How an Irish couple launched a new baby product in the UK & US.
Aileen McCauley is a mom to two kids, a school psychologist and, together with her husband James, is co-creator of The Wriggler, which is the first portable changing pad for babies and toddlers who wriggle during diaper changing. Aileen and James created The Wriggler after experiencing the problem with their own little one.
When they couldn't find a solution, James, who is a part-time teacher and part-time stay-at-home dad, borrowed a sewing machine, learned to sew and came up with a solution that returned diaper changing to the calm, predictable experience it had once been. Still in its first year in business, The Wriggler is now a multi-award winning changing pad that has been called a 'sanity saver' and a 'miracle mat' by the many independent parent product testers who have reviewed it.
You'll hear:
Kurt Elster: Hello and welcome back to the unofficial Shopify podcast. I'm your host, Kurt Elster, recording from Ethercycle HQ high atop Westfield Old Orchard Mall in scenic Skokie, Illinois, and in this episode, you will hear about a wonderful husband and wife team who have brought a brand new baby product to the market. They designed it, had it manufactured themselves, and launched it themselves, all on Shopify. And here's the really crazy part, they launched it simultaneously in parallel UK, Ireland, and US stores with very different results, so we are going to walk through that journey and their learnings in the process. Joining me today is Aileen McCauley from the Wriggler. Aileen, how are you doing?
Aileen: I'm very well. Thank Kurt. How are you?
Kurt Elster: I am well and we can tell by your accent and where you launched your store where you may be from, but tell us where you're recording from.
Aileen: Yeah, so I'm recording from Dublin in Ireland, all the way across the Atlantic.
Kurt Elster: Prior to becoming a Shopify merchant and entrepreneur, what did you do? What was your day to day?
Aileen: I'm trained as a school psychologist and I still work part-time as a school psychologist and my husband is a high school teacher or a secondary school teacher as we say over here. We're both kind of part-time, stay at home mom and dad and part-time working and part-time entrepreneurs, so we've kind of got, yeah, a little bit of everything going on.
Kurt Elster: You have jumped into the baby product market, which is an $11 billion industry, utterly wild. If you're thinking, if you're on the fence, you're like, "All right, I've got this idea for a baby product, a kids' product," the money is out there. People will spend money on their kids for sure, so it is a good time to jump in. Tell me, do you have kids?
Aileen: I do, yep. We have two children who are now six and four, so that where was the inspiration for the Wriggler came from and when our first son, when he learned to roll and crawl, diaper changing became an absolute battle between us and him. It would take us two hands to keep him still and then we had no hands left to change the diaper. It would be a mess everywhere. Pediatricians recommend at that stage that you don't change them on changing tables anymore because it's so dangerous and they can fall. Then you change them on the floor, but with that freedom, they just want to go everywhere. They flip over. They crawl away and then you're using two hands to keep them still and you have no hands left to change the diaper.
It was just a battle and we looked for a solution. We couldn't find one and when you think, "Okay, we could all cope with it once or twice," but when you think that we change our little ones on average six times a day or six and a half thousand diaper changes until potty training, we were thinking, "We have to create a solution for this." That's where the Wriggler was born.
Kurt Elster: I love the name for two reasons. When you have no idea what it is, it's out of context, the Wriggler, it's one of those names where, and the example I always use is going, "I'm a dog lawyer." It's one of those things where you have to go, "All right, tell me more. What is that?" But, the downside to a name like the Wriggler or a name like our agency name Ethercycle is yeah, you're like, "I want to know more," but it also doesn't give you any context. What's clever about the Wriggler is as soon as you know it's just in the category of baby products, all right, you're starting to get an idea or understand. Where did the ... The name came from, I assumed you were referring to your child as the wriggler who is attempting to escape.
Aileen: Exactly. Yeah, so it just, it kind of does what is sounds like, so yeah, our little guy, he would just wriggle everywhere. That's what people call their babies and toddlers at that stage wriggle worms, wriggle monsters, everything, so it's just anything that you can imagine when they're trying to wriggle, flip, crawl, so yeah, it's just-
Kurt Elster: Ours was, we had a little different. We had party baby because she was always ready to party.
Aileen: Oh, very cool.
Kurt Elster: Yes.
Aileen: Did she like to sleep?
Kurt Elster: Yes. Well, she was always a good sleeper. She's the third, so we figured out what we were doing by then.
Aileen: [crosstalk 00:04:15]
Kurt Elster: The first children are just practice and then by the time you get to the third, you more or less know what you're doing. Don't tell them that. Oh my gosh. Okay, so you've got this very real pain, problem, annoyance in your real life where if you have a child on a changing table, this is a legitimate danger, but if you're changing the child on the floor, you're going crazy because it takes a team of people to change a diaper and meanwhile, the child thinks this is hilarious.
