On this podcast, we talk about why Ring Concierge chose to stop selling other brands’ products and started selling their own, how they manage to market to 2 separate customers, why hiring is crucial to success, and so much more!
Katie Bilodeau is the President of Ring Concierge, the leading luxury jeweler committed to designing forever pieces that are both inspirational and obtainable.
Katie began her time at Ring Concierge as a consultant in 2017 and became President of the company in 2020 working closely with Nicole Wegman, Founder & CEO, to strategize and manage overall company initiatives.
Katie's focus is on overall company strategic direction, including oversight of the operational, employee and financial departments ensuring maximum efficiency and a scalable platform for growth.
Prior to her time with Ring Concierge, Katie worked in the Human Resources department as a Business Partner at Barclays Capital Investment Bank and later working at King Street Capital Management.
After leaving King Street Capital Management, Katie began consulting on her own with various startups helping with their business strategy from a human capital standpoint.
As a 2009 Clemson University alum, her Bachelor’s in Business Management with an emphasis in Human Resource provided her the extensive knowledge and in depth understanding of how imperative the human capital strategy is to the foundation of any company.
In This Conversation We Discuss:
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Katie Bilodeau
We can have such a loyal following but if we don't have the right team to execute against our brand, the company is going to fall off.
Chase Clymer
Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, a podcast dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. And I believe running a direct-to-consumer brand does not have to be complicated or a guessing game.
On this podcast, we interview founders and experts who are putting in the work and creating real results.
I also share my own insights from running our top Shopify consultancy, Electric Eye. We cut the fluff in favor of facts to help you grow your Ecommerce business.
Let's get on with the show.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Honest Ecommerce. I'm your host, Chase Clymer.
And today we're welcoming to the show, Katie Bilodeau. She is the president of Ring Concierge is the leading NYC-based bridal and fine jewelry brand with a cult social following.
Katie, welcome to the show.
Katie Bilodeau
Thank you for having me.
Chase Clymer
Alrighty, so for those that aren't in the know, can you quickly just let us know what Ring Concierge is all about?
What are you guys doing? What are you selling?
Katie Bilodeau
Yep, we are a digitally-native, DTC, fine jewelry company.
Our pieces range from under $100 to well into the seven figures. We are very focused on redefining luxury.
And we are female founded and female ran, which we're super proud of.
Chase Clymer
That's amazing. So take me back in time. Where did this idea come from? What were you doing? What... How do I get a good idea like this?
Katie Bilodeau
Well, I can't take credit for having the idea because it's [from] our founder and CEO, Nicole Wegman. But...
So it all started in 2013 when she was going through the engagement ring process herself.
And she realized that there wasn't really anything in between the heritage brands like Cartier, Tiffany, Van Cleef, all of them, and then the Diamond District.
And so she really saw this in-between market that was not being captured. "So how do we cater to the actual end user?" And really, that is what it's about.
Because in the engagement ring business, the end-user is a female, and the purchaser is a man. And historically, you've been sold by men and they're the ones that were defining what it is they think the female should be wearing.
And so she really thought there's a need for a millennial voice and the millennial shopping experience, how a millennial wants to approach shopping, and what the product is that they actually want to see.
47th Street, the diamond district in New York City, is not a very inviting place, you're haggled and called at. And so she wanted the experience of a heritage brand, but not the price tag of a heritage brand hence the name "Ring Concierge."
It was born because she felt like she could be the concierge helping couples go through that ring buying experience. So it all started there one by one.
It was, I think, profitable from the first few sales. Nicole invested $2,000 in the business, and we've been profitable since year one. And she just started to acquire customers.
And it was a few years into the brand when the customer started asking, "Well, what jewelry are you wearing?" And she realized, "I'm, right now, servicing customers for a one-time purchase."
You hope for a one time purchase.
And so she realized, "I need to keep these customers with their lifetime value. And there's more in the jewelry space I can do.”
And that's when she launched the Ecommerce company.
Chase Clymer
Okay, so at first, I just want to make sure I heard you correctly. This was a one-on-one service business.
Katie Bilodeau
Yes.
