What does it really mean to be sustainable in today’s ecommerce landscape—and how can brands back it up? In this 181st episode of The E-Comm Show, Andrew Maff interviews Michael Twer, Founder and CEO of Delilah Home, an award-winning organic home textile company that puts purpose at the center of every product.
Michael shares how he’s grown Delilah Home by creating real demand through storytelling, ethical practices, and smart automation. He dives into how this automation fuels omnichannel marketing (and reveals two of his favorite tools for making it work). But that’s not all—Michael pulls back the curtain on the biggest greenwashing trend in ecommerce and explains why many so-called “eco-friendly” brands don’t actually walk the talk.
If you care about brand authenticity, sustainability, and building community-powered demand, this episode is for you.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Andrew Maff (00:03):
I see a lot of entrepreneurs get into trouble.
They have too much hope, andthey hope that they can sell a
(00:34):
gajillion pieces and be rich insix months. It's not reality,
(01:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome toanother episode of The E-Comm
Show as usual. I am your host,Andrew Maff, and today I am
joined by the founder and CEO ofDelilah Home, Michael Twer.
Michael, how you doing, buddy?
Ready for a good show? I'm doinggreat. Thank you. Thank you for
having me. Yeah. Thank you forjoining us. Super excited to
have you on the show. I lovetalking about basically the
sustainability side, but alsothe textile side, because it's a
(01:22):
very interesting industry. Soreally interested to learn a lot
from you, and obviously aboutDelilah home. But I always like
start these off relativelystereotypically and kind of give
you the floor and just tell us alittle bit about your
background, about Delilah home,and we'll take it
Michael Twer (01:40):
from there. Oh, awesome. Well, I've watched a
lot of your podcasts, andhopefully I can live
expectations, and hopefully Ican make this as entertaining
and educational as possible. Sothank you for having me awesome.
My name is Michael tuer. I'm theCEO of Delilah home. We are a
five year old Charlotte NorthCarolina based sustainable home
textile company. We produce bathtowels, bedding, beach towels
(02:04):
that are made from organiccotton. And we also have a new
product called dry tech, whichwe'll talk about here in a
second, which is 100% recycledmaterial from post and pre
consumer waste. We prideourselves on, on bringing the
American consumers the safestand cleanest textiles. So from a
non GMO see to time somebodygets our organic cotton products
(02:27):
at home, zero harmful chemicalsever touch our products, and
it's certified to what's calledthe gots standard, is the gold
standard for the textileindustry. In addition, we make
all of our products in Portugal.
Portugal is just amazingcountry, and high quality and
one of the closest countries toto the US. But we found that
(02:48):
it's, it's a lot of users dobusiness in Portugal than than
other countries, but we producea good quality product. We sell
to, we have an omni channelapproach, which is different
than most. Either you're adirect consumer, and you sell
direct to consumer, or you're onAmazon, we sell to Macy's and
Bloomingdale's and Target andWalmart, our Delilah home
(03:08):
website as well as a brick andmortar retailer store. So we
kind of have an omni channelapproach on how we drive our
business. So five years greatreviews, we got an excellent
product, and I'm looking forwardto telling you more about it
beautiful.
Andrew Maff (03:25):
One of the things I always I was like, Okay, I know
I got to talk about this. Thetextile industry is wildly
competitive. It is not there'sthere's competitors everywhere.
And you're even though you know,you guys are crushing it, you're
still younger brands five yearsin. So breaking through that
mold of the ones that have beenaround just for generations, or
standing out across all thecompetition is obviously never
(03:47):
easy. What's what's been theapproach thus far to kind of
help do that?
Michael Twer (03:52):
You know, I think the way I approach Delilah home
and the culture that I'm tryingto bring here is I have a
passion for being successful,you got to love what you do, and
you got to be able to do thatevery single day, day in and day
out. It is tough. It is tough tobuild a brand in in today's
world, especially with all thedifferent touch points that the
(04:14):
consumer has to go through inorder for your brand to get
recognition. So you know, wecontinue to strive and continue
to persevere and continue toreally push every every single
day. It is very competitive. Butwhere our niche and where our
lane is is the sustainabilityspace. It's easy to make a tile,
(04:35):
it's easy to make a bed sheetset, and you can get it from
Pakistan, India, Turkey, China,wherever, and you can buy, you
know, really, really cheap, butwe take the approach that we're
gonna we're gonna offer a luxuryproduct at an affordable price
that Natalie, are you gonna feelgood about purchasing? You're
gonna know that all thecertifications are there, that
(04:56):
it's gonna be safe, and also thepeople that are making your
products, you're. We pay above afair wage, our factories have
some of the lowest carbonfootprints in Europe. So we try
to be responsible stewards, notonly of the planet, but also
with products that touch ourskin. And your skin is your
largest organ, and it's usuallythe last thing we think about.
(05:18):
So we try to make sure that allof our products do not have any
hidden toxic chemicals which arecommonly found in conventional
textile products. So that's kindof like the lane we're in.
You're buying organic food, youget it, you get it that you
don't want to have pesticides orherbicides on your apples or
oranges. That's kind of the samething with with our home
(05:40):
textiles. So the
Andrew Maff (05:41):
It's interesting you brought the food side,
because that was exactly howthis thing was. Like, okay, I
know exactly how I can kind ofdraw this, this scenario, right?
