When You’re a Small Business, E-Commerce Is Tougher Than It Looks

Shopify, a Canadian company, helps customers build online shops quickly — and many businesses turned to it for help when shutdown orders forced them to close. Shopify’s revenue grew by nearly 90 percent last year, and it now serves 1.7 million merchants globally.

Rooshy Roy started her online beauty business, Aavrani, using Shopify; she never even considered opening a physical store. “We realized we could build a company that was all about culture and ingredients, and that selling direct to consumers could make it possible,” she said.

Ms. Roy, a first-generation Indian-American, grew up making hair masks and other beauty products with her mother and grandmother, but she never felt proud of her heritage or her formulations until she met her business partner, Justin Silver, in business school.

Together they’ve raised nearly $3 million from investors and introduced the first iteration of Aavrani in 2018. The response was lukewarm, so they pulled back and rebranded. Last summer they relaunched the New York City-based company with new packaging and a new plan for connecting to customers.

The company primarily uses digital ads to generate sales, but Ms. Roy has also been using Instagram, TikTok and Clubhouse to connect directly with shoppers. She has developed a following on those platforms, she said, because she doesn’t post just about the products. She posts about what matters to her: the struggles of building a business, her upbringing, even confusion about what she is “supposed to look like” as the owner of a beauty brand.

“This is so different from the last version of the brand,” Ms. Roy said. “It’s less transactional, more authentic to who I am. It has really contributed to our growth.”

In 2020, the company recorded $1 million in sales, Ms. Roy said. This year, she anticipates $6 million.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/business/small-business-e-commerce.html