Jenni Kayne, the quintessential California lifestyle brand that inspires women to live well every day, is putting new energies behind expanding its brand on a global scale. While the company has had the functionality to go global for more than a year — and currently ships its products to 13 counties — it decided to relaunch its global program and put a sharper focus on the specific countries where it saw the most interest for its brand.

“We noticed a lot of organic interest in Canada and Australia via traffic on our site through Google Analytics or messages on social media,” said Alexa Ritacco, Jenni Kayne’s chief marketing officer, “so we’ve decided to relaunch our international program and focus on those areas.” Ritacco was speaking on a panel hosted by the Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC) at the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum (GELF), which took place in New York City on Sept. 29.

Launching, or relaunching, a global program isn’t easy, however. For example, Ritacco discussed when Jenni Kayne started building its first program, it did it the “DIY” way — piecing the program together from parts of other programs it was using vs. hiring experts to help build it. Ultimately, the brand chose to work with a partner this time around.

“While we definitely learned a lot during the process, I would recommend vetting all of your possible options and weighing the pros and cons of having a partner vs not,” Ritacco said.

Also, she reminded attendees that when taking your business international, you should always think about the customer’s experience and “not just base everything on financials.”

Before going global, Ritacco also said it’s important to have a really good marketing tie-in for your launch.

“Right now, in gearing up for our relaunch with a new partner, we’re looking into influencer seeding so we can get this off the ground in a really big way,” noted Ritacco. In addition, Jenni Kayne is investing in paid affiliate placements in all the markets it’s targeting.

GELF NYC 2022 brought together retail and e-commerce leaders, digital commerce innovators, and cross-border e-commerce experts for keynotes, breakout sessions, executive roundtable meetups, and networking. Other panels focused on topics such as balancing global direct-to-consumer and international wholesale distribution models; lessons from post-pandemic consumers in Asia; the shift to cross-border 2.0; among other relevant topics.