Shop it to me: Shreddingbetty.com

 

 

Kim Goldstein is the Founder and CEO of shreddingbetty. She does all the buying for the shop, makes sure the bills get paid, manages vendor and customer relations, and of course, tracks down our reps when one of you lucky ladies wants something special.  Most importantly, she keeps the freezer stocked with soy ice cream and makes sure we always have toilet paper (well, most of the time).  

 

Jan Kodadek is the Marketing Director for shreddingbetty.  She handles everything related to marketing, events, publicity, sponsorships, and anything else that helps spread the word about our shop to our global sisters.  She's also in charge of eating all the soy ice cream!

 

We have a great web department that is in charge of keeping shreddingbetty.com fresh and exciting for your shopping pleasure, as well as a team of interns who are based around the U.S. as our eyes and ears on the U.S. women’s snowboarding market.

 

 

shreddingbetty is based in Brooklyn, NY, but because we are online, we ship globally.

 

 

(KG) I think some of our best ideas come from when we are down in the dumps.  I had one too many miserable days working behind a desk in my dress pants and heels.  I came up with the idea, happily quit my 9 to 5, flung off my heels, and started working on shreddingbetty.  I began by working part-time in snowboard shops, took some business classes at night and worked on shreddingbetty every minute.  As a female snowboarder for nine years, I knew that there were not very many places specializing in women’s product and knew that there was definitely a place for a company like shreddingbetty, as the womens snowboarding market gets bigger and badder every year.  Funny enough, I am now behind a desk more like 7am to 11pm, but I can assure you no heels!!!

 

 

Yes, we are both snowboarders. Kim has been riding for nine seasons and Jan has been riding for four. 

 

 

We both ride as much as we can.  We love living in NYC, but unfortunately, the mountains are some distance away – ironically, the closer the mountain, the worse the conditions are. Even though we spend a lot of time working, we have days where we ‘play hooky’ and bring our snowboards and laptops to the mountain. We also have a tradition - at least once a year, we take a trip to the West Coast (Utah next!) and check out a mountain area that we haven’t been to yet.

 

 

(KG) Everyday is completely different, which I love.  First thing I do when I wake up is check the blackberry.  Yes, I am addicted.  After I get started working, I pack boxes, answer any customer emails, pay bills, attend to any website upkeep, go through the mail, eat Chinese food, drink coffee, make phone calls, pack more boxes, get tangled in packing tape, send Jan funny YouTube videos even though she is sitting right in front of me, order more products, etc.  The day usually ends by waiting for Fedex to come take our packages.  We like to give them cookies, so they take good care of your packages ladies! 

 

(JK) I generally get up and make some coffee, while my computer boots up. The first thing I do is check my email (usually there’s nothing new, because I wake up and check it at regular intervals in the middle of the night). Then, I spend the rest of my day following up on pending projects, reviewing our site analytics, overseeing our internet marketing initiatives, writing content, organizing events, doing research, pitching the media, etc. Periodically, I raid the fridge for some cupcakes. I wish I could say that my day-to-day involved hot guys fanning me with a big feather, but it definitely involves my laptop, blackberry and trying to stop the cat from stepping on my keyboard. 

 

 

Basic business skills are important – understanding how a business is set up and run, strategy, personal organization, goal setting and follow through, clear communication and a commitment to providing excellent customer service. Beyond that, there are a lot of particulars to running any kind of retail business, let alone an e-commerce business. Knowing how to keep the books, manage sales tax, write HTML, manage a web presence, various types of internet marketing and search engine optimization and a strong design sense are all useful skills.

 

I think the most important thing to have though, is not a skill, more a character trait- the commitment to doing what needs to get done, even if it means making sacrifices along the way or having to spend a great deal of time learning a skill that is required to push your business to the next level. If you have this general trait, you will be successful at anything you get involved in – business or otherwise.

 

 

I think the most challenging aspect is getting everything done. The paradox to running a small business is that the more successful you are, the more there is to do. As you grow, you have ideas on how to keep that momentum going (or speed it up!), but you will always those basic, daily tasks that need to be handled just to keep the foundation strong. Eventually, you realize that it’s going to be impossible to do everything, so you work on the tasks that are imperative that you specifically handle them, delegate as much of the rest as you can and allow the least important to rest. 

 

 

There are a lot of amazing things that come from running a business like shreddingbetty. On top of the pleasure we get from knowing that we work for ourselves, we get to see next year’s gear in advance, travel to rad places to go snowboarding and hang out with the industry’s fun, silly people. We also love when we meet our customers.  We always seem to bump into shreddingbetty fans and have a funny conversation or end up hanging out with them all night.  Of course, nothing makes our day more then when get a call at the office from a customer who is delighted with their purchase. Then we know that we are making a difference.

