Andra
Women's Fashion E-Commerce
2016-2018
Andra supplied low cost stylish dresses, tops, bottoms, overalls and accessories in the UAE. Products are manufactured from East Asia, shipped to Dubai and is delivered to costumers allover the United Arab Emirates through a third-party courier with options to pay cash-on-delivery or online via Paypal. Sales platforms are through Social Media, Website and Pop-up shops.
SOCIAL MEDIA PRINT SHOPIFY POP-UP SHOP PARTNERSHIPS
GOAL
To build a profitable e-commerce business at a minimal budget.
CREATIVE WORK
TAGS
LOGO
LABELS
AD POSTS
CUSTOMERS
By sharing the customer’s photos (with permission) to our social media, this created social proof and increased our sales dramatically.
AD POSTS
All social media posts include a full faced person wearing the products.
Photos courtesy of Khadija Suleiman @khadz.mua
BUSINESS INFORMATION
Product cost is an average of AED 30
Product price is an average of AED 120
Andra is solely cash-on-delivery payment due to customer demand
Customer demographic are females within the age of 18 to 37, majority of expats that wear western clothing
Customer acquisition is minimal cost due to the wide social media reach and the target market already possess the target attitude which is low cost online shopping.
Andra customers are sourced from Facebook 97% and 3% from other sources such as Instagram and pop up events.
All products was sourced from China, Vietnam and Philippines.
Products available are women’s clothing and accessories
Clothing ranges from dresses, jumpsuits, tops to bottoms
Accessories ranges from chokers to necklaces
License was acquired from Virtuzone LLC with business activities of E-commerce and Photography
BUSINESS SUMMARY
Andra ran for a little less than two years from building the concept, testing the market to becoming a small e-commerce business. Andra is one of many low-cost e-commerce shops available in the market and one of the few that was profitable. While Andra performed successfully in a short period of time, it was forecasted to take a huge investment to compete with the current market leaders, due to this and other factors – economical, environmental and influence to market behavior. While difficult, I have decided to close the business, keep its assets and invest my time back to the workforce taking with me the skills and experiences that I have gained from Andra.
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE GAINED
By building Andra, I gained detailed insight of what it takes to build a business from scratch. From sourcing a reliable supplier abroad, getting the business registered, designing creatives, branding, liaising with partners, social media management, customer service and relations, collaborations, budgeting, website design with Wix and Shopify, inventory management, photography, packaging design, and more. This experience has taught me that I am fully capable to successfully run a business and having said that, Andra is by far my most valuable achievement and experience as of date. I’m looking forward to surpassing it.
2020 UPDATE
Mid 2019 I started pursuing tech through web development and my experience with Andra makes a huge influence on how I build websites for e-commerce businesses. Hoping to one day build something of my own that is a positive contribution economically, environmentally and in market behavior. I believe that I am in the right space in pursuing this. I cannot imagine doing anything else. I am excited to see where the tech world leads me!