1. Think of Your Customers as Friends: Laura believes that customers should be valued as friends, rather than people you are trying to sell a product or service to.
2. Be Flexible: An entrepreneur’s journey is paved with challenges. Laura says being flexible and willing to change course is necessary for launching a business.
3. Use Data to Evaluate Progress: Laura stresses the importance of analyzing data to see if key strategies, initiatives, and processes are working, or not working and need to be evaluated.
4. Leverage Automation: Laura believes that incorporating automation tools lessens the workload of your team by streamlining processes and operations.
5. Feedback Leads to Innovation: Your customers are an emerging brand’s most valuable resources. Laura advises using their feedback to fuel innovation in product development, brand imaging, and customer experience.
In just one year, Laura Markewicz established Lotza as a customer-focused brand committed to making us rethink our approach to social drinking by offering a refreshing, healthier punch in a can. Be inspired by how Laura is using data analysis, automation, and feedback to find success in the E-Commerce consumer packaged goods space.
Meet Laura Markewicz, Founder of Lotza!
Lotza is a non-alcoholic sparkling citrus punch. Made with real fruit for a taste you'll love and targeted benefits from adaptogens and plant-based ingredients, it's perfectly formulated to not only taste delicious, but help keep you hydrated, boost your mood, and support next-day recovery.
Growing up in the Midwest, Laura remembers party punch being at the center of every celebration. The refreshment ranks second to margaritas as the libation of choice for parties, but unlike the tequila-based cocktail, it never evolved beyond being sugary spiked juice in a bowl with a ladle. Laura, a self-described social drinker who likes to have fun, saw an opportunity to elevate the traditional beverage by focusing on taste and ingredients. “That’s when it hit,” she recalls. “I was like ‘let’s reinvent punch for the modern drinker. The result? A delicious, refreshing, all-natural party punch that’s low in sugar and calories, yet high in impact.”
Laura started Lotza, a selection of non-alcoholic sparkling punches, in early 2024. Made with a plant-based formula developed with medical advisors (one being the former medical advisor for Kourtney Kardashian’s brand, Lemme), the canned drinks contain mood-boosting adaptogens, electrolytes, and antioxidant-rich botanicals designed to support the body and lessen the effects of alcohol. Lotza is still in its early stages, Laura says while noting that she’s spent the last year doing rigorous market research (her background in digital advertising). “I really wanted to create something that was designed by the community,” she adds. “They were part of one giant experiment of mine for 2024. And now we’re launching in 2025 with everything new based on what we have learned coming out of the past year.”
As the only full-time employee at Lotza, Laura leads an international team of contractors who work in supply chain, wholesales growth, web development, and social media among other areas of the business. She credits her experience in digital strategy and technical savvy for developing the brand quickly all while being self-funded. She explains, “I’ve mapped out all our processes in detail to make it easy to delegate to junior level contractors, even though our projects tend to be more complex. And most of our processes are either fully or partially automated, which allows us to be lean and keep overhead low while managing initiatives that contribute to our growth.”
“We operate ‘friend to friend’ not ‘brand to customer,’” Laura says when asked about Lotza’s CX philosophy. This means they aren’t selling a drink, but rather creating a community that people can feel a part of. “Since humans make purchasing decisions based on emotions, that connection is more important than selling,” she adds. Underscoring this idea is Lotza’s communication strategy which, whether through social media or email, is informal, funny, and sarcastic.
During 2024, Lotza was a part of over 50 events where over 3,000 people tried the drink, and 10x that amount contributed their feedback around their experience with the brand and product. “We have used all this information over the last 6 months to redevelop, reposition, and reformulate what Lotza is,” Laura reveals, noting that the makeover is set to launch for Dry January. Lotza beverages are non-alcoholic and designed to be consumed as a mixer or a mocktail. “Making Lotza versatile was intentional,” Laura adds “I wanted to create a party beverage that could be enjoyed at celebrations by everyone, regardless of how you choose to party.”.
Along with listening and collaborating with the Lotza community, Laura believes being flexible with plans and initiatives has helped the brand innovate. “Nothing is set in stone,” she says. “Even if it’s something that we spent a lot of time and money on.” She’s also looking at data to make sure they are hitting expected benchmarks – if benchmarks aren’t being met, they pivot. And if that doesn’t work, she goes on to say, “We toss it – we’re not afraid to fail. We fail quickly, and we move on.”
Laura reveals that their wholesale strategy has returned the most success thanks to leveraging Oversee, an AI CRM tool for CPG brands. “It essentially automates all your wholesale outreach. Everything from generating your lead lists for outreach through automating communication with them at every stage of the relationship. Within the first couple of months,1,000 connections were made. “We’re at a 75% open rate, which shows the quality of the lead list that this AI driven tool has been able to generate. Our click through/reply rate is around 22%, which is crazy,” Laura adds.
