Ann Phan is an entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia. She has worked in the IT industry for more than ten years in different telecommunications, finance and education companies.
A personal experience with his youngest daughter made Ann Phan think of an online marketplace for organic products. His daughter became ill with severe eczema throughout his body. Doctors recommended Phan apply steroid creams to the skin. However, these creams usually have many adverse effects on babies. This led Phan to look for natural alternatives to control skin problems.
Phan’s interest in organic products began to increase from there. She began to learn more and more about the problems that the use of pesticides and chemicals in daily products can cause in the human body, from meals to personal care. The more he read, he understood better than the most popular products were produced by non-organic methods that caused harm to both health and the environment.
In 2018, Ann Phan founded her first company: Naturely Shop. This startup connects local producers of organic, natural, and environmentally friendly food with local consumers concerned about the origin of their products.
Naturely Shop has a wide range of products, which makes it easier for everyone to buy organic food. Customers do not need to go from one store to another to purchase organic products for their family since Naturely Shop brings it together in one place and a few clicks away.
In the first three months of operations, the company reached $ 10,000 in revenue, and 15 vendors have joined the platform. Currently, the company is in the process of negotiating with more sellers.
Phan began to test his idea among friends and moms at school. All of them showed great interest from the beginning, in addition to sharing experiences of their lives from when they had to go through the ordeal of finding organic products in different stores. These moms do not always have the time to investigate what organic products are in a store or another, so they were excited to learn that someone wanted to develop a platform that put these products in one place.
Phan contacted some healthy brand vendors herself to find out if they were interested. They joined the platform once it was available, and this helped Phan have more confidence in his project.
From a broader perspective, Australia’s organic products market increases year by year. This has meant an increase of 88% compared to 2012. More than six out of ten Australian homes buy organic products every year. There are quite positive signs about the market that allow Phan to justify his idea.
