If you’re looking to swap or sell some of your pre-loved goods, you might want to pay FriendlyFashion.my a visit. But before you do, join us in an interview with the founder of FriendlyFashion.my, Nadzirah Hashim to share with us a little about the early beginnings of FriendlyFashion.my, and what the future holds for them.
Q. Tell us a little about Friendly Fashion.
N: Friendlyfashion is a community website for one to sell, swap or give away your pre-loved clothes, shoes and accessories. The site started out in Europe and then we saw that it has potential in Malaysia and so we brought it here to see whether Malaysians like the idea. And so far we have over 8500 members and counting, and we’re hoping to see it grow bigger!
Q. What inspired the beginnings of Friendly Fashion in Malaysia?
N: The idea that we share clothes as sisters really helped. The site is really about sharing everything. From clothes to ideas I loved the concept of girls being open to talk and shop at the same time – all in the comfort of wherever they are. And on top of that I had a closet that was about to overflow into my bedroom and I was pretty sure I’m not the only one – and with the knowledge that plenty of clothes just get thrown away into garbage every year we thought that it was good to try and promote the idea of making some small money or swapping it for something ‘new’.
Q. What are/were your strategies when it came to expanding Friendly Fashion?
N: We’ve done tones of strategies to help expand the site. In the span of ten months the highlights of our expansion would include entering the DiGi WWWOW Awards to win Online Shop of the Year followed by having our For the Love of Preloved Campaign which invited celebrities like Lisa Surihani to sell her pre-loved baju kurung at out website – with all proceeds going to Women’s Aid Organization. Other than that we also collaborated with various local brands like The Poplook and Sereni & Shentel to host fun give aways.
Q. What are some of the challenges Friendly Fashion has encountered in this journey to success?
N: I think the hard part is to grow the site to the level that we have hopes for it to reach. Due to various language barriers in Malaysia, we really have to know how to communicate clearly to our members. We don’t want them to feel intimidated because we’re really here to help them clear their closet and make friends!
Q. Friendly Fashion has now expanded with a list of your Top 15 Official Bloggers. What inspired that notion and what do you hope to achieve with the help of your bloggers?
N: Our FF bloggers are meant to help expand the community feel on our blog. Having been voted by the community, these bloggers are given the opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences on the community blog. We aim to have them enjoy fun experiences too such as events and beauty products and represent the voice of friendlyfashion at the same time.
Q.Where do you see Friendly Fashion in 10 years?
N: We aim to make friendlyfashion the no. 1 site to sell, swap and give away your pre-loved clothes, shoes and accessories in Malaysia. We also aim to make it the site where girls go to for advice on fashion, lifestyle and anything fun. The forum gives real advice from real people and you get to see different opinions all the time. But the love for the site which has been built by the members is really awesome and we hope to keep it that way for as long as the site exists. Aside from that we hope to expand this around Asia too! 🙂
For more information on how to use FriendlyFashion.my, you can watch their series of informative video tutorials.
