USA Today’s Talking Tech recently spoke to Stella & Dot Founder and CEO Jessica Herrin, as well as stylists and shoppers at one of the company’s popular trunk shows. Stella & Dot projects sales of over $200 million for 2013, and Herrin predicts annual sales will reach $1 billion by the end of the decade. The company has achieved rapid growth by leveraging the selling power of digital tools.
“We’re a social-selling company,” Herrin told USA Today. Stella & Dot stylists cater to modern, working women, and the tools of their trade provide a variety of platforms for connecting with women wherever they are. Stylists can display merchandise and take orders using “Dottie”—the company’s private iPad app for stylists—or direct customers to a personalized Stella & Dot website.
Herrin summed up the big idea behind her company in a recent interview for the Stanford Graduate School of Business: “Democratizing entrepreneurship by providing a flexible entrepreneurship platform for the modern woman.” Digitals tools enable companies like Stella & Dot to expand the freedom and flexibility direct selling has always provided to individuals.
