Episode Summary
In episode 16 of the 7 Figures and Beyond podcast, host Greg chats with Alex Zimmerman, the founder of Nesting Olive, a brand that sells modern house dresses. Their conversation revolves around Alex’s entrepreneurial journey, the inception of Nesting Olive, and her strategies for tapping into new audiences, particularly through Nordstrom.com. Alex shares her experience of starting the business with a $2,000 investment after identifying a gap in the market for comfortable, versatile maternity wear. She details the challenges of balancing motherhood with entrepreneurship and her decision to expand her sales channels beyond direct-to-consumer (DTC) to include major retail platforms like Amazon and Nordstrom.com, as well as wholesale to local baby shops. The episode also covers the specifics of working with Nordstrom.com, including the negotiation of sales percentages and the strategic decision to sell both original products and slightly altered versions on Amazon to preempt potential knock-offs.
Key Takeaways
- Entrepreneurial Journey: Alex Zimmerman started Nesting Olive to fulfill a personal need for comfortable and versatile maternity wear. With a background in social work and no business experience, she embarked on an entrepreneurial journey that required learning everything from scratch.
- Expansion into New Sales Channels: Initially focusing on DTC sales through her website, Alex expanded into marketplaces like Amazon and Nordstrom.com to tap into new audiences. This strategic move was motivated by the high quality of her product and the lack of similar offerings in these marketplaces.
- Strategic Partnership with Nordstrom.com: Alex shared insights into her strategy for getting her products listed on Nordstrom.com, including the importance of product quality, meeting the retailer’s high standards and specific policies, and leveraging the platform for brand recognition and increased sales.
- Balancing Multiple Sales Channels: Alex discusses managing different sales channels, each with its unique challenges and strategies. For instance, she contrasts the specifics of selling on Amazon and Nordstrom.com, including hiring someone to manage her Amazon account while personally handling Nordstrom orders.
- Lessons in Persistence and Quality: The episode underscores the importance of persistence in reaching out to potential retail partners and the significance of maintaining high product quality. Alex emphasizes that high-quality products have a place in retail stores and that success in these partnerships requires determination, consistency, and the capacity to meet strict policy standards.
Links
Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/
Alex Zimmerman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-zimmerman-aba91b1b8/
Nesting Olive: https://nestingolive.com/
Episode Transcript
Greg: 0:26
Shuey. Hey everyone, welcome to episode 16 of the 7 Figures and Beyond podcast. Hope everyone’s having a great day today. I know I say this. I’ve probably said it 16 times now. I’m really excited about today’s discussion. We’ve been having such awesome discussions and so I’m always excited about it. I should probably stop saying that That’ll get boring after 100 episodes. Anyway, I’m going to be talking with Alex Zimmerman from Nesting Olive. If you have not heard of them, they are a really cool brand that sells modern house dresses. I also refer to them as the modern day muumuu. Is that an offensive term, alex?
Alex: 1:08
No, not at all.
Greg: 1:11
All right, so one, you should go check them out. Also, with Mother’s Day right around the corner, you should either consider getting your mom one or your wife, or one for each of them, because my wife’s closet is literally full of them. Fun fact, alex is also my sister-in-law and that’s probably also why my closet is full of them. And you know I don’t have any sisters. I come from a family of all boys, so I consider her my little sister. So, yeah, she’s wicked smart. She’s built an awesome business.
Greg: 1:46
When I heard she was going to get starting this thing, I was like heck, yeah, like e-commerce is what I do and I’m excited to be able to talk to her about those things. And you know, our topic today is going to be really specific, and anyone who is in women’s fashion should take a moment and really listen up. We’re going to be talking about the strategy behind tapping into new audiences by selling your product on websites like Nordstromcom. So I remember when this first happened, my wife’s like hey, did you know? Alex is going to start selling on Nordstromcom, and I’m like that’s a thing. I had no idea that third-party sellers could sell their products on Nordstromcom. I assumed it was in-store only. And if they were in-store, they were on the website period. But I learned something new every day After talking to her. I learned there’s a certain way you need to approach this to give you the best chance possible of getting into them and opening up that sales channel. So, alex, thank you for being with us today.
