Issara: discover personalisable, ethically handcrafted leather goods

By Rosh Govidaraj on May 14, 2015 16 Comments / 4311 views

Hi fellow Rodinhooders!

Having followed your insightful discussions over the past few months, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Issara. We work with artisans to produce ethically handcrafted leather goods and just launched last week.

I am a former management consultant who started Issara after experiencing the frustration of searching for a beautiful, functional leather bag that didn’t break the bank. Seeing the incredible skill of these artisans (despite the decreasing respect their craft receives over time) helped nudge my idea into the realm of a social business. We work with 46 artisans across Indonesia and India who are paid 3x minimum wage, receive health insurance and are enrolled in an interest-yielding savings plan. We are also working towards B corp certification.

Our focus is on crafting minimalist, highly functional pieces from premium materials (i.e. leather from the same tanneries supplying luxury Italian brands). Logos are kept discreet to allow the quality and workmanship to speak for themselves, and the range is optimised for travel and work.

After 11 months of living in villages without hot water, bottoms burnt on hot motorcycle seats, food poisoning, dealing with rampant sexism, ageism, and even blackmail, we are now live. During launch month we are offering 10% off and complimentary monogramming to say thank you to early backers. I would love to hear your thoughts on a few things:

Website: I’m not a technical person nor an e-commerce expert and would love the input of you more tech-savvy people on the UX on the site. What would you change about it?

Press: As a bootstrapped social business, broad exposure will be crucial to our success and social impact. We have just been featured on The Fashion Journal, Tech in Asia, TechPulse, Carryology & AskMen. Would you know of other publications or blogs which may be interested in covering us?

Product: What do you think of the current range and how would you like to see it expand? Thoughts on copy and pricing would be great too.

Thank you so much for your time. I really look forward to hearing your thoughts and answering any questions you may have 🙂

Sincerely,

Rosh

Comments

Rosh Govidaraj

16 Comments

asha chaudhry May 22, 2015, 6:53 am

hey rosh,

congrats on the launch! what does issara mean?

so you’re based in melbourne. is your workshop/factory in india?
Rosh Govidaraj May 22, 2015, 6:57 am

Hi Asha,

Thanks so much! It’s been a hell of a journey. I’m based in Melbourne (for now, moving again soon) and the workshops are in Central Java and Eastern India. Issara is a Thai word meaning “Freedom” 🙂
Rishi May 26, 2015, 4:30 am

Hi Rosh: Congrats on the launch.

I remember there was a team from Pakistan here who is into same business (but I think they focus on shoes). Asha can help connect you guys and they might be able to share better insights than others.

Few thoughts:

1. You mentioned you were a management consultant. Have you tried selling to your colleagues? What was their feedback? That might be a good validation.

2. On pricing — I guess it’s cheaper than most name brands, but I noticed some of the items are comparable in price to TUMI etc. How do you convince buyers to pick yours over TUMI etc.? The reality is most people are still happy with things they can buy from Amazon or even stores like BCF/Ross/Marshalls etc. in US. I haven’t lived/been to Aus so can’t say much about the market there. Have you checked how your prices compare to brands like Hidesign in India? If you’re looking at India that might be a good exercise.

3. I think the product collection is fine now, in fact I personally find some of the items like luggage tags an overkill, but I could be wrong.

4. On UI for website. The first image I see is a collection of tiny images. I’d rather see the hi-res image (#4 the guy in a suit with a bag), or #5 first. That picture gives me a better look at the product and also a sense of the quality. I’d try to get rid of the jittery scroll on the homepage and try something like parallax/infinite scrolling which is much smoother. Look at the websites of Zara etc. and you’ll get more ideas.

5. Tried crowdfunding campaigns yet?

6. You are selling online I guess and shipping to many countries. Have you looked at what it costs for shipping etc. Is that already included in price?

7. Tried reaching out to corporates to partner on corporate gifting etc.?
asha chaudhry May 26, 2015, 8:27 am

hey thanks for reminding me rishi…!!

rosh – pls check out markhor – https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/markhor-we-are-rocking-on-kickstarter

waqas is based in pakistan and has done wonders! email me if you’d like to connect with him!!
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal May 31, 2015, 1:32 pm

Can you provided a matrix of your positioning?

Who do you appeal to? Why?

What do they buy currently?

For instance – I am tech entrepreneur and have always wanted a Tumi, but NOT that Black terrible classic that looks like its meant for a funeral parlor.

I waited and waited and finally got what I was looking for!

Who are your buyers? Age, Sex, Location and some Psychographics?
Rosh Govidaraj June 1, 2015, 5:35 am

Thanks Asha, would love to get connected. I’ve actually emailed him once about a month ago but no response…Guess he was busy with his wedding 🙂
Rosh Govidaraj June 1, 2015, 5:42 am

Rishi,

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback (and apologies for my delayed response – I am travelling in areas with limited internet access).