Chase Clymer
And she launched this. And she was getting real time feedback from the customers, who were these young couples, about the ring buying experience.
And that led them to knowing...
Obviously, increasing LTV is what you want to do with all of your customers. That led into building up the direct-to-consumer business.
Katie Bilodeau
Exactly. So it really happened organically. It was seeing a void in the market for "How to shop for engagement rings?" And then understanding what the customer needs. We’re organic by just servicing them one-on-one and building from there.
Chase Clymer
Oh, that's amazing. So obviously, the validation has happened naturally through the progression of the business. So let's talk about...
I guess would we call that Ring Concierge 2.0 when you guys launched the Ecommerce business?
How did that all take off? And is that when you start to enter the picture?
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah. So yeah. Fair. Ring concierge 2.0. We're probably at Ring concierge 5.0 at this point.
Chase Clymer
Okay.
Katie Bilodeau
But I think that yes, I would definitely say that's when Nicole launched the Ecommerce business. She had other brands on the site, so she was selling other designers.
And it was around 2017 or beginning of 2018 that she started to hire her first employee. And at that time, I worked in the finance business. I was in the finance industry. I was in HR. And she had asked me for help.
"What do I do here? How do I hire somebody? What does this look like? That's not my expertise."
And so since Nicole was hiring her first employee, I've consulted with her. And so I saw the brand grow since that first person. And I came on...
I left the finance industry, because I realized that's not really where I wanted my future to be. And I came on to consult with her as she started to grow her business, which was...
We were doubling revenue every single year and so the need for growth in the team was exponential every year. And therefore, I just...
I was consulting at first and it just started to build and build.
And finally, it was 3 years ago, Nicole asked me to come on as president, my current role.
Chase Clymer
Awesome. That's amazing. So you mentioned that when Nicole first launched the direct-to-consumer side of things, it was... Obviously she was selling... Was she selling her own products and other people's products?
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah. And so that was... At first it was other brands that Nicole was selling. And we have since...
We only have one other brand on the site currently, but we have since all developed our own brand or own product.
Sorry.
And we have hired a really, really great team from some leading key players to help us do that in the production and the product development design space.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. I already knew the answer before I asked it just to be completely honest.
Katie Bilodeau
(laughs)
Chase Clymer
But you gotta paint the picture and tell the story. Why did you guys develop your own products instead of having these other ones that were already made? It seems like a simple answer.
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah. Well, because we felt like we knew the customer. They, the customer...
We're...
Our company has grown through social media. And Nicole has bought...
She's been a presence on our social media. We are a personality-led brand. And she is the figure and the voice of Ring Concierge. And so our customers and our followers feel very bought into Nicole.
And she's become a tastemaker. She's a trendsetter. And our customers really listen to what it is she wants, and what it is she likes. And so we really...
We realize that we know our customers better than anybody else. And so we want to be servicing them. And we want to be developing pieces that we already know that they need and want. And so we really utilize social media for that.
We still, to this day, poll them on "Would you guys buy this product? If it were at this price point, would you be interested in it?"
As we're developing, we're constantly evolving our community. So I think it was through the recognition of realizing, "We were the ones holding the relationship with our customers." And so we really know them better than anybody else.
Why wouldn't we want to provide them the product that we know that they want?
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. Is there any also any consideration with it?
Obviously, I'm just assuming the margins are a little bit stronger with doing the product development in-house.
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, definitely. I mean, for business growth, we are self-funded. We, still to this day...
We're 10 years old, we have not taken any outside capital. That's something we're very proud of. And we don't have any plans to do so we'd really like to not [do that].
And so yeah, everything that we do we have to be very conscious about the bottom line of the business and so that was a big factor in it.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. Alright, so let's go back to selling rings online now. How much...
When you went direct-to-consumer, how much of that was selling engagement rings or is it more...
I don't have an opposite to that.
Everyday rings, I guess, is what I'm gonna say as a man.
Katie Bilodeau
Fine jewelry. Just everyday fine jewelry.
All the jewelry I'm wearing is our everyday fine jewelry.
