Lisa Krass and Molly Duffy went from neighbors to friends to business partners with the launch of an online store devoted to all things France.
Krass and Duffy met in Governor’s Land, their James City County neighborhood, and they have been friends for about eight years. With all their children nearly out of the house, the two women tried to come up with something to do when their children moved out of the house. They decided on an online store called FromParistoProvence.com.
“When I first kind of started talking about this, she said ‘Oh, I would love doing something like that, we should do it together,’” Krass said about Duffy.
Though Duffy is a speech therapist, she has an eye for fashion and home design, said Krass, who is a self-described Francophile. Combined with Krass’ background in retail marketing and as a merchandising manager, they decided their interests melded well to start an online store that sells French merchandise.
Krass and Duffy didn’t want a brick-and-mortar business because they need the opportunity to get away for the weekend to visit kids in college or attend a sports event.
“An online business seemed like a good thing to try,” Krass said.
The online store went live in May, but the needed time to work out all the kinks with the site before officially announcing its opening. This fall marks the official business launch.
To date, FromParistoProvence.com has seen about 30 online orders, but some additional orders came from a Christmas show in December last year where the products were introduced to Krass and Duffy’s family and friends.
They found success with the holiday show, so they plan to do more of them around the area this holiday season; they’ve already begun searching for locations.
To stock the store they traveled to a New York gift show to find out what items they could purchase in the state; what they found were a number of reputable French companies distributing to the U.S.
“We have made a very concerted effort and what we’ve kind of tried to do to differentiate ourselves from other French websites,” Krass said.
Krass and Duffy make an effort not to carry items made in another country, though it’s not always possible.
“I think the main thing that differentiates our business and our website from others is that we’re really trying to stick to the authentic made in France, not just French-themed … It’s not just cheesy plastic Eiffel tower bookends,” Krass said.
To find out more about FromParistoProvence.com or to order, visit the website.