Aileen: Exactly.
Kurt Elster: How did you go from, "We've got this problem," to now we have a product that solves it?
Aileen: Well, so yeah, we were kind of the throws of this problem every day, day in, day out, and we both decided, my husband James and I, we need to come up with a solution. James being the very domesticated husband that he is, he borrowed a sewing machine, went on to YouTube, taught himself how to sew. We went to Ikea, tried loads of different types of fabrics and materials and we just came up with a solution that worked for us. It was still a changing mat or a changing pad, but it freed up our hands, gave us our hands back. It kept our little guy in place and it just, it really did return diaper changing to that quick, easy experience that it had once been.
Then, I guess, we were having, my sister, my friends, a lot of them had babies of the same age and they were all experiencing the same problem, so when they saw it, they wanted to try it. As we realized it's a problem that's experienced by up to 40% of parents, so we figured, "Well maybe this is something that could actually help more than just us." That's where we started the very long journey of bringing the Wriggler changing pad to the market.
Kurt Elster: Going back a little bit, I love it that the journey starts with a sewing machine and going out and trying to solve this yourself for two reasons. Number one, this fits so perfectly into the common entrepreneurial journey, which is you have a pain or problem in your real life and then you say, "Well why can't I solve this?" Then going out and actually attempting to do it. Then the fact that you went and made the thing yourselves with a sewing machine. I have come to accept that being able to sew properly on a sewing machine is an entrepreneurial super power. If you're out there and you own a sewing machine and you are skilled at it, there is no reason you couldn't be selling something clever on Etsy, but don't just limit it to, "I make stuff myself."
Your sewing machine, you now have the ability to make prototypes of things. Recycled Firefighter, seven figure store, sells primarily wallets. It's because the retired firefighter who runs it, Jake Starr, could sew. He had a sewing machine. He started selling fire hose wallets. Or Beav Brodie from Tactical Baby Gear, he said, "I'm going to make my own diaper bag," and sat down with his sewing machine, the man could sew, and made his own diaper bag. If you have a sewing machine in your house and can use it, you should view it as "I own a rapid prototyping machine."
Aileen: It's an amazing skill and considering when I was doing it, I was trying to staple things together and that really didn't work well. So yes, the sewing machine was a brilliant addition to the whole project, definitely.
Kurt Elster: Yeah, I cannot sew to save my life.
Aileen: No, I couldn't.
Kurt Elster: I am in awe of people who can, but one step in between is generally before people, they go where we've got this issue. Then you got to, "Let's our own solution for this." In between, is does the solution for this exist in the market? Did you consider any existing solutions?
Aileen: Yeah, absolutely. We did look. We looked online. We looked at our local baby shops and we really couldn't find anything that would solve that problem. On changing tables, some of the changing tables have a thin strap that can go across the child's waist, but I mean we're talking strong kind of one year olds child. That does not hold them and we didn't consider it safe, so yeah, that was kind of the closest alternative we could find. There are some that will help keep the child's hands out of the mess and that and that's another ... But that wasn't actually a problem that we had. The problem that we really had was just trying to keep him still just long enough that we could take off the diaper and put on a clean one. That was it and we just couldn't find anything that would solve that particular problem.
Kurt Elster: Yeah, they have these, the two changing mats we have, there's just this one inch nylon webbing strap. We have never ... I don't think we've ever once used it because we're like, "In what universe is this actually doing anything? This is just a false sense of security."
Aileen: Exactly. Yeah, totally.
Kurt Elster: How is the Wriggler different than one of the ... It's a changing mat, but what's different about it?
Aileen: Yeah, so in some ways it's kind of hard to describe, but if you imagine on the outside, so it folds up like a traditional portable changing pad that you would fit in your handbag or changing bag, but when you open it out, it has a bear character on it.
Kurt Elster: It's very cute.
Aileen: The bear character, yeah, so the character has two arms coming out of the mat. You lay your little one down and then the bear gives your little one a hug, so the bear's arms cross the child's body. Then they extend down into knee pads, so when the parent kneels on the knee pads, it anchors the pad. Yeah, so it anchors the pad and the baby in place and it frees up your hands. Basically, your knees are doing what your hands are usually doing, trying to keep the little one still, but they're on the knee pads and then your hands are freed up for a really quick and easy change. We like to say that we're changing struggles to snuggles. That's kind of our tagline. So yeah, the little one gets a bear hug while you get the job nice and quickly.
Kurt Elster: It looks ... It's super cute. It looks fun. I had no idea those were knee pads in the bottom. That's very clever. Did you and James, your husband, have any product design or development experience?