Chase Clymer
Okay, so how much...
What was the assortment? Were we still selling engagement rings on the one online as well?
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah, yeah. So to date, we've been...
Our Ecommerce business has started to outpace [what] we call the "bespoke" side of the business. Our engagement ring side is called bespoke because every piece is custom and handmade right here in New York City for whatever the specific needs and wants of the client are.
So our bespoke business and our fine jewelry business have been 50 - 50 split in terms of our revenue until the past, I think a year, and a half or so. Our fine jewelry has started to outpace that.
It's just easier to scale it. It's not a hands on one-on-one experience. We have an entire diamond specialist team that manages every relationship and creation of each ring.
So it's just obviously easier to scale the Ecommerce side. So it's starting to outpace the bespoke side of the business, but the bespoke side of the business is still a very meaningful part of our company.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. And now, with the direct-to-consumer side of things, and starting to get into that mass market, how did Nicole start to acquire customers outside of her social?
Obviously, social media played a big part of that, but outside of her network, can we talk any about how she started to do that and how, obviously, it paid off in the long run?
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah. So I think what's really fascinating is we didn't start investing money in our marketing efforts until I think it was around the end of 2012. Sorry. 2019.
And then really in 2020, the pandemic hit was when we really bumped up how much we were spending on marketing. And when I say bumped up, it's such a nominal percent of money that we spend on marketing.
I have to date, this is the first year where it's becoming more of a meaningful part of our budget.
But before 2019, it was completely organic and it was social driven. We weren't spending money on ads on social. it was really just followers, word-of-mouth, customers being happy.
The client relationship is a really big piece of it, because that one-on-one experience, you have, you're creating a complete relationship. Where we...
We sell, obviously, a ton of jewelry online, and our customers love us and feel really bought into the brand.
But there's nothing like when they buy an engagement ring from us and create a relationship with one of our team members. And because that was how the business started.
Those individuals, those private clients were our marketing strategy. They were then talking to everybody they knew and [were] saying "You have to talk to Ring Concierge because of the hand holding."
The high-end experience that we're giving them like you were at a heritage brand, both on price tag.
So up until around 2019, that was the strategy: "How do we just provide a fantastic service and then use social organically to get that customer acquisition?"
Then in 2020, we realized --pandemic hit-- a lot of jewelry brands couldn't be operational because they're brick and mortar, they're in person, or retail.
And we saw an opportunity to spend more meaningful money on ad spend because a lot of companies couldn't. So we weren't competing with as many companies as we were and we exploded in 2020.
When you thought pandemic's happening, "No one's going anywhere. Why would you spend money on fine jewelry?"
Our customer was not bothered by that. They were sitting at home and we were just hitting them anyway we could and they were happily purchasing.
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Chase Clymer
Did you ever incentivize your customers to share the word about you?
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah, we have a loyalty program. That is honestly, we're... It's something that we're working on right now. Making it a little bit more robust.
But we haven't had to do referral or incentivize them in that way yet.
Chase Clymer
Awesome. With the bespoke side of the business, is there...
What's the ideal customer profile look like for you? If someone's listening to this podcast, and they want to reach out, what should they be thinking?
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah, great question. So ideal customer profile. That's anybody who is in the perspective of getting engaged.
But truly what ends up happening is, it's the female that knows Ring Concierge understands the rings and loves our designs, and wants a Ring Concierge ring.
She knows that we speak to the female. And what I mean by a millennial shopping experience that we look to create is we know what a woman cares about.
They don't care about the perfect color stone, some do. But most want to maximize the size of the ring.
They want to be able to show to everybody they know that [they have the] biggest ring possible and that's what everyone's gonna see first.
They want to be able to have that Instagram on that where they're taking a picture of it and everyone's like, "Oh my god, did you see so and so's ring?" That's what they want. That's what the female shopper wants.
And historically, you've been sold on buying just the perfect stone. And a lot of times the trade off with that is size. So the female knows, she wants...
So we're targeting women. We want the woman to know Ring Concierge and know that "We've got your back, we know what you want, we can speak to your partner." And that's really what we...
