BEHIND THE BRAND: ELLI KASBI

Entrepreneur Elli Kasbi is the Founder & CEO of her award-winning premium children’s retail brand, Elli Junior.

Born in Iran, Elli Kasbi immigrated and grew up in Sweden. With a strong experience in IT and a Master’s degree in Finance, she worked for one of Sweden’s biggest banks in Stockholm before moving to Dubai to explore new interests and spend more time with her children. After two years of gaining experience in the UAE market, she decided to work on her dream and passion for fashion and e-commerce. Elli saw a gap in the market for sustainably produced, high-quality premium baby products, so she took the opportunity and launched an online marketplace to bring Scandinavian brands into the GCC region. Determined to succeed, but with no previous experience in retail, e-commerce, or import/export, Elli was determined to succeed in filling this gap in the UAE’s children’s market. Her brand, Elli Junior, started as a distribution company in 2017, and has grown exponentially since. In 2019, the brand’s e-commerce portal launched, and by 2020, Elli Junior launched its own collection of high-quality organic baby towels, playmats, bamboo blankets, and much more. It is now an award-winning one-stop-shop for parents, focusing on premium design sustainability. The brand also offers cash on delivery, fast and free shipping, and free gift wrapping. Elli Junior also offers a full interior design service for anyone looking to design or rejuvenate their home nursery or children’s rooms. The brand has further expanded into Galeries Lafayette, a pop-up store at Nakheel Mall, and its first flagship store at The Dubai Mall. The new Elli Junior store will feature a wide array of over 4,000 children’s products sourced exclusively from global brands.

Elli has also built a strong community of mums in the UAE and firmly believes in giving back. The brand is firmly committed to CSR campaigns, such as breast cancer and support services for children in need. With a goal to become the biggest platform for premium kid’s products in the GCC, there is nothing stopping this dynamic CEO and proud mum of two.

What inspired you to start Elli

Junior?

My two daughters are the inspiration for my venture and the launch of Elli Junior’s. While my background is in finance and information technology, I have always wanted to create my own company. When we first moved to Dubai, my children were small and needed lots of items, but I couldn’t find any high-quality, well-designed products for my girls. That’s when I realised there was a gap in the market. I have always appreciated the Scandinavian touch of nice design and focus on sustainability, so that was how I decided to start my own company to cater to premium European branded products for the kids. In 2019, we carried five exclusive brands, and fast forward to the present, Elli Junior now carries over 400 brands on the platform. Over the last 4 years, the business has grown 100% year over year on sales, and has expanded to an online e-commerce platform, as well as presence in luxury department stores, and our recently launched shops in Nakheel Mall. We also opened a charity shop in Al Jalila Children’s Hospital, where 10% of all purchases goes towards treating children, and we will soon open our flagship store in Dubai Mall.

Why is the Middle East an important market for Elli Junior?

It’s an interesting market. E-commerce is growing more than ever, especially in this region. The increase of birth rate in the region has increased demand for children’s essentials and products. Globally, e-commerce is growing four times faster than global retail sector.

The Middle East is still an untapped market in many ways, with huge growth opportunities. Babies are always born, so it makes my sector even more interesting.

What were some of the challenges you faced when starting the business?

We definitely faced difficulties when starting off as any other startup with limited resources and small budget in a highly competitive market, but we have always been close to our customers, asked for advice, and make sure we understand our customers needs. These have been to our success. The business of e-commerce, tech, and import/export is a male-dominated area, and for a woman to prove her mettle, it takes a lot of hard work. Initially, people did not believe in my idea and how the business would scale and be successful. The toughest was to grow a profitable business while balancing the role as a parent. it is sometimes harder for women to be taken seriously in the world of e-commerce.

What are your future plans for the business?

The UAE is the best place to grow, learn and build a strong foundation before we enter other GCC countries. I have seen many businesses rush to enter KSA and they failed, so I believe in slow and steady growth, but I certainly see big potential in KSA as the next big country for our business. We will do our best to enter that market in the near future. The potential there is massive, huge population and many babies. We believe that a mix of online and offline is the best way forward, so we will open more physical stores in key locations around the region, but our primary focus will remain on e-commerce.

Elli Junior has opened its new flagship store at Dubai Mall. Tell us more!

We are super excited to have opened our new flagship store in Dubai Mall. This is a huge step for us. I still remember when I did Ripe Markets with my kids on the weekends in the sweltering heat, and to go from local pop-up markets to the Dubai Mall in less than five years as a bootstrapped business is a massive achievement.

Who/what inspires you?

I have some amazing woman around me, including my customers, and they all inspire me in different ways, but to be able to stand on my own feet has always been my motivation. I get inspired by growth, to see that I have built a brand from scratch, and I’m helping my parents as well. I just always want to do better.

Tell us about your CSR initiatives and how you chose them. We are a caring company and we like to grow while we give back to the community and we have done several charity activations. but the biggest one was when we opened the first retail charity shop in Al Jalila Children’s Hospital, where we gave 10% of the sales for the treatment of children. This was probably the best project of 2022 and we hope to do more initiatives like that going forward. We supported the Rare Disease Day at Expo and gave away 200 toys, and our location served as a collection point for the Ukraine and Pakistan flooding. We are always raising funds for breast cancer and children’s education. We’ve also helped many local homegrown businesses to list on our platform. Many lost their jobs during the pandemic and opened small businesses, but they don’t have the resources to support their business. Many of our best-selling brands some of these homegrown brands.