SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / September 28, 2019 / You never leave home without it. If you do forget it, then you nearly panic until you remember where you left it and have it safely back in your pocket. We're talking about wallets. An essential, everyday item that we don't often think about – until you lose it, that is.
Yet many of us don't actively "choose" the wallet we carry.
Frequently, it's a gift from a loved one or a friend. It's a thoughtful present that we often use because we like the person that gifted it, or you feel obligated to use it, or simply because it's available and now you don't have to think about purchasing one yourself.
But how many of us are uncomfortably sitting on bulky, poorly designed wallets?
This is where the entrepreneur Jacob Elggren comes into focus. He saw an opportunity in a niche market and seized it, founding and launching the wildly successful Andar.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Elggren and pick his brain to find out exactly how he created such a successful business, and how he experienced a massive amount of growth in a short period of time.
Humble Beginnings
It all started when Elggren noticed the discomfort and inconvenience of traditional wallets.
"You would think that someone would have designed a smoother, sleeker design by now," said Elggren. "But to this day, you still see people at the store pulling out their fat, bulky wallets." He saw an opportunity to create leather goods, specifically wallets, that are both functional and attractive.
So in 2015, Elggren launched Andar.
The entrepreneur chose the business' name, based on a Spanish verb meaning "to walk, to carry, or to go." Reminiscing a bit, said Elggren, "I was living in Uruguay when I learned the meaning of this word. I loved the sound of it and it always stuck with me."
And it made sense – simply put, the product line would be focused on carrying things. Even better, the company's logo is in the shape of a capital "A" for Andar. Furthermore, it's made to look like there's a walking path running through the center of it.
Andar launched on Amazon in 2015. Elggren had done a great deal of SEO research on Amazon and found that more relevant keywords performed better. "We saw a big opportunity with Amazon and Fulfillment By Amazon," Elggren stated.
"We wouldn't be where we are today without it."
Growth Begins to Take Shape – Lots of It
The ultimate goal for Elggren was to be able to build his own brand and product line, not just sell products for Amazon, so he also opened a Shopify store. "Amazon was an awesome launchpad, but they only provide so much data," he said.
In 2015, the net sales from Amazon reached $30,000, while the Shopify store – launched in October of 2015 – brought in a mere $531. By 2016, he saw about $14,000 from Shopify alone, and about $350,000 from both Amazon and Shopify.
The Shopify store continued to grow and by 2017, Andar was netting around $508,000 just through Shopify. The majority of sales had switched away from Amazon and over to the website.
Marketing Efforts
At this point Elggren was ready to focus more on marketing. For this reason, in 2018, he explored different marketing avenues. He started by turning on social media ads.
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube ads were the company's main venues for advertising. They did try Snapchat but found that it was a resource not suited to their business. "In the end it didn't work out for us, but when you're hungry for growth, you have to willing to try just about anything – even if things don't work out in the end," he shared.
Nowadays, Andar has a marketing agency managing the build of their advertising, but they still produce all content and videos in-house.
The biggest game-changer has been influencer marketing. A term that we've all heard thrown around a lot in the e-commerce world over the last few years, influencer marketing may be low in cost, yet have a higher return on investment than other, more traditional marketing strategies.
In fact, according to Influencer Marketing Hub, you can reach approximately 200,000 people with a $5,000 marketing budget through influencer marketing – impressive numbers, to say the least.
Influencer marketing really only works for those companies that have a real, authentic, quality product, which Andar delivers. Andar asks that their 40,000-plus followers tag their photos with #CarryAndar. And it works – to date, Andar is tagged regularly.
They have also been able to increase reach to the female population through their chosen marketing methods. Initially, their customers were only 20 percent female and 80 percent male, now they have seen an increase in traffic from female customers up to 35 percent.
What's Next for Andar?
This year Andar's sales are up 60 percent from this time last year. The goal for 2019 is to net $3 million, and they are on track to meet those goals. Of course, the creation of an excellent product helps. The carry products are high-quality in nature and minimalist in their approach – qualities that they take pride in.
For a company that started with just one product, Andar has branched out and expanded their inventory quickly. They now offer cell phone and laptop cases, money clips, watch bands, lanyards, earbud caddies, among other items.
"I'm excited to see where all of this goes," concluded Elggren. "I'm committed to providing the best personal-item transportation products on the market. Andar will continue to reach new heights as a business – you can count on that."
Contact Name: Jacob Elggren
Company: Andar Wallets
Contact: Hello@Andarwallets.com
SOURCE: Andar Wallets
ReleaseID: 561389
