Tupperware-style parties are the way forward for online shops

We thought we’d said goodbye to the Tupperware party — but accessories giant Stella & Dot is following the same successful model, says Claire Droney

The Stella & Dot London office is buzzing. There are women everywhere, trying on jewellery, holding goody bags, drinking wine, and flicking through the season’s look books. “I’ve got a spreadsheet with the best sellers on it,” says one woman. Made redundant during maternity leave last year, she decided to take on a seller’s (known as a stylist) role in Stella & Dot, and hold jewellery parties in her home.

“I always stock the top sellers, as well as a few key pieces,” she says, pointing out a spiky rose-gold bracelet as a stellar seller. One woman began selling after her children had grown up, and another heard about it from a client in her hairdressing salon and liked the idea of earning a few extra hundred pounds a month.

Recently launched in Ireland, Stella & Dot is an online and social selling company. Started in the US by Jessica Herrin in 2007, Stella & Dot was recently named among Inc 500 fastest growing private companies, with offices in the UK, Germany, and France.

Known as a business in a box, the company offers (mainly) women entrepreneurs (or ‘mompreneurs’) a flexible way of earning money. Like Tupperware parties of the 1950s, the women buy jewellery stock and sell it to their friends, family, and colleagues, initially earning 25% commission on all jewellery sold. The collection (ranging in price from €20-€250) contains high-end, covetable pieces, worn by celebrities and mentioned in myriad magazines.

Stalla & Dot’s vice-president for Europe, &Kathleen Mitchell, greets guests before heading out of the office with her husband and 4-year-old son at the end of a long working day. Having worked at L’Oreal in London for 15 years, in 2011 Mitchell decided her work-life balance needed to change after having her first child.

“For me, having control over my own schedule is paramount. I don’t mind answering emails at 5 in the morning, because I’m an early riser. But I want to be able to pick my son up at 4 o’clock on Fridays, too,” says Mitchell, who also has a nine-month-old son.

“I’m lucky that I’ve found a job in a very supportive community where the CEO is a mother of two. There have even been times when I’ve been on a work call and breastfeeding at the same time. We’ve also really embraced technology. I no longer have to jump on a plane to have that critical meeting, I can do it over Skype instead.”

Another aspect of the corporate world that Mitchell doesn’t miss is the “rampant sexism” she experienced at the start of her career. Once, after hosting a meeting, she was told by a senior male colleague that she should have worn a different outfit. “I was astonished. But saying that, I’ve had some bad experiences with women, too,” she says.

Mitchell advocates being forthright when dealing with such workplace challenges. “Sometimes you literally have to speak your mind and not worry about the repercussions. The great thing about getting older is that you get more confident,” she says.

Born in Alaska, Mitchell spent her formative years in Ireland, and was educated at Kylemore Abbey, Galway, and studied economics and politics at Trinity College Dublin. “I’m very lucky, I had great parents who sent us to great schools and brought us on lots of adventures,” says Mitchell.

However, she recognises that she couldn’t have achieved it without the support of her husband. “I totally agree with [Facebook chief operating officer] Sheryl Sandberg in that one of your biggest career moves is your choice of partner,” says Mitchell.

“I’m very lucky with my husband and it works for us because we have opposing schedules. We divide and conquer. After all, you can do anything but you can’t do everything.”

She advises young people to consider the bigger picture when deciding on a career choice. “When you’re planning your future, think about what you want your life to look like. You might decide to spend years training to be a surgeon, and then realise that it doesn’t suit you to be on call most weekends. If you have a soulful connection to what you do, and if you absolutely love it, it doesn’t feel like work.”

Mitchell is looking forward to establishing Stella & Dot in Ireland. “I’ve got a huge soft spot in my heart for Ireland. It will be successful here because Irish women have a great work ethic and they’re stylish and very social. Stella & Dot is about social selling, initially to your friends, but it moves beyond that quickly. It’s a word-of-mouth business and I don’t know of any other country that would be more suited to this.”

Kathleen Mitchell will host a masterclass centred around achieving success and balance as a working woman at the International Business Women’s Conference in Belfast on May 13-14.