Start-Up Combines Web Sales Skills and Hair Extensions

[shizzle]

Linky

Start-Up Combines Web Sales Skills and Hair Extensions



PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — For an Internet start-up, Arjuni faces more challenges than usual.

The e-commerce site that sells hair extensions operates out of a five-story building here that lacks elevators and, sometimes, power. Employees typically have to travel to remote villages by motorbike or foot to pick up the goods that Arjuni sells. And the office floor is cluttered with piles of hair strands instead of computers.

But like many new ventures, Arjuni is harnessing the latest Internet tools like Twitter and social media to build a loyal customer base.

In just two years, the company, founded by Janice Wilson, has grown from a handful of employees to 80, and it now generates more than $1 million in revenue. The start-up is also slowly gaining market share from the industry’s dominant players in India and China, as well as retailers in the United States and Europe.

“We not only buy and collect the hair ourselves, but sell it directly to our customers. This makes us stand out,” Ms. Wilson said. “We’re small, but considered one of the top brands.”

While hair extensions have been around for decades, they became a fashion craze in recent years, when stars like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears started using them to change their looks. A large proportion of Arjuni customers, like Ms. Wilson, are African-Americans seeking fuller styles for their tresses.

India has long provided much of the world’s natural hair, sold to wholesalers mainly in China, which in turn marketed their products to retailers in Europe and the United States. But Ms. Wilson found that Cambodians have similar hair quality, long with cuticles in alignment.

“Probably 99 percent of the world’s hair comes from India. Nobody had thought of Cambodia,” said Ms. Wilson, 39, straddling piles of hair on the floor.

It is a small but potentially profitable niche. The hair extensions business generates annual revenue of $250 million.

Ms. Wilson said it was important to her to have a business serve a social purpose. Many of Arjuni’s employees formerly worked in Cambodia’s notorious sex trade.

That effort helped attract seed capital from a Japanese investment fund, Arun, formed in 2009 by Satoko Kono to help social enterprises in emerging nations. “We like how Arjuni is employing women, and helping the needy,” said Ms. Kono, who spent a decade with development organizations in Cambodia.

Additional money came from the Cambodian Export Market Access Fund, which is a World Bank-financed project that helps companies trying to develop exports. The rest came from her savings, friends and family.

A lawyer by training, Ms. Wilson has built her business by making customers feel engaged in the product via the Internet.

Customers eagerly describe their orders on home videos that they upload on YouTube, with segments on topics like hair design, delivery and grooming. Clients are encouraged to send in pictures of starlets they want to emulate, like Catherine Zeta-Jones or Beyoncé. Arjuni also floods Facebook with testimonials and promotions.

“Our clients are fanatical about hair,” said Tiyana Peters, who oversees social media for Arjuni. “We get everything from wedding photos afterward to details on how the boyfriends react.”

By dealing direct with customers, Arjuni eliminates the added cost of working through another retailer or site. Extensions can cost thousands of dollars, but typically average around $500.

The Internet has helped with damage control, as well. After rumors spread online that Arjuni was stealing hair or forcing women to sell it, the company began regularly posting more information on its operations on networking sites.

“This was totally untrue. We buy the hair at fair prices, and tried to explain it, but there isn’t much you can do,” Ms. Wilson said. “Our company grew up in the age of social media,” she said. “Social media is huge, and has helped us, but these accusations really stung.”

Her idea for the start-up was an evolution of sorts. Ms. Wilson, originally from Green Bay, Wis., was on vacation in Cambodia four years ago, she began thinking about opportunities to start a business here.

Cambodia was in the midst of an economic boom and had the fastest-growing economy in Asia, after China, for several years running. One of the hottest sectors was real estate. Ms. Wilson, who was working for a real estate firm in Colorado, decided to move to Cambodia, and with local partners, planned a development near the temples of Angkor, the country’s top tourist attraction.

When Cambodia’s property market suffered along with the global economy, she faced a grim challenge. “I either had to give up and go back to America, or find something else to do,” she recalled.

