Lyonsleaf is a award-winning natural Skincare brand based in the idyllic Mendip hills, guided by a mission to make skincare 100% natural. This case study delves into the secrets behind building a sustainable skincare. This woman-empowered team grows their own organic herbs with the aim to make skincare safe and effective for all skin types.
LyonsLeaf Interview
Shiptheory had the pleasure of talking to founder Vicky Lyons, who's been running eCommerce stores since 2012.
Q: GIVE US A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON THE LYONSLEAF STORY, WHAT YOU DO AND WHERE YOU STARTED
It’s been a crazy ride, let me tell you. We’re based in the Mendip Hills on a farm making and growing all of our natural skincare products. Choosing the correct ingredient personally allows us to be incredibly fussy about the quality, and rightly so as they are going on customers' skin.
We keep a very tight eye on the full supply chain from the growth to the production. This allows us to ensure the quality is of the very highest standard, giving us a massive edge over other natural skincare brands. We’ve grown a lot over the years, most recently we've built a new more effective website that allows us to sell and ship internationally.
Q: WHAT MAKES YOUR PRODUCTS UNIQUE COMPARED TO OTHER SKINCARE BRANDS
The main differentiator is that we don't put any water in our products, meaning we don't need emulsifiers which are really problematic for the skin. This further means we don't use antimicrobial preservatives, which essentially stop mould growing in the water element of a product. These tend to be harsh and aggravate people with sensitive skin. Taking out these ingredients means we can replace them with helpful, active ingredients, like, natural, plant oils.
Q: WHAT SORT OF CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS AS A BUSINESS?
Brexit has been a big struggle for us. We currently ship a lot internationally into the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. However, with the new EU rules and our skincare being so herb based we have struggled with compliance rules this has undoubtedly been a big obstacle for us that Shiptheory has helped solve.
Q: WHERE DO YOU SELL YOUR PRODUCTS AND WHAT SALES CHANNELS AND CARRIERS DO YOU USE
We have around 60+ stockists around the country in health and beauty shops. Obviously, since covid, the High Street has been decimated meaning we have expanded our eCommerce side and needed a solution to help us out, which is where Shiptheory came in.
At the moment we are using Royal Mail and occasionally DHL for international customers. As for channels we are using Shopify and Amazon. We love our customer's input, so if there's somewhere you’d like to see us we’d love to know.
Q: HOW DOES SHIPTHEORY FIT INTO YOUR WORKFLOW?
When we come in on a Monday morning we simply press fulfil orders and then watch all the labels print out of the printer. We print all our labels at a 6x4 size and then package everything up. It's just so effective. Honestly, we are still blown away by it.
I have a new girl starting with me over the summer holidays packing parcels and even she was amazed by how simple it is to use and understand. Our reaction to Shiptheory is often “Wow, Magic”.
Our account manager is super helpful at directing us if ever we need to set anything up or change the way anything is working. Even customer support, It’s so refreshing that the phone is always picked up with confidence and attentiveness on every issue big or small.
Q: WHAT WAS YOUR PROCESS LIKE BEFORE SHIPTHEORY?
It was ridiculous. We would have to create a spreadsheet ordering the weight of the parcel, this is a massive factor with our products even a few grams can make a massive difference. We’d sort them into large letters and small letters and then sort them into which ones we wanted to be first class and which ones we wanted to be the second class. Then finally we could upload this file to the click and drop.
It was just a massive boring faff which now we don’t even think about. It would be at least an hour every day doing manual tasks, when you add this up that's 5 working hours a week I can re-focus my time.
That's not even taking into account the time human error caused, even a small error generated massive problems financially, it was costing us every time there was a problem say a couple of grams over each time is £10 which can equate to £1,000’s.
Q: YOU MENTION YOU TRIED SOME OTHER SOLUTIONS - HOW DID YOU FIND SHIPTHEORY?
I was looking on the Shopify app store for something to simplify the process of my workflow. Initially, I began with another solution. They were helpful however they couldn't integrate with Royal Mail which was a massive problem for us as they are our biggest carrier.
I thought the whole process was never going to work until luckily I stumbled upon Shiptheory. I did an awful lot of research beforehand and thought I'd just give it a go. I really haven't turned back since. The first thing I did was jump on a call with an onboarding specialist and within a few minutes of explaining what I wanted done it was set up. He walked me through the shipping rules engine, I was blown away by this thinking to myself surely it can't be this easy.
Q: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR BEST-SELLING PRODUCTS
Our best-selling product is a natural anti-inflammatory balm containing Zinc and Calendula. This product is really beneficial for those with oily, acne prone skin, those with rosacea or personal dermatitis as well as other issues like to eczema or nettle rash. It’s moisture repellant and has won multiple awards in nappy cream categories and for problem or sensitive skin categories. It's a multi-purpose healing cream and like all our products it’s 100% natural with no harmful ingredients.
Another great product we sell is our Beauty Balm. This is a multi-tasking cleanser and moisturiser which can even be used as a primer under makeup. It is a really good all-around facial product for people who care about clean beauty or who are sensitive to artificial chemicals. Because its 100% plant oils it seals in moisture far better than most high street products plumping skin and visibly reducing the appearance of fine lines.