Online Shop Brings ‘Hope’ To Eco-Friendly Soapmakers

Did you know that everything you put on your skin is absorbed into your body? That means the shampoo you use, the ink from the pen you used to jot a note on your hand, and your skincare products all find their way into your body. For some that might not be a problem, for others there are all natural alternatives.

Soap Hope brings together the makers of all natural and eco-friendly soap and body wash into one online shop. From Zum Soap to Hugo, they offer a wide variety of soaps that are likely to please everyone’s skin.

Tell us a little about Soap Hope.

Based in Dallas, TX, Soap Hope is a leading online retailer of all-natural, high-quality and affordable body care products. In addition to serving customers, Soap Hope uses its business as a platform to provide leadership and resources for green living, environmentally sustainable business practices, and social responsibility through women’s economic empowerment worldwide.

The mission of Soap Hope is to be the most trustworthy and reliable source for body care products for health-conscious people; to carry only products that are 100% all natural and of exceptionally high quality; to be the best value anywhere for the products we carry; to use business practices that create as little impact on the environment as possible; to provide our customers with the kind of service that creates lifelong customer relationships; and to give back to our world community.

What is good for the environment can also be good for business and customers. Soap Hope uses reclaimed (not recycled) packaging materials to create our now-famous “Ugly Box.” We re-use clean scrap cardboard from local retailers to create our own boxes, which has an even lower resource footprint than recycling. This practice also enables us to offer the lowest shipping costs in our industry, saving money for our customers and keeping operating costs low for our business.

Many of our suppliers and customers are women, so when we founded Soap Hope we decided to utilize our company’s resources to help women entrepreneurs locally, nationally, and internationally with a microloan program. Each year, we invest 100% of the profits of our company for a period of one year into funds that provide microloans, and only then do we distribute profits to our shareholders.

Our store is on the web at www.SoapHope.com. We carry both national and local specialty brands. Our current most popular products are made by Indigo Wild (known for its Zum Soap brand), A Wild Soap Bar, Hugo Naturals, Fraiche and Pangea Organics. Our products include bar soap, liquid soap, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. We select the highest quality products. We look for products that look, smell and feel great, that nourish skin and hair, and that give our customers a luxury bath experience while remaining affordable and accessible.

We also serve as an educational resource for customers and community. Our blog, The Soap Hope Learning Center, contains articles to help consumers learn about all-natural body care products, health benefits of specific natural elements, and how companies can be good citizens that conserve resources and help people in need. We are also speaking at nonprofit conferences, groups focused on women’s issues, and microfinance forums. Our leadership team also publishes articles talking about the way we use our business for good causes, in the hopes of encouraging other businesses to join us.

What was the inspiration for the business?

We previously started, built, and sold a successful startup. It was a technology business and its focus was on customers, employees, and growth — but it really didn’t have much awareness of the greater community. We decided that all our future business endeavors should give back to our local and global communities. What better way to start than by working with companies that create natural, handcrafted products, and to use our business as a platform for helping others in need. That’s how Soap Hope was born. We continually check to make sure our business, our values, and our actions meet the original inspiration behind our name.

How do you find the soap you sell?

We carefully select every brand and product we provide to our customers. We do detailed research on every product line that we carry to make sure it meets our stringent criteria: truly all-natural, high quality, cruelty-free, from a dependable and trustworthy maker. We look for companies that have a proven track record in at least their local market, and who a will benefit from our online distribution. Many soap manufacturers approach us at Soap Hope to sell their products. Our customers count on us to do the research on companies for them. They know that anything they buy from Soap Hope will be high quality from a maker they can trust, and that they will be getting a great price.

How might a soapmaker get their own soap products listed in your shop?

We love to meet new makers of all-natural body care products. We have an application process that new makers go through that allows us to test their products and, if selected, to publish all the important information about their products on our site. The manufacturers we represent get a big boost when we start carrying their products, because we send information to all our customers and we give new makers the opportunity to comarket their products at women’s events and nonprofit venues. Any maker who would like to learn about our boarding process can contact us at at: (888) 893-SOAP or e-mail at [email protected].

What are your requirements?

We partner with manufacturers, large and small, who share our passion for all-natural and high-quality goods. We evaluate their products based on ingredients, quality, consistency, marketability and value.

We won’t carry products that include artificial colors scents, or preservatives; synthetic chemicals; products tested on animals; or products that have excessively wasteful non-biodegradable packaging.

Because adding a brand to our product line is a substantial investment of time and energy on our part, we look for manufacturers who want to participate with us in our marketing of their products by providing samples for our customers and giveaway items for charity events and summits where we speak. We love to brag about our featured makers everywhere we go!

What has the consumer reaction been like?

Our customer response has been overwhelmingly positive. Soap Hope was launched in December 2008, and we have experienced double-digit growth every month.

Our customers frequently tell us that they prefer to buy products from a company that is environmentally and socially responsible. They choose to do business with Soap Hope because we go beyond just selling all-natural products. Of course they appreciate our low-cost and expedited shipping process (we ship orders within one business day), but also I can’t tell you how many e-mails and letters we have received thanking us for our Ugly Box and our microloan program. Exceptional products, reasonable prices, great customer service and giving back to the community; it’s the whole package and that’s why customers keep coming back and what attracts new customers.

What has Soap Hope taught you?

Soap Hope has proven to us that it is possible to be both financially successful while being socially and environmentally responsible. These characteristics are not mutually exclusive, but rather they enhance one other to benefit the company, the customers and the community.

We’ve learned that customers really care about healthy living and environmental sustainability and want to interact with businesses that share those values. Consumers are using the Internet to more easily find, research, and purchase from companies like ours. As a web-based retailer, the Internet lets customers connect with us anywhere, anytime.

Would you mind telling us a little about your microloan program?

We announced in April of this year that Soap Hope will invest 100 percent of its annual profits each year, for a period of one year, in funds that provide critical lending and education for women entrepreneurs in poverty all around the globe. Soap Hope’s suppliers and customers are about 80 percent female, so we decided to use our resources to help women entrepreneurs around the world. Even a small oan can provide a family or even an entire community with life-long sustainability. For us, it’s about giving back to our world community and being socially responsible.

Soap Hope is not a charity or a nonprofit organization. Our microloan program isn’t a donation – it’s an investment. We earn a small (one to two percent) return on the funds we invest for one year. But the program creates huge opportunities for both our business and for microloan recipients. Our goal is to create even greater leverage for the funds we invest in by educating our customers and business partners about these funds, in the hopes that they will also invest in them.

How might someone go about applying for a microloan?

We invest in professionally managed microloan funds. By working with existing microfinance institutions, we can support and strengthen well-established organizations rather than reinventing the wheel. Individuals and small businesses can learn about microfinance by visiting our website and through other online research.

We believe micro lending is most successful when the lending institution also provides a component of education and empowerment beyond lending money; the recipients need practical business and trade education pertinent to their industries and countries. The funds we choose incorporate these elements into their lending programs.

At home, we are working to raise the awareness of customers, suppliers and the general public about the benefits and processes of micro lending. In our efforts to educate, we provide materials and information through our online blog, in inclusions in the packages we send to customers, , and to individuals and corporations who might also be interested in micro lending.

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