Founder of online fashion empire Showpo Jane Lu shows off the luxe things in the company’s office

One of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs has offered a look inside her office and what makes her online fashion empire Showpo ‘special’.

Mother-of-two Jane Lu, 35, is widely regarded as one of the country’s biggest self-made businesswomen, whose knack for social media marketing created a clothing website that turned over a reported $85million in 2019 alone.

In a recent TikTok video, Jane showed the luxe things in her office that her employees love, including a rose and seltzer bar, a walk-in wardrobe and a breakfast station to allow her workers to choose a morning meal.

Mother-of-two Jane Lu, 35, is widely regarded as one of the country’s biggest self-made businesswomen, whose knack for social media marketing created a clothing website that turned over a reported $85million in 2019 alone (the Showpo office pictured)

‘These are the things in our Showpo office that just make sense,’ Jane said. 

‘The Showpo bar is always open, and we have on tap rose and hard seltzer. If that’s not your cup of tea, then there’s plenty from our drink cart to choose from.’

The bar cart boasts a range of beverages including soft options like Coca Cola, as well as rum and bottles of Prosecco.

‘The next thing is a walk-in wardrobe with our latest collection and rack city,’ Jane said.

‘This means you’ll never have to say but I have nothing to wear.’

Some of the highlights of the Showpo office include a walk-in wardrobe that shows off the latest collection, as well as a breakfast station (pictured)

Elsewhere, Jane said Showpo HQ has a number of motivational signs around the office, including one that says ‘Get Sh*t Done’ in the boardroom, and she charts this as the ‘secret to our success’.

‘And this is our beautiful milk and breakfast bar,’ she added.

This means her colleagues don’t have to buy or bring their own breakfast, but can rather grab and go.

Thousands who saw the clip were impressed with the office and posted comments like ‘can I work for you please’ and ‘where do I apply to work here’.

The only child of Chinese cleaners Queenie, 61, and Frank Lu, 67, Jane emigrated to Australia as a child, where she first of all fulfilled their wishes by training as an accountant (pictured)

Jane’s success with Showpo is a testament to her drive and ambition.

The only child of Chinese cleaners Queenie, 61, and Frank Lu, 67, Jane emigrated to Australia as a child, where she first of all fulfilled their wishes by training as an accountant.

But the 35-year-old soon felt stifled by the straight-laced rigidity of Sydney’s financial world. 

‘I wasn’t enjoying it and because of that, I knew I wouldn’t be much good at it. I realised I didn’t want to be mediocre in a career that wasn’t for me,’ Jane, 35, previously told Daily Mail Australia. 

But the 35-year-old soon felt stifled by the straight-laced rigidity of Sydney’s financial world, and this led her to follow her dream and launch online fashion empire Showpo (Jane pictured)

When a friend suggested they start a business selling clothes from a pop-up stall in 2010, she quit her job, maxed out her credit card buying stock, and shoved it into the garage of her parents’ Balmain home.

In November 2010, the duo opened a permanent store in Broadway under the brand name ‘Showpony’, which eventually morphed into ‘Showpo’ after dropping the ‘ny’ to avoid trademark disputes in the US. 

The Broadway outlet was followed by a kiosk in the middle of the CBD Westfield shopping centre, which proved to be a ‘big money maker’. 

But months later, just as things were looking up, Jane was devastated when her business partner announced she had found a full-time job that offered more security than their fledgling operation.

Despite her lack of experience, Jane had a sense that the future of fashion lay less in bricks and mortar, and more online.

Frightened but determined, she set about snapping thousands of photos of the clothes still left in the garage and uploaded them to a website, which would be named Australian Online Retailer of the Year seven years later. 

‘The online fashion thing was only starting out but it was quickly getting bigger,’ she said.

‘At the time it just seemed like a really low risk way of doing things. I didn’t have the confidence to go it alone in person, so this way I could hide behind the website.’

Today, Showpo has a fan base of 1.8 million followers on Instagram, 1.3 million on Facebook and 105,000 on TikTok 

But sales were slow, ‘maybe one or two a day’, and after six months a deflated Jane began to feel she had made a grave mistake before inspiration came from the most unlikely of places.

‘I was at a point where I wasn’t going to get any more pity purchases from friends,’ she said.

‘I was feeling really low. One night I was lying on the couch watching America’s Next Top Model and there was a segment where you could vote for you favourite girl. I thought, “this is an easy way to get a lot of reach”.’

That lightbulb moment led Jane to launch a ‘Face of Showpo’ contest on Facebook, where young women would enter and ask their friends to vote for them by visiting the brand’s official page.

In the space of one month, Showpo shot from 3,000 to 20,000 followers at a time when few e-commerce businesses audiences that size.

Today, Showpo has a fan base of 1.8 million followers on Instagram, 1.3 million on Facebook and 105,000 on TikTok.