That's the person that I want to speak to. I want to make sure that she feels like she's supported in that. Then...
And this is what's interesting about our business. We're marketing to 2 different people because the end user and the top of the funnel is the female, but the purchasers are male. So we still have to speak to the male and make sure...
And we have many same sex couples as well.
But historically, most of our engagement rings have been to male and female couples. They...
So we have to also speak to the male. So in that perspective, they want an education. They're going to come [to the] shop.
They do not just go to one retailer, they want to come [to the] shop. They want to understand "Why are you priced this way? What's the benefit? What does this mean?" And so that's where our diamond sales team...
They have to be experts. They're the best of the best. And we have a phenomenal production team that we stole from a heritage brand. And so that is where we sell to the male.
Yes, we know what your partner wants but we're also the experts. And that's why you want to purchase with us.
Chase Clymer
That's amazing. Now, is there anything I didn't ask you about today that you think will resonate with our audience?
Katie Bilodeau
No, I think what a great question is the challenges you faced as a company? I think any high-growth startup has...
I can't even…
It's hard to narrow down because there are a lot of challenges. I think one of the meaningful ones is hiring the right team members. The success of the company...
We can have the best customers, we can have such a loyal following. But if we don't have the right team to execute against our plan, the company is going to fall.
And so I think that one of the biggest things is hiring the right strategic team members that understand the company vision.
Also understand that we're a high-growth startup. We're going to pivot.
We may have a plan today that we're going to pivot from tomorrow and you have to understand how to operate in that and be incredibly agile, and also be able to operate in an environment that isn't totally structured.
Given we're a 10 year old company, that does sound like a long time. 10 years is a long time but not in the world of a startup and high-growth company where we're doubling our revenue every single year.
That means the business needs to change to accommodate that growth. So to me...
My background is in HR, so obviously that's one of the things that I focus on heavily within our company; How do we have the right team members to execute our strategy? Our opportunities are truly endless. The biggest problem we have is which opportunities do we want to tackle next?
And so having the right team members that are very intelligent, they're ability to pivot, they're agile...
I always say "I don't want to hire anyone that's too good to fold the box." And that's because way back when our team really did fold the box.
No matter who you were, you were folding boxes during Black Friday, Cyber Monday. And now we don't...
Our team doesn't really have to do that anymore. But it doesn't matter what level you are, I want our team to have a "no task too small" mentality.
And that's what to me is going to build a really successful company. And then that permeates to our customers, that permeates through our client experience.
That then just makes Ring Concierge better externally without the customer even realizing that that's such a big focus for us.
Chase Clymer
Yeah, I think we could have just spent this whole conversation talking about hiring. It's such a crucial part to growing a business.
Katie Bilodeau
Yeah, I could talk forever about that. That is my background. And that is something I'm very focused on. The team knows that one of the biggest things that I want to do here is; I want to put my name on this…
I want my name to be stamped against a company that I'm super proud of working at. And so therefore, I want everyone to be happy walking in the door each day. I have very high expectations.
Our team works really hard. Really hard. And they work long hours.
But to me, the biggest thing that makes me feel that I'm doing my job and I'm doing it well is creating a company that even with high expectations and high standards and working long hours, you're really happy walking in the door each day, that you feel supported.
And so to me that's something that I focus on really heavily.
Chase Clymer
Awesome. Now if I'm listening and I want to support your hard working team, I want to pick up some fine jewelry, where do I go? What do I do?
Katie Bilodeau
Great question. Ring Concierge. @ringconcierge for Instagram. Ringconcierge.com online for our Ecommerce store.
And then we have two retail locations in New York City on Bleecker Street and Madison Ave.
Chase Clymer
Awesome. Katie, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Katie Bilodeau
Thank you for having me.
Chase Clymer
Alright. I can't thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey with us.
We've got a lot to think about and potentially add into our own business. You can find all the links in the show notes.
Make sure you head over to honestecommerce.co to check out all the other amazing content that we have. Make sure you subscribe, leave a review. And obviously if you're thinking about growing your business, check out our agency at electriceye.io. Until next time.