Voices
Discover The Online Boutique, Danrie 
For the summer edition of Playtime & Kid’s Hub New York, we’ll follow the experience of Julia and Liz from Danrie! This online boutique is based in New York, and has built a strong sense of community in just three years. This, along with their expert selection of kids’ fashion and lifestyle products, mark Danrie as a leading retailer in the industry. Before we see the show through their eyes, let’s learn more about Danrie with Julia and Liz!
Liz (left) and Julia (right) from Danrie at Playtime Paris S24Julia: Danrie is turning three this October—it’s hard to believe how quickly time has flown! In the spring of 2020 I was home during the pandemic preparing for the arrival of my son, Jordan, while keeping my then four-year-old daughter, Dorie, entertained. With everything shifting online, I found myself doing all my shopping digitally. I noticed there were countless beautifully curated sites for women, but nothing that offered the same thoughtful experience for children — or for the busy moms shopping for them.
I set out to create an elevated online shopping experience that combines the joy of discovering unique finds at an independent boutique with the convenience, customer service, and seamless online buildouts of major retailers. In 2022, I took a leap of faith and attended Playtime & Kid’s Hub New York to begin placing orders to build the assortment I needed to launch Danrie that fall!
Liz: Julia brought me on a few months before Danrie launched to take over all things buying and merchandising. After 10+ years merchandising in a more corporate environment, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to help build Danrie from the ground up. It was definitely fate — I found out I was pregnant with my son, Parker, the day after I signed my contract, forcing me into hands-on market research.
Julia: Danrie is the portmanteau of my kids’ names jorDAN and doRIE! I wish I could take credit for it, we worked with the talented team at Lustre to come up with all our branding and help build our beautiful site!
Julia: After buying our inaugural collection myself, it didn’t take long to realize I needed an experienced buyer to take things to the next level. I was introduced to Liz, our VP of Merchandising, through a mutual friend. We met for coffee one morning, and the rest is history! Liz’s expertise has transformed not just our product assortment, but our entire approach to buying. I learn from her everyday and feel incredibly fortunate to be able to grow Danrie with her as a leader on our team.
Liz: We are constantly looking for newness to add to the site, but 2.5 years in we also have a good baseline of what our customers are looking for. It’s a delicate balance of using historic data (never ending Shopify and excel analysis!) and also our gut to find what is going to excite our customers and continue to move our business forward.
As far as expanding — the sky is the limit when we think about the future. We really pride ourselves on showing up in a thoughtful way for all things gifting. Whether it’s newborns, birthdays, or holidays, continuing to evolve that business through both product and marketing is a big priority.
Julia: We believe the thoughtfully curated pieces we carry and the sophisticated online shopping experience we’ve created sets us apart from the competition. Through our social media channels, email newsletters, and SMS campaigns, we highlight new launches, offer styling inspiration and share timely edits. Our mission is to make shopping at Danrie both enjoyable and seamless — something that’s increasingly rare in today’s retail landscape.
Julia: While our storefront is online, we love interacting with our customers in person whenever we get the chance! Just last year, we hosted 14 events and trunk shows. We most recently hosted a morning for Moms at Sweat Sessions Studio in Chicago where we brought 35 moms together to move, meditate and make new friends over breakfast! We’re currently working on two community events for fall I am really excited about, the details are coming soon!
We also love catching up with our community on Instagram, and have a concierge shop for many of our long time clients too! A brick and mortar store is definitely a dream of mine. We’ve seen such tremendous growth of the online store though, so I haven’t had time to think of anything else!
Julia: With several moms on our team, we always begin by asking: how can we make shopping as easy and thoughtful as possible for our customers? Sometimes the products themselves inspire an edit, other times, we curate with a specific customer need in mind. It’s a collaborative process and one we genuinely enjoy! With our wide range of brands and products, I love that Danrie has become a true one-stop shop for all kinds of moments, both big and small.
Liz: This is definitely a team effort with everyone pitching ideas throughout the year. Our edits are decided by a combination of trends, customer data, and brand storytelling. While our entire site is carefully assorted, these edits offer an even more curated destination on Danrie. We want to be that one-stop-shop across all important occasions as your children grow up. From holidays and birthdays to spring break and beyond. The edit that excites me the most is Baby Shower Favorites. I love cross-merchandising everything into themes and color stories to help inspire our customers’ gift giving.
Julia: It’s always a pinch-me moment when someone whose taste I admire shops at Danrie. Many of our tastemaker edits have come about organically. Most recently, we’ve been able to connect with even more content creators through the ShopMy platform.
In today’s retail landscape, tastemakers have such a powerful influence. Collaborating with them feels essential. That said, there’s no set formula for how often we partner. We only move forward when it feels like a natural, genuine fit on both sides.
Julia: I believe it’s an essential part of growing our business and an interactive way to share newness and styling inspiration with our existing community. While it takes a lot of effort, we truly enjoy the process. You’ll often spot team members’ kids as models and my home as the backdrop in our content. We’re very scrappy!
Julia: Danrie’s Diary is a passion project that I wish I had more time to fully cultivate. I’m old school and still appreciate long-form blog content. When time allows, we love interviewing fellow moms we admire or creating thoughtful travel guides based on our family travels.
As for the ambassador program, I find it incredibly helpful to see clothing on real kids when making buying decisions. We launched an ambassador program to gather more authentic, lifestyle photos. Parents can fill out a short form to share a bit about their children, where they live, and other details. Over time, we’ve built an amazing network of ambassadors that we tap into based on seasonal needs. For example, when our spring/summer collections arrive in February, we reach out to ambassadors in warmer climates, and do the same with colder-weather pieces in the fall and winter.
