MANILA, Philippines—Che Bendicion knows clothes well. She used to handle the Girls Teen’s Apparel for SM as a merchandising manager.
“My love for fashion kept on growing. I was given the chance to go abroad and discover a lot of unique stuff which I brought home as design inspirations,” she says.
Her friends liked her taste and kept asking her to buy clothes for them. “That’s where I got the idea of selling clothes, both imported and my own designs.”
At first, Che and her sister Charlotte joined Christmas bazaars. But at the end of each season, they were left with unsold clothes. Both busy with their day jobs, Charlotte thought of trying to sell their fashion finds online.
They started with Ebay. Their attempt was so successful that they ran out of things to sell.
“I started selling my purchases abroad and some of the pieces I made,” Che says.
A year later, they bought their own domain (www.nuiclothing.com) and opened their online store.
Nui Clothing offers a mix of unique pieces from abroad and designs from their own Nui label. The prices are reasonable. Tops start at P250, dresses at P450, beachwear at P350 and swimwear at P1200.
Shoppers who are antsy about using their credit cards for online purchases have a number of payment options—GCash, bank deposits, EON wire transfer. Clothes are delivered via courier and land right at the shopper’s doorstep.
“Since online shopping is relatively new in the Philippines, the buyer is guided step by step, from browsing the products to the check-out process,” says Che.
Che, who quit her job to give the store her full attention, is having fun fulfilling her store’s mantra—to provide online shoppers with “a constant flow of fun and stylish clothing at the right price.”
She says there are a lot of benefits to selling online. “The Internet has given us access to a borderless market. As long as there’s the Internet, the world is your oyster.”
