Jules discusses Building an eCommerce Brand with Civitas

About This Interview

We have been part of the Civitas Network for the past couple of years and it is a community that we have got tremendous value from. If you have an interest in entrepreneurship or eCommerce, this chat between Jules Rosslee and Civitas' Paul Smith may be of interest to you.

In this conversation, Jules shares the story behind starting Julep alongside her husband Nic, detailing how she transitioned from management consulting to launching a flat-laid, boxed flower business.

The discussion highlights Julep’s core product strategy of focusing on exceptional unboxing experiences and personalised custom-printed greeting cards. Finally, Jules explains how structuring profit sharing per packed box and sharing raw customer feedback weekly keeps their operational team highly motivated and focused on quality.

Transcript of conversation between Julia and Paul Smith (Civitas)

Introduction

Paul Smith: Awesome, Jules! Thanks so much for joining us. In today's chat, we’re going to be talking to Julia from Julep about her journey, her story, product strategy, marketing in the e-commerce world, and how to get a really small e-commerce team to do incredible things.

Welcome! Just a little bit of a backstory: I met Julia at Fournos about two years ago when Julep was just an idea. At the same time, we were launching Civitas, which was also just an idea. We’ve really walked our journeys together, which has been very cool. What’s been even more fun is that I’ve become a regular customer of Julep. They do boxed flowers, and they’re amazing—I absolutely love them. I have referred her to a million people, and whenever I have a gifting opportunity, I always get onto the Julep site.

The Founder Story & Starting Julep

Paul Smith

So Jules, just to kick off, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself, how Julep got going, and the founder story behind it?

Julia

Sure, thanks so much, Paul. As you mentioned, we started getting it off the ground, and I started it with my now-husband. It’s not necessarily the textbook move, but it’s worked out really well for us.

There are sort of two parts to the founder story: one part is wanting to start a business, and the other is wanting to start a business specifically in flowers. There are quite different rationales for each.

In terms of starting a business, I wanted to have a bit more fun professionally and do something more entrepreneurial. A physical product was really attractive to me. A lot of it was about changing how I spent my time and having more fun at work.

In terms of choosing flowers as a sector to invest in, it was actually an idea that Nic, my husband, threw into the hat. Initially, I liked it because I love flowers. But once we planted that seed, the more I thought about it, the more excited I got—both from a product/customer perspective and a business perspective.

My background is in management consulting. Fresh off that boat, I applied those tools to the flower industry and thought, "Okay, there could be something quite exciting here." That was the rationale, and we started the business bit by bit. We set it all up ourselves—from the website to product design and photography. Between Nic and me, we just experimented. We started selling flowers quite quickly—after three or four months, we made initial sales. We started just on a Friday, then Thursday and Friday. As demand picked up, we added more days of the week, spent more time doing it, and built a small, exciting business.

Paul Smith

Amazing. Your team size now is five, you're full-time in the business, and if I remember correctly, you've even passed break-even, so you're making money.

Julia

Yeah, we are. It’s quite cool because while the core team is five people, the way the business is structured means there's a much broader network. We work with motorbike couriers for all our deliveries, and having our flowers in a box allows us to do that. We work with seven to ten drivers a day, and there are dedicated guys at the flower market who work with us for a couple of hours a day. So beyond the core five, it feels like quite a big team.

Product Strategy & Differentiation

Paul Smith

Jules has been part of Civitas for about 18 months to two years now. I’ve sat in peer groups with her and have been really impressed with her business brain—she’s got great insights. I’m going to draw out three of the best insights I’ve come across.

The first one that really blew me away was how you think about product strategy and how you differentiate in a competitive space. I’d love for you to talk about how you thought about differentiating, simplifying, and focusing on making a few key things different.

Julia

Product is almost at the core of what makes Julep different. We’re trying to do a lot of things better in the flower delivery space, but product is the main differentiator. The difference is that the flowers are flat-laid in a box, and the recipient takes them out and arranges them themselves.

We thought a lot about what this shift in product could do for the recipient, the sender, and the entire system as a whole. We knew that was the most important thing to get right: keeping the flowers as fresh as possible, making the box super exciting to unbox, and solving a lot of logistics issues. Delivering a traditional bouquet is super tough, so we wanted to focus on building a business around this model.

