The trend toward and eco-friendly lifestyle is always growing. People are beginning to care a little more about what is in their food, the ingredients in their moisturizer, and just how earth-friendly the products they buy really are. Individual sellers are popping up everywhere to help fill those needs, and Ecobold is giving them a place to sell those products.
Ecobold is a lot like a store. Although they do not sell any products of their own making, they help connect a variety of eco, natural, and organic sellers with people who are looking for those types of products. They also cut out the costs of a physical store by selling solely online. Anyone can surf in and find the products they need, and they help introduce customers to new products by featuring a daily discount.
Steffany Boldrini, the ‘green’ mind behind Ecobold, recently answered a few questions about her business and how sellers can list their own products.
Tell us a little about Ecobold.
Ecobold is a Silicon Valley-based online marketplace that makes it as easy as possible to buy and sell organic, natural and non-toxic products. To lower the barrier of finding such products, Ecobold hand selects items that keep you, your family, and the earth healthy, and features one recommended product per day with an informative video review and a steep 24-hour discount. In addition, Ecobold makes it easier to sell such products by offering merchants the best terms of any similar marketplace.
What inspired it?
I moved from Brazil 10 yrs ago where I was raised on a small ranch. From the beginning my mom made sure that the family ate healthy meals and cared for the environment. Even as a young child recycling was just a normal way of life for us. We recycled paper by throwing it on areas where the rain had caused erosion, and we had hike days to pick up remains of trash that ended up in what we called our “little forestâ€. I’ve been passionate about educating consumers about the several chemicals that are in our products that can not only harm our health but our environment as well.
Tell us a little about some of the products you have featured to date.
One of the best sellers are the wool dryer balls which are 100% natural dryer balls that will not only save energy by drying clothes around 25% faster, but also won’t release any harmful ingredients, and will save consumers dozens of dollars from buying drying sheets that end up in landfills. Ours is about 2 years old and has been abused by several loads of laundry and still looks new! Another favorite are the organic health bars which only have organic ingredients, the bars are 55-74% raw, and they actually taste good.
How does someone go about selling their eco-friendly products on your website?
Very simple, sign up here and click “Add Product” we’ll make sure they meet our standards and you’ll see it live in a few hrs.
Approximately how long do the items stay listed?
The product/video of the day stays on the front page for 24 hrs along with its 24 hr steep sale price, but it remains available for sale on the site for as long as the seller wishes.
Do you have any plans to create and list some of your own eco-solutions?
No, we don’t want to compete with our sellers, we want them to be the stars and grow their business!
Do you have any goals that you’d like to accomplish over the next year or so?
Many! One of them is to bring awareness to 1% of the population towards the many nasty chemicals/ingredients that are inside their homes and give them affordable alternatives. I like to think of us as the bridge for the middle class to safe products, if that makes any sense.
What are some lessons your business has taught you?
That it’s hard to find great team members, that most of success is trying hard (very hard) and not giving up, and that you will have several ups and downs in your journey to “overnight success”.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I’m very blessed to have the opportunity to be doing this right here and right now.
Do you have any advice that you’d like to give fellow eco-entrepreneurs that are just getting started?
Find a niche and do market research before starting anything, find out if people will want or use what you’re thinking of offering. Just a simple survey of 50 people can save you a couple of years and your savings account, and don’t worry, nobody will steal your idea 😉
