Plaine Products’ Eco Approach to Bath and Body Care

Lindsey McCoy, the CEO of Plaine Products, shares her journey from nonprofit management to pioneering a plastic-free, sustainable personal care brand. With a mission fueled by environmental consciousness and a drive to reduce waste, McCoy discusses the challenges and triumphs of establishing Plaine Products, emphasizing the importance of clean, vegan ingredients and innovative aluminum packaging. Her commitment to a customer-centric approach, effective marketing strategies, and maintaining affordability while advocating for sustainability are key highlights.

This interview offers a glimpse into the world of eco-friendly entrepreneurship and the relentless pursuit of a circular economy.

Origins and Mission

SBS – What inspired you to start Plaine Products, and how has your personal story influenced the brand and its mission?  

Lindsey – My background is actually in nonprofit management. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and at that point, if you wanted to do good in the world, you did not go into business, so I went into nonprofit management. I had a variety of careers throughout the years.

My husband is from the Bahamas, and I ended up doing environmental education work there. I didn’t have a huge background in it then, but I did have a lot of experience running nonprofits. I got to go to these beautiful places and remote islands to do beach cleanups with kids. I saw where all the plastic was ending up, and I decided I didn’t want to keep throwing away plastic bottles, so I started looking around for options.

At the time, no plastic-free options worked for me for hair care and personal care, so when we decided to move to the US, my sister and I decided to open a company and try to provide an alternative. It took us about a year and a half or two to figure it all out, find a manufacturer, find a bottle design that works, etc. My background in environmental education means that we are a very strong mission-based company, and our goal is to help people create less waste in the world and use resources more effectively. People in the US are not even using the term circular economy yet, but that’s exactly what we strive for. 

Challenges and Solutions

SBS – Was it difficult to create a plastic-free business and did you have some obstacles along the way? 

Lindsey – There were lots of obstacles! Nobody was doing this, so we had to create a system. We had to convince the manufacturer to let us reuse bottles. We had to meet with them and talk to their chemists about the process, and we’re still trying to figure out how to explain it to customers because it’s a different way to purchase products.

Once we got started, we also realized how important clean ingredients were, and we didn’t want to put a bunch of chemicals in the bottle or have people wash them down the drain. That’s also something that we believe in. There are a lot of great, clean ingredient products, and, in addition to that, we’re one of the few that are moving towards the circular economy.

People are on board, but trying to explain it is not easy. Even keywords and search terms can be confusing. Using the term circular economy on our website is not helpful because nobody’s looking for that, and we still don’t know what it will be called in the US. We’re always trying to do research, talk to our customers, test our different things, and adapt. A clear product differentiation gives us the edge, but helping people find us is tricky. We need to be somewhere they can find us if they want us. Certainly, your average person who doesn’t have those issues in their mind is a little confused when they see what we’re doing. For people thinking about these things, we’re a great solution, but to provide education and move other people along, we’re relying on many different things.

Quality of the Products

SBS – How do you ensure that the quality and productivity of your products are high while being vegan and sustainable?

Lindsey – When we said that we wanted clean ingredients, it just so happened that they were vegan. That wasn’t an initial requirement, but when you use all the plant-based stuff that comes with it. Looking for the correct terms and trying to find people, that’s a term that people understand, so it helps speak to those values, and it has been a nice alignment with some of the other things, like the packaging and the sustainability. To me, they go hand in hand. Why would you work hard to keep plastic out of the environment but be okay with dumping chemicals down the drain? Other people may not see the issue. But to us, it just made sense.

Innovative Packaging

SBS – Can you explain your decision to use aluminum bottles? Is it hard to find the logistics for that type of refill system?

Lindsey – When we started, we thought we would use stainless steel, but it turned out that not all stainless steel is stainless. We learned that real stainless steel is incredibly expensive, which we, as a startup, could not afford, nor would anybody want to pay for what that would cost. So, we switched over to aluminum. It was more readily available, and, as a small startup, we had to find something on the shelf that we could make work with our budget.

Regarding the logistics, that is a piece we had to create. In other countries, there’s a lot of bottle-washing in the beer industry, and we were able to find a second-hand dishwasher in Iraq that would fit our bottles, and we bought it. We learned from other people and pulled from different places to put together something that works.

I am a huge advocate of asking questions and following up. As I said, I came in this from the nonprofit world. I didn’t know anything about the personal care industry. Most people who start up personal care brands have a background in cosmetics or have worked for a big company before. We have developed many relationships with people, influencers, bloggers, and other experts, and I rely heavily on them. Having an open mind, asking questions, and listening have been helpful to us. Obviously, you have to make your own decisions at some point, but I could not have done it and still can’t without lots of feedback, help, and support.

Customer-Centric Approach

SBS – How did customer feedback affect your product? 

Lindsey – In a lot of different ways! When we were trying to figure out how to talk about it, I think our original tagline was, “Join the packaging revolution,” but I quickly realized that didn’t mean anything to anyone. No one cares about packaging, so we had to talk to people about what they were looking for.

We started with three products and are now at 14. Almost all of those have been customer-suggested or requested. We’ve made the font on the bottles bigger because people said they couldn’t read them in the shower without their glasses, which I now appreciate. We are constantly integrating customer feedback. Because of my non-profit background, I take customer service incredibly seriously. We get back to people the same day. We respond to questions. We have a lot of transparency. We have great relationships with our customers and rely on them to help us know what’s going on and what we need to address.

Certainly, our success is heavily based on word of mouth and the partnerships that we’ve created with different bloggers and influencers. As a small company, there is no way that we could have grown as much as we did without it.

Marketing Strategies

SBS – What marketing strategies did you use to attract new or retain existing customers? Did you make some marketing efforts to promote your brand message as well? 

