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  • Augmented reality runways, automated queuing systems, online availability checks

  • They're just some of the ways Rachel Lim is using technology to reinvent retail.

  • It's the omnichannel approach that's helped take this Singaporean entrepreneur's female

  • fashion line from a $300 side hustle in 2005 to a multimillion-dollar

  • international fashion empire.

  • In this day and age, where we both can get anything that we want online,

  • any time of the day, you really have to give people a good enough reason

  • to come all the way down to your store.

  • And it's a good job toobecause she bet the house on it.

  • I was bonded to the government, so I had to pay off the bond

  • to stop school to start the business.

  • The bond amounted to a five-figure sum, which I obviously didn't have the money,

  • so I had no choice but to go to my mom and ask for a loan.

  • 32-year-old Rachel Lim is the co-founder and CEO of Love, Bonito, a tech-first women's

  • fashion brand that's restyling the runway for shopaholics.

  • The customized clothing line today can be accessed from Hong Kong

  • and Australia to the UAE and United States.

  • But that vision was a long way off, when Rachel's entrepreneurship

  • story began some 15 years ago.

  • At the time, she was starting a second-hand blogshop

  • with her school friends Viola and Velda Tan.

  • My friends and I were still in school and we were just thinking

  • of ways to earn extra pocket money.

  • We thought, “Okay, why don't we sell online our preloved clothes?”

  • Clothes that we would wear once, or twice, or wouldn't wear it anymore.

  • And 14 years ago was before the days of Instagram, iPhone, there was nothing of that sort.

  • People would send money via snail mail, or they would do an ATM transfer

  • and scan the receipts over to us.

  • The fashion business, for Rachel, wasn't just funit was fundamental.

  • Growing up, her family was hit hard by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

  • Her parents had to give up the family home

  • and take on second jobs to keep them afloat.

  • So when she and her friends wanted to scale their business, she knew they had to work

  • hardpooling their $300 savings to go all in.

  • We ran out of clothes to sell, but people kept coming back for more.

  • So we decided, you know what, why don't we use the money that we had saved

  • to go overseas to import clothes to sell.

  • Soon their fashion site, BonitoChico, began to take off.

  • But for Rachel, something didn't quite sit right.

  • A lot of international brands, they cater to European, American women that have very

  • different body proportions, skin tone, preferences and even climate.

  • So when we would import clothes to sell, there was always something that I wanted to change.

  • The trio were planning to create a fashion site specifically tailored to Asian women,

  • with smaller sizes and kinder cuts.

  • So they gave their business a fresh look, changing the name to Love, Bonito,

  • evoking a love letter to their customersand creating in-house designs

  • to suit petite proportions.

  • Despite having no business or fashion background, the friends knew they were onto something.

  • People from, for example, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong would hear about us because they

  • chanced upon the blog or the website.

  • So that was when we realized that, hey, you can reach a lot of different people

  • from all over the world with just a click.

  • Southeast Asia's online retail market has seen exponential growth over the years.

  • From 2015 to 2019, e-commerce revenues in Southeast Asia

  • grew by nearly 600% to $38 billion.

  • And the sector is predicted to grow another 300% to $153 billion by 2025.

  • Singapore, home of Love, Bonito's headquarters, also boasts high per capita incomes, meaning

  • the average e-commerce purchase there is three to four times higher

  • than the rest of Southeast Asia.

  • Sensing the opportunity, Rachel decided to commit.

  • In 2009, with just eight months of her teaching degree remaining, she quit university to take

  • the lead on the business full-time.

  • I was juggling school and work, and I wasn't excelling in both,

  • and I realized that I had to focus on one.

  • I knew that we had to strike when the iron is hot.

  • There was a lot of demand and the momentum was building up.

  • It was a costly decision.

  • The then-21-year-old had to borrow her mum's five-figure life savings to pay off her college bond.

  • However, she said it was the motivation she needed to ensure her business was a success.

  • That was the year that my dad was going through bankruptcy.

  • She was already working two jobs to support the family.

  • And when I went to her she was really worried because online selling had barely just begun.

  • You know, she was really worried that this wasn't legal, or that the government would

  • come after us and things like that.

  • And at the end, she decided to take a leap of faith.

  • Her mother's loan amounted to her entire life savings.

  • It was really, really tough, I think, for me as well, right.

  • And I guess that's one of the reasons why I knew I could not fail.

  • I could not let her down.

  • In the years that followed, Rachel and her co-founders doubled down on that dream to

  • create affordable, accessible fashion for an Asian market.

  • That included recruiting a team of designers to execute the full creative process,

  • from research and fabric selection to development and final production.

  • As well as expanding into physical stores.

  • In 2013, Velda stepped back from Love, Bonito.

  • Meanwhile, Viola has transitioned to become a member of its board.

  • Rachel is now the face of the brand and one of Southeast Asia's rising women entrepreneurs.

  • Gail Wong, a coach and investor for female founders, tells me that's ever-more important

  • if women are to follow in her path.

  • It's so important to celebrate female successes.

  • Firstly, they are already in the minority of all successes.

  • But also female successes can look all sorts of different ways.

  • So, in the case of Rachel, she started it really young, she didn't have that Ivy League

  • education that certain types of people look for,

  • and she had this obligation to make it work.

  • And it's a really interesting trait that I've

  • seen in some female founders.

  • There's something bigger than their own ambition.

  • Interesting

  • In 2019, Singapore ranked as the eighth best place globally to be a woman entrepreneur,

  • behind the likes of the U.S., New Zealand, Canada and Israel.

  • However, Southeast Asian nations in general continue to lag behind due to limited access

  • to support networks and funding.

  • In Singapore and in Southeast Asia we are seeing support, resources, organizations with

  • targeted focus coming up to support female founders.

  • So I'm already seeing groups in Myanmar, in Vietnam, that are opening out.

  • So what does that look like?

  • I think that you could characterize it in three buckets.

  • One is resources and learning.

  • The second is a bit more of a community approach, and the idea that you're not alone.

  • And then the third is financial, and that could do with a lot more support.

  • Rachel says her business has been cash positive from early on,

  • which allowed her to pay her mom back in full.

  • To date, Love, Bonito has raised over $10 million from external investors,

  • including Japanese online retailer Kakaku.com.

  • Incrementally, I paid her back whenever I had any money at all.

  • Priority for me was that she wouldn't need to work three jobs

  • or work so hard and such long hours and days.

  • Now, Rachel's focus is on expanding Love, Bonito's tech capabilities across its international

  • e-commerce business and its network of 16 physical retail stores across Southeast Asia.

  • But the young CEO says she also wants to focus on growing the retailer's community services,

  • such as styling and wellness workshops, to help other women

  • realize their professional and personal goals, too.

  • I think the goal at the end of the day for us is to reach out to as many women as possible

  • and specifically the modern Asian women.

  • Through the clothing that we create, through also then the workshops that we host for women

  • in helping them understand the different body types, body shapes, and how to dress up and

  • show up for themselves.

  • That's something that is really, really, very close to our hearts.

  • It's really true because I grew up not the top in the class.

  • I don't come from a rich family.

  • And if I can have a chance to be able to pursue my dreams and make a difference

  • and make an impact in this world, anyone can.

Augmented reality runways, automated queuing systems, online availability checks

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B1 中級

她借了媽媽的積蓄,建立了一個價值數百萬美元的時尚帝國|Make It International(國際製造)。 (She borrowed her mom’s savings to build a multimillion-dollar fashion empire | Make It International)

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    Summer 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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