The collapse of Cambodia’s textile industry largely as a result of cheap competition from China led to her idea. Cambodian workers with sewing skills were suddenly unemployed, and nobody had looked at Cambodian hair as a marketable material before.

“I was thinking, what is recession-proof?” Ms. Wilson recalled. The answer: “vanity.”

The best — and most expensive — hair extensions are made from natural human hair, which is cut, cleaned and sewn into individual pieces. “It was low-tech, they just needed to learn how to make them, and we just needed sewing machines. We could use the skills already here,” she said.

The business was also a way to help workers develop marketable skills. Ms. Wilson now provides employees with free English, computer and math classes. A third of workers come from troubled situations like sex trafficking or spousal abuse. “But we run everything as a business,” Ms. Wilson said.

Ms. Wilson acknowledged that she and her staff members were extremely ambitious at the outset, “trying to do everything at once — collection, fabrication and distribution.” But they have been able to keep up the frenzied pace as the company grew.

“It’s definitely been difficult to scale up,” Ms. Wilson said. “But it does make us better quality.”

This spring, Arjuni added yet another facet to its operation — a series of in-person events in the United States called Halo, where her staff could meet and help groom customers.

“Do I feel I have aged a lot? Definitely,” Ms. Wilson said. “But I love being an entrepreneur. I love the challenges.”

“When I worked in a law office, I was bored out of my mind,” she added. “When you have this entrepreneurial spirit, you just have to do it.”

[cambod]

Very cool story!

[vladimir]

I need some extra cash, but I'm reluctant to shave my eyebrows...

Hey, what about that guy asking about depilation, he could get rich and smooth at the same time.

[giblet]

I thought it was interesting that this article didn't mention the Cambodians who are selling their hair -- I'd like to know the story behind that. I've read that in India, most of the hair used for extensions comes from those who shave their heads as offerings at pagodas, and the monks sell it to hair extension companies.

[MoodyMac]

I thought it was interesting that this article didn't mention the Cambodians who are selling their hair -- I'd like to know the story behind that. I've read that in India, most of the hair used for extensions comes from those who shave their heads as offerings at pagodas, and the monks sell it to hair extension companies.

I'm curious as well.

[gavinmac]

How much can a Cambodian chick make selling her hair?

[ken svay]

cambodian women have beautiful hair and nearly all have long hair.
It must be worth a bit for those who sell it.
Did the kr sell the hair when they forced all the women to cut it off

[Frans]

How much can a Cambodian chick make selling her hair?

The same as in the Philippines&Thailand, From 5US$ fore a moderate female length up to 20US$ When it is "Very" long, And then I mean at least 60 centimetre. (Could be that the price is higher in BKK or Manila&Cebu)

It is just a other money winning on the back from the poor.

The don't even collect the hair by them selves, But it is collected and paid by local village woman that are going from town to town and convince family&girl to sale it, And trade in this. (I have see 1 time a young girl, Around 12 years(?) in Mindanao, Crying as hell, Because here hair was cut fore some peanuts)!

When I read "but sell it directly to our customers", Then I know it is sold to a all sale witch sell it again to a beauty salon and end user. The only difference between the original 5US$ and the price paid by the end user cane go up to (?)xxxxxx US$.

I don't even belief the "typically average around $500" lie!

"was stealing hair or forcing women to sell it"? Sure when the family is starving from hunger you don,t have to steal the hair, Why should you when a ample 5 bucks is sufficient? .
And forcing? Of-course not, The pressure from the surrounding is so heavenly, The young girl will follow with tears in here eyes! (The board of directors from Arjuni don't even have to know this or even don't care about it, It is the local trader who is responsible) What I don't see, I don't care ...

Cambodian Export Market Access Fund, A World Bank-financed project and there Emerging Markets Group Holding CO, With there famous business N.G.O. consulting in the dark back site?

Sad.