So like in the food space, wefind that the kind of, like,
clean eating element is becomingbigger and bigger, which is very
similar to, like, you know,basically no nothing in it for
the most part. And so obviously,on the textile side, is
(06:02):
something that I've seen startedto grow a lot more as well.
However, I personally feel like,from a marketing perspective,
that messaging and getting thatthe importance of it across is
very difficult, especially whenyou've only got, like, you know,
only so so big of a package, oryou've only got so much room on
a product page, or somethinglike that. So how have you kind
of helped, like, educate thatconsumer, to teach them a little
(06:25):
bit more about that?
Michael Twer (06:26):
Sure. So I mean, there is many people that are in
this space right now that aredoing an incredible job. I used
to be the chairman for theorganic trade association and
the fiber council. So I workwith some very large brands,
Patagonia, bowling branch,coyucci, parachute, home,
avocado, naturepedic, really,really incredible brands, and
(06:47):
together, collectively, we'retrying to to help educate the
consumer on on what they whatthey buy, and what could be
possibly harmful to to to theirhealth. Same thing on, on the
food side, but the OTA is verystrong advocates on, on making
sure that the organic brand isis that's high integrity, and
(07:08):
also works with, with withCongress to make sure that that
the rules with the USDA and theand the organic Trade
Association will help with them,on trying to to steer and try to
promote, you know, The rules,regulations for the for those
type of products.
Andrew Maff (07:24):
Nice, you. You said one of my favorite words,
omnichannel. I love talking omnichannel. I'm usually on the
marketing side, specifically theomni channel side, but you
mentioned you guys have acomplete omni channel approach.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Okay,
Michael Twer (07:38):
so my background, I've got 30 years of consumer
product experience. I mean, Ithink I've called on almost
every single retailer in thiscountry. I used to have $100
million Walmart business wayback when. But you when you're
starting out as an entrepreneur,you know, you do the marketing
math, and you say, Okay, if Isell X amount of pieces per day,
(07:59):
I'm going to generate thisamount of dollars per week, per
month, per per year. But thenreality sets in, and then you
take a look at, okay, how muchinventory do I need to buy? So
it's kind of the chicken or theegg. You got to have inventory
to make money, but if you don'thave money, you can't make you
can't buy inventory. So myapproach was, okay, how do I
meet my requirements? Myfactories with the minimum order
(08:21):
quantities bring in enoughinventory and turn that
inventory as fast as possible.
Where I see a lot ofentrepreneurs get into trouble
is they have too much hope, andthey hope that they can sell a
gajillion pieces and be rich insix months. It's not reality. So
my approach was, okay, how can Iget into as many channels as
(08:44):
possible? We know that Amazon is50% of all consumers, you know,
shop on Amazon. Okay. Then thereare retailers like Macy's or
Bloomingdale's or Saks or Zolaor Target or WalMart, help build
your brand. Also build yourawareness. As they grow. You
(09:05):
grow, and as you grow, you turnyour inventory, and it's just,
it's just a great circle to kindof be in,
Andrew Maff (09:14):
yeah, how are you managing that? Because being
across those many differentsales channels is obviously
always a struggle. So is there aspecific like EDI that you guys
are using, or what's, what'skind of that approach?
Michael Twer (09:25):
Yeah. So, because I've been doing this for such a
long time, I mean, I've got mysupply chain down, down to
pennies, which is really, reallycool. There you go. But I use,
there's, there's two things Ican tell you. There is a company
called a CT data. A CT data islike a commerce hub, Sterling
commerce, but they're they're myhub, and I have all of my retail
(09:47):
partners go through a CT data,and then they link to my
warehouse management system. Soorders come in, go to a CT, go
to my warehouse, ship. Thetracking numbers go back to. A C
T, and then a C T sends it backto the retailers, and then a C T
also invoices in my QuickBooksystem, it's all automated,
(10:08):
which is which allows me to freeup my bandwidth so I can do more
things to try to get morecustomers, kind of into that
funnel. So that is the thesystems and how you can automate
your business will make you moreefficient and also increase your
speed. The second thing is, iswith like Target and Walmart and
(10:28):
others, there are companies thatthat you can upload channel
advisors on. You can upload yourdata into their system, and
their system shoots it out toall the marketplaces we use. We
use a company called asenda forfor targets. And so basically,
you know, pricing inventory allgoes into there and actually
(10:51):
shoots to to target. But if Ihad more customers on that
platform, it would automaticallyshoot it out to to all those
marketplaces. So that, again,increased your speed and
efficiency. Well, every
Andrew Maff (11:02):
single one of those companies can now expect an
invoice from both you and I forthe shameless plug, and I hope
that they enjoy it. So okay, sofrom a marketing perspective,
now that's where that gets kindof interesting, right? So, like,
because this is where I alwaysget like, all right, I'm getting
giddy. This is, this is where itgets interesting. You're on this
many sales channels, and yourlogic is, if you have your
product on all of thesedifferent marketplaces, as those
(11:24):
marketplaces grow, you'regrowing along with it. That
obviously helps from aninventory perspective, but you
got to pour a little bit of gason that fire and build the
brand. So when you're doing yourown marketing, and let's just
say, obviously, mostly from an Ecommerce perspective, so mostly
from a digital perspective, areyou simply just directing people
to the website, or are youputting in different elements
where you're kind of promotingwe're also available on these
(11:47):
other marketplaces and theseother retailers. Sure,
Michael Twer (11:49):
as of right now, I've kept them separate. And the
way I way I view this, is like afinancial portfolio, you know,
you got your kind of, kind ofdifferent buckets, and I have,
kind of, like my marketplacechannel. I've got my wholesale
channel, I've got my directconsumer channel, and each one
of those really kind of requiresits own unique business plan,
but the number one thing that Ican can offer as a suggestion is
(12:15):
customer service is key. Andwhen you get to the
marketplaces, you know, do youhave the accessibility to answer
customers questions or to toanswer a negative review and try
to turn that negative reviewinto a positive review. On
Macy's, we use Bizarre Voice,Bizarre Voice, which allows me
(12:38):
to respond to positive reviewsand also a negative reviews,
you're never going to have afive star review no matter how
hard you try, but if you're 4.5and above, but you're responding
to customers questions orconcerns, that's going to help
you build credibility withfuture customers. So the
(12:58):
customer service aspect of themarketing is, is number one, and
if you're on top of that, you'regoing to build the loyal
following. Now on our directconsumer side, obviously, we're
doing email blasts, we're doingsome s. Then how do you get that
Ruth, Chris butter, on top ofyour steak and have it sizzle
(13:20):
and it smells real nice is yougotta, you gotta throw your
products out there and try toget the media to pick it up and
how to get on the best list.
