Shopify, the leading e-commerce platform, has given many women homemakers and aspiring women a chance to start small and become big. Shopify today is full of stores run by women. In today’s age when women are strongly fighting for their rights to be equal, Shopify has proved to be one such platform among many that are promoting women’s equality and empowerment.
The success stories of these women-led brands are truly inspiring and have proved that lack of support or resources wouldn’t stop the women of today from achieving what they have set their eyes on. Here are the top 5 women-led brands on Shopify and how they succeeded:
1. Holo Taco
Holo Taco is a Holographic nail polish brand that was started by a YouTube that goes by the name: Simply Nailogical. The founder of the brand had a love for nail paints that she converted into her profession by launching a series of nail polishes through her YouTube channel.
Cristine Rotenberg, the YouTuber, has a famous YouTube channel that she used to launch her brand, Holo Taco. Her first few flash sales got sold in hours owing to her popularity on youtube. Rotenberg wished to create a brand that was cruelty-free, vegan and that kept quality over profit, and she succeeded in doing it with the help of Shopify.
2. Partake Foods
Partake Foods was started by a mother who was working in corporate jobs when she realized that her daughter had serious food allergies. One day when her daughter had such a serious allergic reaction that she couldn’t even breathe properly, that’s when she realized how important eating good food is. She could find any people who were ready to invest in her brand and despite the lack of financial support, she built a brand that has become one of the most famous food brands in the world.
Denise Woodard focused on quality over profit and brought her customers food that was not only organic but also free of all allergens.
In conversation with The Startup Story, when James McKinny asked Denise if the standards of Partake food were the same as the standards for her daughter, she instantly replied, “Yes, definitely. So the standard of acceptance and the standard for what we’ll put in our product, If I don’t feel comfortable giving it to my daughter, I’m not giving it to someone else’s family member.”
3. Meow Meow Tweet
A vegan skincare brand Meow Meow Tweet was started by two women who met in art school and decided to start a skincare range that was neither harsh on the skin, nor the planet. The two founders, Jeff Kurosaki (they/them) and Tara Pelletier (she/they) worked hard to create a sustainable brand that brought their customers the confidence to be able to have faith in a skincare brand. In an age where no one knows what brands are putting in their products, Jeff and Tara started something that one could trust and use.
“We’re vegan in our approach to the world. So, like, it’s about harm reduction for us. So, like, we try to see how we can kind of like navigate the world and put things out into the world and the least harmful way, and being vegan also means considering harm toward other humans. It’s not just about animals,” said Tara Pelletier, co-founder of the brand.
4. Maison Balzac
Maison Balzac is a brand started as a one-woman project by a woman named Elise Pioch. Pioch started the brand with a very simple vision of creating scented candles and had a very small range of only 5 candles.
Maison Balzac is the perfect example of how quality always wins over quantity. Despite starting with a small range of 5 candles, today the brand has become big and has been growing in the field of home decor. Now the brand has come up with more products like furniture and perfumes as well and is growing at an exponential speed.
“Our consumer list grows organically and by no means are we trying to attract more than what we can cope with,” said Pioch. “It’s best to be prudent and steady.”
5. Blume
Blume is a brand started by two sisters who wished to educate women on period health and create products that helped women know their bodies better. Their products range from skincare and body care to period health giving women a wholesome brand to come to when they face problems that only women can understand.
The two sisters, also the co-founders of the brand, Taran and Bunny Ghatrora, target the Genz audience and aim to give them what no brand has yet thought of. They wish to solve the problems of their target audience and be friend that they never had.
“There are brands like P&G, but they’re not what girls relate to,” says Taran. “Blume is the only brand approaching the Gen Z consumers’ needs in this cohesive way across both commerce and content.”
