This is an episode of the Glossy Fashion Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the fashion industry. More from the series →
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Without outside investment, 16-year-old accessories brand Jenny Bird has become a go-to brand for celebrities including Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez, as well as influencers and a growing community of everyday consumers.
With its high-quality products, affordable price points and strategic retail partners, Jenny Bird has become an eight-figure global brand. In July 2022, the brand expanded into eyewear and, most recently, it forayed into hair accessories. According to the brand’s namesake founder, Jeny Bird, growing slowly and intentionally has been key to the brand’s success. She added that consumers can expect to see the brand expand into more jewelry categories soon.
“Simplicity in a brand is key, and diversifying too quickly can be hurtful. I wanted to [first] become an expert in my category … and make those collections better,” Bird told Glossy. “I love the idea of committing to excellence in one thing and being good at one thing — that’s what we’ve done for the past 16 years.”
On this week’s episode of the Glossy Podcast, Jenny Bird discusses her company’s category expansion strategy and her people-first, growth-second motto.
Excerpts from the discussion, below, have been lightly edited for clarity.
The pandemic’s affect on the business
“When I look back at our sales history, … our wholesale channel decreased the year [of the pandemic]. Over time, it has increased and grown. What I didn’t predict was the direction of disposable income away from travel and eating out and [toward] other things to treat yourself to — that was a wonderful surprise. We grew our DTC [sales] over the pandemic. At the same time, we were well prepared for it because we had started to do these live shopping events already. We were starting to build a digital-first team in-house, so we were actually going to have two companies under one umbrella: our e-comm channel and our wholesale channel. Both take a different skill set of employees, plus there are different supply chain expectations, different inventory planning, etc. … So we were well poised to take advantage and serve customers and have gifts delivered quickly. … We rode the momentum of that DTC growth, and the connection with our community was strong already. Now, we are DTC-first in revenue size, but both channels have grown healthfully. We have over 50% year-over-year growth this year from last year. We are somehow a unicorn in the consumer space, where we just have this beautiful word of mouth going and a high level of repeat [purchases] among our loyalists.”
The live shopping opportunity
“We used a platform that enabled customers to live shop with me directly during Covid-19 on our site. Consumers would launch onto our normal URL and be invited into the shop. It was a shopping channel hosted with live links below, and you could click to buy without leaving. It’s not like watching live Instagram and having to be clicking on another screen and filling your cart. That was cool, but we did find that it’s kind of done now. We were one of the one of the first brands to do it in North America. Now, what we do is we host our famous four-hour sale, and during that sale, we go live on Instagram with a tour of all the products that are for sale. We try them on different team members and go through and pick their sale picks. It helps customers to sift through a big sale online. That happens only twice a year for us, but it’s nice to be connected that way and they can ask questions during the live. … It’s a nice way for us to be directly in touch with the community, and it’s helpful.”
Celebrities’ impact on sales
“Our clients have varying opinions on whether they care about whether Kylie Jenner wears earrings. There are certainly some customers who will only come to us and become a client because Kylie wore them. At the same time, as a founder, it’s very validating when the women of today and women that I’m excited about, like Tracee Ellis Ross, Kerry Washington and Michelle Obama, [wear our jewelry]. These are women who have the world at their fingertips … and can wear anything. The fact that they choose to wear this accessible brand is awesome. … They are also at the forefront of the trends, and they’re seeing what’s coming before the rest of us are seeing it, and they’re choosing to wear my silhouettes, which means I’m doing something right. Regarding the actual effect on the brand, it really just goes into the soup of what makes a brand relevant today. It has to include so many other things — there’s no one silver bullet.”