What we’ve done well so far is maintaining that focus. It’s very easy to start adding chocolates, wine, or teddy bears. Maybe that’s something we’ll do down the line, but in the beginning, we said, "We just want to get this right and put all our energy into it." We remain super focused on that—whether it's the box design, the card design, or the freshness of the flowers, it always comes back to getting those three or four core things spot on.

Paul Smith

Absolutely. One of the coolest details—which I don't know if everyone is familiar with—is the card. What do you do differently with the card, how did that come about, and how do customers respond to it?

Julia

We view the product as a whole as quite personal and emotional. People send flowers at emotionally important times in their lives—whether celebrating, sending condolences, or just because. Flowers convey emotion beautifully, so we thought about what else we could do within the product to reinforce that experience.

The unboxing is an emotional touchpoint, and for the card, we decided to put it almost completely in the customer's hands. One option we offer—which is super easy for us to execute—is allowing customers to upload a photograph or image to add to their card. Instead of Julep branding or graphics, there’s a picture of you and your partner, or you and your mom, with your note underneath.

It becomes a meaningful part of the recipient's experience and something that lasts—they can stick it on the fridge. We don't put any Julep branding on the card; we keep it purely between the customers.

Interestingly, while we started with the idea of personal photographs, how our customers use it has expanded quite a bit. Corporates upload their company logo or graphics so it’s immediately personalized, and others upload custom illustrations. It extends to whatever image you want to feature.

Growth & E-Commerce Marketing

Paul Smith

Fantastic! The next thing I learned from you that I loved was your approach to marketing strategy and your growth journey. Could you talk through how you made marketing core to what you do, how you allocate time around it, and share a tip or two on getting marketing going?

Julia

It’s a journey we’re still on. Looking at where we are now, I’d love for us to shift even more towards marketing.

When we started, we bootstrapped and tried to do everything ourselves. But it’s easy to get caught up in daily operations. Luckily, the business grew through referrals and repeat customers, but we stepped back and realized: Nic's and my time is our most valuable resource. If we want the business to scale faster, we need to allocate more of our own time to marketing. If it’s the biggest priority for the next month, it needs to take up that equivalent real estate in our calendars. We try to be disciplined about spending time on what matters most.

Paul Smith

Do you actually schedule that time in your diary? Is it a set amount of time every day?

Julia

It’s less about a rigid daily schedule and more about setting a goal—like spending 20% to 30% of our week on marketing, whether that's developing content or thinking through strategy. It’s about keeping ourselves honest regarding whether we’re actually investing the time needed.

Paul Smith

What are some things you've done that worked well, and what has the learning process been like?

Julia

We’re lucky to have a gifting product where the product speaks for itself. Many recipients become senders, and senders become repeat customers. Our primary focus is maintaining that consistency of an excellent product.

In terms of e-commerce marketing strategy, we’re very careful with how we spend money. We haven't poured large amounts into paid advertising. We’re super cautious and only deploy cash when we're genuinely excited about an initiative. We’re very thoughtful about it.

Operations, Incentive Structure, and Culture

Paul Smith

The final point: you have a small team, but the Julep experience is executed with incredible attention to detail—from delivery to unboxing. How do you motivate an entry-level team to care for and deliver the product so consistently well?

Julia

Both Nic and I are very hands-on, which set the tone from the beginning. Anyone joining the team sees that we treat each box as if it’s our own, and we encourage the whole team to take that same pride.

There are structural elements and softer elements to how we do this. Structurally, the team member who packs the box receives a profit share on each box. They are also very aware of our repeat customer rate. On a weekly basis, we review those numbers together. They know that a better product leads to higher sales, which directly benefits them financially and supports the business's growth.

On the softer side, we keep real customers top of mind. We share all customer feedback—verbatim—with every team member on a weekly basis. They read about the direct impact of their work. By highlighting customer emails, cards, and special occasions, we bring to light the meaningful moments we are supporting.

Paul Smith

Amazing! It seems like you’ve nailed the big three: product, marketing, and team culture.

Jules, if someone wants to check out Julep, where can they find you?

Julia

The best place is our website at julep.co.za. We also have all the standard social media handles, but the website is best.

Paul Smith

Fantastic. Thanks so much for your time, really appreciate it.

Julia

Thank you, bye!