Aileen: No, not at all. It's really just necessity is the mother of invention. This was something that ... We tried lots of different iterations of it, but this was the one that ultimately worked and really kept our guy in one place and freed our hands. So, no. Now, since then, obviously the product that we sell now is a hell of a lot further along than our first prototype, so once we had the design kind of functioning, we did work with a couple of design universities in Ireland. They just helped refine the actual, the look of it, so we worked with a product design team and a fashion design team, but that was more how it appears and the bear character. The actual functionality of it and the knee pads, which we have a patent on it, which we're delighted with. That was us, but it was just problem, we have a problem. We need to solve it, so I do think it's definitely the way to a lot of good products. Necessity really is the mother of invention.
Kurt Elster: You solved this problem for yourselves. Then you had family or friends see it and go, "Oh geez, I want one."
Aileen: Yeah. Basically, so yeah, my sister has four kids, so she was definitely one of our first product testers. When you're at that stage in your life, a lot of your friends tend to have babies and that, so yeah, they all tried it. All found it helpful and then it just kind of, it grew from there. We figured that this wasn't ... There was nothing else like it and it seemed to be solving a problem that wasn't effectively solved before, so yeah, it was something that we thought, "Well maybe this would be helpful for other people as well."
Kurt Elster: Oh absolutely. Other people were looking at it going, "I want one too." Is that the moment it occurred to you that, "Hey, we should do this. This should be a business." How did that conversation go?
Aileen: Well, actually the moment that really sticks in my mind was we were at a point where my mom and dad were helping with childcare for one day in the week and we ... I remember my husband dropped my son over to my dad one day and he didn't have the Wriggler with him. So he didn't have this rough prototype that we'd always use and the look on Dad's face when he realized that he was going to have to change a diaper without the Wriggler, that was James's kind of light bulb moment where we was like, "Oh, this is actually a problem that this could make way more people's lives easier than just ours and our family and friends." That kind of sticks in both of our heads as a moment where we thought, "Yeah, we could see this in other people's homes being useful to other people as well."
Kurt Elster: That light bulb moment, I think, not to diminish what you did there, leading up to then is really the easy point and it's then, the thing that scares me, because I've never done it and I have seen people struggle with it, everyone struggles with it, is actually getting the product manufactured in mass manufacturing. Yeah, you could attempt to make all of them out of your house and sell on Etsy and that would be a legitimate cottage business, but if you want to be hands off and grow it and scale it to where someone else is making it and you're fulfilling it, what's that next step there? How did you go about saying, "All right, let's do this. Now what?"
Aileen: Yeah, and it is daunting and kind of looking back, there's a lot of challenges along the way, but I think we just took each step incrementally. The first step was even finding somebody who had mass produced other products before. We found a couple of sourcing agents in Ireland and just talked to them about even the process of if you were to manufacture something like this, how would you go about it? Ultimately, so those are the first steps of thinking how can we get this recreated?
Then we did find a sourcing agent that we were really happy with and he has been kind of our lifeline through all of it. I think, you know, he has years of experience in the industry. We do manufacture overseas and he has huge experience over there. He has colleagues who work on the ground over there who can really help, so I think that relationship with him and finding someone that we trusted and who had experience in the area who could kind of fill the gaps that we didn't have, that was invaluable to us. That was kind of the start of the journey, finding a sourcing agent who would then help with finding a factory. He sourced a really good factory that we're really happy with.
Then we went through a lot of different steps of getting samples back and forth, so we had our initial sample, but they replicated the first sample. It took a lot of samples, to be honest, to get to exactly where we wanted it to be. It's a product that's used from newborn all the way up to age three, so we wanted ... It had to be ... It's BPA, it's phthalate free, it's lead free, PVC free. There's loads of restrictions over baby products and safety testing and all of that, so we had to make sure that the samples not only looked like our sample, but also met all of the safety requirements for that.
That took time, but I think as long as we took each step, it was like, "Okay, we have the sample. Now we need to test these materials to make sure that they pass these tests." Then when all they passed the test, then it was like, "Okay, now we need to look at the packaging." Then when we got the packaging, then we were like, "Okay, let's go to order." I think, yeah, going step by step, it all kind of fell into place eventually, if that makes sense.
Kurt Elster: So you decide to jump in. You have your light bulb moment. Then you talked to multiple sourcing agents. You find one that makes you comfortable, you're comfortable with, and you hire the sourcing agent who's a consultant who helps you go about having the final industrial design version of the product made. Then you find, working with the sourcing agent, find manufacturers. The manufacturer sends you samples, which the samples are almost always going to be better than the final version, so you better nail those samples. Go through multiple samples 'til you get it to where you're happy with it. Then safety testing to make sure that this stuff's lead free, et cetera.