Alex: 2:53
I am so excited to be here, awesome.
Greg: 2:56
Well, would you take just a few minutes before we jump into our questions and introduce yourself to our listeners and share a little bit about your personal story and how you’ve gotten to where you are today?
Alex: 3:07
You bet. So I started nesting all of about a year after I had my first baby and I really struggled to find clothes that I felt comfortable wearing in the hospital after I had my baby and I wanted something that I felt comfortable in and beautiful, and so I just got to work. I started to design these house dresses that I could wear pregnant and nursing, and it took about 10 variations of the samples before I finally got the design and the pattern right. And then I moved on and I made a robe. And then I moved on and I made a robe and I started with about $2,000. And it felt like a lot of money at the time and it felt like a big leap and I knew nothing about business.
Alex: 3:56
My degree was in social work, so I really have been learning as I go and it has been a ride and Nesting Off has really given me an outlet. It’s been really exciting and I’ve I’ve just learned a lot along the way and I had two boy, two more boys in the process, so I have a total of three little boys and I’m just learning to balance motherhood and entrepreneurship. That’s awesome.
Greg: 4:20
I think your story probably resonates with a lot of entrepreneurs in the e-commerce space as well. Your story probably resonates with a lot of entrepreneurs in the e-commerce space as well, especially moms. There are a lot of awesome moms who have launched businesses and have had to learn how to balance that, like juggling kids, juggling carpool, getting home doing some marketing. It’s a lot of work, so awesome.
Alex: 4:42
Yeah, it is a lot of work and it’s something that’s you know. It’s just not talked about that much because there’s a lot to learn while you’re still just trying to take care of your family.
Greg: 4:51
Yeah, cool, all right. So let’s dig in to some of this journey that you have been on. Um, you know, when you first launched, you started selling on nestingolivecom. You were selling on your DTC for a while before you decided to branch out and start selling in other places, and I believe you’re on Etsy, amazon, nordstrom. Is there any other platform you’re on?
Alex: 5:16
So I’m in wholesale at some retail shops.
Greg: 5:22
Some local baby shops. Yeah, at some retail shops, some local baby shops. At what point did you decide that it was time to tap into marketplaces and get on sites like Nordstromcom?
Alex: 5:32
So I had been running my business for about a year when I made the goal to get on Nordstromcom and there was a lot of interest in my product and the D2C sales were just going really well. My product is really high quality and Nordstrom really didn’t carry anything like that at the time. So I pushed hard for it and I felt like it was a really good fit and I really felt confident about it and I did. I had the capital to go for it, I could order higher volumes and it just it felt right and you know, nordstrom does take a really high percentage of the sales and so and they have really specific standards but I did. I felt really ready and I had the capacity ready and I had the capacity.
Greg: 6:28
That’s awesome. I’ll throw out a question really quick and maybe you don’t have it off the top of your head, which is okay. But when you say that Nordstrom takes a really high percentage, what is that percentage? Was it worth it? Did you have enough margin?
Alex: 6:38
When I first started it was really close, so the percentage was for me is 55%.
Greg: 6:47
Higher than Amazon.
Alex: 6:48
Yeah.
Greg: 6:49
Wow Okay.
Alex: 6:51
Yeah, and Nordstrom does cover the shipping cost.
Greg: 6:57
Oh, that’s nice.
Alex: 6:58
Yeah and so, yeah, I felt like it was a push, but it was going to be worth it in the long run. So I wasn’t losing money, but I was close.
Greg: 7:10
Yeah.
Alex: 7:11
But I knew that if I could just get my costs down, I could get there.
Greg: 7:17
Yeah, I know it’s really hard to major. Before we jump into our next question did you have any trickle effect, like of folks who ordered on Nordstromcom and then they came back and ordered on the website, or they reached out and they told you that’s how they found you initially? Have you had any of that?
