How Millie Loves Lily Turned Subscribers Into a Growth Engine with Privy

Millie Loves Lily is a children’s clothing brand built on decades of design experience and a strong connection with its customers. As the company shifted toward growing its own ecommerce business, the founders needed a way to build relationships with shoppers and communicate with them consistently.

With Privy, the team began capturing subscribers, launching email campaigns and flows, and creating a marketing foundation that supports their growth as they rebuild their direct-to-consumer business.

The company originally operated under the name Cozy Toes, where the founders spent nearly two decades designing and manufacturing children’s clothing in the United States. The brand built a loyal following around thoughtful design and a distinct aesthetic.

Eventually, they launched Millie Loves Lily in partnership with Zulily, serving as the primary sales channel for the business. When that platform eventually shut down, the team shifted their focus toward growing their own ecommerce site and expanding wholesale partnerships.

Today, Millie Loves Lily sells through their website and wholesale platforms like Faire and select styles through Walmart. As the team worked to grow direct ecommerce sales, they realized they needed a better way to connect with customers online.

Challenge

The founders of Millie Loves Lily come from design and entrepreneurial backgrounds, not digital marketing. As they began focusing on their ecommerce store, tools like subscriber acquisition, email campaigns, and automated flows were new territory.

Before using Privy, most of the brand’s marketing efforts centered around social media posts, primarily on Facebook and Instagram. While those channels helped maintain relationships with customers, they didn’t provide consistent communication with shoppers or encourage repeat purchases.

“Privy’s been a lifesaver, and Henry’s been a lifesaver because we didn’t know anything,” said LeeAnn Stover, Designer and Brand Developer at Millie Loves Lily. “Managing a website, marketing… all of it was new for us.”

Without a system in place to collect subscribers or run automated email flows, the team was missing opportunities to build long-term relationships with their audience and recover potential lost sales. They needed tools that were easy to use, affordable for a small team, and supported by people who could help them learn along the way.

Solution

LeeAnn first discovered Privy during a webinar while searching for ways to learn more about ecommerce marketing. Like many founders trying to figure things out on their own, she had attended plenty of webinars hoping to pick up a useful insight or two.

“This felt different, because you go to so many different webinars trying to just look for a crumb,” said LeeAnn. “And I feel like we got a whole loaf of bread.”

After getting started with Privy, the priority was to build something the brand didn’t previously have: a subscriber list. Using Privy Convert, an intuitive tool that creates personalized and targeted displays, the team began collecting email subscribers directly from visitors and creating a new marketing channel they could control.

From there, they started expanding their strategy by launching:

• Email campaigns
• Automated email flows
• SMS messaging for key moments
• Onsite displays for subscriber growth

These tools allowed the brand to communicate more consistently with shoppers while also creating automations that work behind the scenes. For a small team balancing product development, sourcing, and daily operations, that automation has been especially valuable.

Results

Since implementing email flows and subscriber acquisition with Privy, the Millie Loves Lily team has seen a noticeable difference in how their marketing supports the business. One of the biggest improvements has been the ability to recover potential lost orders through automated email flows.

“The amount of orders that were saved because of the flows being in place is awesome,” said LeeAnn. We didn’t have anything set up like that before.”

Beyond the direct impact on orders, Privy has also helped the team build confidence in their marketing strategy. Tools that once felt unfamiliar have become part of their regular workflow.

The hands-on support from the Privy team has been another major part of the experience. For founders who are learning ecommerce marketing while running a business, that support makes a real difference.

“They’re very hands-on,” said LeeAnn. “They’re easy to communicate with and so approachable. They’re kind of always there whenever we need help or have questions.”

Staying connected with the Millie Loves Lily community

Even as the brand builds more structured marketing systems, its community-first approach remains central to its brand identity.

Millie Loves Lily maintains an active Facebook group where customers regularly interact with the brand and help shape future product decisions. The team often shares upcoming designs and asks customers to vote on their favorite prints or styles.

Email marketing now helps extend those conversations beyond social media, allowing the team to stay connected with subscribers and keep customers informed about new releases, in-stock products, and pre-order opportunities.

Looking ahead at what’s next

As Millie Loves Lily continues to scale its ecommerce presence, the team is focused on one major priority: expanding their audience.

With subscriber acquisition, email campaigns, and automated flows now in place, the brand has a marketing foundation that supports those goals. And for LeeAnn, working with Privy has meant more than just gaining access to a marketing tool.

“It’s an email service, but it feels like more than that. We get a lot of marketing expertise too.”

For busy founders learning ecommerce marketing as they go, having the right tools and support can make all the difference.