We've won several awards fromgood housekeeping and wire
cutter a real simple as havingthe best bed sheets or best
towels, and that. It's all aboutbuilding credibility as you kind
of build your your base and overtime. And it's kind of like
(13:44):
that, if you do 1% more eachday, by the end of the year,
you're going to be a lotstronger. So it's kind of like
automatic habits, and that'sgoing to what's going to help
grow your brand, help grow thecredibility in your brand, and
it's going to eventually growyour sales.
Andrew Maff (14:00):
How do you measure kind of that bleed over, though,
right? Like, so from anadvertising perspective, if
you're running, let's say you'rejust running some med ads.
Obviously you mentioned all ofthat traffic's going directly to
your DTC website. But a lot ofpeople, as you said, like 50% of
people, are shopping on Amazon.
So you get a lot of people thatwill come to your website and
then be like, I want it in twodays or whatever. So they hop
over to Amazon and end uppurchasing into there. Are you
(14:21):
measuring? Are you attempting tomeasure that at all by kind of
looking at some of the channelsa little bit more holistically?
Or do you keep it a little bitmore like I know that that
happens, but I'm just kind oftuning it out. More or less,
Michael Twer (14:34):
I am kind of tuning it out and bucking the
trend on on that I love Amazonas consumer. I don't, I don't
love it as as a manufacturer,you know, I can't, you know,
even though the companies aredoing millions and millions of
dollars, it is expensive to tobe on the Amazon platform, but
you have to be on there. I don'tguarantee two day shipping, and
(14:56):
that is something that, youknow, I would love to do. Yeah,
but the cost would force me toto increase my costs even, even
more, to have that freightfactor built into the product.
So, you know, there's, there'skind of a strategy on that we're
fulfilled by by merchant. We'renot fulfilled by Amazon. So, you
(15:17):
know, we're, it's going to takeus, it'll take us two days to
ship on the East Coast or intothe Midwest, and it might take
three to four days to to get tothe west coast. So if customers
know that ahead of time, thenthey have the choice whether
they want it today or they wantit in a couple days. If we've
got the the credibility otheralready built up in Delilah
(15:38):
home, then they're going to waitfor something that's high
quality, it's got last years,yeah,
Andrew Maff (15:42):
yeah. It's a very interesting point. I mean, being
being FBMS, it's definitely aninteresting way to be available
on the platform, but not be tooreliant in a lot of Amazon's
fun, different fees that theylike to throw at you all the
time. What? So from a marketingperspective, what's your main
focus is it may, are you mainlyseeing like success through like
success through like, socialmedia channels, influencer
(16:02):
marketing, that kind of thing.
Or is it more you're leaningmore on your retention? Or
obviously Google ads, like,what's, what's been, kind of the
the differentiator for you sofar,
Michael Twer (16:11):
you know it's and here's another plug for another
company we use, press hook.
Okay? Press hook is kind of a doit yourself, media company that
helps you get in front of ofpublishers and editors, and that
has been kind of our, our bestasset of being able to to offer
a sample to a publisher that ison their platform and have them
(16:37):
respond, And we've been able toget traction with a ton of
publications, and especiallywith new products when you're
launching that you need to kindof throw the net out as far and
as wide as possible. But hasbeen been incorrect for us, and
it kind of comes down to whatthey talk about owned marketing.
(16:57):
You know, now, do you own yourmarketing with the consumer that
comes into your funnel, and ifyou're providing a good quality
product with good customerservice, they're going to come
back and they're going to beloyal. On a side note, 40% of
our business is repeatcustomers, so we're doing it
right the first time. They'reloving our products after they
(17:17):
kind of kick the tire, so tospeak. And they're coming back,
and they're they're buying, buymore products, either they're
buying towels or sheets or beachtowels, and then have new
products so that we can continueto service their their needs on
the on the affiliate tomarketing side, you know we're
doing, we're working with sharesale, we're working with
influencers and bloggers, andthen you got this kind of press
(17:39):
hook side where we're workingwith with the media. And so what
I've found is that this wholecycle of everything that we're
doing really kind of feeds intoeach other, and it continues to
build. And ironically, wheneverwe're on sale with Macy's, is
when my entire business takesoff. I can't explain it, but
(18:00):
it's kind of like, you know,with the oppressive Macy's,
maybe, yeah, I don't know, butit's kind of like having socks
that disappear in the dryer.