Alex: 7:34
Yes, absolutely. I had one of the girls from the Bachelor. Actually, she was gifted one of the dresses from from, but they ordered from nordstromcom and I definitely felt that that trickle and people were talking about it that’s awesome, cool.
Greg: 7:56
Um, why don’t you talk a little bit about amazon before we jump into our next question? I mean, selling there in and of itself is just a whole nother strategy Like how, how did you build and manage that process and that strategy for the business?
Alex: 8:13
Yeah, so Nordstrom and Amazon are just very different, and you know. So I did. Actually, I hired someone to manage my Amazon account, where I wanted to be in charge of the Nordstrom orders. I hired someone specifically to handle my Nordstrom orders because they’re so so specific.
Alex: 8:34
So Amazon I listed my items on Amazon and then they were doing really well. But I decided to knock myself off on Amazon because someone else was going to do it Right, and so I just the. The fabric’s a little different, but it’s it’s very, very similar. The price is a little bit lower and both the sales from nesting olive and the knockoffs they really just built on each other and it was a great source of revenue, is a great source of revenue, and you know, of course Amazon is its own beast and requires just really specialized knowledge. So that’s where I didn’t feel like I had the capacity to do that on my own. So I have someone managing my Amazon, which was is has been amazing.
Greg: 9:23
That’s awesome. Out of curiosity, um which has higher sales on Amazon? Is it the knockoff or the original?
Alex: 9:30
Um they’re, they’re pretty equal.
Greg: 9:33
Cool.
Alex: 9:33
Yeah, they’re actually pretty equal, which which surprised me, um, but especially during, you know, the COVID, the COVID years, the knockoffs just went crazy on Amazon. Sure, I kind of me know the COVID, the COVID years, the knockoffs just went crazy on Amazon.
Greg: 9:46
Sure, I kind of me personally. Anyway, I kind of feel like Amazon’s where I go to try to find a deal.
Greg: 9:52
And if I’m if I’m trying to find something original, unique, maybe something a little bit higher quality, I tend to lean towards buying directly from from the website. So I was just curious if sales were comparable across the two the knockoff brand and yours. But that’s awesome, cool. I mean one question that I didn’t throw in here. I’m probably going to catch off guard. Sorry about that. Is you know? Are there other sites like Nordstrom, like that have a program like this? Like, does Macy’s have a program like this? Does Dillard’s have a program? Or is Nordstrom kind of unique in the space?
Alex: 10:27
You know, I actually don’t know about like Macy’s. I mean Walmart definitely does. Sure, yeah, I think Target starting to do this. They’re not in my. You know they’re not my ideal customer, but they, yes, they definitely do this.
Greg: 10:45
Cool, Awesome. So why Nordstrom? I mean, I know you. You said this is a goal of mine, these are my people. I maybe share a little bit more about that.
Alex: 10:55
Yeah, so I mean the people that shop at Nordstrom are my ideal customer and I know that you know I, I, I sell on Etsy. It does fine. But I know that my customer they shop at Nordstrom. I know what they drive, what their values are, you know, and that is why I wanted to. You know, I wanted to sell on Nordstrom because I know, I know that’s where my people are.
Greg: 11:24
Yeah, I love that Once you’re selling on thecom. Do you know I wanted to sell on Nordstrom because I know I know that’s where my people are?
Alex: 11:30
Yeah, I love that Once you’re selling on thecom do you know what it takes to get in store Like, is there even any desire there? Not for me right now. It’s, it’s, it is next level. I, I’m just I. I don’t personally feel like I have the capacity for in-store, but I honestly I know I could if I put my time there.
Greg: 11:53
Awesome. Yeah, I mean back to kind of one of your original comments. You’re a mom, you’re juggling kids. It’s a heavy lift. I would imagine getting into retail.
Alex: 12:02
It is yeah and you need to be really, really ready for it, because you don’t want to mess it up and I’m just not there.
