Last week Grazzhopprz met up with Liselotte Tap, founder of the newly opened webshop Soesa. Soesa is Indonesian and means ‘hassle’, but don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you have to go through any hassle, on the contrary, Soesa selects the nicest, affordable and sustainable, interior products for you and puts them all for sale in the Soesa webshop.
First things first, how did Liselotte come up with the idea for Soesa? The answer is simple: “everything fell into place”. Liselotte explains that she’s always dreamed of having her own business, that she loves travelling and that she’s inspired by all the nice products she comes across during her travels. And last but not least, she’s a communications specialist and the online world is no mystery to her. Oh, and did I mention photography is a family hobby? Put all of the ingredients above in a bowl (why not the one below, for sale at soesa.eu?), stir and let it rest for a bit and out rolls…Soesa!
So where is Soesa now? Well, the webshop opened its doors 1 June 2012 and is now in the take-off phase with orders starting to drop in. But this is just the beginning, Liselotte tells us, a webshop is a great way to start a business, but the final goal is to have a physical shop, in one of the nice shopping streets in Deventer. Offline meets online. Or in this case: online meets offline.
How about the sourcing? That’s an interesting part of Soesa. Starting off, Liselotte buys from Dutch suppliers, as that’s a lower threshold than importing yourself. But the dream is there: direct imports. Because it’s important to be unique. That’s an issue that Liselotte looks at very closely when selecting products for Soesa, as she (probably rightly so) believes what you offer have to be unique in order to succeed in the market.
Soesa has built up a great webshop and has a clear idea on how and where to grow. And as for the unique products: the initiatives featured on Grazzhopprz will surely be a great source for a unique collection, so start browsing Liselotte!
Good luck with Soesa, we will be following you!