It's like, you know whathappens? But you can't explain
it, but it's, it's, it kind ofhelps, kind of fuel the fuel the
machine. And it's, it's, it'sreally cool to kind of see
everything all coming again. Itcould be seasonality, could be
(18:22):
timing of the year, it could bepromotions, whatever, but it's,
it's, it's fun to watch it, butreally owning the relationship
is the key to to our success.
Andrew Maff (18:33):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know your your comment
of really leaning in on customerservice that is wildly
underutilized by so many brands,that that is the clear
differentiator that reallyallows you to stand out from not
only the other brands, but eventhe other marketplaces where
your brand is available, toactually have them incentivized
(18:54):
to come to you, which is evenbetter, because typically your
margins are better anyway, oneof the things I was curious
about sustainability is,obviously, it's a very sexy
term, right? Everyone kind ofthrows it out. Some brands are
actually sustainable. Others notso much. But I also know that
putting some of those effortsinto practice is not easy. What
would you say is, like one ofthe things that a lot of
(19:16):
sustainability brands don'tusually admit on how challenging
that is,
Michael Twer (19:21):
they don't admit how challenging it is. I would
probably take a step back andand and say this is a lot of
brands truly don't understandsustainability, meaning that
they rely a lot on what theirfactory tells them, and they
don't take it the next stepfurther to prove or to validate
(19:45):
the certifications of thefactories. When I was the
chairman of the OTA in the fiberCouncil, I don't know how many
people, how many companies Italked to, said, Well, my
factories said that they're gotcertified. Well, you can go on
the gots website and see ifthey're certified. It, they're
not so, you know, it's also kindof, you got to take that
initiative to make sure thatwhat you're claiming is actually
(20:10):
valid, and make sure you've gotproof to do that, because
there's a ton of of greenwashingthat continues to go on. And the
issue with organic is on thefood side. It's regulated by the
USDA, okay? And the NationalOrganic Program that's that's
good. You put organic on foodand sign organic, you can get
(20:32):
some major league fines. On thetextile side, it's not
regulated. So it's still thekind of the wild wild west. Up
until about two years ago, youcould go on Amazon and you'd
have a Chinese factory thatwould copy the gods logo and
charge a premium for theirproducts, because they're saying
that it's organic when itwasn't. So they started to crack
down on that. But there's stilla lot of retailers and a lot of
(20:55):
brands out there that areassuming the products that
they're buying are trulycertified when, when they're
not. The only way to to reallytake a look at those is that
there's architects, there's gotswhich is, which is the, the best
standard, and they put you kindof through the ringer. And you
got to make sure you got youryour act together, because
(21:18):
there's toll gates that kind ofgo through, and you got to have
that transparency of lookingback to make sure that every
step is taken care of, tojustify that it truly is
organic, and the transactionalcertificates will prove that,
and it goes through thatdifferent process. So that's
kind of my roundabout way ofanswering that question. But
sustainability continues togrow. One last tangent here, but
(21:42):
last year was over $60 billionwas was in fiber for organic
textiles, so that has growndouble digits for the for the
last decade, slowed down as asingle digits last year, but it
continues to grow as consumersget educated and really
understand what they're buying,who they're buying from, where
(22:06):
are the products made, and arethe claims that these companies
making? Are they truly accurate?
Andrew Maff (22:12):
Yeah, amazing.
Yeah. You never would havethought like, oh, just actually
do your due diligence and findout that what you're claiming
is, in fact, accurate. It's itmakes a ton of sense. Michael, I
really appreciate having you onthe show. I don't want to take
up too much your time. I knowyou're super busy. I'd love to
give you the floor let everyoneknow where they can find out
more about you and more aboutDelilah home, of course.
Michael Twer (22:31):
Well, great. Well, thank you so much for having me.
Andrea. Really appreciate it.
Our website is Delilah Home,delilahhome.com, you can also
find us on Macys.com,Bloomingdales.com, Target,
Walmart, Amazon. But if you cometo to our our site, and if you
have any questions, you're gonnaget an answer from from me. And
it could be at 10 o'clock atnight, but I'm gonna respond
(22:52):
with within, you know, minutesto to to an hour. That's kind of
because I'm hooked to my phone.
So we appreciate all thesupport. We're very blessed to
have a great customer base. Wetry to do what's right every
single day, even though we'renot perfect. We do mess up, but
we try to make it right. So weappreciate any opportunity to
(23:14):
earn any of your customers orany of your followers business.
Andrew Maff (23:18):
Michael, appreciate it. Thank you so much for being
on the show. Everyone who tunedin, of course, thank you as
well. Please make sure you dothe usual thing, rate review,
subscribe all that fun stuff onwhichever podcast platform you
prefer, or head over to theecommshow.com to check out all
of our previous episodes. But asusual, thank you all for joining
us. We'll see you all next time.
