After a lengthy career in the beauty industry Zu Rafalat launched herself head-first into ecommerce with the creation of Zuneta.com, which sells luxury make-up cosmetics and beauty gifts.
In 2011 Zu was named winner of the Iris Award at the NatWest everywoman awards, a gong which goes to entrepreneurs whose business growth and success has beengiven a lift through IT.
Zuneta.com’s a lovely looking site, where did you get your sense of style?
I started my career with L’Oreal in 2002. After working in London for both luxury fragrance and mass market cosmetic brands, I moved to Paris to take up a position in L’Oreal’s global headquarters for the brand L’Oreal Paris. I then moved to New York in 2006 to work in strategy and product development for Maybelline.
It was a fantastic education into the world of beauty, as I learned about sales, marketing, distribution, product development etc. So when I work with brands now I really understand what is best for them and how to nurture and develop them. I think that’s quite unusual in retail, especially in online retail.
What’s the big idea?
I always knew I wanted to set up my own business. When I was in New York I noticed how developed the US was in terms of ecommerce, but how slow beauty was to go online. It seemed so strange to me, that such a big industry was so under-represented online.
To be honest, it’s still the case now. Brands are still very cautious about moving online, and I understand why as it’s extremely important to choose the right partner. Once I did the research I saw that there was a huge opportunity so just decided to leave my stable/secure job and just go for it!
Tell us about the early days.
I knew absolutely nothing about ecommerce. At the time I left L’Oreal, anything to do with online was still very new and I didn’t have any experience in that area. So it was a very steep learning curve, with lot’s of mistakes made! It’s also very lonely branching out on your own.
In the early days I was completely by myself in my little office, packing all orders, doing the customer service, doing all the buying, accounts, marketing and even graphic design for the website! Those days were tough but very exciting and it means I know my business inside out now, which is crucial in my opinion.
Were sales hard to come by?
Hard indeed! When the site first launched I eagerly awaited that first order, which inevitably came from a friend (thanks Lucia!). Driving traffic is very difficult to do, especially on a tiny budget. But you need to have the right kind of expectations, take every opportunity and be patient.
How did you stoke the fires?
You definitely get very creative. You have to look at absolutely everything as an opportunity. We have utilised social networks heavily, friends, contacts. We did invest in PR in the early days, which helped us get a name for ourselves. Affiliate marketing and gentle ppc – which can be very expensive so difficult to get right.
We also have a lot of gratitude towards the blogging community who really ‘got’ our concept and have been incredible advocates of Zuneta and of the brands we work with.
Any software of note?
We use Magento as a platform and Sagepay as our payment processor. We do all the fulfilment ourselves as customer service is extremely important to us, so we want to make sure we’re in full control of the journey of an order.
Have you always used these and if not what made you swap?
We started off with a different platform before Magento but a combination of the platform and the agency we used meant that it turned out to be the wrong solution for us. Magento launched in the meantime and we are now happy using it as our platform.
What plans for the future?
There are so many opportunities, it’s important for me to stay focused! We have plans to develop Zuneta further and encourage more international sales. With LoveLula (my natural and organic specialist) we are going to move more into the health and beauty arena.
I also have my eye on a number of other niches within the beauty market that I don’t think are being addressed particularly well online yet.
What if you could turn back time…
I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. But looking back I couldn’t have known how some of those decisions would turn out. At the end of the day, you are always going to make mistakes. The important thing is learning from them and focusing on the future rather than the past.
What’s your best sales tip for other businesses?
Stay true to your beliefs, but don’t be rigid with your concept. If it’s not working, admit it to yourself and change it. Build relationships. You never know who is going to be able to help you in the future. Focus on staff. People make your business.
