Jason Wong is a multi-talented CEO and founder. He’s a brand-building expert who has consulted with Fortune 500 companies like Adidas & Coca-Cola and founded the ultra-fine, stick-on eyelash company Doe Lashes with $500 and grew it to a $15M company. Wong also offers a popular masterclass that provides DTC brands with a playbook for success.
When Boost got the opportunity to team up with Wong, it was an easy yes.
As an e-commerce expert, Wong was gracious enough to sit down with us and share his thoughts on major shifts in e-commerce like live shopping, the tools powering DTC brands, and the future of Doe Lashes.
What’s your view on live shopping?
We’ve definitely explored live shopping and looked into platforms like TikTok and Instagram to host live shopping events. Unfortunately, I feel like those platforms aren’t quite sufficient enough to support where live shopping needs to be today. I’m also not entirely comfortable using a third-party platform like PopShop Live because it’s difficult to get people to join a new platform.
That being said, I also understand that the limitations with live shopping isn’t entirely technologies fault; it requires a change in consumer behavior. It’s very difficult to capture people’s attention and get them to watch something live, especially now that attention spans are so short.
You’re known for embracing new e-commerce tools before anyone else. What do you look for in tools?
I don’t like going after a big-name e-commerce tools just because it’s a recognizable name and sounds good. I prefer to embrace newcomers like Boost. I actually met Danny before Boost was even a product, and I was always interested in using it. Boost has a great thesis: shopping on social media is fundamentally broken. As a former influencer, I’ve experienced this firsthand.
I take a very strategic approach when picking e-commerce tools. I look at the thesis of the company rather than what they’ve already done. I’m not looking for a tool that has 3000 reviews. I’m looking for a product with a grand vision. I always ask myself: does the big-picture idea make sense?
Once I’ve evaluated this, I’m fully invested in being a user and building the product through customer feedback and suggestions. For example, I was customer no.1 for Octane AI.
Why do you prefer to be an early adopter of e-commerce tools?
Often times companies design products without a thorough understanding of their customer. Every company needs to understand on a deep level what the customer wants and what the customer needs.
Being an early adopter allows you to essentially design the product with the company.
What are your thoughts on zero-party data?
With the changes that we’ve seen over the past few months and FB ads getting more difficult, zero-party data is more and more important. It allows us to treat people like their people rather than just a number on our dashboard. This means we can be more personalized and thoughtful with how we interact with our customers, and it’s done through collecting zero-party data.
One of the ways that we do this is through the Octane AI quiz which lets us ask our users questions like, “What’s your eye shape?” or “How often do you wear eyelashes?”
We use these answers to build an individual customer profile on our database and then sync it into Klaviyo, which allows us to personalize our ad campaigns and messages.
I think consumers like this personalization because it shows that we care. We’re not sending them a generic ad campaign or message; we’re actually using personalized copy based on the information they gave us and the customer profile we’ve built for them. I think it’s a win-win situation.
Where does Doe get most of its traffic from?
TikTok has been a huge driver and the biggest lead gen opportunity. The algorithm surfaces a lot of our content to people who aren’t even following us.
We’re not doing that well on paid because our ticket value is not that high, so we can’t be as competitive as a brand that sells $80 AOV because our AOV is about $40-$50. In order to offset our high CAC, we leverage influencers.
Did the IOS14 update impact Doe?
We’re definitely feeling it. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. Even though our primary driver isn’t in paid ads, we still have a part of our business that runs through paid ads. Unfortunately, our cost per acquisition did go up, so we have to be a bit more cautious of how we run Doe and look for ways to cut down our spending and optimize our marketing channels.
Will Doe be involved in Web3?
We’re looking to deploy an NFT project in the next few months. It’ll likely be a DAO which will incentivize our community of loyal customers to participate in product launches. For example, we may launch a 100 token DAO where our customers have a say in the product launch. It may cost customers $300 to mint this NFT, but they get the upsides of profit sharing.
Another idea is to create NFTs of our designs along with the actual physical product. There’s a lot goes into the designs of our product — we create the logo, the lash, the packaging, etc. All of this work starts out as a digital asset before being transformed into a physical product. I think it would be really meaningful to allow our most loyal customers to own a collectible piece from the design process.
Ultimately, we want to find ways to give back to our community. To date, there hasn’t been a great way for us to give back to them, but I think NFTs solve that.
Our community is what drives Doe’s growth and success.
How have you been building Doe’s community?
We handle our membership through Discord. We currently have 400 members. Our members join it because of Doe, but it’s really a great way for them to network with each other and discuss other topics they’re passionate about in makeup & beauty.
Discord is also a great way for us to get product feedback. Before any official product launch, we’ll ask members to join a focus/test group to get feedback. We always have an incentive like gift cards to encourage participation.
We also get feedback on our marketing efforts BEFORE presenting them to the public. You see stories all the time about marketing and PR disasters from brands who just never read the room. We read the room before we even say it to the room.
These Discord members are some of our most loyal and engaged customers. They’re really brand advocates and are always willing to give Doe a shoutout or help amplify a product.
Keep up with Jason and Doe Lashes on Twitter.