Narrator (23:36):
Thank you for tuning in to The E-Comm Show head over
to theecommshow.com to subscribeon your favorite podcast
platform or on the BlueTuskrYouTube channel. The E-Comm Show
is brought to you by BlueTuskr,a full service digital marketing
company specifically fore-commerce sellers looking to
accelerate their growth. Go tobluetuskr.com Now for more
(23:59):
information. Make sure to tunein next week for another amazing
episode of The E-Comm Show.
I see a lot of entrepreneurs get into trouble.
They have too much hope, andthey hope that they can sell a
(00:34):
gajillion pieces and be rich insix months. It's not reality,
(01:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome toanother episode of The E-Comm
Show as usual. I am your host,Andrew Maff, and today I am
joined by the founder and CEO ofDelilah Home, Michael Twer.
Michael, how you doing, buddy?
Ready for a good show? I'm doinggreat. Thank you. Thank you for
having me. Yeah. Thank you forjoining us. Super excited to
have you on the show. I lovetalking about basically the
sustainability side, but alsothe textile side, because it's a
(01:22):
very interesting industry. Soreally interested to learn a lot
from you, and obviously aboutDelilah home. But I always like
start these off relativelystereotypically and kind of give
you the floor and just tell us alittle bit about your
background, about Delilah home,and we'll take it
Michael Twer (01:40):
from there. Oh, awesome. Well, I've watched a
lot of your podcasts, andhopefully I can live
expectations, and hopefully Ican make this as entertaining
and educational as possible. Sothank you for having me awesome.
My name is Michael tuer. I'm theCEO of Delilah home. We are a
five year old Charlotte NorthCarolina based sustainable home
textile company. We produce bathtowels, bedding, beach towels
(02:04):
that are made from organiccotton. And we also have a new
product called dry tech, whichwe'll talk about here in a
second, which is 100% recycledmaterial from post and pre
consumer waste. We prideourselves on, on bringing the
American consumers the safestand cleanest textiles. So from a
non GMO see to time somebodygets our organic cotton products
(02:27):
at home, zero harmful chemicalsever touch our products, and
it's certified to what's calledthe gots standard, is the gold
standard for the textileindustry. In addition, we make
all of our products in Portugal.
Portugal is just amazingcountry, and high quality and
one of the closest countries toto the US. But we found that
(02:48):
it's, it's a lot of users dobusiness in Portugal than than
other countries, but we producea good quality product. We sell
to, we have an omni channelapproach, which is different
than most. Either you're adirect consumer, and you sell
direct to consumer, or you're onAmazon, we sell to Macy's and
Bloomingdale's and Target andWalmart, our Delilah home
(03:08):
website as well as a brick andmortar retailer store. So we
kind of have an omni channelapproach on how we drive our
business. So five years greatreviews, we got an excellent
product, and I'm looking forwardto telling you more about it
beautiful.
Andrew Maff (03:25):
One of the things I always I was like, Okay, I know
I got to talk about this. Thetextile industry is wildly
competitive. It is not there'sthere's competitors everywhere.
And you're even though you know,you guys are crushing it, you're
still younger brands five yearsin. So breaking through that
mold of the ones that have beenaround just for generations, or
standing out across all thecompetition is obviously never
(03:47):
easy. What's what's been theapproach thus far to kind of
help do that?
Michael Twer (03:52):
You know, I think the way I approach Delilah home
and the culture that I'm tryingto bring here is I have a
passion for being successful,you got to love what you do, and
you got to be able to do thatevery single day, day in and day
out. It is tough. It is tough tobuild a brand in in today's
world, especially with all thedifferent touch points that the
(04:14):
consumer has to go through inorder for your brand to get
recognition. So you know, wecontinue to strive and continue
to persevere and continue toreally push every every single
day. It is very competitive. Butwhere our niche and where our
lane is is the sustainabilityspace. It's easy to make a tile,
(04:35):
it's easy to make a bed sheetset, and you can get it from
Pakistan, India, Turkey, China,wherever, and you can buy, you
know, really, really cheap, butwe take the approach that we're
gonna we're gonna offer a luxuryproduct at an affordable price
that Natalie, are you gonna feelgood about purchasing? You're
gonna know that all thecertifications are there, that
(04:56):
it's gonna be safe, and also thepeople that are making your
products, you're. We pay above afair wage, our factories have
some of the lowest carbonfootprints in Europe. So we try
to be responsible stewards, notonly of the planet, but also
with products that touch ourskin. And your skin is your
largest organ, and it's usuallythe last thing we think about.
(05:18):
So we try to make sure that allof our products do not have any
hidden toxic chemicals which arecommonly found in conventional
textile products. So that's kindof like the lane we're in.
You're buying organic food, youget it, you get it that you
don't want to have pesticides orherbicides on your apples or
oranges. That's kind of the samething with with our home
(05:40):
textiles. So the
Andrew Maff (05:41):
It's interesting you brought the food side,
because that was exactly howthis thing was. Like, okay, I
know exactly how I can kind ofdraw this, this scenario, right?
So like in the food space, wefind that the kind of, like,
clean eating element is becomingbigger and bigger, which is very
similar to, like, you know,basically no nothing in it for
the most part. And so obviously,on the textile side, is
(06:02):
something that I've seen startedto grow a lot more as well.
