In this episode, we interview Luke Carthy, founder of Afrodrops about the importance of black-owned business and lessons learned launching a new ecommerce venture on WooCommerce.
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There’s a lot of talk about diversity in business and a need to better understand different customer groups. Large brands like L’Oreal have championed diversity as a key strategic pillar but historically many businesses have been slow, or simply disinterested, in providing products suited to people of colour. There are many potential reasons, from lack of representation at Board level creating a blinkered strategic vision, to a lack of cultural understanding or sensitivity. What’s clear is that lots of businesses are missing out on a significant revenue opportunity because of this colour blindness.
In this ecommerce podcast, we talk to the founder of a black-owned business that provides haircare products to black people. We look at the importance of customer understanding and building brand trust, then explore the challenges of launching your own ecommerce business and where to focus limited resources.
Tl;dr: what we cover:
- The importance of black-owned ecommerce businesses
- What diversity means for brands
- How to launch lean and grow a new ecommerce business from the ground-up
Key Discussion Points
- Why is there a need for a brand like Afrodrops: what has been lacking in the haircare market for black people & why?
- How important is it for your customers that the business is black-owned, what impact does this have on credibility and trust?
- Why do you think black people have been so under-represented in the beauty industry by large brands given how much spending power they have?
- If the big brands get this right, do you see this as having the potential to increase the online market for you or is it more of a threat?
- You’ve chosen WooCommerce, what were the key business reasons for this platform choice?
- How did you tackle MVP and what did you prioritise to get yourself live quickly and as low cost as possible?
- You use Fast checkout; have you seen any benefit in repeat ordering from Fast customers?
- What advice do you have for other smaller businesses on how to prioritise their limited resources?
- Small businesses often struggle with scaling their operations; what tools beyond Woo are you using to help and how?
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