How Lingerie Living Began
Lingerie Living was founded in 2019 as an exclusive marketplace seller for brands looking to be on marketplaces (think Amazon) but at the time, we didn't also want to take on our own website (think product fulfillment, customer support, branding, and more). Marketplaces are where most people start their shopping journey. There is convenience in being able to shop a wide range of products at once (often our products are purchased alongside diapers or dish soap). Consumers want convenience and trust, being on someone else's website allows us to deliver excellent customer service, educate consumers about their favorites bras and underwear and build trust.
Today, we are in every major marketplace you can think of and leading the way for new marketplaces as department stores expand into the space (we of next month we will be on shelf in Nordstrom!). In fact, we are still the only preferred marketplace seller on Amazon for Natori Intimates, so if you see Natori Intimates sold by any other seller on Amazon other than Lingerie Living or Amazon, know that they were NOT authorized by Natori Intimates and could be a fake.
We knew it was time to launch lingerieliving.com when...
As a consumer, when you shop from Amazon and it's shipped by Amazon, you can trust that you'll get the item quickly and can usually return it hassle-free. However, we started to notice a number of customer complaints about receiving used product (that was supposed to be new) and that gave us major ick. That was because we weren't hadnling quality control for our bras, someone at Amazon was. Someone who didn't know our bras as well as we did, someone who maybe didn't even know intimate apparel, was deciding if a returned bra or panty could be resold! Um... no.
We also saw that on these marketplaces we were limited in how we could engage and help the customer. If someone needed help picking out a strapless bra style, we couldn't connect with them because they were talking with that website's customer service, not us. If a customer reached out to us directly, we had to redirect them back to the website they bought our product from in order to remain compliant with the site rules. Lastly, we were limited in how we could educate the customer when she was bra shopping. Some sites let us publish our fit guide videos but some don't. In order to stand by our mission that bra shopping is more fun with friends, then we needed to launch our own site.
OK, We Launched A Website, Now What?
Anyone with a credit card and a dream can launch a website so we knew we needed a point-of-view and an aesthetic that aligned with our mission, bra shopping is more fun with friends. We enlisted the help of Tara Ocello, a very talented Jill of all trades when it comes to anything design, marketing and storytelling. Tara has a ton of experience in intimate apparel which means she knows the bra space and we had worked with her in the past on some assets for marketplaces so we knew she understood our mission.
Within a few weeks Tara came back with concepts and colors that really spoke to us.
She drew inspiration from many different places including the Memphis interior design trends of the early 90's and contemporary streetwear brands. She gave us a color palate that was somehow both sophisticated and daring.
Tara gave us a lot of logos which you will see over time and on special occasions, but our hero logo which you will see most often on the site was selected because of its duality. We loved how it was a marriage of delicate and tailored which is what we encourage everyone's bradrobe to have. Our hero logo for Lingerie Living perfectly encapsulates our passion and love for lingerie and its ability to meet you at whatever moment you find yourself in.
It's hard to put a brand out into the world with its own personality and point-of-view but we're so grateful to Tara for all of her hard work. She listened to our story and what we were trying to achieve and brought our vision to life. We're thrilled to share that vision with all of you and hope when you come to Lingerie Living you feel excited and energized and happy. Bra shopping should be a fun, freeing experience and working on our brand identity was exactly that!
Check out Heather's interview with Tara and stay tuned as we continue to build out our vision and voice on Lingerie Living!