Julia: The Danrie customer is a style-conscious parent or gift-giver who values quality, thoughtful design, and a seamless shopping experience. They’re often looking for something special. Whether it’s a beautifully made everyday piece, a meaningful gift, or something unique for a milestone moment. Many are busy moms who appreciate our trusted curation and love discovering brands that align with their aesthetic and values. The Danrie customer cares about both form and function — and loves that they can find it all in one place.
Julia: I am very clear on my strengths and weaknesses and the logistics side of the business is not my area of expertise. Kerry from our team oversees all of our operations, but I do love to pack orders when I am in the office! It’s so fun to see what customers are buying and where the orders are going!
Liz: Inventory management has evolved a lot since we launched, but we have it down to a science. Right now, all stock is housed in our NYC office (with the exception of a few drop ship brands). Our Chief-of-Staff, Kerry, heads up these logistics. She organizes new arrivals, consolidates older styles, and makes sure our packing station is always stocked with boxes, mailers, tape, and anything else we might need. We really pride ourselves on service, so it’s important that we are hands-on from the point we receive inventory to the moment it ships to our customers.
Julia: I truly believe it takes two things to start a business: delusional optimism and a little bit of naivety. From day one, I never doubted that this business could work and I genuinely believed it would fill a major gap in the market. But I also think that bit of naivety was essential. If I’d fully understood how difficult it is to bootstrap and grow a retail business from the ground up, I might have been too afraid to take the leap.
My journey as a founder has been incredibly fulfilling. It’s been equal parts challenging and rewarding, but I’m genuinely grateful for everything I’ve learned along the way. We’ve hit so many exciting milestones over the past three years. While I tend to quickly raise the bar and focus on what’s next, I’m learning to take a step back and appreciate just how far we’ve come.
Julia: Holiday is always the most exciting time on the site and it will be here before we know it! The second half of the year is busiest for us and it’s always rewarding to see all the things we spent months planning come to life. We have a couple fun events and trunk shows in the works as well. Once everything is finalized we will begin sharing the details!
Julia: The first time I visited Playtime & Kid’s Hub New York was in February 2022. I went purely to do research and get a feel for how the buying process worked. I quickly realized that if I wanted to launch in the Fall of 2022 I needed to start placing orders at the show. That’s how it all started!
Julia: Playtime Paris is hands-down my favorite trade show, and I’m hoping to be back this January! Every time we attend, it’s such a special experience to connect face-to-face with the brand teams. It brings a whole new energy to the partnerships. One of our first major collaborations was with Lison, and it actually came to life after meeting the amazing founders, Alexandra and Olivia, at Playtime. And of course, no trip to Paris is complete without a little inspiration shopping — for both Danrie and for ourselves! Any season we can make the trip happen, we’re there!
Liz: Who doesn’t love an excuse to go to Paris? Over 65% of our apparel offering consists of European brands, so this was a great opportunity to interact with them directly in one place and get our eyes on the product early in season.
Julia: We are lucky to be based in NYC and have the show so close to our office. For us it’s more about what we don’t bring with us…haha! Laptops remain back at the office to keep our totes light and allow room for line sheets and any new brand literature. I like to look at as many line sheets as I can before the show so I can make sure to see anything I have questions about in person. I always need a Matcha from Matchaful (my favorite!) post show to give me extra energy for the rest of the afternoon!
Liz: We travel light on trade show days. There’s a lot of ground to cover to make sure we see every brand, so, like Julia said, we’ve learned to leave our laptops at home. My only must-have is my phone to take pictures and keep notes . Everything gets organized by brand and moved online afterwards. I prefer to work through the buys at the office vs. at a showroom or trade show so we can keep a holistic view of the season.
Liz (left) and Julia (right) from DanrieJulia: I am always on the lookout for newness that catches my attention and love pushing the boundaries of what we carry! That’s where Liz comes in — she keeps me focused while still entertaining all of my tangents.
Liz: I’m really focused on Boys and how we can expand that offering and customer base. In my experience, with customer data but also talking to friends, people are much more excited shopping for their girls. As a clothes-obsessed boy mom, I really want to show our customers how fun a little boy’s wardrobe can be – they don’t just need to dress like their Dad!
Julia: I am all about wandering and exploring while we’re at the show! We take tons of pictures, jot down all our notes, touch all the fabrics and examine the details. Once we’re back in the office, we dive into building our buys. We look not just at each brand individually, but at how everything comes together as one cohesive seasonal collection. Market is my favorite part of the job for sure.
Liz: It becomes a mix of both exploring and appointments, but I personally prefer not to schedule appointments. It’s much more manageable to make our way around the show at our own pace, giving ourselves time to catch up with the partners we haven’t seen since last season and to get to know brands we’ve never met.
Liz: A seamless B2B experience is the key to efficiency and staying organized. Orderwizz is a great place for us to keep track of and communicate with brands from start to finish each season.
Thank you so much to Julia and Liz for sharing the story of Danrie with us! We can’t wait to follow their experience at Playtime & Kid’s Hub New York in just a few days. Buyers, get your pass to join them in discovering new collections from hundreds of kids’ fashion and lifestyle brands July 27-29.
And stay tuned for another article coming soon to Playtime magazine where we’ll reveal Julia and Liz’s top 10 products for Spring-Summer 2026 which they’ll select at the show!