Greg: 12:11
And that’s fine, and that’s okay. All right, so walk me through your strategy Again. You said this is my goal, so what did your process look like for starting to get your foot in the door? Did you have to change anything in your business? Maybe walk us through what that journey looked like.
Alex: 12:30
Yeah, so I started by, you know, stalking the buyer for women’s pajamas on LinkedIn and just really went from there. I I sent a few emails to her. From there, I I sent a few emails to her. It did take a few, you know, kind of pushing me around to get me to the the really the right person for what? I sell and. But I found her and she’s been awesome to work with Um and they. You know they asked for a product line sheet and at the time I had no idea what that was.
Greg: 13:05
I don’t even know what that is.
Alex: 13:06
That makes me feel better. So I had to Google it and I did. I found someone on Fiverr that helped me make this product line sheet and it’s really just pictures and pricing and information about the product. That looks nice and so, and then they asked me to send samples in which I was like this is a good sign, you know. So I sent some samples in and then a couple of months went by and I didn’t hear anything back from them and I I did email, just checking in, you know. Finally I did. I remember where I was standing when I got the email that they wanted to. You know, have that my product on their website and it was. It was a really fun, euphoric experience as a brand new business owner, you know it. Just, it was really exciting.
Greg: 14:02
That’s cool. How did you figure out that they had individual buyers for, like different product categories? I don’t think I would have gone that narrow and focused. If I was. I would probably just try to find some kind of a buyer in general.
Alex: 14:17
Well, I mean I started looking just for you know, nordstrom buyers and they all had different titles and kept diving in deeper and deeper till, you know, got really specific and even as specific as I got, it wasn’t the right person. Still, yeah, I had to, you know, send lots of emails for that cool, very cool, um and like.
Greg: 14:42
Is there any information about this posted on their website? Or did you just say I’m, I’m doing it and you went out and found this person? You started the process, or did you kind of know what it entailed going into it?
Alex: 14:53
oh no, I had no idea, I just.
Greg: 14:55
I just looked at linkedin it was a hunch and then cold outreach the general google of know, get into Nordstrom. Yeah.
Alex: 15:05
And just went from there and you know it took a while. So yeah. Yeah, I would have liked to just know. Hey, go straight to their LinkedIn and stalk them.
Greg: 15:15
There you go, nice. So yeah, there you have it right there. Find out who your ideal person is that you’ve got to connect with inside the organization. Hound them, harass them. Yeah, make sure that you’ve got a product line sheet. Is there anything else they asked for?
Alex: 15:32
Not before they decided to, you know, sell the product, but after there was a lot of setup.
Greg: 15:40
Interesting.
Alex: 15:41
Work to do. But yeah, really it was just the product line sheet and samples and they took the samples, they did their own photo shoot and yeah they. They had their own models and I didn’t have to do anything so how long would you say the entire setup process took? So it took about four months before I was on their website.
Greg: 16:06
Wow, mostly because they were just the logistics internally getting the photo shoots and things like that versus you can be set up on Amazon in 24 hours, depending on how fast you can upload everything. Yeah, okay, very cool. All right, I know we kind of touched on this a little bit, so you know the answer may be short, but how do you feel like selling on?
Alex: 16:33
nordstromcom has impacted your website sales overall. I feel like it’s been really good for my website sales. It’s, you know, it gives me some brand recognition. People love you know that you’re Nordstrom approved. It’s just, it feel like it gives people peace of mind and um, I do.
Greg: 16:52
I feel like it’s trickled down and it’s been really, really helpful cool sometimes when, um you know, I talk to brands that sell on different marketplaces like this, they like to push unique SKUs or products out to these different marketplaces. Do you do that, or do you carry the exact same set of products on your website as you do on nordstromcom?
Alex: 17:13
So it’s definitely evolved. So I started with what I had.