[Lucky Lucan]

Did the kr sell the hair when they forced all the women to cut it off

As far as I know they didn't force women to cut their hair off, they more favored an attractive "bob" hairstyle for the ladies. There doesn't appear to be any mention in any of the records about them exporting human hair, and I'm not sure if extensions were all that popular in the late 1970s.

a five-story building here that lacks elevators and, sometimes, power.

I was in their building a couple of years ago. It's around the back of Psah Olympic. It was just a barren concrete shell, with a floor full of mannequins with wigs and a corner of another floor that had a few desks and computers. I'm glad to hear that the foxy-looking black chick who seemed to be running it has done well.

[proyat]

Now I know where to go for a merken..

[Sok Poupe]

I thought it was interesting that this article didn't mention the Cambodians who are selling their hair -- I'd like to know the story behind that. I've read that in India, most of the hair used for extensions comes from those who shave their heads as offerings at pagodas, and the monks sell it to hair extension companies.

I'm curious as well.

From evictees.

Funny they wouldn't print that!

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/ ... ctees.html

Long hair a luxury for evictees

Kheng Chen had her hair cut in January and sold it to a broker for just under US$8. She isn’t happy with the close-cropped style because it makes her look older than her 48 years.

But when Kheng Chen grows her hair back in a few months, she plans to sell it again.

“Every woman loves hair, every woman wants to be beautiful,” she said. “But between beauty and having nothing to eat, which one do I need to choose?”

Kheng Chen is not alone in her dilemma. She lives in the Borei Keila community of evictees in Kandal province. They are among 133 families that were evicted in January by private security forces hired by development firm Phan Imex.

And now she is one of more than 30 women who have decided to exchange locks for bucks. Out of embarrassment, many wear scarves to cover up the tomboyish hairdos.

The buying and reselling of natural hair is nothing new, but it is just catching on in Cambodia. The Phnom Penh-based company Arjuni is edging into a field typically dominated by India and China, according to a story about the business in The New York Times this week.

Janice Wilson, the owner of Arjuni, told the Times that Cambodian hair resembles the same product out of India, a major supplier.

“Probably 99 per cent of the world’s hair comes from India. Nobody had thought of Cambodia,” Wilson told the Times. Wilson didn’t immediately return an email to Arjuni asking if the company sold hair from Borei Keila. The women did not mention the company when interviewed.

At the relocation site in Kandal province’s Srah Po village, the temporary residents have been selling hair since January. Those interviewed said that the transaction is routine by now. Vietnamese brokers arrive on motorbikes and pull into the collection of blue tarp-covered huts that constitutes the village. They come around once or twice a month and canvass the site. The price, women interviewed said, depends on the length and consistency of hair.

Saom Sokunthea, 42, got about $7 for hers. She needed the money to buy rice for her three children. Parting with her hair, however, stirred up painful memories.

“If my husband was alive, he would not allow me to cut my hair, even if we died of starvation. Because he loved my hair so much,” she said.

The Borei Keila evictees are making these transactions voluntarily. But Sia Phearum, with the Housing Rights Task Force, said that buyers aren’t looking at the bigger picture.

“It’s really a shock to hear that, because they have nothing to sell,” he said. “People just want to get the benefit. They don’t care about social morals. They just care about the money.”

He added that the problem is one more reminder that the government has an obligation to help these people. “Authorities should reconsider the evictions after thinking that if all the matters fell on their families, how would they feel?”

Yoeun Soeun, 32, whose hair was sold three months ago, said she made a little more than $12. She attributes the higher-than-usual rate to her youth and the fact that she made frequent visits to the hair stylist. She removed her hat and ran a hand over a head of black hair. Then she put it back on.

“No one wants to do this, but when struggling without any opportunities, what we should do? In my village almost all women become old grandmothers.”

[Spigzy]

Glad they used Cambodians to showcase the products on their website too https://arjuni.com/

So, can us balding guys get a pattern or what?

[Ant.]

So they buy it for $10 and sell for $500?
And got development funding?
I guess they don't have a "fair trade" certificate.