In the next 5 years, Laura wants to see Lotza hit a hundred million in revenue. Prioritizing growth for a self-funded company means Laura reinvests all profits back into Lotza. She explains, “My goal is to get high, top-line revenue to demonstrate the market fit and receptivity to the brand so that we can get investors in 2025 and put me in a position where I have the leverage needed to maintain majority ownership in my business.”
Customer retention, both wholesale and the individual consumer, is a main component in Lotza’s revenue model. Designed to ensure members of the Lotza community stay loyal, subscriptions are offered on the website. “I’m big on conversion rate optimization and maximizing lifetime customer value, subscriptions are everything.” Laura notes. Data is analyzed to see when customers begin to opt out of their subscription plans. Surprise and delights are then dropped in the next box that ships out with the intention of “reinvigorating them about why they bought Lotza in the first place, and why they want to keep going from a gifting perspective.”
Lotza’s peak season is summer when day drinking, parties, and social gatherings are at fever pitch. Laura hopes to see Lotza become the beverage that people replace their champagne brunch or White Claws with during those high-consumption periods. “We're very much a celebratory beverage. We want to bring people together and be on the positive side of drinking.”
Because Laura works with a team of contractors, scaling during peak season is an easy progression. “They’re all individuals that can ramp up or down because they have multiple clients,” she says and goes on to note that having fully automated processes means that only customer service and supply chain are scaled during busy periods.
In the next 6 months, Laura wants to see Lotza hit $100,000 in sales. Using data driven strategies, she breaks down the 4 initiatives (Amazon, E-Commerce, wholesale, and influencer affiliate program) deployed to reach that number. “I work backwards from that goal to lay out what all needs to happen. And then staff accordingly and set up processes to be able to hit it,” she finishes.
Laura believes that ‘insane passion,’ motivation beyond money and success, and the desire to make a difference are key for launching a successful E-Commerce brand. She talks about her own experience with Lotza, “I’m excited about raising the bar in the adult beverage space by pushing brands to exclude artificial ingredients and excess sugar, while incorporating good-for-you ingredients that can help our body combat the negative effects of drinking.” She goes on to stress that an entrepreneur's journey is lined with points of failure and harsh environments – internal drive and not being afraid to fail are critical for survival.
What Excites Lauren Most About E-Commerce? I’m a nerd for numbers – I love that line of sight into the data and the power it gives. Many people get analysis paralysis. So, I always work backwards to better see if something is a success or not. Is there a point at which I pause, pivot, or quit? Then I set those expectations up front and use that to influence how we move on. If I’m putting a dollar in and getting a dollar out, there is no limit to the amount of money I will put into that initiative, even if it’s just to break even. I don’t think enough people operate like that; they are hesitant to spend even when things are performing. And of course, the opportunity to connect directly with your customer. With direct-to-consumer, you are in charge of that experience from beginning to end. You can do things that are unique in terms of how you communicate with them, and surprise and delight along the way.
Can’t Live Without Tool? Oversee is number one. With my limited budget and no sales staff, I would have never been able to see the quick and rapid success I’m seeing with Lotza’s wholesale growth that I’ve seen with Oversee. Then, of course, Chat GPT. It just helps me move 10x faster, so I never start from square one by myself. It helps get from A to X, then I take it the rest of the way to Z. The quality of your answers is based on the quality of your questions. So, if you know what it's capable of and how to ask the right questions, you’re set.
Key Hiring Trait? An internal passion and drive to succeed. I’ve had a lot of people who are fine at what they do, but they’re not excited about it. I really like high-energy and internally motivated self-thinkers who are not waiting for me to tell them what to do. Rather, they are coming to me with ideas.
Recent Book or Podcast? How I Built This with Guy Raz is my absolute favorite. There are so many inspiring stories of entrepreneurs, especially in the CPG space. My favorite was Liquid Death – Mike Cesario is a god to me. He’s selling water. We both have advertising backgrounds. He was on the creative side; I was on the strategy side. But I think we have the same approach and mindset about branding being everything. Especially in food and beverage where nothing is proprietary, what I have, my advantage and what Mike Cesario harps on, is a brand that makes people feel like they are part of something, and part of something with like-minded people. People choose products that reflect who they are and what they stand for. I want to create a brand that embodies that connection."
#1 Challenge as A Leader? I’m a mom to 3 boys under 7. Balance is impossible. So, more realistically for me, it’s prioritization of what’s important. When you try to do it all, you do everything at a much lower level than it should be. If I try to tackle everything as part of an omni-present, go-to-market strategy, I won’t be successful. I want to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and lean into things that are moving the needle.
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