And How Your Store Can Become The Next Success Story

At Dip, we talk a lot about community. We talk about redirecting dollars into small stores, protecting Main Street, and creating products that make customers keep coming back. But there is one retailer who embodies this better than anyone: Sustainable Haus in Summit, New Jersey.

The owner Janette and her team built one of the most successful zero waste refill shops in the country. They are our number one retailer, responsible for more than $120K in Dip sales alone. She did it by running a mission driven store with excellence, by educating customers with honesty, and by choosing products that perform.

We are grateful for her leadership and how she champions small stores everywhere. If you have ever wondered what it takes to grow your refill shop, scale your impact, and become the next top Dip retailer, there is no one better to learn from than Janette herself.

Here is her story and her secret sauce.

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A Letter From Janette at Sustainable Haus

How To Become A More Successful Zero Waste Refill Shop

Hello Refill Store owner,

Welcome to the most rewarding job on the planet.  Do you want to be a more successful zero waste refill shop? Let me spill the tea on our secret sauce.

Hi, I’m Janette, owner of Sustainable Haus in Summit, NJ. I’m a naturist, a Climate Reality Leader, co-founder of Beyond Plastics NJ, and I live a very non-toxic, crunchy lifestyle. I make the Haus brand products you may know such as wipes, soaps, towels, and more. And while I still don’t feel successful enough because there is so much more work to do, here is what we have done well.

We have nearly 110K Instagram followers, sell more than 3,000 products, have an eight-year history, a team of six plus me, and sell around $500K a year with 20 percent year over year growth.

So why share our secrets? Because the more of us who are successful, the more our movement grows. We cannot keep losing shops. We need more thriving ones. If we want to help save the planet from toxic ingredients and single use plastics, then our stores must survive and scale. Women uplifting women. Small shops lifting each other up. Let’s grow our success stories together.

I won’t make you read to the end to get the answer. Here’s the tea upfront. Dip is our secret sauce.

Over the last three years, Dip has generated more than $120K in revenue in our store. It is our number one best-selling product, and Sustainable Haus is the top-selling Dip retailer.

And to be very clear, I was not a Dip user before we opened. I did not know Kate, and I am not being paid to write this. I was actually a skeptic. At the time, I washed my hair with a Haus bar soap and rinsed with apple cider vinegar. It left my hair clean, but dull, straw-like, and riddled with split ends.

You could tell.

Why We Chose Dip

The first hurdle was the scent. Dip is one of only three brands with a non-essential oil fragrance that we carry. Rustic Strength and one Haus scent are the others. I only brought it in because:

• There are no phthalates or toxic fragrance ingredients
• Dip follows clean beauty and Credo level standards
• It has top scores on the Yuka app
• And the brand mission aligns with ours. Support small, sustainable, refill shops.

Dip was not a compromise. It fit our values and performed.

How We Got Dip To Sell

We knew we could not recommend Dip unless we used it ourselves. So I gave every employee quarter bars and told them to use them for two weeks and then decide for themselves. Our team represents every hair type. Coily, curly, straight, gray, long, short, color treated, thick, and fine. And we all loved it. That meant we could talk to customers from experience and from the heart.

Second, we committed to being fully stocked.
Customers cannot fall in love with something they cannot buy. So we carry:

✔ all scents
✔ all bar sizes
✔ the full line

If that feels like too much inventory at once, start smart. Let Jackie help you choose a bundle, or start with half the scents and add two each reorder until your wall is full. Faire has terms if needed, but truly, Dip supports us more when we buy direct, and Dip has supported our store immeasurably, so that matters to me.

What To Say To Customers

This is gold.

You can DM me @sustainablehaus for the full list, but here are the top converting points we use.

Dip is award winning, salon grade hair care. Most customers end up liking it more than what they currently use.

Wet bar plus very wet hair equals huge lather. Conditioner is leave in. Whatever it touches, it conditions.

Dip lasts a long time. My thin, straight hair is washed twice a week. My twenty four dollar shampoo lasts eight months and my thirty two dollar conditioner lasts two years. For curly hair, explain it will not last that long. Always be honest.

Customers come back for it. The best trust building line you can say. It proves performance.

Why This Matters For Our Entire Industry

When small shops sell products that under perform, are too crunchy for mainstream use, or require too much learning, customers lose trust. They stop trying new products. Some stop coming back altogether.

Dip does the opposite. It brings them back. And not just for themselves. They buy for:

• kids
• spouses
• best friends
• Secret Santa
• colleagues
• book club
• teachers
• swim teams
• pool parties
• beach houses
• destination weddings

And when they trust us because Dip worked, they start buying everything else we carry. Dip does not just sell. It grows the whole store.

I am forever grateful that Kate called me years ago.

We have worked with hundreds of vendors. No one advocates harder for small shops than Dip. No one pushes customers to shop local the way Dip does. Dip is the number one supporter of refill stores. Period.

So I will ask you two questions.

How can I help you succeed with Dip?
Are you aiming to beat us as the number one Dip retailer?

If you do, I will be the second person cheering you on, right after Kate.

With solidarity,

Janette
Sustainable Haus Mercantile
janette@sustainablehaus.com