Glowny's Journey: From Retailer to a Thriving Designer Brand – The Secret to Success

Glowny's Journey: From Retailer to a Thriving Designer Brand – The Secret to Success

If you're curious about Glowny's journey from the founders' time in the US to the failure of their first business to the birth of Glowny, check out our interview above.

Never Forget About Your Customers

First Business Failure: Overlooking the Customer

It all started as a small retail shop in Dongdaemun and in just a few years, Glowny transformed into one of the most popular designer brands in Korea.

In just two years, Glowny surpassed $2.2 million USD in annual sales and is now on track for threefold growth this year.

This emerging brand is being hailed as one of the hottest brands in Korea and globally.

The secret to their rapid growth?

A dedicated customer base.

*Dongdaemun is a famous shopping area in Seoul

Glowny’s CEOs Jane Choi and Jiho Choi’s first business was a failure.

The brand, Spooning, was an online store that went from generating $750 million USD in annual sales to suddenly losing $37.5K USD a month overnight.

It was truly a wake-up call.

"I was quite young and we were growing rapidly, so I became a little arrogant. I thought to myself, ‘Whatever I do is successful’. These types of thoughts consumed me. I truly believed I could do anything but then it all went downhill and I hit rock bottom…I believe customers sensed that."

Through Spooning’s failure, Jane came to realize that success is dependent on customers. 

Glowny, which was reborn as a designer brand, deeply values customers and continues to grow steadily by establishing meaningful connections with customers.

We sat down with CEOs Jane Choi and Jiho Choi to delve into how Glowny manages its customer relationships.

‘You Glow Differently’, Glowny’s Approach to Customer Management

1. Team Glowny Content

💡Team Glowny content is more popular than influencer content

Glowny creates special content known as 'Team Glowny.’

Once a month, the team shares photos of team members enjoying brunch and taking leisurely walks together on Instagram. 

This content also showcases actual photos of Glowny employees wearing Glowny products.

At Glowny, employees are deeply valued. Jane and Jiho believe that sponsoring 'Team Glowny' is more effective than traditional influencer sponsorships. They provide employees with over $75 a month of savings for clothes and offer free outfits to wear on the weekends.

The result?

Employees create viral sensations by sharing images of themselves wearing Glowny products on Instagram.

In fact, Team Glowny content is more popular than any other content posted.

When the ‘Classic Line’ was initially launched (a pivotal product line in Glowny's growth) it was exclusively promoted through Instagram content, with zero marketing expenses.

“I think the best way to promote the brand identity is for Glowners to wear Glowny products themselves and express themselves. All of our employees are Glowners!”

2. Customer Survey

💡Conducting a customer survey provided valuable feedback that changed the direction of the business

“It seems like there are a lot of regular customers, but I don’t know who they are. I genuinely want to take care of our regulars.”

Jane herself was once a dedicated customer who spent over $7.4K on American Apparel. However, she was disappointed because, despite her significant purchases, she never received discounts or special customer care.

Eventually, her customer experience deteriorated, leading her to switch brands.

Having experienced firsthand the importance of nurturing regular customers, Jane decided to implement a "membership tier system" to identify and cater to loyal customers.

The first step Glowny took was conducting a customer survey.

This survey covered topics such as:

• Age range of Glowny's customers

• Most popular Glowny products

• Meaning behind the slogan

• VIP benefits

• Location of a store

The aim was to align the CEO's vision of Glowny with the customers' perspective and gain deeper insights.

The survey was a huge success and surprisingly, thousands of customers actively participated in the survey.

The two CEOs were so grateful that they stayed up all night individually reading each customer's feedback.

💡Two Key Findings from the Survey

• There were many existing fans - A significant number of customers were already familiar with the meaning behind the brand slogan, "You Glow Differently" which indicated there were many true fans who resonated with the brand's core values.

• Hannam-dong was the preferred store location - Glowny had initially planned to open a flagship store in Seongsu but customers felt Hannam-dong was a more suitable location.

*Hannam-dong and Seongsu are both areas in Seoul

3. Introduction of Membership Level System

💡Creating a membership level system helped identify VIPs to provide extra benefits for

Glowny reevaluated its customer tiers based on survey feedback and purchase history over time.

