Retales: E-Commerce Growth Stories
Welcome to "Retales: Ecommerce Growth Stories," a podcast series that brings you the unique and captivating stories of ecommerce retailers from every corner of the globe.
Each episode delves deep into the journey of different ecommerce entrepreneurs — from scrappy startups to established multinational chains — shedding light on the strategies they deploy to ride economic waves and seize new opportunities.
We feature candid conversations not only with these trailblasing entrepreneurs but also with the venture capitalists who back them, creating a comprehensive picture of the ecommerce landscape.
The entrepreneurs share their stories of innovation, growth, and resilience, while the investors give their insights into what makes an ecommerce business stand out and attract funding.
Every discussion covers topics critical to every ecommerce retailer's success — scaling operations, enhancing customer experience, optimising logistics, leveraging social media, and navigating market fluctuations.
Our guests share their experiences, insights, hard-learned lessons, and personal tactics for achieving success.
Whether you're an ecommerce veteran or just starting your journey, "Retales: Ecommerce Growth Stories" is your passport to understanding the dynamics of ecommerce, transforming modern day challenges into engines for growth.
Join us and draw inspiration, knowledge, and practical strategies from those who have journeyed before you in the exhilarating world of ecommerce.
Retales: E-Commerce Growth Stories
Powerhoop: at Home Hula Hooping Trend Powers Phenomenal YOY Growth
The popular fitness brand Powerhoop sells weighted hula hoops, and the business was not going to be left out of the loop as it stormed into second place on last year’s Lightning 50 with a huge 2,900% YOY growth rate.
Managing Director Karyn Seroussi, joins Caroline on the podcast today. She reveals some of the growth strategies which saw the brand avoid jumping through hoops and instead achieve astonishing - becoming the fastest growing sports and fitness brand in Britain this past year.
Show Notes | Series 1, Episode 9 | Powerhoop
About our podcast
Brightpearl’s Lightning 50 E-Commerce Growth Hacking podcast, hosted by Caroline Baldwin, is a bitesize 15-minute podcast that gets under the hood of highly successful e-commerce brands to discover the key technologies they are using to power growth.
About our guest
Powerhoop is a fitness provider that specializes in weighted hula hoops for exercise. When CEO Karyn Seroussi found a weighted hoop when visiting family in the US, it inspired her to develop a fitness program with top fitness trainers on her return to the UK. Since then, Powerhoop has become a multinational movement and lifestyle brand that not only sells weighted hoops via its Shopify-powered website, but runs an online streaming service for hula-hooping fitness classes. The brand grew an incredible 2,960% in 2019/20. For this podcast, we spoke to Founder & CEO at Powerhoop, Karyn Seroussi.
Transcript highlights:
- “We sell weighted hula hoops which are great for exercise - and provide a fitness program for using the hoops. We developed our own premium hoop with innovative features like adjustable weights, and we make them with non-toxic materials in the UK.”
- “There was a lot of buzz around the hoop - but we weren’t really reaching much of the population other than gym goers who go to classes. So we hired a new e-commerce expert to the team who had a wealth of knowledge about digital marketing, and that really was one of the main contributors to our growth, as it meant he’d put fantastic infrastructure in place before the pandemic hit.”
- “The pandemic meant home fitness equipment was in high demand. We were excited that the concept was catching on and more people were buying them. The influencer network we’d built meant word was getting around that hooping is a great way to get in shape in your living room.”
- “Influencer marketing has been important to our success, no question about it. We don’t pay lump sums to whoever is big at the time - we choose people who genuinely love our products. The influencers were our bread and butter because they posted referral codes, and the online hype meant our customers would get super excited about the hoops before even taking them out of the box. ”
- “Longevity is important. You can sell a product and walk away and be done with it, but we wanted to keep the conversation going and not have the hoop workout get boring. So we had our top trainers develop recorded online classes and we set up our streaming platform, Powerhooptv.com. A streaming platform is great if you have value or expertise to offer. Basically, the streaming subscriptions feed into product sales, and product sales feed into subscriptions.”
- “We started out with a custom built e-comm platform which we found very clunky, so we switched to Shopify which was much more user friendly. That really allowed everything to flow.”
- “It’s definitely validating to be on the Lightning 50 - we’ve worked for several years to be the best in our field and it means so much to the team to be recognized.”
Top takeaways
● Powerhoop ranked 2nd place on the Brightpearl Lightning 50 and topped the Sports, Leisure and Hobbies sector.
● That followed a 2,960% YOY revenue increase in 2019/20
● The tech the brand deems instrumental to growth was Shopify, its online influencer network and its online streaming channel.
● Powerhoop uses its online fitness class streaming to boost longevity of the product and encourage word of mouth.