jillybean green Grows Eco-Conscious Business

Jill Sundahl is a Los Angeles mother of two young hip kids who share her interest in helping the environment. Recently, Jill decided to put her money where her carbon footprint was, and opened an online and brick-and-mortar environmental specialty store in Studio City, California. Although still a little sprout, her jillybean green store is quickly growing up vibrant and strong.

Here, Jilly shares with The Giggle Guide^® how “going green” in retailing can lead to healthy, thriving profits!

How did you get started in children’s retail?

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We launched our online store the summer of 2009 and our retail space followed shortly thereafter. I have been an entertainment marketing executive for many years and one day after discussing the environment with my kids realized I wanted to create something of my own that can help make a difference. By no means am I green in everything I do, but in starting jillybean green I took the right step in a better direction.

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What was your background prior to this business?

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Entertainment Marketing Executive. We are still very involved in that business, in addition to running jillybean green.

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What was the biggest challenge you faced when starting up?

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Finding products that weren’t on every other online store. We are trying to carry different items not found everywhere, and we think we have assembled a variety of choices. Of course, we have quite a few well-known eco-friendly brands in the mix too, as they offer some very cool eco-friendly products that we just love.

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What do you feel are the three biggest keys to your success?

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1. Customer Service.
2. Great Product Selection
3. Marketing/Word of Mouth

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How do you evaluate and choose new product lines to pick up?

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We gravitate towards products that we would have our own kids wear or use.

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What types of marketing are most effective for your business?

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SEO, Blog Reviews and Social Media Applications such as Facebook and Twitter are most valuable.

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How do “green” or eco-friendly concerns weigh into your business decisions?

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We primarily carry eco-friendly items, except some of our handmade items do not use organic cottons, but we feel strongly about supporting handmade items, and people around the country who are creating them, so they are featured on jillybean green too. We also have them ship directly to the customer so we aren’t shipping twice, which saves on fuel and excess packing.

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What is one trend you’re currently seeing with customers?

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They are loving appliqued items and they are looking for affordability. For this reason we have a few hundred items priced under $25.

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How does your business make use of the Internet?

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We have a website, www.jillybeangreen.com, we have a Facebook fan page , a Twitter account, and we make sure our link is available on brand sites of lines we carry. In addition, we invest in using Google adwords.

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What is one change/addition that’s had a positive impact for your business?

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We just launched a few months ago so the only change/addition I would say is opening our brick and mortar space which gives customers a chance to also touch and feel the items.

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If you had one piece of advice for someone entering children’s retail today, what would it be?

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Have fun and be patient with growing your business. If it isn’t fun for you, don’t do it. We have a ball and love it!

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More About jillybean green

jillybean green was founded by a Los Angeles mom of two hip kids who started taking an interest in the environment. It is a hip, trendy and eco-friendly boutique with a retail space in Studio City, California and an extensive product line-up online. jillybean green has over 1,000 products featured in its online boutique in categories including apparel, personalized gifts, gift sets, jewelry, nursery decor, diaper bags/totes, toys, bath products, backpacks, lunchboxes, blankets, bibs and more. Products sold are kid-friendly, fashion-forward and meet the requirements of being at least one of the following: organic, natural, made with sustainable materials, fair trade, recycled, reusable, upcycled, handmade and/or non-toxic.

jillybean green also loves to support the handmade business, and features quite a few handmade items made by moms, or mom-owned businesses across the USA. The store continually updates and adds new products to keep it current and fresh. They don’t feature anything that they wouldn’t put on their own kids or themselves.

Do you offer parents a unique shopping experience? Tell us about it…