Exploring Life & Business with Danielle Kernodle of Retort Lingerie

Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Kernodle.

Danielle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to own my own business. In college, I chose to concentrate in entrepreneurial studies, so I could pursue this dream. After graduating, I realized I still didn’t have a viable idea to start my own business. I decided to become a digital marketing analyst at a small company in Raleigh to give me some exposure to the workings of a small company and more experience with online businesses.

Fast forward seven years and I am still in the digital marketing industry and leading a team at this same company. Over my seven years career, I’ve worked with over a hundred ecommerce businesses, which has given me a lot of exposure to running an online business. After seven years, I was still craving entrepreneurship, so I began investigating an online business to acquire. Within my first month of exploration, I found Retort Lingerie on the Shopify Exchange Network. Retort Lingerie is a business founded by a woman in California and I was immediately intrigued. The founder didn’t have much time to invest in growing the business and wanted to sell the company to another woman who was passionate about entrepreneurship and intimate apparel. Over the next few weeks, I had numerous calls with the prior founder to learn about the business and see if it was a good fit for my interests and skill set. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was it and this company would be my first venture. I decided to move forward with the purchase. In December of 2019, I became the official owner of Retort Lingerie. That decision was the best business decision I’ve ever made and I’ve loved every moment of running this company.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Part of the reason why I bought this company was to learn. Undoubtedly, there has been a huge learning curve that has led to many hurdles along the way. Every single day I learn something new about the industry, marketing, merchandising, finance and so much more. The biggest challenge has been how to intelligently acquire the right product mix and align with the intimate apparel buyer preferences. Figuring out the ideal brands, styles, sizes and colors is challenging. No matter how much research you do, you never quite know exactly what customers will respond to. Once you get over the challenge of selecting what inventory you want to buy, you then have to make smart merchandising decisions about the specific inventory levels to hold. It is a constant challenge, but it is getting easier as I learn more about my customer’s specific wants and needs.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
What people should know about Retort Lingerie: Retort Lingerie is proud to donate 1% of every sale to organizations that support women. We’ve donated to many organizations including: She Should Run, Equality Now, Every Mother Counts and The Pad Project. We try to select a new organization each quarter and we use our customers and followers to help us select a worthy organization.

What makes us different: We believe that women are naturally beautiful and shouldn’t need to wear oversexualized lingerie to feel sexy. We want women to feel confident wearing underwear that is comfortable. Our collection is curated with comfort in mind first. We also strive to provide a collection that has pieces that are functional and can be a closet staple. We focus on having a neutral color selection rather than buying new colors each season. We feel neutrals are more versatile and we don’t want to subscribe to fast fashion and make our customers feel like they need the new or trendy colors.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
First and foremost, the founder of Retort Lingerie, Whitney, deserves credit. She took a big risk by investing in her vision and creating the brand from the ground up. Her initial investment in the branding, website and inventory was a huge stepping stone in getting the company to where it is now. Secondly, my husband deserves credit. He has been my biggest support system and motivator through this entire process. He was the one who encouraged me to take this leap of faith and invest in buying the business. He always reminds me that each challenge and roadblock is an opportunity for me to learn and grow.

And of course, my family and friends have been incredible in supporting me throughout this journey. They’ve shopped with me, helped me at pop-ups, promoted me on social media, encouraged me to keep going and so much more.

Contact Info:

• Email: management@retortlingerie.com
• Website: https://retortlingerie.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retortlingerie/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopretort

Image Credits
GloryRoze Photography Jim Clark Stevenson Michael Betzner Photography