Editor’s Note
BaubleBar expands its retail footprint with a new Target collaboration, SUGARFIX by BaubleBar, offering monthly drops of trendy jewelry. The brand’s success stems from agile design processes and strategic partnerships.
BaubleBar, a pioneering e-commerce fashion jewelry company led by Amy Jain and Daniella Yacobovsky, has recently partnered with Target to launch SUGARFIX by BaubleBar. The ongoing collaboration will offer Target customers a collection of fashion-forward earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings. New jewelry pieces will release online and in-stores every month.
Since BaubleBar’s 2011 debut, the company has become a leader in the fast fashion space. Proprietary design & development processes that prioritize meeting customer demands like accessibility, on-trend products, and quick turnaround times differentiate BaubleBar in the marketplace. Strategic business relationships with namebrands like Nordstrom, FRENDS, Jawbone, and, now, Target also play a key role in the company’s success.
New York-based BaubleBar has grown from two to 200 employees. The company has raised $35.6 million in funding to date. Investors include Accel Partners, Greycroft Partners, Aspect Ventures, and Burch Creative Capital, the investment firm headed by retail and fashion veteran Chris Burch.
Jain and Yacobovsky met while earning MBA’s from Harvard Business School before founding BaubleBar. Pre-Harvard Jain worked at Centerview Partners after earning her degree from Yale University while Yacobovsky worked at American Capital and UBS after earning her BS from University of Pennsylvania.
Kristina Moore: How is SUGARFIX by BaubleBar different from BaubleBar?
“BaubleBar will continue to bring her the latest trends through need-now accessories, while SUGARFIX by BaubleBar will offer her easy style at guilt-free prices. To help contextualize that, BaubleBar’s average price point is $50, while the average SUGARFIX price point is $14.99. We truly believe style should be limited only by your imagination, and not by your budget. We aim to give our customer access to the best trend accessories and SUGARFIX provides us with a great opportunity to reach a new audience looking for a different price point.”
How excited are both you and Target about your collaboration?
“To be honest, we cannot overstate how much we love Target. At our first few meetings we definitely had some fan-girl moments! Our partnership with them is a dream opportunity to leverage our capabilities to speak to a new customer at a different price point.”
“We are also so excited to be working with a partner that believes in what we are building and wants to support us. We are building the SUGARFIX brand together, supported by new monthly collections and ample marketing support.”
How has collaboration in general played a role in BaubleBar’s success? What inspired the two of you to partner together on BaubleBar?
“Starting our careers in finance and in much less glitzy jobs, it was at Harvard Business School where together we conceived the idea for BaubleBar. After a year of doing some serious digging to figure out the ins-and-outs of the industry, we realized together that we had found a niche in the $22 billion dollar industry: build a brand that offered women an easy way to get on trend. We have always felt accessories provide her a great (and seriously fun!) way to accomplish that. Once we graduated, we launched BaubleBar from the ground up.”
“Collaboration has always been an important element of the BaubleBar business. Since the start of BaubleBar, we have also found our wholesale partnerships and product collaborations to be extremely beneficial for the business. Forging partnerships with large specialty retailers has allowed us to meet the BaubleBar girl wherever she is and through our unique collaborations, we’ve continued to provide our customers with fresh and interesting takes on our collections.”
What part does consumer feedback and specific consumer data play in your design decisions?
“Customer data and feedback is at the core of our business. We have to understand our customer and know what’s going to get her excited. At the crux of everything we do is a proprietary product design and development process that is built on incorporating real-time customer data. We review data at every step of the process to inform what we should be prioritizing.”
“Since starting BaubleBar, we have focused on building a strong design and product development engine. Our goal has always been to use that engine to bring jewelry and accessories to an even broader group of women through new brands that meet her wide-ranging needs.”
“We are focused on being her go-to for on trend accessories that help her have fun with fashion. We are reaching a new customer at a new price point with SUGARFIX and will continue to focus on how we expand meeting her needs, wherever she is shopping.”
