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 with it should be an inclusive one and accessible to people of all abilities.
At the helm of SISTERWOULD's visionary eCommerce beauty brand is 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. 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, bringing hair back to it’s healthiest state - revived, replenished, voluminous, shiny and manageable.
In the past year, SISTERWOULD has grown with the help of featuring in popular publications such as Forbes and Smart Company. We have also partnered with the massive retailer Revolve and grown an esteemed list of celebrity fans including Matthew McConaughey, and teams of Dua Lipa and Nicole Kidman.
Inspired by a personal need to soothe sensitive skin, our "Give Me Life" range was born. Flo's father, who struggles with severe psoriasis, inspired her years of homemade skincare experimentation, ultimately leading to this revolutionary line for all hair and skin types.
We believe scalp care should mirror the meticulous attention we give our faces. That's why our products offer a sensory-enhanced, spa-like "hair facial" experience. This is achieved through our innovative, tactile shampoo formula, infused with biodegradable microparticles derived 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.
The warm, cool, tingling sensation of 'Give Me Life Shampoo' transports you to an immersive, escapist experience, whether you are in your own shower or at a salon.
Make sure you're solving a real problem. The market is 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 do it all.
Flo Elmazi & Rina Gocaj
At SISTERWOULD, we embrace a unique perspective on beauty, one that celebrates individuality in all its forms. This inclusive vision drives our product development, with a special focus on 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.
With 43 million blind individuals and 295 million with moderate to severe visual impairment worldwide, and only 10% able to read braille, we've gone further. We’ve incorporated our own tactile imprinting system that consists of horizontal lines = for shampoo and dots ::: for conditioner. This ensures everyone can confidently navigate our products.
We met with multiple labs to find one that 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.
For some, this seemingly simple ritual is taken for granted. SISTERWOULD haircare is there to help everyone turn a mundanity into an enjoyable moment of selfcare.
We made $25k in sales in just over two weeks of our launch. Our email list generated the most sales while our carefully prepared pre-launch campaign sparked curiosity. We built anticipation through strategic PR and teasers, highlighting our unheard of features like braille packaging, tactile printing and tactile ingredients.
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. We had to get creative by bringing influencers on our platform to do Instagram takeovers, 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.
Currently, we have an article on Smart Company on how we made $25k, in sales in just two and a half weeks of launching.
Our email list generated the most sales while our carefully prepared pre-launch campaign sparked curiosity. We built anticipation through strategic PR and teasers, highlighting our unheard of features like braille packaging, tactile printing and tactile ingredients.
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. This is because we’re still a small company 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. It's so user-friendly compared to competitors that you can easily handle your own email marketing – even without design experience.
#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 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 do it all.
Many people are drawn to the glamorous side of business, unaware of the risks and rejections involved. To avoid misleading others, it's important to be transparent about the hard work required. This work isn't for everyone; it demands discipline, determination, and a passion for solving a problem.
Understanding your target audience, the problem you're solving, and the market you'll operate in is crucial. By investing time and effort into these areas, you increase your chances of building a successful business that stands out in a competitive market.
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 - because it is fun! Throughout this journey I realized it’s easy to bring a brand to market, but hard to keep it there. This goes with everything in life. We can easily buy cars, but we have to maintain them.
Our biggest challenge is being bootstrapped. We’re not funded by a global VC firm. This means we operate lean, with every decision impacting our cash flow. We must be strategic and efficient with every dollar spent in 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, enabling investments in inventory, marketing, technology, and growth initiatives. Improved funding options and effective cash flow management empower businesses to expand smoothly and sustain 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 maintaining Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) low, while increasing Average Order Value (AOV) remains a top priority for every business, now more than ever. 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, especially as consumers are more selective 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 based on positive experiences and a sense of purpose they can connect with.
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. 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.