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How Samui Bags Used Privy to Kick Off Their Business
4 min read time
Published on Jan 16, 2018
We sat down with Conrad from Samui Bags to talk about creating a socially conscious business, how he uses coupons, and what it’s like as a brand new entrepreneur.
Tell me about your business! What do you sell and why is it awesome?
Samui is a socially-driven brand that imports and sells handmade bags from Northern Thailand. Since each bag is entirely handmade, they are all different and beautiful. While getting sales is important, we also are dedicated to making sure that the artisans who make the bags earn living wages and work in fair conditions.
What inspired you to start Samui Bags?
I visited the Thai island of Koh Samui and saw vendors selling very similar, brightly colored bags. My girlfriend bought one for herself and when we came back all of her friends loved it!
A lightbulb went off and I started searching for a fair trade manufacturer. That’s also why I named the brand after the island.
Do you remember your first sale?
I just started a few weeks ago! I launched to only friends and family to start, who graciously ordered a few bags.
How do you go about marketing your business?
I’m using a variety of marketing channels, but mainly content, social media partners, and referrals. I'm also going to test Facebook ads and Google shopping as paid sources. Down the road, I’d like to start a travel blog since our business began from traveling sustainably
I’m also reaching out to several bloggers in the sustainable fashion industry and outdoors lifestyle influencers. Overall, I'm working to create an active lifestyle around the product.
What types of offers work best for you?
Privy has an awesome feature that generates the coupon code instantly after typing in an email. The coupon is then also created directly in Shopify!
This makes things so much easier on my end—since my business is still so new, this is one thing I don’t have to worry about.
What else besides Privy is in your tech stack?
I use Shopify, Quickbooks, and People Mapper, which helps find target markets and influencers on Instagram.
What are some of your biggest business or marketing challenges?
I need to start investing in driving traffic for Samui. I'm a little nervous about investing and not seeing the return, but you gotta start somewhere!
Do you have any advice to other entrepreneurs or small businesses?
Try to do something to progress your company forward every day, regardless how small the task. It's the small wins that add up!
Samui Bags brings beautiful fair trade designs from Thailand right to your door. Show this brand new business some love!
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