Beardbrand Perseveres Amid Challenges

I host “Ecommerce Conversations” while running Beardbrand, my direct-to-consumer provider of men’s grooming supplies. Periodically I’ll divert an episode to share the details of my business in the hope it helps others. I’ve done that three times in the last year, a challenging period for many ecommerce companies, including mine.

I’ve addressed our initial sales decline, plans for recovery, and, most recently, a year-end recap.

In this episode, I’ll discuss our recent changes at Beardbrand to persevere for better times.

The full audio of my dialog is embedded below. The transcript is edited for clarity and length.

Logistics

Since my last update, we’ve focused on lowering costs. One significant initiative was moving to a new 3PL to get closer to our new manufacturer. The goal was to shorten the time from the completion of manufacturing to shipping products to customers. We’ve been consolidating our manufacturing to one provider, which should help tighten the supply chain.

Our new manufacturer is in the U.S. Midwest. Our 3PL was in Dallas, Texas. We could have shifted fulfillment to the new manufacturer, which offers that service. Instead we opted for another 3PL, one that’s closer to the manufacturing facility.

The direct fulfillment cost would have been roughly the same for the manufacturer or the new 3PL. We chose the latter mainly because the initial setup would be quicker.

The transition from our previous to the new 3PL went pretty well. There were some hiccups, but I’ve got a good team member who managed the process well. We’ll wait to determine how much savings, if any, the new 3PL achieves.

ADA Lawsuit

Beardbrand has been dealing with an ADA lawsuit for allegedly having an inaccessible ecommerce site. Many industry colleagues recommended that we settle and move on. I couldn’t do that on principle. The plaintiff was suing 50 companies simultaneously and never reached out to us to respond to its complaints. The plaintiff falsely claimed we had no alt tags on images, for example. It was a money grab, and I didn’t want to reward that behavior.

Settling the lawsuit might save money, but it has downsides. If all entrepreneurs and operators fought bogus lawsuits and lawyers rather than settling, the problem would lessen. By settling, we encourage them to continue. If you have the means to fight the lawsuit, do it. We’re going to fight it.

Sales

Sales continue to be soft. We’re in our slow season — around September, it typically starts to improve. Meta has historically been our main customer acquisition channel, but our efforts there lately have been mostly unsuccessful.

Last week, we brought on X as a marketing platform. We’ll see how it performs.

We’re launching new products to counter the slowdown. We have a new, natural, aluminum-free deodorant in the works. Hopefully, it’ll be available by the end of the year. We’ll also be releasing new products on Amazon. I have a lot of ideas for new products, but we’re focusing on one of our core areas of expertise: small-batch fragrance development.

The raw materials costs for some of our products have gone through the roof. It’s forcing us to decide whether to raise prices to customers or reformulate the products. We’ve always developed products based purely on quality. I’m questioning that approach for the first time in 12 years, asking myself if an ingredient is worth the premium investment. My answer is no. We have to evolve. We’ll test, get prototypes to our customers, and see if they meet their expectations. If not, we will explore the higher price point.

YouTube

Traffic to Bearbrand’s videos on YouTube has declined. Since about 2019, we’ve seen a dramatic drop in organic views. We’ve devised new approaches. We now have two channels, and we’re tweaking how we film. Nothing seems to work. Our videos no longer seem to resonate with our audience or the algorithm. We’ve had several good hits on YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and TikTok, but they don’t build the same affinity with our audience as long-form versions.

We now plan to host regular livestreams to get back to the basics of connecting authentically with our audience. That sort of direct communication with customers is critical. I’m excited to get it going.

Moving Forward

Despite our challenges over the past two years, I am encouraged and optimistic about our changes. A business needs to be sustainable. It has to make money. Dealing with shrinking sales is no fun, but entrepreneurs do not get to choose their problems. We prioritize, align resources, and move forward. That’s how we succeed over the long term.