College grads start Pura Vida Bracelets, hire Tico artisans
In 2010, a 5 week college graduation surf trip to Costa Rica turned into a life-changing business venture for two Southern California friends, Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman. A few days before their journey back to San Diego, they stumbled upon local Costa Rican artisans making bracelets on a little table and selling them to tourists just like them. Six years later, Pura Vida Bracelets provides full-time jobs to over 100 artisans and supports the lives of their family members. Thall and Goodman also created bracelets for 190 different charity partners and have donated more than $877,058 to them. They now enjoy distribution in over 2,500 retail stores around the world and have sold over 2,000,000 hand-made bracelets from Costa Rica.
What are the key factors that have helped their store be successful?
“Our online store is very easy to use, navigate, and shop. Once on our site, our email marketing, social media marketing, and re-marketing efforts are constantly grabbing new + current customers to make a purchase. Our website also has email pop-ups once you enter, exit, and has post-purchase sharing incentives.”
What are your top recommendations for new store owners?
“For all new store owners I send them directly to Shopify.” They have created the best e-commerce platform, hands down, and have the best support staff to go with it. “I would tell all store owners that they must design a website for mobile use first and desktop second. Big social sharing buttons on product pages, clean template design, and post purchase sharing are a must.”
Pura Vida Bracelets – “a great, simple story and a very high quality product” and full-fledged business for two college grads when they least expected it.
Source: www.shopify.com & PuraVidaBracelets.com
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