As part of the efforts to enhance the customer experience, the team decided to extend special benefits to their VIP customers.

The Glowny team invited customers who spent more than $3,000 over a six-month period to dine together at an open party event. During this event, customers were able to bring their friends and enjoy a meal together with the Glowny team.

5 Ways to Make Your Glowner ‘Glowny’

Glowner: Term used for Glowny customers.

Glowny first came to Channel Talk back in March 2023. During their initial meeting, Jane's first words to Hailey, Sales team lead of Channel Talk, were simply, "Please, I need your help."

Following the Musinsa Live event, Glowny experienced an explosive surge in order volume, handling a staggering 8,000 deliveries and receiving over 100 inquiries daily.

However, with only one dedicated customer service employee and inquiries spread across various channels, they faced significant challenges.

Since the implementation of Channel Talk, Glowny has successfully reduced simple inquiries by over 50%.

By identifying common inquiry patterns, they've streamlined their customer service process for maximum efficiency. Currently, Glowny has even phased out its inquiry bulletin board and exclusively handles questions through Channel Talk.

In the following sections, we will provide an in-depth overview of how Glowny engages with customers through Channel Talk.

1. Integrating Communication Channels

Hailey from Channel Talk initially proposed the idea of consolidating communication channels.

With Channel Talk, Glowny was able to seamlessly link Instagram DMs, Kakao Talk, Naver Talk, and email, allowing the team to centralize inquiry management in one place.

2. Support Bot

When the Glowny team reviewed the inquiries that were pouring in, Jane noticed that many of them were straightforward and repetitive.

To address this, Glowny introduced a support bot to automatically handle these simple inquiries.

During customer chats, a clear distinction was made between Glowny's own online shop and marketplaces, enabling more efficient conversations.

After the inquiry frenzy passed, Glowny implemented restocking notifications and membership benefits through the Support Bot.

When you submit a restock request for a product using the Support Bot form, you'll receive a notification message once the item is back in stock.

Additionally, if you click the membership-related benefit button, your name and level will be displayed.

3. Customer Chat Tags

Glowny also acquires valuable insights through Channel Talk’s advanced tagging system.

By categorizing tags based on platform, customer level, and topic, they've effectively organized all inquiries by tag.

For instance, they discovered that high-tier customers tend to inquire more about product details and Glowny pop-up stores, as opposed to more straightforward matters like delivery or exchanges.

4. Customer Conversations

Glowny loves to actively communicate with customers to the point where the entire company wants to be part of the CS team.

The Glowny Support bot features a special button labeled 'Get a recommendation from a Glowny Manager.' If you have a product-related question, a Glowny team member will respond directly, and at times, Jane and Jiho may also provide personal recommendations!

While handling customer inquiries through Channel Talk, Glowny realized the significance of real-time communication.

There was even a customer who expressed their gratitude by sending a gift card after a chat conversation.

“All I did was answer their question within the designated response time but they gratefully expressed their appreciation with a gift card.”

It's worth noting that not only the CS team but all team members at Glowny use Channel Talk to communicate through the in-house messenger.

Not only are work-related matters discussed but it’s also easy to share details of customer conversations.

This has led to smoother customer communication and increased efficiency, as the relevant person can respond directly to inquiries.

5. Marketing

Glowny actively uses Channel Talk's marketing function to engage with customers. The team takes the opportunity to encourage membership registration, send out styling lookbooks with behind-the-scenes shots to help customers make purchases, and provide friendly updates like Glowny's summer vacation schedule.

Hip & Friendly

Glowny's commitment to Glowners is genuine.

The connection between Glowny and Glowners transcends a typical brand-customer relationship; it's more like a close friendship.

Dedicated Glowners, who are enthusiastic fans, even address the CEOs by their first names. When reaching out to these two CEOs, they warmly use names like 'Jane~,' 'Jiho~,' or even 'Unni' (a friendly term for an older sister).

Glowners are more excited over Team Glowny's updates than other content posted by the brand.

Jane and Jiho, who learned from their past mistakes of overlooking customers, have made Glowners their top priority.

This focus has been instrumental in Glowny's rapid growth, thanks to the strong alignment of values with its customers.

Jane and Jiho intend to keep building more touchpoints with customers and foster even closer relationships with them.