However, I personally feel like,from a marketing perspective,
that messaging and getting thatthe importance of it across is
very difficult, especially whenyou've only got, like, you know,
only so so big of a package, oryou've only got so much room on
a product page, or somethinglike that. So how have you kind
of helped, like, educate thatconsumer, to teach them a little
(06:25):
bit more about that?
Michael Twer (06:26):
Sure. So I mean, there is many people that are in
this space right now that aredoing an incredible job. I used
to be the chairman for theorganic trade association and
the fiber council. So I workwith some very large brands,
Patagonia, bowling branch,coyucci, parachute, home,
avocado, naturepedic, really,really incredible brands, and
(06:47):
together, collectively, we'retrying to to help educate the
consumer on on what they whatthey buy, and what could be
possibly harmful to to to theirhealth. Same thing on, on the
food side, but the OTA is verystrong advocates on, on making
sure that the organic brand isis that's high integrity, and
(07:08):
also works with, with withCongress to make sure that that
the rules with the USDA and theand the organic Trade
Association will help with them,on trying to to steer and try to
promote, you know, The rules,regulations for the for those
type of products.
Andrew Maff (07:24):
Nice, you. You said one of my favorite words,
omnichannel. I love talking omnichannel. I'm usually on the
marketing side, specifically theomni channel side, but you
mentioned you guys have acomplete omni channel approach.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Okay,
Michael Twer (07:38):
so my background, I've got 30 years of consumer
product experience. I mean, Ithink I've called on almost
every single retailer in thiscountry. I used to have $100
million Walmart business wayback when. But you when you're
starting out as an entrepreneur,you know, you do the marketing
math, and you say, Okay, if Isell X amount of pieces per day,
(07:59):
I'm going to generate thisamount of dollars per week, per
month, per per year. But thenreality sets in, and then you
take a look at, okay, how muchinventory do I need to buy? So
it's kind of the chicken or theegg. You got to have inventory
to make money, but if you don'thave money, you can't make you
can't buy inventory. So myapproach was, okay, how do I
meet my requirements? Myfactories with the minimum order
(08:21):
quantities bring in enoughinventory and turn that
inventory as fast as possible.
Where I see a lot ofentrepreneurs get into trouble
is they have too much hope, andthey hope that they can sell a
gajillion pieces and be rich insix months. It's not reality. So
my approach was, okay, how can Iget into as many channels as
(08:44):
possible? We know that Amazon is50% of all consumers, you know,
shop on Amazon. Okay. Then thereare retailers like Macy's or
Bloomingdale's or Saks or Zolaor Target or WalMart, help build
your brand. Also build yourawareness. As they grow. You
(09:05):
grow, and as you grow, you turnyour inventory, and it's just,
it's just a great circle to kindof be in,
Andrew Maff (09:14):
yeah, how are you managing that? Because being
across those many differentsales channels is obviously
always a struggle. So is there aspecific like EDI that you guys
are using, or what's, what'skind of that approach?
Michael Twer (09:25):
Yeah. So, because I've been doing this for such a
long time, I mean, I've got mysupply chain down, down to
pennies, which is really, reallycool. There you go. But I use,
there's, there's two things Ican tell you. There is a company
called a CT data. A CT data islike a commerce hub, Sterling
commerce, but they're they're myhub, and I have all of my retail
(09:47):
partners go through a CT data,and then they link to my
warehouse management system. Soorders come in, go to a CT, go
to my warehouse, ship. Thetracking numbers go back to. A C
T, and then a C T sends it backto the retailers, and then a C T
also invoices in my QuickBooksystem, it's all automated,
(10:08):
which is which allows me to freeup my bandwidth so I can do more
things to try to get morecustomers, kind of into that
funnel. So that is the thesystems and how you can automate
your business will make you moreefficient and also increase your
speed. The second thing is, iswith like Target and Walmart and
(10:28):
others, there are companies thatthat you can upload channel
advisors on. You can upload yourdata into their system, and
their system shoots it out toall the marketplaces we use. We
use a company called asenda forfor targets. And so basically,
you know, pricing inventory allgoes into there and actually
(10:51):
shoots to to target. But if Ihad more customers on that
platform, it would automaticallyshoot it out to to all those
marketplaces. So that, again,increased your speed and
efficiency. Well, every
Andrew Maff (11:02):
single one of those companies can now expect an
invoice from both you and I forthe shameless plug, and I hope
that they enjoy it. So okay, sofrom a marketing perspective,
now that's where that gets kindof interesting, right? So, like,
because this is where I alwaysget like, all right, I'm getting
giddy. This is, this is where itgets interesting. You're on this
many sales channels, and yourlogic is, if you have your
product on all of thesedifferent marketplaces, as those
(11:24):
marketplaces grow, you'regrowing along with it. That
obviously helps from aninventory perspective, but you
got to pour a little bit of gason that fire and build the
brand. So when you're doing yourown marketing, and let's just
say, obviously, mostly from an Ecommerce perspective, so mostly
from a digital perspective, areyou simply just directing people
to the website, or are youputting in different elements
where you're kind of promotingwe're also available on these
(11:47):
other marketplaces and theseother retailers. Sure,
Michael Twer (11:49):
as of right now, I've kept them separate. And the
way I way I view this, is like afinancial portfolio, you know,
you got your kind of, kind ofdifferent buckets, and I have,
kind of, like my marketplacechannel. I've got my wholesale
channel, I've got my directconsumer channel, and each one
of those really kind of requiresits own unique business plan,
but the number one thing that Ican can offer as a suggestion is
(12:15):
customer service is key. Andwhen you get to the
marketplaces, you know, do youhave the accessibility to answer
customers questions or to toanswer a negative review and try
to turn that negative reviewinto a positive review. On
Macy's, we use Bizarre Voice,Bizarre Voice, which allows me
(12:38):
to respond to positive reviewsand also a negative reviews,
you're never going to have afive star review no matter how
hard you try, but if you're 4.5and above, but you're responding
to customers questions orconcerns, that's going to help
you build credibility withfuture customers. So the
(12:58):
customer service aspect of themarketing is, is number one, and
if you're on top of that, you'regoing to build the loyal
following. Now on our directconsumer side, obviously, we're
doing email blasts, we're doingsome s. Then how do you get that
Ruth, Chris butter, on top ofyour steak and have it sizzle
(13:20):
and it smells real nice is yougotta, you gotta throw your
products out there and try toget the media to pick it up and
how to get on the best list.
