She got her business idea on a public toilet on a gas station – now they will double their sales every year!

Helene Arvidsson came up with her business idea during a toilet visit at a petrol station. She was scrolling on Instagram and saw a pink smoothie and immediately thought WOW! Helene wanted to click on the shop button immediately. There was no shop button and Rawnice's seed was sown.

Shortly afterward, Helene started sourcing products on the Alibaba trading platform and found some cool food colorings that she ordered at home. She tried to use it at home in various smoothies, dishes, and baking products. The result was as good as the Instagram photos she viewed earlier and especially with her favorite color, Pink Pataya.

Now, Rawnice was born in earnest and Helene invested everything to succeed with her idea. Helen's husband Jesper was only on the sidelines and supported a little during the first year. He then chose to resign from his permanent job because he also invested wholeheartedly in Rawnice.

“It was a bit of a coincidence that sales took off in earnest. One day Helene was sitting in front of the computer and rolling her thumbs when I asked how things were going with the business. Helene then replied that there was not much at work today. We received orders on an ongoing basis but our sales focus was probably not the best, haha ​​", says Jesper.

At that time, only Rawnice was available in the Swedish language on Squarespace - a simple web platform. The couple noticed that they received more and more inquiries in English and wondered what it was all about?! When they analyzed the traffic to the site, they saw that most of the traffic came from countries outside Sweden. With their unique content and specialized products, they were at the top of many Google searches.

"We then chose to translate the site into English, added a Paypal solution, and opened up for global sales. Sales were doubled almost immediately by that measure. We already had the traffic for it and now we made it possible for more people to shop. Then we chose to go from selling by individual color packaging we changed to selling by packages with several products. We then increased average orders sharply and we got a better roll on even the slightly less popular products. ", says Helene.

The couple is adventurous by themselves and spent a large part of their time traveling, mountain hiking, and being out in the beautiful nature. This is reflected in both Rawnice products that are completely vegan and natural. It has also been crucial for how the couple organizes the business to cope with the growth.

"When Helene returned home from a trip to the USA in August 2017, as many as 40 orders had been waiting for over two weeks of picking, packing and distribution. Panic and death anxiety was a fact. To be able to maintain our free lifestyle, be able to travel around with a mobile home in Europe, and enjoy the peace of our powerless summer cottage, we decided to outsource everything we did not want to do by ourselves and that will bind us to a physical place. The warehouse was quickly outsourced to a reliable 3PL supplier and a freelance girl was found in Jamaica who took care of our customer service for a few hours a day." says Jesper.

When the growth continued and the needs grew, they started a collaboration with OnlineFactory in the Philippines, which are specialists in outsourcing for Swedish e-retailers in customer service, content,and influencer marketing.

.Over time, this collaboration has deepened and more functions have now been outsourced to OnlineFactory such as purchasing planning, the entire management of social media presence, and the company's B2B sales, which is the fastest-growing part for Rawnice.

"We are fantastically pleased with the collaboration with OnlineFactory - they deliver expert knowledge in E-commerce. I have introduced and been involved in training our staff at OnlineFactory. But pretty immediately I noticed that they do the job better than I have previously done myself. It's nice that both I and Helene can free up time for the creative parts and to increase our focus on sales while we know that we have a partner who delivers quality. ", Jesper concludes.

Rawnice expects sales of around SEK 6 million this year, which is a doubling of sales in 2019. The goal is to double the sales every year and within 5 years reach around SEK 100 million in sales. To make this possible, there are two important things to focus on Increased sales focus and free up more capital to be able to both broaden and deepen their assortment range. A new marketing manager has already been hired from one of Sweden's most successful e-retailers and a US establishment is part of the plan.

The future looks bright - painted to colored Pataya.

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