Aileen: Yep.
Kurt Elster: Now what.
Aileen: So now we have our final sample that we were happy with and at that point, actually, because things were taking time going back and forth, James actually traveled over to China, over to the factory to meet with the manufacturer to just, I guess to negotiate to some extent because obviously that's a factor involved to get the pricing right. Then just to build that relationship with the factory as well and with the manufacturer, so yeah, that was an experience in itself, I'd say. Making that trip over from Ireland over to China, night was day for him. He spent a week there and just the culture shock that went with that, he was in a very industrial part of China, so there was no Western food or anything like that. It was definitely an interesting experience, but at the end of that trip, we placed our first order.
Well, they all have minimums, so we kind of ... You don't want to place too small of an order, but you obviously have to meet the factory's minimum, so we placed our first order then. And then, that's when they started the first factory run and yeah, it went from there. But even within that then, so while they're producing it, we had further test and quality control testing, which can be arranged really easily, actually over there because we weren't on the ground for the actual manufacturing. To do that, they test a certain number of each batch just to make sure that they meet the minimum requirements that we've given. Then that all takes around three months. Then they put them on the boat and ship them to us.
Kurt Elster: From the moment that you said, "Let's find this," from the moment the sourcing agent was set off on making those first samples to the time that product landed on your shores, how long was that?
Aileen: Longer than you would think. Probably, oh god, well bear in mind, so our eldest is six now. We started off on this problem when he was one. We're a year in. Maybe, probably, 18 months from when we actually starting working with the factory to when it landed on our shores, in terms of back in forth. I think it would have been quicker if we had gone over sooner, but most people don't have that. I don't think you need that to actually place an order or that, but it probably would have shortened the process because it was just the idea of ...
So they would send us a sample. We would say, "Okay, these are the good bits of the sample and this is stuff that we need changed or this bit here." Then we would send that feedback and then it would take another couple of months for them to send the next sample. Then we'd say, "Okay, this is getting closer, but now we need this changed and this changed." All of that, it just took time back and forth, so yeah, probably 18 months, but at the same time, we definitely feel as much in some ways, we would've liked it to have been quicker, we learned a huge amount in that time from when we got that sample to when we actually started selling it. We learned a huge amount in terms of how we were going to market it and how we were going to put it out there and try and sell it.
Kurt Elster: While you're waiting for that product, you're simultaneously planning. Now it's for real, you're locked in, so you are back home, instead of just waiting, twiddling your thumbs, you are planning, "Okay, here is how we're going to market and launch this thing and make the money back." I'm sure it was not inexpensive to design, develop, and manufacture this thing.
Aileen: Exactly, yeah. In reality, that was the most valuable learning, probably of all. I guess when we first had this idea, we knew nothing about e-commerce. We didn't know anything about the baby industry either, I suppose. We're just going along, doing our jobs-
Kurt Elster: Did you have any experience in internet marketing?
Aileen: No. I have done bits and pieces. I had done some eBay selling when I was in college to try and pay for fees and I had done, but no-
Kurt Elster: Me too.
Aileen: Yeah, so it was literally, "All right, let's make ends meet. Let's sell some stuff." It was never any kind of official e-commerce business or anything like that, and that wasn't really on our radar to start with. We kind of thought, "Well okay, well let's get this into the local baby shops and that," but it was really James then who kind of started looking at podcasts and looking at a lot of digital marketing. That's when we kind of thought, "Actually, this is quite a good fit for e-commerce" because it's a specific market that we can target, so we do use a good bit of Facebook and Instagram advertising, so we can target a specific market. It's pretty much mothers of babies age zero to three, some fathers, but predominately, so it's definitely a market that can be targeted.
It's a problem that has a solution, so it's very demonstrable. We have a video that runs that shows the problem and the solution. While I think if people went into the shop, they wouldn't necessarily be looking for, "Oh, do you have any changing pads for babies who wriggle at diaper changing?" It works well with that kind of interruption marketing where if we show up on their news feeds, it seems to resonate really well with moms going, "Oh my god, I have this problem and I never knew that this solution existed." It was only through podcasts, like your podcast, and other e-commerce podcasts and digital marketing podcasts that we thought, "Actually this does fit really well into that space." That's why we went that direction and really, we're so glad that we did.
Kurt Elster: You went from, "We know nothing about this, but our back's to the wall and we have to figure out how to sell it," and the number one way you figured that out was through podcasts?
Aileen: Yes.
Kurt Elster: Oh that's so cool.
