Clean Beauty Retailer Lala & Elm Is Putting Family At The Forefront

At Lala & Elm, it’s a family affair.

Launched in July 2021 in the coastal city of Wilmington, N.C., the clean beauty boutique is managed by owner Erica Mearns and her two young daughters, Alexis, a student at North Carolina State University, and Claire, a high schooler. “That’s not just a marketing ploy,” says Mearns. “It’s been a really great journey with the girls because they’re learning all the elements of business like leadership, ethics and marketing.”

Mearns’ daughters not only work alongside her in the store, they collaborate with their mother on merchandising strategy and curation decisions, giving Lala & Elm’s assortment a multi-generational perspective. Oldest daughter Alexis’s fiancé Jordan Caplanson-Torrens is in on the action at the store, too. He’s trained on every brand it carries and helps to curate a gender-neutral selection. 

Lala & Elm’s 1,500-square-foot space has 900 stockkeeping units spanning skincare, makeup, haircare, body care, bath, lifestyle and gifts from around 70 premium beauty brands, including Alima Pure, Indie Lee, Milk + Honey, Mount Lai, Odacite, One Love Organics, Plantkos and Ursa Major. The store is located off a highly trafficked street that draws 74,000 to 75,000 cars every day, per Mearns.

Despite age differences, Mearns’ daughters’ tastes often align with their mom’s preferences for premium clean beauty. At just 15, youngest daughter Claire is a fan of luxe brands like Tata Harper, La Fervance and Kjaer Weis. She spearheads most of Lala & Elm’s candle offerings and is handling an upcoming collaboration with a tea company.

Lala & Elm’s luxury positioning was important to Mearns as she conceptualized its business model. “When people think ‘clean,’ they think, ‘It’s got to be granola,'” she says. “So, we focus more on that luxury aspect to show that you can shop products that are just as efficacious, but that also have that luxury, sensorial experience.”

Lala & Elm’s customer base is quite diverse in age, reflecting the varied demographics of Wilmington and the Mearns family members involved. “We’re a really unique area in that we are a resort area, a college area and a retirement community,” says Mearns. “So, we really get a unique demographic here. There’s multiple gated communities and the average property is valued around $1.5 million to $1.8 million.” 

Products at Lala & Elm are priced from $4 for small items like hand sanitizer and bath soaks to $455 for moisturizers and skincare gift sets. To cater to a rising number of college students walking through its doors, the store is zeroing in on products around the $50 mark.

High-end spas and shops characterize the Wilmington retail scene, but national retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus are absent from the area. Most customers shopping in person at Lala & Elm are local beauty lovers. Its e-commerce website, however, attracts consumers across the globe in countries as far away as Kenya and Mongolia.

Mearns describes Lala & Elm shoppers as divided into three categories: those with a strong preference for sustainability, those with a preeminent penchant for clean beauty, and those that value both clean and sustainable beauty, but with a luxury component. No matter where its customers hail from or what they value, the boutique is committed to providing them concierge-style service. Mearns says, “We’re very, very hyper-focused on exceptional customer service. We want our customers to feel like an extension of our family.”

Family is embedded in the management structure of Lala & Elm and its founding ethos. “Lala” is a nickname for Mearns’ godmother, whose breast cancer diagnosis inspired her to transition to cleaner living along with a decades-long struggle with her skin. She says, “I’m not a cosmetologist. I’m not an aesthetician. I’m simply a mom that wanted better for herself and her daughters.”

Ayuna, Tata Harper, Kjaer Weis, Tronque, Bathorium and Maya Chia are a few of Lala & Elm’s top-performing brands. Body sunscreen and baby products are currently trending down in customer interest. Brands looking to sell at the boutique need to have that “it” factor, says Mearns, especially in skincare, a crowded category at Lala & Elm.

Brands with clinical trials to back up claims are particularly attractive, although Mearns concedes that could limit smaller indie brands from entering Lala & Elm’s assortment. She taps Adit, a retail matchmaking service owned by Beauty Independent parent company Indie Beauty Media Group, to assist with sourcing brands.

With former brand partners Athr Beauty and Vapour out of business, Mearns aims to beef up the boutique’s makeup collection with brands that have a full range of complexion and color products. Specifically, she has her sights on the multipurpose makeup brand Ogee. “I just don’t have the assortment of makeup that I want to have in here right now,” says Mearns. “I would give my right arm for a brand like Ogee because I know I can sell that here.”

In-store masterclasses and events with brands like Tammy Fender and 27 Rosiers boost Lala & Elm’s sales. They were integral in the boutique’s first quarter sales this year increasing 80% from the same quarter the previous year. For comparison, its yearly sales increased 29% from 2021 to 2022 before events and masterclasses were implemented. 

A DIY facial event with Ayuna last September caused the skincare brand’s sales to triple at Lala & Elm. Mearns says, “Once people were able to really get in and experience the brand and understand more about it, it just took off.”

To keep momentum going, Mearns plans to ramp up Lala & Elm’s event schedule for the remainder of the year. At least five to six more public masterclasses and between 10 and 15 private events with local businesses are projected to take place at Lala & Elm. Bridal and birthday parties are being considered as potential event opportunities.

Lala & Elm will be busy over the next 18 months. The self-funded business is projected to reach profitability during the second quarter next year before it expands outside of Wilmington with a second location. An exact location hasn’t been nailed down yet. 

Mearns says, “I want to make sure that we’re maintaining that level of service and the integrity of the store when we expand. That’s something that is incredibly important to me that I do not want to lose.”