We've won several awards fromgood housekeeping and wire
cutter a real simple as havingthe best bed sheets or best
towels, and that. It's all aboutbuilding credibility as you kind
of build your your base and overtime. And it's kind of like
(13:44):
that, if you do 1% more eachday, by the end of the year,
you're going to be a lotstronger. So it's kind of like
automatic habits, and that'sgoing to what's going to help
grow your brand, help grow thecredibility in your brand, and
it's going to eventually growyour sales.
Andrew Maff (14:00):
How do you measure kind of that bleed over, though,
right? Like, so from anadvertising perspective, if
you're running, let's say you'rejust running some med ads.
Obviously you mentioned all ofthat traffic's going directly to
your DTC website. But a lot ofpeople, as you said, like 50% of
people, are shopping on Amazon.
So you get a lot of people thatwill come to your website and
then be like, I want it in twodays or whatever. So they hop
over to Amazon and end uppurchasing into there. Are you
(14:21):
measuring? Are you attempting tomeasure that at all by kind of
looking at some of the channelsa little bit more holistically?
Or do you keep it a little bitmore like I know that that
happens, but I'm just kind oftuning it out. More or less,
Michael Twer (14:34):
I am kind of tuning it out and bucking the
trend on on that I love Amazonas consumer. I don't, I don't
love it as as a manufacturer,you know, I can't, you know,
even though the companies aredoing millions and millions of
dollars, it is expensive to tobe on the Amazon platform, but
you have to be on there. I don'tguarantee two day shipping, and
(14:56):
that is something that, youknow, I would love to do. Yeah,
but the cost would force me toto increase my costs even, even
more, to have that freightfactor built into the product.
So, you know, there's, there'skind of a strategy on that we're
fulfilled by by merchant. We'renot fulfilled by Amazon. So, you
(15:17):
know, we're, it's going to takeus, it'll take us two days to
ship on the East Coast or intothe Midwest, and it might take
three to four days to to get tothe west coast. So if customers
know that ahead of time, thenthey have the choice whether
they want it today or they wantit in a couple days. If we've
got the the credibility otheralready built up in Delilah
(15:38):
home, then they're going to waitfor something that's high
quality, it's got last years,yeah,
Andrew Maff (15:42):
yeah. It's a very interesting point. I mean, being
being FBMS, it's definitely aninteresting way to be available
on the platform, but not be tooreliant in a lot of Amazon's
fun, different fees that theylike to throw at you all the
time. What? So from a marketingperspective, what's your main
focus is it may, are you mainlyseeing like success through like
success through like, socialmedia channels, influencer
(16:02):
marketing, that kind of thing.
Or is it more you're leaningmore on your retention? Or
obviously Google ads, like,what's, what's been, kind of the
the differentiator for you sofar,
Michael Twer (16:11):
you know it's and here's another plug for another
company we use, press hook.
Okay? Press hook is kind of a doit yourself, media company that
helps you get in front of ofpublishers and editors, and that
has been kind of our, our bestasset of being able to to offer
a sample to a publisher that ison their platform and have them
(16:37):
respond, And we've been able toget traction with a ton of
publications, and especiallywith new products when you're
launching that you need to kindof throw the net out as far and
as wide as possible. But hasbeen been incorrect for us, and
it kind of comes down to whatthey talk about owned marketing.
(16:57):
You know, now, do you own yourmarketing with the consumer that
comes into your funnel, and ifyou're providing a good quality
product with good customerservice, they're going to come
back and they're going to beloyal. On a side note, 40% of
our business is repeatcustomers, so we're doing it
right the first time. They'reloving our products after they
(17:17):
kind of kick the tire, so tospeak. And they're coming back,
and they're they're buying, buymore products, either they're
buying towels or sheets or beachtowels, and then have new
products so that we can continueto service their their needs on
the on the affiliate tomarketing side, you know we're
doing, we're working with sharesale, we're working with
influencers and bloggers, andthen you got this kind of press
(17:39):
hook side where we're workingwith with the media. And so what
I've found is that this wholecycle of everything that we're
doing really kind of feeds intoeach other, and it continues to
build. And ironically, wheneverwe're on sale with Macy's, is
when my entire business takesoff. I can't explain it, but
(18:00):
it's kind of like, you know,with the oppressive Macy's,
maybe, yeah, I don't know, butit's kind of like having socks
that disappear in the dryer.
