Lessons from the Female Entrepreneurs Leading eCommerce
Women entrepreneurs are the engines of small business growth.
In fact, the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report reveals that female entrepreneurs are more purpose-driven than their male counterparts, lead innovation, create businesses, and are transforming the entrepreneurial landscape around the globe.
The findings underline the fact that when women find success in business, it benefits everyone.
Still, there are some places where that entrepreneurial spirit remains a hugely untapped resource, creating a missed opportunity for positive change.
In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the female entrepreneurs whose bold ideas are revolutionizing eCommerce. These women are bringing their pursuits to life in unique and innovative ways, and are reaching a global community of customers one sale at a time.
Learn to Love Failing
Angelia Morrison, co-owner and CEO of Ultasmile, knows about purpose. At 19, Angelia is leading the charge on elevating her family-owned business through a potent pairing of the Wix eCommerce platform and social media marketing.
The transformative strategy came about only when Angelia bravely stepped away from a traditional career path and plunged herself headfirst into business development.
“If you have an idea, just do it!” Morrison urges. “The worst thing that can happen is you fail and you learn.” She has embraced that cycle by pursuing social media-based marketing strategies on TikTok and Instagram, creating compelling and engaging content that puts Ultasmile’s unique three-sided toothbrush into language a younger generation of consumers understands implicitly.
“This is a whole new world of social media marketing, and all I’ve done is fail and learn,” she says. “I love failure.”
Morrison fuels her perseverance by envisioning what the future could hold and putting in the time to make it happen. That tenacity and constant evolution have paid off: Some of Morrison’s TikTok videos have amassed over 2,000,000 views, with one video alone bringing in nearly $40,000 in sales.
Morrison’s perseverance comes from her strong support system, and she credits the women around her who have set her up for success and encouraged her to say true to herself.
“My mom really just embedded in me that as long as I’m me, I can do anything,” she says. If you can learn to love your failures like Angelia, they might just lead you to learn exactly how to succeed.
Find Purpose in Passion
Celia Bernardo, founder of the Spanish fashion brand CeliaB, challenges the status quo and centers her vibrant business around her beliefs—and that authentic character is exactly what makes the brand so special for customers.
“I can be very, very free about the way I live, the way I dress, the way I create,” Bernardo says on her Wix-built eCommerce site. She invites potential customers to connect personally with her creations, to come into her creative orbit while they peruse her creations. “I feel I have a little bit of my own universe that I create; I create my whole world here,” she says.
For Bernardo, that world is one that defies fast fashion in favor of sustainable, timeless pieces that spark long-term joy and pleasure. It’s a philosophy that serves as a direct counter to the quick-churn labels she’d worked for previously that didn’t reflect her passions.
Cultural craft, global spirit, sustainability; these form the core of CeliaB’s designs and of the business as a whole. Bernardo is empowering women around the world to express themselves and their own perspectives through her bold pieces. It’s a brand promise that she brings to life through strong storytelling on her site in wanderlust-worthy blog posts, playful videos, and eye-popping shoppable lookbooks, which all come together to communicate the “why” behind CeliaB.
Become the Solution
If asking “why?” is key to building a brand, then asking “why not?” may be key to breaking the mold. Esther Joseph, the creative mind behind Pretty Melanin, is no stranger to the question; it’s what’s helped her brand meet the skincare needs of women of color in a natural new way.
“I’ve come across too many women like myself who struggled with acne, blackheads, acne scars, uneven skin, huge pores,” Joseph explains on her About page. But she found that every existing solution caused more problems due to the chemicals in the formulas. But instead of continuing to use products that obviously weren’t made with women like her in mind, Joseph consulted experts and forged her own path by creating Pretty Melanin.
The company’s organic face masks, serums, toners, and remedies are loved by customers who have seen their skin—and confidence—transform for the better. “Every jar is handmade with love, in the hopes of [becoming] the solution to another Black girl’s skin problem,” Joseph writes on her site.
And thanks to her out-of-the-box thinking and problem-solving savvy, Pretty Melanin is now catering to women across the globe, who can use her site’s quiz feature to find personalized skincare solutions that work for them.
All three of these entrepreneurial women embody the innovative, uplifting, and inspirational spirit of International Women’s Day. They’re finding success at the intersection of passion, purpose, and products, and driving eCommerce towards an even brighter tomorrow.
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Brielle Gordon
Marketing Writer, Wix eCommerce
Brielle is a Colorado native with a passion for innovation and helping to mobilize entrepreneurs. Brielle is a marketing writer for Wix eCommerce, which powers over 700k online stores worldwide.
