How Gwyneth Paltrow’s e-commerce business Goop earned millions of dollars in online sales.

In Media by RankWorks

What is Goop and how did it become a successful online industry leader?

Gwyneth Paltrow is known by many as a very accomplished actress, with numerous accolades to her name in over three decades of work.  However, she is also the founder and chief proprietor of a lifestyle brand, called Goop.  What started as nothing more than a weekly newsletter for friends and family focusing on lifestyle advice and wellness recommendations on food, fitness, fashion and beauty has blossomed into an eCommerce empire valued at $250 million in a little over a decade.  Goop’s ascension began with the popularity of Paltrow’s newsletter, jumping to 150,000 subscribers in a year, to 8 million subscribers in a decade.  If not more telling, among those who receive the newsletter, 40% of the subscribers open these emails, compared to the ideal newsletter benchmark of 17.8%.  This guarantees Goop’s popularity as a lifestyle category. In turn, these newsletters produce traffic that leads to Goop’s website.  Detractors may remark that this level of growth & maintained success can only be achieved by a person of a certain stature with this kind of name recognition.  However, Blake Lively, a successful actress in her own right, launched her lifestyle brand named Preserve but it shut down rather quickly due to a lack of interest.  A brand like Goop can only succeed if it has a clearly defined vision of what Paltrow hoped to achieve. 

Paltrow did not monetize her brand and pursue a legitimate eCommerce venture until developing a substantial and loyal base.  Paltrow didn’t want to simply create the illusion of integrity, as she intended to create something real and honest.  She did not want to appear superficial so that when the time came to foray into commerciality, there was already trust established.  That a celebrity such as Paltrow felt the need to develop a rapport with her followers demonstrates how eCommerce success takes continual dedication and requires a strong team of digital marketers to realize her brand’s potential. 


If this is the first time that you are discovering Goop and want to learn all about Gwyneth Paltrow’s online success, there is a six episode series on Netflix called The Goop Lab with Gwyneth Paltrow that launched on January 24, 2020.  The Netflix series explores boundary-pushing wellness topics, including psychedelics, cold therapy, female pleasure, anti-aging, energy healing and psychics.

Everything starts with a modern e-commerce website that engages online visitors and converts them into paying customers.

To develop an eCommerce website that is user-friendly and can generate online sales it’s important to have a strong product catalog.  The ideal website creates a demand for the products that sell online.  Therefore, a successful eCommerce website is an important marketing tool and the starting point for any online entrepreneur looking to become the dominant website in its industry.  

Online Marketing is an important element of a brand’s sustained success

Ecommerce starts with a transactional website.  The design of an eCommerce website should incorporate a sales funnel.  To create sales opportunities, a company must invite visitors or web traffic to a website with the purpose of funneling them into an online product catalog.  To convert visitors into paying clients, creating effective call-to-actions is a necessary design element that is required on every product page.

E-commerce Cart and Checkout Integration with Payment Gateway

Developing a cart checkout process with integrated payment processing through a trusted merchant processor is the final step in making an e-commerce site functional.  There are many online payment gateways for websites.  The most popular payment methods to use online are credit cards, debit cards, Paypal, and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.  A business owner needs to choose an online payment service that can easily integrate with their e-commerce platform and process all forms of payments. 

Getting people to visit your e-commerce site.  

Online marketing plays an important role in driving website traffic into a website’s sales funnel. There are many online marketing methods to apply when planning a digital marketing strategy. The most important ones to use are search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), social media marketing, newsletters, and blogs. In Goop’s case, we see a weekly newsletter that offers valuable insights to gain subscribers to their website. The purpose of these campaigns is to create content that drives prospective customers to the website, in which they are cultivating awareness for the product’s value offering. As more customers become involved with the brand, they will become brand ambassadors, and share their feedback with the brand, and use their burgeoning influence to discuss the brand with other prospective buyers. 

If your business is looking for an e-commerce website with a comprehensive marketing plan that will help drive online sales, then RankWorks is here to help. With a proven track record and hundreds of revenue-generating e-commerce websites under its management, RankWorks is a design and digital marketing agency with a mission to help small to medium-sized businesses succeed online.  

For more information or to speak with one of our e-commerce website consultants please visit RankWorks.com and book an appointment today!