. Consumers care about authenticity over everything. Nancy utilized this by sending free clothing samples to influencers, asking for an honest review in return. The result – genuine and free feedback and a quickly growing customer base in response to positive reviews.
Discover the type of advertising that works best then use it a ton. With the amount of various advertising and marketing strategies, business owners are sure to go through failures before discovering a success. Once Nancy discovered how powerful pop-up shops were to reach her local community, she began doing them every week. She got direct feedback by talking with customers and quickly grew her local market into brand advocates and repeating customers.
Invest in game-changing software. Nancy invested in fit technology that made the online shopping experience smooth and practical. The sizing tool was extremely accurate and easily helped customers determine their proper clothing size. After this investment, Curves With Purpose only saw about two dozen returns in a 3 year period.
***A special thanks to Nancy Youssef who made this event successful.***
Ready to propel your e-commerce business and level-up your marketing strategy? Read successful case studies here.
