E-commerce Training Prompts Masi Maker to Do More Online
Anaseini Lewavai hopes to expand her small business by marketing it on various E-commerce platforms.
This will be after she completes a three- day Business Assistance Fiji Women Entrepreneurs Training in Lautoka.
Ms Lewavai is the founder of Lewavai Cultural Collections.
The training in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI) based in Vanuatu began Monday and ends today.
“I started my business after I lost my job when the airport closed in March so I started selling masi,”she said.
“Since I’m from Vatulele in I started bartering and that’s how my business rolled and I use the E-commerce as marketing my business and my main market stream was e-commerce marketing through Facebook.”
International growth
She has managed to get customers from New Zealand, Australia, United States of America and the United Kingdom.
“I now have nine staff who are printing at home. The challenge I face is getting my raw materials from the island and depends on the weather,” she said.
“With the amount of orders that I receive sometimes the materials doesn’t reach me on time so there’s a delay.”
She said being part of training broadened her knowledge on Ecommerce and its benefits.
“I’ve learned that it’s not only Facebook, I can use other means of social media t to grow my business to advertise my product and that’s what we learned in day two and I hope at the end of the day, I will be able to open a website for my business to have a online shop because it’s just Facebook,” Ms Lewavai said.
“I’ve reaped the benefits of diversifying my business.
“I sell masi, mats, vau fans, I supply to the women in the market, for the salusalu the fans, the magimagi and we have launched our new product which is the masi wedding dress Tabuadrau and they’re quite expensive.
“With my earnings I managed to buy a vehicle, from carpenters, send my daughter to study in the Philippines and do my son’s wedding.”
Business Assistance Fiji Business Service manager Deepak Prasad said a subsidy would be provided to assist participants in setting up their websites.
“For Lautoka these are women based here but in Suva two training stations, one we organized in SPD building and one in YWCA building where there are about 18 and 20 participants,” he said.
“Businesses in Fiji will go up to the remote areas to assist businesses in the rural areas. To help get their financially prepared in terms of if they are looking for getting these small loans from the bank and they don’t have their profit and loss statement a balance sheet and they do not have a tax compliant certificate so they will