Aileen: Yeah, it's amazing, yeah, the information that ... We've learned so much and I know, not to be blowing smoke at you, but we've learned so much from your podcast and so much from other, just-
Kurt Elster: Give me some others. I'll put them in the show notes.
Aileen: So digital marketer, we found that. Perpetual Traffic, that was a really good one. Mike Jackness's EcomCrew. Ecommerce Influence, I think that's Andrew Foxwell, Austin Brawner.
Kurt Elster: Yeah, I like that one a lot.
Aileen: Yeah, we found Rick Moriarty, the Art of Paid Traffic, that's more kind of digital products, but still the concept of, which I know you talk about it a lot, building that relationship with the audience and multiple touch points and giving content so that then when people are ready to buy, they will know where to find you. All of those lessons, we kind of learned, really, from yeah, a lot of digital marketing podcasts.
As busy parents and we still do have our jobs to pay the bills, so we do, say I have a really long commute to work, so I would listen to podcasts on my way to work. I would listen to podcasts going home from work. James, same thing, or if he's out for a run, he'll always listen to a podcast and then we'll ... So it's just amazing the amount of information that we've got from that. Then, obviously, like a lot of books on kind of marketing and say Contagious by Jonah Berger and the Wizard of Ads, all of those kind of advertising books, we would have listened to on Audible as well because we don't really have time to read books anymore, but-
Kurt Elster: Me too.
Aileen: Yeah, but it's amazing how much you can consume during that kind of dead time during your day when it's kind of wasted for other stuff. Yeah, that's really, that is 100% how we've got to this point, which-
Kurt Elster: Oh yeah, absolutely. This morning, I drove in. It took me about, it rained, so naturally, a slight rain, there were three accidents, took me 40 minutes to get here. I listened to several chapters of an audio book. In the car, I occasionally listen to music, but for the most part now, just it's Audible and podcasts and whether that's entertainment or continuing education, I love it. I would almost miss having a short commute or miss having a long commute.
Aileen: Yes, I know. Isn't it so strange. Yeah, it is amazing how kind of the worst part of your day can actually become kind of an interesting part of the day. It's yeah. [crosstalk 00:25:59]
Kurt Elster: It turns into an asset in that you cannot be distracted by screens. Well, I suppose you could, but it's a terrible idea. You can't be distracted by a screen while you're driving a car.
Aileen: Exactly, yeah. When I'm leaving the office, I'll always make myself a cup of tea, put the tea in the car, put on the podcast, so I'm like, "This is now my happy place," and I'm on bumper to bumper on this motorway that's horrendous, but yeah, it's turned into one of the best parts of the day. It's kind of sad.
Kurt Elster: The three podcasts we recommended were Perpetual Traffic, EcomCrew, Ecommerce Influence, and then you said a couple of books. It was Contagious, Wizard of Ads.
Aileen: Yeah, the Tipping Point. I found that one really good as well, but yeah, I don't know why Contagious just really sticks with me. I think because how things catch on, you know that need for kind of video now and video content in marketing and how that's how people are consuming their information and it just gave really helpful kind of basic core principles I found, on how to make good videos that people will want to share. As a result, the video that we have running on Facebook, has, I think it's at 1.5 to one share to like ratio, so for every 1.5 likes that we get, we get a share, which I think seems to be good in terms of metrics. It's quite a shareable video, by the sounds of things.
Kurt Elster: Oh absolutely. It's the same or similar to the video on the website?
Aileen: It's the same. Yeah, it is the same. We have, it was ... This was all part of our kind of testing on with Facebook advertising, so on the website, we have an animation, which took a lot of expertise from this guy we worked with. He was amazing to come up with and I think there's two and a half thousand frames in it or something because it is ... It's a kind of pencil animation and it's really cool, but then we also ... So we put that up on Facebook just to see would there be interest, what people would think about our solution, this idea, and it did really well, and it helped us generate leads. We ran ads to that, to a landing page, to try and generate email addresses.
That did work really well, but we got a lot of feedback that people would love to see real babies in it because this is an animation, so they probably couldn't relate to it perfectly well. Then I just got videos that I had taken on my phone of family, friends, and other product testers showing the diaper changing struggle and then showing those babies in the Wriggler and I just came up with a minute long kind of problem solution video that shows the features and benefits and whatever. Yeah, that was well on Facebook. It gets good, really good engagement and when you look at cost per lead and cost per view content and the conversion rates and stuff, it seems to do well and gets high relevance scores and that.
Kurt Elster: Your very successful video, you shot and edited yourself on your iPhone?
Aileen: Absolutely. Yeah, it's all really, and I've heard that again, through podcasts, that I've heard that that native kind of content works really well on kind of Facebook and Instagram. I am living proof that that's true, so this video took maybe a couple of hours to put together versus the animation took months. The video way outperforms the animation to the point that we just use the video now. Yeah, it works really well.
