Suiting up for Success: Sharp Strategies for Slaying D2C with Diana Ganz
Sales in discretionary categories are soft, the hype surrounding direct-to-consumer brands is dulling, and achieving E-commerce profitability remains elusive. Against this backdrop, SuitShop emerges as a triple threat.
SuitShop is a thriving direct-to-consumer, E-commerce company specializing in discretionary goods that people aren’t used to buying. Co-founder Diana Ganz is a fervent advocate for delivering exceptional customer experiences and personally ensuring results that defy industry standards. In this episode, Diana shares insights into how she and her partner have broken through barriers and cracked codes on some of the toughest challenges facing digital-forward brands today.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
How problem-solving can overcome discretionary dips.
Why organic attraction beats paid advertising.
How new brands stumble early in the game.
Why showing the hand to promotions pays off.
Information and resources:
KEY EXCERPTS FROM THE INTERVIEW
“We really were trying to solve a very simple problem, which was, how can we create an alternative to that where we can, we a collection that men and women can own for the same price as a rental.”
“We didn't have a ton of funding so we wanted to make sure that what we were doing was actually solving that problem. Beyond having to do it with a ton of marketing dollars. We wanted to get organic authentic traffic and momentum around the brand early on just to see if it would work because we were scraping our pennies together.”
“We weren't playing with anyone else's money and we started the old fashioned way, which was building great relationships. We are a discretionary purchase, but we figured out a way to not be a discretionary purchase. If a brand can figure that out, it's really special.”
“We started building relationships, which is so old fashioned. No Google ads, no social media campaigns. We just went to people and relied on word of mouth. We went to wedding expos. And that really began to snowball because we had a good idea that was solving a problem and there wasn't anyone else doing it at the time, so it snowballed. We didn't start spending money on ads until about three years in”
“We really see customer service as a differentiator for our brand against our competitors. at our price point, we're trying to give a level of service that you would see in a custom clothing experience, bu at an affordable price point. This is where we see competition falling short and it is never something that we will compromise on.”
