My Husband and I Bootstrapped a SaaS Start-up and it Failed. Here is what I learned. (Part 8)
The Struggle with Adoption
During the 2020 pandemic lock down, we took a break from building GA. And focused largely on GA Beauty Shop. Adoption was still really slow. Sometimes I wonder whether things might have turned out differently if we had secured significant VC funding to bring in top-tier development and marketing expertise.
I know GA Beauty Shop solved a real problem for small and medium beauty brands or sellers who wanted to sell online, but could not afford an independent ecommerce presence. Here is what it offered;
On glamafricbeautyshop.com customers and beauty enthusiasts can easily find and purchase skincare, makeup, fragrance and haircare products from Nigerian brands rather than scrolling through Instagram to find them. We provided secure online payment by Flutterwave, reducing bank transfer to fake Instagram sellers.
By selling on glamafricbeautyshop.com beauty and cosmetics brands can;
Reach new customers and create brand awareness. Even if they already had a website.
Sell to customers 24/7 without having to exchange messages with them. (Eliminate or reduce Instagram & WhatsApp DM enquiries)
Direct their customers on Instagram and WhatsApp to their store to see available products.
Get a free online store with the tools to manage your sales. (Easy store setup, absolutely no tech skills required).
Get a store front with unique url to share with customers. A store provided sellers with the following tools;
Simple stock management tool. Manage stock quantity easily.
Easy order management. View and manage your orders easily in one place. Have visibility of all orders and improve your customer satisfaction.
Sales reporting tool. See your best selling products easily.
Secure online payment, and remittance by Flutterwave (no more bank transfers)
Small and medium beauty brands striving for an online ecommerce presence, usually built one with shopify. Unfortunately, they were quickly hit with the harsh reality of building and maintaining an website. I noticed how some of those sites had issues. GA Beauty Shop was not a UX and UI marvel, but it was more than functional. It was an ecommerce tool that a beauty brand could use to grow its online presence and sales before venturing into developing an independent ecommerce space.
Sadly either we did not pitch our offering well or GA Beauty Shop was not a s great as we thought it was. By mid-2021, income from both job boards had plateaued, it was earning in a lower currency, and the site maintenance was paid for in pounds sterling, so, to quote the kids “the maths was not mathing”.
We had to make the heart wrenching decision to sunset both job boards and shortly after that GA Beauty Shop.
