Nishrat Nazeen, Founder and CEO, Aromas Fiji
There is so much to think about when you start a new brand and when it involves products of different types, shapes and colour, the challenge of staying focused on the look and feel is even harder.
Most lucky sellers have a retail offering on their own platforms or through offline stores. This segment places a good amount of interest on ecommerce giants like Amazon, Back Market, ReBoot but it works only when they are present in the sellers’ market. Most of the Island nations are not geared up for e-commerce and support for delivery of products but it is getting better.
As a small business owner, my supply chain is fairly small with few points of sale including community markets that are popular on the islands. The process of developing a product includes sanitization, testing, quality control, packaging, transportation and shipping.
Packaging is key especially for our products. We do soaps, candles, oils and a lot of emphasis is placed on how the product is presented to the customer. During the festive season, we find that putting a few products in a beautifully designed box sells better as customers are looking for gift ideas.
There is also emphasis placed on branding, the official colours of the brand, the font used on the labels etc. The best brands are those that users recognize at a distance, so consistency is key in terms of presentation.
When building a brand from ground up, there are a lot of lessons we learn along the way. For instance, after selling at different venues, there is the need for inventory stock checks to ensure we do not run out of the popular products before the next market day.
To become successful, a lot depends on offering a good, reliable, regular supply of quality products and backing it up with quality service.