Kurt Elster: Before the product has launched, you start with trying to generate awareness through these Facebook video ads?
Aileen: Yeah, so the very first ad we ran, we did ... See we hadn't filed a patent at that point, so we just did a little teaser of the first bit of the animation, actually, to show the problem without the solution just to see how people would react and we got a pretty good reaction to that. Then, yeah, we did kind of ... You know Jeff Walker style product launch formula?
Kurt Elster: Yeah.
Aileen: Yeah, so that was how we ultimately launched. Maybe six weeks before the launch date, we started running ads with this minute long video to a landing page saying, "Sign up to find out when the launch date is and you'll get a 30% discount." They ran really well. We used Facebook advertising, so we did some to a landing page and then we did some to Facebook Messenger because we had heard, we were listening at that time and we had heard that your email list is amazing but then Facebook Messenger is this kind of new shiny object, so we were like, "Okay, we'll try and get interest on both and subscribers on both." We built our email list and a Messenger list, so maybe four to six weeks out from the launch date, and then five days before the launch, everyone who was on our email or Messenger list got a sequence basically of kind of just information, "This is what the Wriggler is. This is the problem that it solves. Here's some case studies or here are some questions if you have any concerns about this."
The first email we went, we asked them, "What names do you have for your little wrigglers?" The responses were amazing. There was Houdini, and their little feral Houdini monkey, and there was crazy stuff that we got back, but that was how we kind of generated that awareness at the start. Then we launched on the 20th of September in 2018 and we gave ... It was a three day launch where they had access to that 30% discount, so that was the start of it all.
Kurt Elster: There's the initial generate anticipation around it and build that list, build that audience. Then the actual launch, there's a sequence that builds up to that and then the actual launch or open cart occurs. You say, "All right, you've got a limited window in which to do the discount or which to purchase the product at a discount and that lasts 72 hours."
Aileen: Exactly.
Kurt Elster: Okay, so this is Jeff Walker's product launch formula, right?
Aileen: Yes.
Kurt Elster: From the book, Launch?
Aileen: Yes. Yeah, actually, another book that was quite useful for us.
Kurt Elster: We'll put that in the list too.
Aileen: Great.
Kurt Elster: I've heard that one referenced several times. I actually just bought it, so I have a copy sitting here to reference. Walk me through that product launch formula.
Aileen: Okay, so we stuck pretty consistently to Jeff's, the templates that ... He gives different email templates on how to ... So five days out, the purpose of the, what he calls the pre-pre launch is getting people onto your lists, so now you have whatever few hundred, few thousand people on your list and you're really trying to build that anticipation. It was five days then of kind of really just ... There wasn't that hard sell until the end, but you're emailing them with information. I suppose there's a lot of frequently asked questions, so information about the benefits that the Wriggler can give to you.
Then there's kind of myth busting or objection busting is kind of a lot of what you're doing in those middle couple of days where people are like, "Oh god, I don't think my child would like this." Or "Will this just take as long as a traditional diaper change?" So any of the kind of the objections that people had raised a long the way, that gave us a chance to bust those objections. Then the last couple of days, you're just emailing again, the benefits and a bit of urgency saying, "This will only last for whatever. You'll only be able to avail of the discount for the three days and then it'll be gone." Then you don't actually open the cart or give the discount until that specific time that you've stated, so then the idea is that when you do open the cart, there is a kind of a flood to buy, which we never thought we'd ... You never know how it's all going to work. This started from scratch for us and we were just like, "Oh my god, is anyone actually going to add to cart or go through the check out?"
Kurt Elster: Oh it's nerve wracking.
Aileen: Oh it was so terrifying.
Kurt Elster: What happened? How did it go?
Aileen: Yeah, so we were both sitting at the kitchen table at 8 o'clock on the 20th of September, going, "Oh my god. We're going to send this email and is anyone going to buy it?" Then, you know that Shopify, you know that the sound that you get on the app?"
Kurt Elster: Cha-ching. Yeah.
Aileen: I don't know if you ... Oh god, the cha-ching. So the first cha-ching came in as soon as we open cart and we were like, "Yes." It's just the best moment ever and yeah, that whole night was just-
Kurt Elster: I got goosebumps. You set quite the scene there.
