Online shopping is growing worldwide. Even with the recent b lack Friday weekend, we see that an activity many people were reticent about only a few years ago is now the way a lot of the world currently does their shopping.

Various US statistics suggest that between 50 to 70 per cent of shopping amongst certain groups (eg millenials), is done online. However, according to William Massias CEO and founder of Brawta Living, in Jamaica only two per cent of people utilise the web for shopping.

And Massias hopes to fix that…How? By giving Jamaicans a little Brawta.

THE BIRTH OF BRAWTA

Seven years ago, William Massias, a successful banker and majority shareholder of Capital Solutions, decided to transition out of the comfort of what he had known for the last 25 years, but after a while started to get restless and a little bored. Massias was out to find his next venture.

“So I prayed about it,” he states matter of factly.

One day about two years ago an email marked “deals” popped up in his email box. And that was enough to spark an idea that would later evolve into the e-commerce platform, Brawta Living, that we see today.

But what exactly is the Brawta Living concept?

“Brawta Living is an e-commerce website that facilitates goods and services for customers to try promotional items from our merchant. We offer discounts on a variety of lifestyle services, predominantly restaurants, hotels, spas and adventure experiences.”

In essence, it bridges the gap between customers and merchants.

“Our mission is to help our merchants grow their customer base while we help the consumer receive the best deals from their favorite businesses.” Massias explained.

They offer a promotion for a limited time — only seven days. “One key is, it’s a limited time to purchase, and the other that the cap (or number of offers available) is limited on the deal.”

However, unlike other similar e-commerce sites the client is not privy to cap, they instead can only see the termination date, number of deals bought, and time left to purchase.

“We leave it to you to act quickly,” says Massias.

“So what we try to get into people, is act now, buy now. It’s a deal. If it’s something that you want, buy now! ”

Women are also the main market of the company, Anything that women like. “Seventy per cent of our market are women, they tend to be the purchasers.”

Another aspect that makes Brawta different is that the majority of their discounts are at least 50 per cent off. “We found that it is simply easier for a customer to immediately calculate 50 per cent off and see that what we’re offering is a great deal. When you do a 50 per cent off it impacts people because it’s a big discount. It’s a win-win for both people.” Massias explained.

For merchants, they may be great during dinner, but have a poor turnout for lunch. They then focus on lunch and create a deal around lunch, let people come and try the product at half off.

“We are bringing these people into your store or hotel at the time when you have the lowest occupancy, and it’s great. We win, because we get to see our customers happy, and we get to see our merchants happy. Can you imagine that? What a job I have!” he said.

To date the company has saved Jamaicans a whopping $40,000,000, through the sale of more than 8,000 coupons. They also boast a significant web presence with over 100,000 website visitors per month, and some 57,000 fans on Facebook and 10,000 on Instagram.

They have also done promotions for brands such as Chukka Cove, Dolphin Cove, Adam & Eve Spa, Majestic Sushi, Tea Tree Creperie and Express Fitness Gym.

It’s clear to Massias, “Jamaicans have benefited significantly from what we’ve saved them.”

Customers can also rest easy, as Brawta also offers a complete, seven-day refund policy.

“So if you purchase, we give you seven days in which to get a refund with no questions asked — the only exception being for ticketed events”.

“At the end of the day, what you are buying is an experience, and we want you to be happy.”

Massias credits these policies as the reason for their impeccable customer service.

“That’s why we have such a great customer service, because we stand behind our offers and merchant partnerships. Elena who handles our customer service, she is excellent!”

The company however, is sometimes a victim of its own success, as people at times think the offers are just too good to be true.

“Yes, people have hesitated in purchasing because they felt the deals seemed too good to be true. But we have found a way to tackle that. We encourage them to check our Facebook page and hundreds of customer-shared reviews. We currently have a rating of 4.7 out of five stars and over 56,000 likes. After seeing this potential, customers are generally convinced.”

BEST WEEK EVER

The company, which just turned two, celebrated by hosting its official launch at Eden Gardens yesterday evening. A timely event, as this is only two weeks after another milestone — accomplishing their largest sales week yet.

With such new milestones, the horizons seem open for Brawta. However, though the company continues to grow, there are no immediate plans to expand outside of Jamaica just yet.

“We’re going to build as much as we can build in Jamaica. Obviously our plans will eventually be to expand in the region, because we believe it will be the right thing to scale our business. But we want to focus on Jamaica first, and get the foundation strong here, before we start branching off anywhere else… Because you need to make sure that you have adequate funding and capital. You have to be focused.”

Brawta currently employs 14 staff members, including five in the business development team and two mangers — Kevin Burke, responsible for business development, and Mathew Khoury who heads up the digital space.

“Our staff are awesome! They are definitely one of our greatest accomplishments, as good human resources is so hard to find,” shares Massias.

“Every one of my team members I empower them and there is not one who doesn’t enjoy coming to work,” he says with pride.

He is also grateful to his merchants and customers for their role in sustaining Brawta Living for two years. “Our merchants are our life- blood. We are thankful that they trusted us with their brand to promote it. Also our customers. Without our customers you don’t have a business, and we are so happy to make other people happy through the deals and offers that we bring to them.”

WHY WAIT TO LAUNCH?

Its been over two years since the company has been up and running and one is tempted to wonder, why wait so long to officially launch?

Massias makes it clear that this was intentional. “I wanted to make sure that we were ready, that when we start putting ourselves out there we’re ready. We mustn’t have failure at that time. The media can either help you or hurt you. It’s great to have a launch but when you do these things, you need to make sure you have something to speak about. It’s good to humble yourself until you have something to show. You only get one time to make a first impression.

“We’ve learnt so much in two years. Now we’re in a great position, we have a great team, a secure website that’s very robust. Now we know we are ready.”