1. Yes and feedback has been great. Thoughts on pricing depends on seniority of staff member (as expected I suppose!)

2. Tumi appeals to a different customer – they’re known for their hard cases over their leather bags. The differentiating factors here are (1) leather quality and (2) ethical production.

3. Thanks for your comment.

4. Bit technical for me – will need to get my web guy onto this / do some research.

5. No crowdfunding as yet.

6. Shipping is expensive! It’s partly included in the price, partly borne by us and a small portion is offset by the $10 flat rate shipping fee.

7. Yes 🙂 Have just started doing this. Thanks again Rishi!!
Rishi June 1, 2015, 7:37 am

No problem. It’s great that you have so much traction already so I guess it might then help to have testimonial(s) from partners/MDs (Big4, right?) somewhere on your website?

Also, Big4 firms do lot of internal communications on what alumni are up to. May be, you should try to get featured in their monthly publications (if you haven’t already :)). There are also lot of independent, online Big4 communities; not sure if they do such stories but worth checking out.

A video, IMO, would be nice. Since you’re already traveling you could capture moments when you interact with artisans and then share your journey, their stories etc. while you’re at it. Often it’s the purpose, the journey behind a business that moves people from a “may be” to a “buy”. I’m sure you’ve thought about it, but I feel it might be worth doing before you seek more press. There’s YourStory in India that does special stories on social and female entrepreneurs if you’re looking for more in India.

Good luck! 🙂
Rosh Govidaraj June 1, 2015, 12:53 pm

Hi Alok,

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment!

Target customer segment: Professionals and keen travellers (25-35y.o.) who are discerning consumers seeking quality over brand names and practice ethical consumerism. Range is largely unisex but 80% of customers have been men (which confirmed our hypothesis that men are more likely than women to adopt new brands –> ladies, I’d love to hear your views on this!). So far buyers have had an average age of 30 years, and have been men in the IT/consulting industries.

Our average customer is tech savvy, will pay a premium for convenience, values quality (not mass produced trends), seeks experiences over possessions, and cares about more than the price differential (i.e. not a thrift shopper but won’t splash cash just because of a brand name). He seeks services / products that simplifies his lifestyle by removing clutter, and embraces the “sharing economy” mindset. They spend their money on: fitbit, uber, gym membership, technology, bespoke clothing, experiences that lead to personal development, warby parker glasses.

What was it that you found in lieu of Tumi?
Rosh Govidaraj June 1, 2015, 1:09 pm

Video – is on the agenda in the next few months to show the crafting process and share some artisan stories.

Yep – was at PwC and KPMG previously. Am speaking to their corporate responsibility and merchandise teams now 🙂

There is a testimonial page on the site. Would you present it differently?

Will look into those publications – thanks for the heads up!

Traction wise – I don’t have much to compare it to – those who have purchased have been really happy with the product but getting the word out beyond my friends/acquaintances will prove difficult. Generating web traffic is something that I am still learning about – would love some of you more experienced e-commerce people to offer some suggestions!

Thanks again for your time and suggestions Rishi 🙂 Means so much!
Rishi June 1, 2015, 5:57 pm

The current testimonials are hidden somewhere and not visible + sound like reviews that people were forced to write. Plus there is no authenticity attached to it. It lacks some life (not sure if I have a better way to put it). Sorry, just being honest. 🙂 Here’s one idea on how could might reorganize; you could link the review here to an actual tweet or person’s bio on linkedin etc.

Looking at your response to Alok’s question, I have a feeling you’re after a very specific target segment. One way to achieve that would be to actually show such people on your site so that visitors relate to them. May be you should sell a lifestyle and a purpose, instead of leather products? (not literally but you know what I mean…like Starbucks sells an experience not coffee)

Here’s one idea on how I would redo it if it were me. Of course, it’s your product so feel free to ignore it. Have more suggestions but unfortunately I can’t put everything in visuals owing to time constraints. Feel free to ping me when you decide to reorganize your website and will be happy to share any ideas.
Rosh Govidaraj June 3, 2015, 2:41 pm

I’ve just linked the reviewers’ social media page to the reviews page. I wonder if their photos would be overkill – test and see I guess! Thank you for taking the time to mockup your idea!!
Rishi June 3, 2015, 5:13 pm

np!
Mallika Sharma July 16, 2015, 7:36 am

Hello! Have sent you an email on yo
Rosh Govidaraj July 19, 2015, 2:22 pm

Hi Sanjeev,

Apologies for the delayed response – I’ve just moved to London and have just been settling in 🙂

In response to your questions:

1. We find our customers via forums and blogs // they find us through press mentions, online searches and the odd pop up shop we run 🙂

2. We have reviews from industry experts on the site and it links through to their social media profile. Extensive information on the production process, the leather used, our philosophy and contact points also serve to bolster the trust factor. Can you suggest further points? Thanks for commenting!
Rosh Govidaraj July 19, 2015, 2:22 pm

Hi Mallika,

I have not received an email from you. Please resend to rosh@issara.co

Thanks for reaching out!