SugarTrends – Local Shopping Goes Global
by Katja Feldmeier
Remember that small boutique store near Camden Market that you discovered on your trip to London? Maybe you wish you could take the next plane to Copenhagen, just to get another box of those sweet and chewy fleur de sel caramels from an artisanal sweets shop in a side alley. What if we told you that soon those things will be easier than ever? Tim Lagerpusch and Christian Schwarzkopf, the founders of the startup SugarTrends, set out on a mission to create an online platform for small local shops and boutiques from all over the world, giving them greater exposure to customers and building up their online shops. The aim is to create the world’s largest local shopping network.
In our Q&A Tim answers some of our questions about SugarTrends, the future of online retail and currently trending products.
Tim, how did you and Christian come up with the idea to start SugarTrends?
Whenever Christian and I traveled to other cities, we loved to go through the small streets, neighborhoods and to discover special shops. This is much more intrigueing than always looking at the same chain stores, you would find on every high street. We noticed that for these local and independent shops it is quite hard to be clearly visible and to compete with the big chains and online retailers. We decided to focus on these small stores, the sugar pearls of local shops, that are unique, extraordinary and at the same time reflective of local trends. We offer these shops a modern online store, where they can showcase their best products. Currently, we have 190 stores in 23 different countries in our network. Surfing through SugarTrends is like a little trip around the world.
Sounds like a great deal for the shops. What’s new for the shopper?
As a customer you can shop at small local shops around the clock, independent of location and time difference. You can also request the products or pick them up at any store. One can also find unique and wonderful gifts and let them be shipped to the recipient or send it to the store to surprise someone who picks it up as a gift.
How do you scout the shops for your platform?
We have so called “trendhunters” that go through streets and look for special stores. We brief them beforehand, so they know which kind of stores we are looking for. In addition, stores apply for our platform and we also receive a lot of recommendations from customers through email or live-chat. So if anyone knows a good store, we are open to recommendations and look at every recommendation in detail.
What are the 3 most popular products on SugarTrends at the moment?
1. The St. Erhard Beer from St. ERHARD in Bamberg is on of the bestsellers of our male customers. We also use this beer for Team Events and are also big fans of the great taste.
2. The Design Letter Cups from Weißglut in Munich are awesome if you need a cool gift or nice cups for your home.
3. The Kampot Pepper from Hennes Finest is from Kabodscha is the best pepper we have ever tried and our sales numbers of the pepper tell the same. Its fair traded and we know the store owners that produce the pepper so that we can faithfully recommend this pepper.
Thank you Tim and SugarTrends for sharing your insights with us!
P.S.: If you want to be part of SugarTrend’s success, they are currently running a crowdfunding campaign through which you can still invest until the 31.01.16.
Channels
https://www.sugartrends.com/de/
https://www.facebook.com/sugartrends/
Where to find us
