The Apprentice star Pamela Laird has opened up about how her business has survived during the pandemic.
The Dublin star, who is a two-time Gossies nominee for our Girl Boss of the Year award, admitted that changing her focus from retail to online, with a special focus on Amazon’s fulfillment service, helped her through.
“We looked at how we could grow online,” the Moxi Loves owner told Goss.ie.
“We had been heavily reliant on retail stores so this was a fantastic opportunity and what really made me consider the likes of Amazon.”
“We also launched into Ocado an online grocery delivery in the UK. We’ve also looked at other export opportunities.”
“It’s opened huge doors for us that may have been harder to get through pre-pandemic,” she explained.
While many businesses suffered huge blows over the last year, Pamela celebrated successes, including the UK launch of her brand into Boots stores.
“It’s not the launch we had planned and we really had to try to get online as quickly as possible. It’s forced us as a business to pivot and try and find our feet in this new normal.
Pamela, 30, added that this year taught her the importance of “spreading risk” and “pivoting” online.
“You can never put all your eggs into one basket,” she asserted.
“You’ve got to spread the risk in business and if your biggest retail chain closes like Penneys for us, that we have enough to sustain with our other retailers.
“Also to pivot and change when you have to, we canceled some new products we had planned because with travel stopped the products just wouldn’t be needed as they would have before.”
Now Pamela will be sharing her expertise in the upcoming Amazon Bootcamp, where she is a keynote speaker (you can register right here).
“This Amazon Bootcamp is going to be an amazing resource for any Irish SMEs. It’s a two-day event and it’s free,” she revealed.
“I’ll be sharing my experience as a small business using Amazon. Alongside some experts who will be giving more practical advice too so it should give businesses a better understanding of what’s involved.”
Speaking about the importance of buying from Amazon, Pamela admitted that the e-commerce platform is an important tool for many Irish businesses.
“I think people have an idea that Amazon is this giant and destroying small businesses.
“But I think as small businesses, we should consider the opportunity that Amazon provides, they have access to a huge customer base that you can access if you list your products.
“There’s an exposure to a whole new set of customers in many different markets,” she admitted.
Meanwhile, the BBC star revealed that her brand Moxi Loves is set to launch in Australia.
“I’m so so excited,” she admitted.
“It’s a big market and of course they’ve been open with no lockdowns so it’s fantastic to get Moxi Loves launched there.
“We have three new products coming this year which is big for the brand and I can’t wait to share them,” she added.
You can shop Pamela’s brand Moxi Loves right HERE.