Alex: 17:17
And since, because of their really strict policies and standards, I had four patterns that I sold on their website and since I needed to order them in a higher quantity, I kept those. And then they actually reached out and said hey, we want more SKUs, we want more patterns, and I was like okay, so I added about six more patterns and then eventually my robes and my. So I try to stick with. They’re not like only on nordstromcom, but there are different ones just because of the quantity I have to order.
Greg: 18:08
Sure, and I like that strategy too. Limiting kind of the different products that you’re selling on these marketplaces will oftentimes drive even more customers back to your website because they’re like I want to go see what other patterns they may have that they’re not selling here on platform, and so I think it’s a great way to be able to get your D2C traffic and sales up as well.
Alex: 18:33
Absolutely. And then you know I’m coming out with new patterns on my website. That I mean for sure, I do not sell those on Nordstrom.
Greg: 18:39
And people are like ooh, you know, yeah, it’s out. Yeah, have you ever felt and we just had a really good discussion, our last podcast about sales channel conflict how sometimes, when you do launch on a marketplace, it will pull sales away from your website? Have you felt that at all Anytime you’ve launched on a marketplace like Amazon or Nordstrom, or do you feel it only just makes you stronger?
Alex: 19:05
For me. I really feel like it’s made me stronger. I felt like it’s really built upon each. I didn’t see that as much. It seems to just build on each other.
Greg: 19:29
Yeah, that’s awesome, that’s great. Other businesses aren’t so lucky. I remember when we were doing SEO for Alex and Ani and I think most people know who Alex and Ani is we were driving so much traffic to their website through their organic search but it wasn’t converting. And after some discussions, you know internally what we were finding is that and you know we can’t prove this, so difficult to be able to prove this but customers were going to Amazon and buying there.
Greg: 20:01
After being introduced to the products on alexananicom when we started to dig into it, we’re like whoa like pricing is cheaper on Amazon. They have free two day shipping on Amazon, so it’s more expensive to buy on your website. You charge for shipping. It’s seven to 10 days before it ships. Like you’re just, there’s no consistency here. And so you know, as we would grow traffic, amazon sales would grow, and so it was the correlation there that we were able to come back and say, hey, like we need to standardize some things, we need to really get this dialed in so that we can create kind of a fair marketplace where you can capture customers on your DTC site. So you know you should count yourself lucky, because I think there are a lot of brands out there that you know think I need to be on Amazon. They launch on Amazon, their website sales go down and now they’re paying a huge chunk to Amazon to store their product, to ship their product and their seller fees. It’s crazy.
Alex: 20:57
Well, and yeah, I absolutely charge more on Amazon because I have to account for the shipping cost and for their fees. So, yeah, it’s more expensive for the customer to buy my product on Amazon.
Greg: 21:11
Interesting, cool, awesome, all right. So any final words of wisdom for anyone who’s hoping to get into a retailer or a very niche third-party marketplace like Nordstromcom. What kind of advice or guidance can you give them?
Alex: 21:31
Well, I really feel strongly that if you have a high-quality product, you can absolutely sell with these retail stores. They are looking for high quality products to sell, and so you just have to find the right people and be determined and consistent enough with those people and also be prepared and have the capacity and staff to handle these strict policies that they have. You know they all, they all have them, and especially Nordstromcom. There’s just so little room for error. You’ve just you’ve got to have it together, so make sure you have the capacity and you can do it.
Greg: 22:23
That’s awesome. I love when you say determined and consistent enough. It’s like that in any part of sales, right? Whether you’re selling insurance or whether you’re selling marketing services. You don’t sell people on a first touch point, and so you have to have a good follow-up cadence and know that it’s going to take four, five, six, 12 different touch points to get someone to actually respond and show even a little bit of interest. So I think that’s a great way to kind of wrap this up. So, alex, thank you so much for spending some time with us today.
Alex: 22:55
Thanks for having me.
Greg is the founder and CEO of Stryde and a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with thousands of businesses, large and small, to generate more revenue via online marketing strategy and execution. Greg has written hundreds of blog posts as well as spoken at many events about online marketing strategy. You can follow Greg on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.