 

 

Since we are a female-specific shop, we are looking for brands that make a commitment to women in snowboarding. Brands that put action behind their words – investing research and development dollars into improving their women’s product, offering a wide product line for women to choose from and supporting female athletes with professional contracts. Obviously, other factors play a role too, but ultimately, we are looking for brands that fit our mission.

 

 

Style and fashion is a very personal thing. Snowboarders on the west coast and east coast have completely different styles. Adding in the rest of the country and the rest of the world, we have a lot of ladies to consider. We want to provide the best value for our customers, so we look for a balance of technical features, style and price. For example, if we are considering a jacket, we consider if it has sufficient waterproofing and breathability to be comfortable in a multitude of conditions, durability, how it looks on an actual woman’s body, how it would fit into a potential snowboard outfit and how much it costs.

 

We carry products in a range of prices and styles, so there is something for everyone, but we never cut corners or offer anything unless we are confident in its quality. In addition, we personally product test nearly everything on the site. Every year, we customize our product mix, selecting what we think are the best offerings of that season. 

 

 

One of our best selling brands was Cilla, the rad new first layers line from Pricilla Levac. Last season we could barely keep them in stock and by the end of December, we had bought out the balance of their warehouse. Pricilla has expanded the line greatly for next season, offering some new styles and a ton of new colors and we are pleased to be offering them again in the fall.

 

Also, snowboarding jackets and pants from Betty Rides, Burton, Nikita and Airblaster have done really well for us. For hardgoods, GNU, Burton and Rome were best sellers.

 

 

I think all retailers are seeing a bit of impact on their sales. That said, shreddingbetty has been on a steady incline since we launched the store, seeing increases in site visitors, new customers, repeat customers and general positive feedback. The female snowboard market is growing and we are focused on providing something unique to female snowboarders, so we have done well. We are actually launching an enhanced store in the fall, so shopping with us will be easier than ever.

 

 

Yes. As a young company, we are still figuring out what brands will work for our customer and what brands won’t.  For 09/10 we are concentrating on building with companies that are selling very well for us, while trimming away anything that is just sitting around gathering dust. However, we are always excited to provide an outlet for some emerging brands to get an opportunity for exposure.

 

 

By drinking lots of water and using a high SPF sunblock! shreddingbetty currently offers spring and summer street wear and accessories.  We also have a very strong international presence and it’s always snowing somewhere! During the Northern Hemisphere summertime, we shift our focus to the Australian, New Zealand, Argentinean and Chilean markets, as well as Europe. We also like to use this time to get ready for next season, while allowing the ladies to take advantage of our current end-of-season discounts. 

 

 

Betties Get On Board serves several purposes. First, the event introduces new ladies to snowboarding. Generally, when we meet a lady who wants to try snowboarding, but hasn’t yet, we hear the same general excuses over and over – it’s too expensive, I don’t know where to do it, I have no one to do it with, etc. Betties Get On Board addresses all of these excuses – offering discount lift tickets, lessons and rentals, bus trips from NYC, female instructors and plenty of other ladies who are either brand new or just beginning.

 

Next, for the ladies who already know how to snowboard, there is the opportunity to meet new friends to ride with. We also work closely with our brands to offer female-specific snowboard and binding demos. While many ladies love their snowboard passionately, this gives them the opportunity to try something new without obligation.

 

Each of the ladies gets a goodie bag chock full of awesome loot, including snowboard wax, socks, t-shirts, headphones, snack bars, etc. We even allow the ladies to bring their boyfriends, brothers, husbands and male friends.

 

Obviously, as we expand the female snowboarder community, we are minting new potential customers, but beyond that, Betties Get On Board gives us an opportunity to interaction one-on-one with our customers, get their feedback on products, their concerns and goals. We keep this feedback in mind as we look to the future.

 

 

As I mentioned before, Cilla is doing big things for next season. We’ve seen a lot of great styles, colors and patterns in outerwear from Airblaster, Rome, Burton and Nikita. The trend in snowboards is reverse camber – Burton, K2 and Rome all over great boards with various types of rocker/ reverse camber. GNU is now making all of their women’s snowboards with banana technology. 
 


We are also excited about some of the new, smaller brands that we are carrying such as Dijen'erat, Atmosphere and Laurus. We feel that it’s important for us to offer a retail platform for emerging brands as well as those that are established. Remember, Burton started somewhere!

 

 

We expect a steady incline in the overall business. We will continue strengthening our product offering, site usability and design, continue to sponsor competitions and create events for our community. As we expand, we will hire staff and increase the number of women working in action sports. We are also going to create a snowboard team for the shop – we review footage as it comes to us and we will move forward when we find a few athletes that we feel are a good fit.