Aileen: It was just amazing because we were nervous, but we were so happy and it was just cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. Yeah, so it was kind of everything that we hoped that it would be. Now, the launch itself, there were some things that we would do differently, but to get those first sales, it was really, really amazing. The thing I suppose that was interesting to us was when we started the Facebook ads, we kept it quite broad. We did target in the UK and Ireland and in the US and Canada, and we weren't sure how it would do across both, but the cost per lead, the cost to generate an email address, it was similar on both. The cost per advertising was similar on both, so that's why we ended up splitting the stock and actually shipping half to Ireland and half to the US to be fulfilled in the US. Yeah, so the launch happened simultaneously in both areas and it was, we got similar results for the launch in both areas.
It was only after that that things have been slightly different, but yeah, it was a great night and a great three days. Then, the next bit of it is going, "Oh my god, when is the first review going to come in and how are we going ... " So people have bought it and now are they going to like it? That was the next kind of hurdle for us and I still remember getting that first review. I had just parked my car coming home from work and we got a Facebook message with a review saying, "OMFG, this is a sanity saver." I just went, "Yes." Yeah, I was absolutely thrilled with that, so it's been great to think that, okay, there's a problem, the Wriggler now solves that problem and people are finding that it solves it for them as well. That's been huge for us. So yeah, that's how it launched.
Kurt Elster: So you launched the stores, essentially, simultaneously and identically?
Aileen: Yes, yep. Everything, yeah, everything was yeah, comparable even to the point of launching, yep.
Kurt Elster: The result, that initial launch result was similar between the two?
Aileen: Yeah, it was very similar.
Kurt Elster: The only difference between the two stores was localization, swapping nappy for diaper.
Aileen: Exactly, yeah. I think we probably made a bit of a mistake on the UK and Ireland one in that we had the currency on the site in euro. We're in Ireland, so we use the euro. The UK is just next door to us and at the moment for now, part of the EU, but they use the British pound, which we knew, obviously, but as a Irish person, I mean there's five million people in Ireland. We're small. There's 60 million people in the UK, so they're a much bigger market, so as an Irish person, I'm used to shopping online in the UK and paying in pounds and that doesn't put me off.
We don't have Amazon in Ireland, but we have Amazon UK, so I would buy on Amazon UK, but for British people, I didn't realize at the time, neither of us realized at the time, that paying in euro was very off putting for them because they obviously have everything that they need in their much bigger market, so they don't have to go outside of Britain much to buy, that's my only assumption. That was one problem with the launch that we did rectify since then, but they were ... We were getting messages on launch night saying, "I can't buy it in euro," and we were like, "No, no, you can. Your bank will do the conversion and you'll pay in pounds," but that was, for some people, that was a turnoff.
Kurt Elster: They flat out didn't think they could make a purchase in a different currency?
Aileen: Yeah, no, yeah. It was a big block for a number of people. I'm like yes, where I would have a rough idea what the conversion rate would be, they maybe didn't have any idea how much. So they were seeing a price in euros, they probably maybe didn't fully see how much they were going to paying in pounds. Yeah, we have found the Bold Multi-Currency app really good for that because now it is displayed in their currency in the UK and they pay in their currency, so it never gets converted, even at the end. That's been really helpful.
Kurt Elster: You mentioned the Bold Multi-Currency app. Were there any other apps that you found useful?
Aileen: Well, because we had the two mirror stores, we wanted to make sure that people were directed to the right store, so we used the Geolyzer app, which is really useful for that, so depending on where you are, you get redirected to the correct store for your location. We use the Bold post-purchase one click upsell as well because the fact that it's a changing pad, it's kind of a one off purchase and we only have one product, we're kind of trying different ways to increase our average order value. Yeah, we use the post-purchase one click upsell app as a ... That has actually, I think we get around, maybe 10 to 15% uptake on that, so that has increased our AOV. We use Fomo and that's something that I do think works, the Fomo app, where people are seeing, "Oh, Rachel in wherever just bought this and such a person from wherever just bought this." I think that does give that sense of social proof that other people are buying it, so it's a good purchase to make.
Kurt Elster: Yeah, and I often hear merchants push back on Fomo. They're like, "Oh, it's annoying." Do you want to make money or not?
Aileen: Yeah.
Kurt Elster: Because any time we've run this thing, it really does work. It adds that urgency and social proof at the same time. It's cool.
Aileen: Yeah, I definitely, maybe I am kind of ... I know as a purchaser that I'm definitely influenced by that and I'm thinking ... If I have any question about if I don't know the brand very well or if I'm not sure, yeah, is it a good purchase or whatever, I am influenced by the fact that 10 people in the last whatever amount of time have just bought it and I think, "Okay, well if it's good enough for them, it's kind of good enough for me."
Kurt Elster: I think it's cool. I like the social aspect of it.
Aileen: Yeah.
Kurt Elster: What's neat, they added new features to it because we run this on my wife's store, so you can have it ... Obviously, ideally, if you have the volume, you want it to do just like, "So and so purchased X. So and so purchased X." But you could have it do other events too, like "Signed up for this mailing list. Added to cart."
