Touchland was founded on the belief that common acts of personal care should feel luxurious, not like necessary chores. The stylishly packaged, “beauty forward” hand sanitizers have become a hot commodity for celebrities and everyday consumers alike, accelerating the brand’s expansion online and in retail stores.
Touchland founder and CEO Andrea Lisbona attributes a share of her brand’s rapid rise to its early adoption of NetSuite, which laid a “strong foundation” for more analytical business operations and real-time decision-making. “A well-crafted data strategy is the elixir to growth, especially for fast-growing brands with a strong omnichannel strategy,” Lisbona said. “Every initiative that aims to support acquisition and retention should be grounded in empirical rationality and statistical significance.”
Consumers can now buy Touchland sanitizer across multiple channels, including the brand’s DTC ecommerce site, marketplaces like Faire and even on the shelves of big-name retailers like Ulta, Target and Sephora. The mainstream appeal of the sanitizers also has opened new revenue streams like corporate gifting and partnerships with business clients like Equinox, Marriott Group and Victoria’s Secret.
Cleaning Up Operations and Improving Brand Experiences
Touchland previously relied on disparate tools and software to support distinct functions, and there was little connection between its core accounting software and additional data created by operations, marketing and other teams. The company implemented NetSuite ERP to create more efficient processes and establish a more integrated view of operations.
Within 12 months of implementing NetSuite, Touchland was in 4,000 retail store doors and growing at triple digits, even as sales within the hand sanitizer category decreased by 6%. The brand had a 56,000-person waitlist, growing social media community and garnered positive performance in stores.
NetSuite has helped Touchland connect and streamline operations. As orders come in across its partner ecosystem, Touchland routes them seamlessly through the warehouse for distribution. NetSuite Connector allows Touchland to sync with Amazon as well as other online marketplaces and logistics providers to track inventory across warehouses and automate ecommerce-related accounting tasks, like recording transactions and managing payables.
Touchland also uses NetSuite Demand Planning to better gauge consumer demand across its network of wholesale partners so it can tightly manage the inventory it keeps in stock. Having access to this data helps the brand ensure that products are fulfilled in a timely fashion and that the company knows when to place POs with vendors as well as which items to include in those POs.
Touchland will continue to refine its workflows with NetSuite ERP, according to Lisbona, using insights to understand how consumers interact with the brand across different channels. “The most important datasets are those that show consumer purchase patterns within the brand’s website or other channels,” she said. “This is the key to growth.”
This article was adapted from a feature previously published on Retail TouchPoints, a website and newsletter designed to inform retail executives about new trends and technologies driving the future of retail strategy and experience.
