E-commerce is one of the highest-performing industries today, with many women making waves and breaking ground in different ways. And while the industry is full of fantastic, highly-accomplished women, we just wanted to highlight a few.
The most successful women in e-commerce businesses include Priscilla Hajiantoni, Rosie Jane Johnston, Jash Mehta, Katie Wilson, Erin Deering, and many more. These exceptional women have continued to make industry-changing breakthroughs that inspire even more positive change.
Read on to find out which female founders made my list and how they’re currently blazing the trail in their respective fields!
Most successful women in beauty
Priscilla Hajiantoni
Priscilla Hajiantoni is a startup founder committed to restoring confidence to millions worldwide with her remarkable skincare brand, Bangn Body. By all standards, the entrepreneur is a force and shot to fame (and fortune) in 2020.
And while Bangn Body was by no means an overnight success, it’s evident that Priscilla’s grit made the business go from making 32 sales on launch day to becoming featured on Forbes!
But her financial success isn’t all that makes her so unique. Priscilla’s marketing strategy is quite peculiar and non-traditional, unlike what you’d see with consumer-centric skincare companies.
Instead, she has grown a successful brand featuring a passionate community through a unique marketing structure sourced from helpful information on forums, books, and other media.
Rosie Jane Johnston
The next icon on my list needs almost no introduction if you’ve been an active follower of the makeup industry for the last couple of years. And although Rosie Jane Johnston is a sensation and creative in the makeup space, she’s on my list for a slightly different reason.
After all, she’s the founder and creator of By Rosie Jane—one of today's hottest brands in the fragrance and beauty industry.
The 7-figure company is a fast-growing business she built through unyielding resilience. Of course, that’s not the whole story.
Rosie Jane Johnston might have built By Rosie Jane by relying on her wits, but her openness to adaptation and her passion for providing excellent products made it a success.
She firmly believes in staying the course and pursuing what you believe until you turn those obstacles into bridges.
Health Food & Bev
Jash Mehta
Jash Mehta started Pop & Bottle with her friend, Blair Hardy, for one simple reason: to make clean, healthy, and organic coffee a common commodity.
And fueled by equal parts passion for healthy living and a wholesome love of coffee, these two friends are on a mission to make daily consumption slightly healthier.
Jash Mehta is on this list for many reasons (not just because I love coffee), including just how well she’s built a thriving business in an industry most people wouldn’t even dare.
Pop & Bottle started with less than 50 stores, but she’s expanded the company to nearly 10,000 stores across several continents. Fantastic entrepreneurship!
Katie Wilson
Katie Wilson has consistently advocated for healthful living and pays close attention to one’s digestive health. It’s no surprise that her business, BelliWelli produces a treat that’s gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, and easy to digest.
Wilson’s inspiration for her business was the 70% of Americans who suffer from digestive health issues. In a food industry filled with billions of “sweet” but unhealthy foods and snacks, she has used her product to create massive awareness around gut-related issues like IBS.
And through her genius marketing strategies, BelliWelli has become a household name amongst health-minded individuals.
Most successful women in fashion
Erin Deering
Erin Deering is one of the top female entrepreneurs with a considerable market share in the fashion business. She’s grown a swimwear brand—The Triangl—to a company with over $200 million valuation in under a year.
And through her intense, well-thought-out marketing strategies, Triangl has become a big deal in the fashion space.
But Erin’s story hasn’t been all roses—and that’s one of the reasons you’re reading about her here. She’s suffered setbacks, including having her stock confiscated at the Chinese border and getting ripped off by a manufacturing factory—enough mistakes to “kill” her business.
However, she beat the odds and turned all that loss into a successful startup, so she gets a spot on my Female Startup Club list.
Reshma Chattaram Chamberlin
“How much will we be helping the Earth if we also recycle clothes?” Reshma Chattaram Chamberlin answered this question by creating Summersalt in 2017. And with Lori Coulter, the company’s co-founder, the swimwear brand has become a must-have for every woman.
One of the most astonishing things about Chamberlin’s fashion startup is that all their swimwear is made of recycled clothes!
Her resilience and determination to succeed in a male-dominated industry have inspired millions of women worldwide to start and grow their businesses.
Most successful women in tech
Lulu Ge
Lulu Ge’s putting a twist on how the world sees medicine. Through Elix, she’s been able to promote self-healing techniques with technology by leveraging research from dozens of clinics and time-tested medical knowledge.
In other words, she’s taken the telemedicine space by storm!
Lulu Ge is Chinese, and she’s thrown traditional Chinese medical knowledge into the mix, creating medicines from herbal extracts that have helped millions worldwide.
Do you want to know the best part? She got her business off the ground by majorly using word-of-mouth marketing techniques!
Most successful women in femtech
Miki Agrawal
Femtech is a rising concept, and Miki Agrawal is one of the female entrepreneurs spearheading the industry’s growth. Through the help of her company, Thinx, she has enormously contributed to feminine hygiene.
The underwear Thinx makes is period-proof, helping many women go about their day without being encumbered by the burdens of tampons.
Nadya Okamoto
Nadya Okamoto is a business mogul that wears several hats to get the job done and grow her Femtech business—August. She has lowered her customer acquisition cost by using community and massive social media followership enough to create a fast-growing business.
She’s also trusted her gut on several occasions while making big decisions. And by doing that, she’s inspired millions of women who have followed her journey right from the start.
For this reason, she’s undoubtedly one of our picks for one of the most successful women in the e-commerce business.
Most successful women in other industries
Meena Harris
While you may see the top industries listed above, some women in business don’t fall under these categories. The first is Phenomenal, founded by Meena Harris.
Originally a lawyer, she accidentally created her social impact company by printing “Phenomenal Woman” on a shirt.
And since its success, she’s created other apparel that encourages and instigates social, cultural, and systemic change. Talk about phenomenal!
Katie Carson
Royalty Soaps, founded by Katie Carson, mainly produces artistic soaps for commercial use. The business is primarily on Shopify, but she’s built an empire out of making soap.
Today, her Youtube, which contains light-hearted videos, has amassed about 900,000 subscribers, which continues to grow.
Conclusion
As we wrap up this insightful journey into the realm of successful female entrepreneurship, we can confidently say that these women are rewriting the e-commerce narrative, breaking down barriers, and crafting their stories with resilience and passion.
They are not just building businesses; they are fostering communities, inspiring change, and setting precedents for aspiring entrepreneurs. From Priscilla Hajiantoni's unconventional marketing strategy, Rosie Jane Johnston's resilience, Jash Mehta's healthful innovation, Katie Wilson's gut-health mission, Erin Deering's fashion enterprise, Reshma Chattaram Chamberlin's sustainable fashion initiative, Lulu Ge's marriage of tech and traditional medicine, to Miki Agrawal and Nadya Okamoto's groundbreaking contributions to Femtech, these women are a testament to the power of perseverance and creativity.
Just as Meena Harris turned a simple t-shirt into a social impact platform, and Katie Carson built an empire from soap-making, every dream, no matter how small, can blossom into a thriving enterprise.
So, whether you're a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned businesswoman, there's a lot to learn and take away from these phenomenal women. Remember, the e-commerce industry is brimming with endless opportunities, and you could be the next woman to make her mark.
As we celebrate these women, let's remind ourselves that success comes to those who dare to begin and persist in the face of challenges. Let these extraordinary stories serve as your inspiration, and keep breaking new ground in your unique way. Here's to unstoppable women making waves in e-commerce and beyond.