Small Business Accessories Retailer Maria Shireen™ Sees 34% Growth in Sales on Cyber Monday over Black Friday

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Functional fashion accessory company Maria Shireen™ (www.mariashireen.com) - makers of the popular bittersweet by Maria Shireen line of patent- pending hair tie bracelets - exceeded pre-holiday sales forecasts over the busiest shopping weekend of the year. The small business retailer, headquartered in San Diego, saw a 34% increase in sales on Cyber Monday over an already record-breaking Black Friday, outpacing the national retail industry estimate of 12-14%, by nearly three times. The brand credits long lead assessment of inventory and design management along with preemptive planning in marketing, media outreach and online social strategies with the success.

That the bittersweet and b+sweet by Maria Shireen™ lines are thriving this holiday season is not surprising to co-founders Arni and Shireen Thor, who had planned for the busy shopping season by assembling a planning team of veteran marketing, distribution and media strategists in late summer, and timing the release of their 2016 collection with their kids and upmarket adult lines simultaneously. Anticipating they would see high demand for their product due to precision-laid business planning, they revamped their website and inked new e-commerce sales partnerships in Q3 2015.

The company launched its integrated, multi-channel public relations, social media and online marketing strategy - including paid advertisements and organic content marketing - as the foundation of its multi-collection launch. In the 96 hours that included Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and what the company jokingly refers to as Afterglow Tuesday, the brand generated nearly 30% of its total annual revenue, nearly doubling its 2015 forecast.

By creating a design that addresses both a fashion aesthetic and a functional daily need, the Thors used their background in medical device engineering and product design to create a solution to an everyday irritation – wearing an elastic hair tie around the wrist for easy access. With their design, a standard hair tie fits within the grooves of a bracelet, available any time the wearer needs it. The brand saw even more interest over the busy shopping weekend due to the release of a widely reported story about the medical dangers of wearing hair ties on the wrist. The story cautioned against the bacterial dangers and the circulation issues the habit creates.

"We were both problem solvers before we were designers," said co-founder Shireen Thor. "As medical industry product design engineers, we find ourselves looking at common problems for everyday people and attempting to solve them. Combine that with our love of design, shape and form and we created the original bittersweet by Maria Shireen bracelet. We've seen an overwhelming response to our first product and look forward to continuing to create designs that extend beyond fashion."

To learn more about bittersweet, b+sweet and signature by Maria Shireen™, please visit www.mariashireen.com.

Find us on facebook and Instagram at https://www.facebook.com/bittersweetbracelet and https://instagram.com/bittersweet_bracelet.

About Maria Shireen

Founded by design engineers, Shireen and Arni Thor, Maria Shireen™ is a functional fashion accessories company serving the $2.3 billion global fashion accessories marketplace. The company currently designs, produces and markets patent pending hair tie bracelets under the b+sweet™, bittersweet™ and signature™ brands. Since launch in April 2015, nearly 55,000 Maria Shireen hair tie bracelets have been sold in more than 35 countries.

The company is based in San Diego, California – the twentieth largest bracelet accessory market in the world.

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SOURCE Maria Shireen

Related Links

http://www.bittersweet.is