Lindsey – Luckily, when we were getting started, the internet was less busy than it is today. We started reaching out to people in the clean beauty, the zero waste movement, and the green beauty spaces. Early on, we asked for advice and if those people would be willing to try our product and give us feedback. All those relationships we built were key, and people appreciated that we were trying to do something good and a little different. They were incredibly helpful in talking about us and helping spread the word.

We continue to work in those sectors and with many other sustainable brands. We just did a cross-marketing and a giveaway with Cleancult, a cleaning spray and dishwasher liquid brand in aluminum bottles. I’m often on a podcast with somebody who has shampoo bars. Some people would see it as a competition, but she and I agree that we’re trying to get people out of plastic bottles and away from toxic ingredients, so we work great together. We see ourselves as teammates trying to get people to our side of the street. There is room to make the pool of people buying eco-friendly products bigger, and I think it’s incumbent on all of us to work on that and try to help each other out.

Sustainability and Affordability

SBS – How do you balance the costs associated with sustainable practices while maintaining competitive pricing?

Lindsey – We have priced ourselves competitively with other clean beauty, organic, natural-based shampoos, conditioners, and lotions. We are certainly not the same as a $4 bottle of Suave on the shelf. I saw something once that said, “Instead of wondering why organic food is so expensive, maybe you should wonder why the other stuff is so cheap.” We do a lot of education about our products and what it costs to have good ingredients and take responsibility for the packaging.

We also do lots of stuff around design. For example, we put a really small pump on it. You don’t need a lot of product, just two small pumps. Add water, and it’ll lather. We didn’t design it like some others where you have to turn it upside down and squeeze it, and all of a sudden, you’ve got five gallons of shampoo in your hands. We make the value proposition that one bottle could last for four to six months. Some people buy from us once a year, which seems crazy, but if it’s just one person using the shampoo, that definitely can happen. We make the case that it is more upfront, but it’s a quality product, and you’re making a good investment in your health and the health of the planet.

E-commerce Platform

SBS – Can you share some insights into the e-commerce platform that you’re using? Why did you decide it was suitable for your business model?

Lindsey – We are on WooCommerce, and I know most of our competitors are on Shopify. We needed a lot of flexibility when we started because we offer return labels and pumps if they don’t already have them. It’s more of a process to be sustainable, and that’s not readily available in a boilerplate template. WooCommerce has given us the flexibility to do different things and provide a more interactive shopping experience.

Digital Presence

SBS – What role has social media played and is playing in your business? Do you believe that digital marketing is important for your strategy? 

Lindsey – As an e-commerce company, digital marketing is crucial. I have a hard time believing that people can readily translate from a magazine or a newspaper to a website. I think it’s much easier to click and visit the site. We rely heavily on social media. That’s where almost all of our marketing is. We have worked to diversify. We’re on several platforms. I didn’t want it to rely on one, just because you never know; one thing goes down, and you don’t want your whole business going with it.

We also have a subscription offering, which has been a huge bonus and great revenue because there are wonderful people who sign up for a subscription and then just leave it. It’s a gift to have that recurring revenue that you can count on, and it grows as people add to the subscription. Your customer acquisition costs can be higher if you sign them up for a subscription because you know they’ll be around for a while.

Supply Chain Management

SBS – How do you manage inventory and supply chain challenges, especially because of the unique aspects of your refill system?

Lindsey – The beauty of reusable packaging is that we don’t have to keep buying bottles constantly. That was a huge bonus in the pandemic when many people started new companies, and more people were buying aluminum, so there were some supply chain shortages. At that point, we didn’t have to compete and buy more.

We are lucky in that everything’s made in the US. We did not face as many challenges as some of the other businesses. Still, the supply chain is tough. Cash flow is also challenging in e-commerce, and we have a very long sales cycle. As I mentioned, our products last a long time, which means that people don’t return as quickly. We have to be ready for that big order. It’s a constant struggle looking at spreadsheets. We’re so small that every year looks different. One big order in a month will change the whole dynamic, so we’re all still learning and figuring it out.

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

SBS – What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a sustainable business in the e-commerce industry?

Lindsey – Don’t be too proud to be curious and to ask questions. Anybody can have a brilliant idea, but you have to test it, be willing to listen to what the customers and other people say and integrate that. You must also have perseverance. It is tough to change customers. It’s tough to change the world. It’s tough to do things differently, but we need change in the world on every level. We need more sustainable businesses. Many traditional business people don’t always completely support the idea, so perseverance is important. If you have an idea, if you’ve tested a little bit, regardless of what anybody says, go for it. There were plenty of people who told us that this would never work.

For me, having a partner was helpful. Everybody has days when they question their sanity and starting a business and it is helpful to have somebody just as invested to lift you on those days. If you have somebody else who knows as much as you do and cares as much as you, it’s incredibly beneficial. We are very lucky to have complementary strengths and know each other’s weaknesses pretty well, so it has been a real gift to do it together.

Future Prospects

SBS – Can you share some information about upcoming product lines or expansions? 

Lindsey – We’re about to add a purple shampoo, which is a shampoo for people with white or silver hair. It’s been requested for a long time and we are very excited about that. We’re also adding a new scent (cherry almond) to our popular shampoo and conditioner. Hopefully, that’ll be coming online this spring. 

SBS – What is your vision for the future of Plaine Products? Do you believe it will have a wider impact on the environmental industry?

Lindsey – Our goal was to prove that it could work, and we are doing that. Still, I would like to grow not only for the sake of a successful business but also to raise awareness and see more people integrate this model into what they’re doing because they’re hopefully impressed with our success and feel the need to do it themselves. It makes me more comfortable talking about it, having a mission associated with it instead of just shilling shampoo.