It's like, you know whathappens? But you can't explain
it, but it's, it's, it kind ofhelps, kind of fuel the fuel the
machine. And it's, it's, it'sreally cool to kind of see
everything all coming again. Itcould be seasonality, could be
(18:22):
timing of the year, it could bepromotions, whatever, but it's,
it's, it's fun to watch it, butreally owning the relationship
is the key to to our success.
Andrew Maff (18:33):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know your your comment
of really leaning in on customerservice that is wildly
underutilized by so many brands,that that is the clear
differentiator that reallyallows you to stand out from not
only the other brands, but eventhe other marketplaces where
your brand is available, toactually have them incentivized
(18:54):
to come to you, which is evenbetter, because typically your
margins are better anyway, oneof the things I was curious
about sustainability is,obviously, it's a very sexy
term, right? Everyone kind ofthrows it out. Some brands are
actually sustainable. Others notso much. But I also know that
putting some of those effortsinto practice is not easy. What
would you say is, like one ofthe things that a lot of
(19:16):
sustainability brands don'tusually admit on how challenging
that is,
Michael Twer (19:21):
they don't admit how challenging it is. I would
probably take a step back andand and say this is a lot of
brands truly don't understandsustainability, meaning that
they rely a lot on what theirfactory tells them, and they
don't take it the next stepfurther to prove or to validate
(19:45):
the certifications of thefactories. When I was the
chairman of the OTA in the fiberCouncil, I don't know how many
people, how many companies Italked to, said, Well, my
factories said that they're gotcertified. Well, you can go on
the gots website and see ifthey're certified. It, they're
not so, you know, it's also kindof, you got to take that
initiative to make sure thatwhat you're claiming is actually
(20:10):
valid, and make sure you've gotproof to do that, because
there's a ton of of greenwashingthat continues to go on. And the
issue with organic is on thefood side. It's regulated by the
USDA, okay? And the NationalOrganic Program that's that's
good. You put organic on foodand sign organic, you can get
(20:32):
some major league fines. On thetextile side, it's not
regulated. So it's still thekind of the wild wild west. Up
until about two years ago, youcould go on Amazon and you'd
have a Chinese factory thatwould copy the gods logo and
charge a premium for theirproducts, because they're saying
that it's organic when itwasn't. So they started to crack
down on that. But there's stilla lot of retailers and a lot of
(20:55):
brands out there that areassuming the products that
they're buying are trulycertified when, when they're
not. The only way to to reallytake a look at those is that
there's architects, there's gotswhich is, which is the, the best
standard, and they put you kindof through the ringer. And you
got to make sure you got youryour act together, because
(21:18):
there's toll gates that kind ofgo through, and you got to have
that transparency of lookingback to make sure that every
step is taken care of, tojustify that it truly is
organic, and the transactionalcertificates will prove that,
and it goes through thatdifferent process. So that's
kind of my roundabout way ofanswering that question. But
sustainability continues togrow. One last tangent here, but
(21:42):
last year was over $60 billionwas was in fiber for organic
textiles, so that has growndouble digits for the for the
last decade, slowed down as asingle digits last year, but it
continues to grow as consumersget educated and really
understand what they're buying,who they're buying from, where
(22:06):
are the products made, and arethe claims that these companies
making? Are they truly accurate?
Andrew Maff (22:12):
Yeah, amazing.
Yeah. You never would havethought like, oh, just actually
do your due diligence and findout that what you're claiming
is, in fact, accurate. It's itmakes a ton of sense. Michael, I
really appreciate having you onthe show. I don't want to take
up too much your time. I knowyou're super busy. I'd love to
give you the floor let everyoneknow where they can find out
more about you and more aboutDelilah home, of course.
Michael Twer (22:31):
Well, great. Well, thank you so much for having me.
Andrea. Really appreciate it.
Our website is Delilah Home,delilahhome.com, you can also
find us on Macys.com,Bloomingdales.com, Target,
Walmart, Amazon. But if you cometo to our our site, and if you
have any questions, you're gonnaget an answer from from me. And
it could be at 10 o'clock atnight, but I'm gonna respond
(22:52):
with within, you know, minutesto to to an hour. That's kind of
because I'm hooked to my phone.
So we appreciate all thesupport. We're very blessed to
have a great customer base. Wetry to do what's right every
single day, even though we'renot perfect. We do mess up, but
we try to make it right. So weappreciate any opportunity to
(23:14):
earn any of your customers orany of your followers business.
Andrew Maff (23:18):
Michael, appreciate it. Thank you so much for being
on the show. Everyone who tunedin, of course, thank you as
well. Please make sure you dothe usual thing, rate review,
subscribe all that fun stuff onwhichever podcast platform you
prefer, or head over to theecommshow.com to check out all
of our previous episodes. But asusual, thank you all for joining
us. We'll see you all next time.
Narrator (23:36):
Thank you for tuning in to The E-Comm Show head over
to theecommshow.com to subscribeon your favorite podcast
platform or on the BlueTuskrYouTube channel. The E-Comm Show
is brought to you by BlueTuskr,a full service digital marketing
company specifically fore-commerce sellers looking to
accelerate their growth. Go tobluetuskr.com Now for more
(23:59):
information. Make sure to tunein next week for another amazing
episode of The E-Comm Show.
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