Shopify Female Business Owners and Their Success in the eCommerce World
There are more women entrepreneurs than ever before. A recent study shows that women own more than 11.6 million businesses in the U.S. Those firms employ more than nine million people and have a total revenue of $1.7 trillion to the economy. There are many stories about female entrepreneurs creating a Shopify eCommerce store or product from scratch. This article highlights some of these inspiring female entrepreneurs.
Laura Thomas: Founder of Pretty Presets
Pretty Presets is an ecommerce store that sells pre-made alterations for the Adobe Lightroom photo editor. Pre-made alterations are designed to solve the problem of long photo-editing times with ready-made designs. While there are many social media marketing options, Pretty Presets uses Pinterest as its main marketing tool. Over time, Pinterest has become their number one source of traffic, responsible for 10% of sales.
Laura’s story
Laura had a stable 9 to 5 office job. But her dream was to be more at home with her children, while still contributing financially. Laura also enjoyed photography in her free time. She needed to find a way to become more efficient while combining her day job with her hobby.
This is when she created presets. Presets are pre-made adjustments to the coloring and lighting of an image. Presets can cut down photo editing time in half. Instead of editing a photo album in two weeks, you could edit only in 5 days. Laura launched Pretty Presets in 2010 with an initial investment of $100. Her goal was to enable people to spend more time with their families.
Laura’s advice: success doesn’t come quickly
Laura had three other failed businesses before starting Pretty Presets. She learned a lot from those failures and kept moving forward. Laura also thinks that a successful business must be about something you are really passionate about.
Toni Carey and Ashley Hicks-Rocha: Founders of Black Girls RUN!
Black Girls RUN! started as a community of women across America aiming to reduce obesity rates through running. The community has an online store that offers different merchandise to women. Black Girls RUN! hosts over 70 running groups across America and has a membership of over 150,000 women.
Toni’s and Ashley’s story
Toni and Ashley met in college. Toni was an active runner and tried to convince Ashley to join her at local running groups and road races. They quickly realized that they were the only people of color participating in the running groups.
The fact that about four out of five African American women are overweight or obese inspired them to start blogging about their experiences. Black Girls RUN! reached women across America and encouraged them to race together in events.
In 2011, Toni and Ashley opened a t-shirts and merchandise eCommerce store. Initially, the store was not connected to their blog. Shopify helped them merge the WordPress blog and the store into one site. The switch enabled them to automate marketing through Shopify Apps and integrate external tools like Mailchimp.
The success of the shop has allowed both women to quit their day jobs and invest all their effort in the community and business.
Toni’s and Ashley’s advice: never rely on just one source of income
Toni is always chasing other projects and revenue streams. After she was laid off in 2008, Toni has decided to take charge of her own destiny, just like her mother. Toni’s mother always had more than one source of income, she was an entrepreneur like Toni.
Elana Reinholtz: Founder of Bird + Stone
Bird + Stone is an online store that sells jewelry like necklaces, bracelets, and cuffs. The store donates 10% out of each purchase to organizations focused on women’s health, education, climate change, and poverty reduction.
Elana’s story
Elana worked in the financial services industry in New York after graduating from college. But she always wanted to support causes that can contribute to society. Elana launched Bird + Stone after spending time in Kenya on a volunteer mission.
Elana realized that she had to help women get equal opportunities to pursue their dreams. Bird + Stone’s focuses on women between the age of 22 to 65 that want to support equal education or women running for office.
Bird + Stone leverages social media platforms like Instagram, and Facebook to promote three objectives: promotion, education, and community engagement.
Elana’s advice: leverage your passion
Elana believes that passion guides you through the uncertainty of the beginning. The really tough part in creating an online business is building the initial structure, operations, and system. You have to build a strong foundation when you want to compete with big brands.
Camille Newman: Founder of Pop Up Plus
Pop Up Plus is an eCommerce fashion business that sells dresses to plus-size women. Initially, Camille wanted to open a brick and mortar retail store in New York. However, she later launched an online store due to lack of funding.
Camille’s story
Camille has always been a curvy girl, especially in college. She discovered that many retailers are not offering clothes at her size. She was stuck in the fitting room and nothing fit. That is why Camille decided that plus-sized women should not feel that horrible feeling in stores.
Camille leveraged the Shopify Capital platform to apply for a funding program. Shopify Capital is a flexible cash advance program for merchants. Camille launched the first pop-up in 2010 with a loan from CAMBA. The shop did well and Camille continues to grow the pop-up model till this day.
Camille’s advice: a true entrepreneur always finding a way
Always try to change according to the market. When one investor says no, there is always another with a yes. When one idea fails, have another one waiting in the wings.
Conclusion
Hopefully these inspiring stories of creativity, community, and courage in the face of difficulties will motivate you, and maybe even encourage you to start your own Shopify business. Shopify is a good solution for many merchants. Shopify has an easy to use interface, reasonable pricing model, and multiple themes.