Founder Stories
SISTERWOULD puts the 'care' in haircare with their inclusivity-focused products: We talked with Flo Elmazi and Rina Gocaj on their journey.
SISTERWOULD believes that quality hair care and the sensorial experience that comes from caring for your hair should be an inclusive one, accessible to people of all abilities.
At the helm of this visionary eCommerce beauty brand are Flo Elmazi and Rina Gocaj Bekiri. We spoke with Flo and Rina on their entrepreneurial journey so far, lessons learnt, goals for the future of the brand and advice for other online store founders out there.
Introduce your business and tell us your story: How did you decide on what to sell, and how did you source your products?
SISTERWOULD is a first-to-market hair care brand that includes Braille and tactile imprinting to meet our inclusive mission, and recently we recently won the the Beacon Award for Inclusivity Champion by digital publication Beauty Independent. Our salon-quality products are made with high-performing skincare ingredients for your hair and scalp. Made in Australia with Native Australian plant extracts, our best selling Give Me Life duo helps neutralize chemical and heat processing and bring hair back to it’s healthiest state leaving it revived, replenished, voluminous, shiny and manageable.
In the past year, the brand has grown, being featured in publications such as Forbes and Smart Company, partnering with massive retailer Revolve, and growing an esteemed list of celebrity fans, including Matthew McConaughey and the teams of Dua Lipa and Nicole Kidman.
Our Give Me Life range was created with all hair types in mind as well as skin types, especially because Flo’s father has severe psoriasis and for years she’s created skincare products at home for him to use. We believe the scalp should be taken care of the same way we take care of our skin and face. Our products give you a sensory enhanced experience and a hair facial like you’ve never experienced before through our innovative tactile ingredients in our shampoo that have biodegradable microparticles made from Native Australian plant extracts. The beads in our Give Me LIfe range help gently exfoliate and cleanse your scalp while also serving as a sensory experience for the blind and visually impaired community to differentiate products in the shower. The warm, cool, tingling sensation that our Give Me Life Shampoo gives takes you on a sensory experience and what our customers describe as an escape in the shower or the salon.
Make sure your solving a real problem. The market is far too saturated to launch something for the sake of money especially because you don’t see the money for a very long time. There is so much sacrifice and hard work involved that you have to be willing and excited to actually do it all.
Flo Elmazi & Rina Gocaj
At SISTERWOULD we see beauty differently. That’s why our products were created with every individual in mind, including the differently-abled community. Through our partnership with Vision Australia and daily frustrations felt by our mothers, who struggle with visual impairments and wear glasses, we’ve incorporated universal braille on all our packaging across our Give Me Life range. There are 43 million people living with blindness and 295 million people living with moderate to severe visual impairment and only 10% can actually read braille so, we’ve incorporated our own tactile imprinting system that consists of horizontal lines = for shampoo and dots ::: for conditioner. We believe everyone deserves to bask in the pleasure of washing their hair and scalp. For some, this seemingly simple ritual is taken for granted. SISTERWOULD haircare exists to help everyone turn washing their hair into an enjoyable moment of selfcare.
We met with multiple labs to find one that was aligned with our needs and mission. Being Australian made and manufactured was important to us as well as using Native Australian plant extracts.The entire R&D process took us 3 years due to the innovative tactile formulations, the custom molding to include braille and a tactile imprinting system.
We made $25k in sales in just two and a half weeks of launching. During launch our email list generated the most sales. We created a lot of hype, had a lot of PR and teasers before launch so it naturally created some noise and people were intrigued because they’d never heard of braille, a tactile imprinting system or tactile ingredients in a shampoo before.
Flo Elmazi & Rina Gocaj
How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you?
Prior to launching we took 2 years to grow our social media following to what it is today. It boasts 120k + followers on Instagram and an email list of almost 20k email subscribers. This was no easy task and we had to get creative bringing influencers on our platform to do Instagram takeovers, we did incentivized giveaways by giving away a Dyson airwrap when it was going viral and everyone was using and posting them. We collaborated with other brands to do giveaways and grow a following just so we don’t launch to crickets.