Aileen: That is very cool, actually. Yep.
Kurt Elster: This journey has been phenomenal. I have enjoyed hearing it. I'm glad we did this. Looking back, if you had to start over, you had to go back two years, what would you tell yourself? What would you do differently?
Aileen: As much it has ... We have made good sales, say in the UK and Ireland and the US, I think if we were doing it again, I would possibly focus on one to start with, with a view to expanding. In that first launch and in terms of the Facebook advertising and all of that, it gave us really good reason to launch in both places simultaneously, but in say the year that has gone since then, that idea of multiple touch points has been ever ... It's just kind of emblazoned in our brains because it's been a different journey in that year. So in the UK and in Ireland, we've won two quite prestigious baby awards for the Wriggler, so one of the largest parenting review site in the UK, we won an award for that. Then in another large website in the UK and these were all tested by independent parent product testers, so that gave a lot of kind of credibility.
We were on national radio in Ireland, which isn't big in terms of the states, but it was big in Ireland. Then we were on national TV as well on a segment in one of the morning shows. So what we've noticed in the UK and Ireland is that with the added, we've got some PR, we've got some awards. The influencer marketing has been a bit more successful, so people have had multiple touch points and as a result, it feels like there's a lot more word of mouth going on and we're noticing the comments on those ads are saying, "Oh this is what I was telling you about." Or, "This is what I saw here, there, and everywhere, whatever."
Whereas in the US, we're very reliant on Facebook ads and it's a single touchpoint and so we're not kind of penetrating the market as much. Now, I do think part of it as well, is for example, Ireland is quite a small market, so a lot more people talk and where there might be six degrees of separation in the world, there's probably only three degrees of separation in Ireland. Chances are someone has seen somebody who knows somebody who's seen the Wriggler, but the UK is a bigger market, but still, I think that multiple touchpoints is a real ... And building that relationship, it feels like the more people see us, the more they trust us, and the more we're top of mind, then when they go to purchase something.
I think if we were to go again, we would consider maybe starting in one location with a view to expanding. But apart from that, I actually don't think I would shorten the journey at all because the time that it took us to get the product right means we're happy with the product, but it also gave us a huge amount of time to upscale on something, which has ultimately been the reason and the source for our sales. All of that marketing learning that we've done, we definitely wouldn't have known all of that from the start.
Kurt Elster: Being forced to not rush, to have some time, but a hard deadline, you think that was ultimately beneficial?
Aileen: Yes, definitely. Yeah, and it didn't feel like it at the time. I often think of, have you seen those videos about the bamboo and it's under the ground for is it, five years or something? People are like, "Is it ever going to grow?" That was the same. Our family and friends were like, "So, how's the Wriggler? Is it for sale yet? Where is it? Is it still being made or whatever?" But then the bamboo grows, what is it, 90 feet in a number of days and just that concept of, okay, do the preparation. Be kind of patient about it and then, it just, I think it does allow for quicker growth on the other side. So yeah, that I wouldn't change.
Kurt Elster: If you had to give one piece of advice to a listener who's like, "I'm so close. I want to start. I want to launch my store. I want to design my product. I want to do something." What would you tell them?
Aileen: I would say just do it and I would say listen to podcasts. It's not a crazy piece of advice. It just seems like that there's so much great information out there that is available and just use that because it's really, really valuable. It's definitely the thing that has got us to this point.
Kurt Elster: You have given us so many resources. If you're at an iPhone, swipe up on the show art. It'll open up the show notes and in there, we've got the three podcasts recommendations, four book recommendations, four app recommendations, and finally, we have links to the Wriggler US and UK stores because you have a discount for us.
Aileen: Yes. We are very happy to offer a 30% discount, so to any listeners who are parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, friends, I mean we all know somebody who has a baby, so yeah, if you use the code unofficial, you can get 30% off. It's a great gift for expecting parents or for parents of babies for their first birthday gift. It's a great gift for that as well, so 30% off with the code unofficial.
Kurt Elster: That is generous and we thank you. Aileen, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for doing this.
Aileen: Oh, thank you Kurt. I'm so kind of star struck actually being on this side of things because usually I'm in my car, listening to you or you and Paul talk and so, thank you so much for the opportunity and for having me on.
Kurt Elster: Oh, our pleasure. It's so cool to see someone take the journey and go from, "All right, I'm consuming the resources. I'm putting it into a fact. I'm figuring out." Then it comes full circle. Now you're on the other side of it, helping people to do the same thing. You should be proud.
Aileen: Oh, well I am, but thank you. Thanks again so much.