At ChannelX World, taking place on the 13th of October in London, we will welcome Georgie Janion-Shaw who share the story of how Novello Products was founded. You will also discover how Novello Products balances sales across Shopify and multiple marketplaces such as Amazon, Notonthehighstreet and Yumbles.
Located at the London Novotel West, ChannelX World will bring together marketplace, social and messaging retailing for the first time. Throughout the day you’ll meet a diverse range of businesses operating in different sectors and trading across an array of channels from marketplaces to social media and beyond. To hear from Dan, book your conference ticket here.
Q&A with Georgie Janion-Shaw
Who are Novello Products Ltd?
Novello Products Ltd (NPL) is a company formed of two parts; ‘brands’ and ‘tech’. On the ‘brands’ side we have a growing portfolio of consumer brands (Sistir, Tayuls and Lollylish currently) through which we offer unique, personalised products across coffee, tea, pet and confectionery categories. The ‘tech’ side is home to NPL’s systems which are at the heart of our own operations and also licensed to external businesses.
How did you start and what was your first brand?
I started NPL back in 2014 when my sister and I launched a coffee brand with five personalised products on Notonthehighstreet. The products were centred around fun coffee themes such as the ‘3am Blend’ for new parents and the ‘A Latte Luck’ coffee for a new job. Much to our excitement, we received our first order within two hours of going live and took it as a sign that our concept had scope. Our coffee (and now tea too) brand has grown significantly since then and is now well established on multiple 3rd party platforms as well as its own site.
We have also recently renamed the brand ‘Sistir’ which is a really exciting step in taking it to the next level. The new name is relevant to us in every way – my sister is represented in the ‘sis’ part of the name and also because ‘Sistir’ is pronounced ‘Sister’. Then having ‘stir’ within it is a cheeky nod to the fact that we are a coffee and tea brand. Those elements combined result in a little word play and a touch of fun – exactly what we are all about! Sistir has been the catalyst for NPL because in shaping Sistir and all aspects of the brand and operations, the larger opportunity to build further brands and develop the systems and technology to support them has presented itself.
On which platforms do you sell and which selling channels have seen the greatest success and which have posed the biggest challenges?
We sell on our own sites as well as third party platforms including Amazon, Notonthehighstreet, Etsy and Yumbles. For the first two years, we sold exclusively on Notonthehighstreet and have experienced an incredible level of success on their marketplace because our products play perfectly into so many of their gifting occasions as well as their personalised offering. We launched a small range of products on Amazon in 2020 and have seen remarkable success in a short space of time as a result. Amazon varies from the other platforms and has definitely been the most challenging in terms of set up and ongoing management but we continue to experience growth through the channel and are really excited about the opportunity it presents moving forward.
How do you manage sales across multiple channels? Which tech do you use?
We have built our own order management system to enable us to effectively and efficiently manage multiple brands and skus across multiple sales channels. This system centralises our orders, enables us to process them within minutes and outputs all data and the files we need to produce each order on a print on demand basis for immediate dispatch.
What’s the next step for Novello Products?
We have so many exciting initiatives in the pipeline for each of our brands and for Sistir in particular, expanding our distribution channels and launching outside the UK is imminent. On the tech side, we are continuing to develop systems to further streamline our processes and help other businesses with theirs. Watch this space!
What can the audience at ChannelX World expect to learn in your session?
I will share our story and journey to date, from selling a handful of skus on a single platform to now offering multiple brands and skus across multiple sales channels. I will delve into what has worked well for us, what has been challenging and the direction we’re moving in as a result. I hope that in doing so, each person who attends will walk away with a spark of inspiration which will aid their own business’s growth and evolution.