We have an article on Smart Company on how we made $25k in sales in just two and a half weeks of launching.
I’d say during launch, our email list generated the most sales at the time. We created a lot of hype, had a lot of PR and teasers before launch so it naturally created some noise and people were intrigued because they’d never heard of braille, a tactile imprinting system or tactile ingredients in a shampoo before.
Today our biggest sales channel is our DTC channel driven by our Instagram, Tiktok and Facebook Ads strategies. All these combined are responsible for generating revenue.
What tools and apps do you use to run your store?
There isn’t one tool that does it all unfortunately but when it comes to tech stack we’re still quite simple because we’re small and only have 2 SKU’s at the moment.
We fell in love with Judge.me for reviews after seeing Brittney Saunders from Fayt the Label post about it. We recently discovered Lifetimely by AMP and it’s been incredible seeing the data it gives us. Klaviyo for email marketing is a non-negotiable. We find it more user friendly against it’s competitors to the point where you won’t even need a graphic designer to do your email marketing during the early stages where you have to operate lean and do it all yourself.
#1 piece of advice you have for anyone who wants to launch their own online store?
Make sure your solving a real problem. The market is far too saturated to launch something for the sake of money especially because you don’t see the money for a very long time. There is so much sacrifice and hard work involved that you have to be willing and excited to actually do it all. Often times people see all the highlights of business and because no one talks about the risks involved and the rejections it automatically gets other people excited so, I think it’s important to be transparent that the work involved isn’t for everyone. It takes discipline, determination and the hunger to want to solve a problem you’re truly passionate about.
Understand the problem you are solving, your target audience and the market you’ll be playing in. By investing time and effort in thoroughly understanding all this, you increase the likelihood of creating a successful business that resonates with your audience and stands out in a competitive and saturated landscape.
What are the easiest and the hardest parts of this business for you?
I’d have to say the easiest part of business is the creative side of things and this is purely because creative is fun. Throughout this journey I realized it’s easy to bring a brand to market, but hard to keep it there and this goes with everything in life. We can easily buy cars, but we have to maintain them. Service A and B cost a fortunate.
Our biggest challenge is being bootstrapped. We’re not funded by a global VC firm and don’t have the same power they do to pump marketing budgets across the board. This means we have to operate lean and every decision we make affects our cashflow so we have to be smart and strategic about every dollar spent during these early stages.
If somebody could solve one problem with scaling an online shop, what would that be?
This is a hard one because so many come to mind from supply chain, automation, to funding but it would have to be optimizing funding and cash flow. Funding is the lifeblood of any business. With improved funding options and cash flow management, businesses can invest in inventory, marketing, technology, and other crucial aspects, facilitating smoother expansion and sustained success.
If you look down the road three, four, five years down the road and anticipate the new “normal” – the new things stores are going to have to be doing to compete effectively, what is at the top of that list?
I think keeping Customer Acquisition Cost low and driving a higher Average Order Value will always be at the top of the list for every business especially with the competition becoming more intense with each passing year. I think the most important focus will be on customer retention moving forward. Retaining existing customers will be just as important as acquiring new ones, if not, more important. Customer loyalty goes a long way and with consumers being more selective than ever with where they shop I think it’s important to implement great loyalty programs. People don’t just come back to a good product, they return for the experience as well and some for a greater purpose and they’re happy to support it.
What are some of the top metrics eCommerce merchants should be tracking and how have you leveraged analytics as part of your strategy?
So many to consider here but a top few would have to be the Average Order Value, Customer Acquisition Cost, Customer Lifetime Value, Cart Abandonment Rate and your ROI on ad spend and marketing campaigns. Leveraging the right analytics will help you make better and more informed decisions across the business as a whole. The data can help you identify a trend, a best selling product, and just enhance the overall business and consumer experience.
Looking for high performance haircare products for yourself or as a gift? Shop SISTERWOULD today.