SME Stories x MEXI.Clothing
The importance of entrepreneurship and attention to detail in running a side business
I caught up with Fraser Bell, founder of MEXI.Clothing, to learn about the impact he hopes to make in the UK.
Fraser runs MEXI.Clothing as a side business with his girlfriend, Natalia. They’re also the brains behind the Avocado Social Club podcast.
Background
Business profile
Couple founding team
E-commerce with a presence at pop up events
Side business alongside full time job
What’s MEXI.Clothing and who’s it for?
MEXI.Clothing is modern consumer fashion. We’re a commerce platform that stock consumer brands from designers in Mexico. We focus on brands with a social mission, such as environmental protection or helping underrepresented or marginalised communities. Our platform is for anyone who wants to buy from Mexican brands that make a difference. Since launching in 2016, we’ve had sales from customers of all ages.
Founders Fraser Bell and Natalia Albin
Interview
This is a lightly edited version of my interview with Fraser.
Tanya Agarwal: How did you come up with the idea for MEXI.Clothing?
Fraser Bell: It all started back in 2016. I’d frequently travel to Mexico and back to visit my girlfriend, Natalia, as that’s where she was living at the time.
Every time I went to visit her I was so inspired by Mexico. I was inspired by the sounds, the smells, the colours and the designs. There are some touches of Mexico here in the UK, but the real, breathtaking beauty, is in Mexico. This is something I wanted to share with the world.
Over time, after numerous trips to Mexico and since launching the business, I’ve developed a certain philosophy. In the UK, we’re only familiar with certain aspects of Mexico, maybe food, maybe Frida Kahlo, maybe a limited amount of other things, too. There’s something intriguing and beautiful there with Mexican design, colour and art, which isn’t fully exposed here in the UK. Through MEXI.Clothing, I want to share the beauty of Mexico.
TA: How has your business changed since 2016?
FB: The business has definitely changed a lot in the last 5 years.
One of the main changes has been the types of brands that we stock. Originally, we were very focused on bringing in as many different brands as we could, which each have their own story and their own background and their own USPs.And now, we’re focusing on sourcing brands that relate to our mission of promoting social good.
The past 5 years have certainly been a learning experience. When we started out, apart from trying to acquire customers from different businesses, I didn’t have a background in fashion or e-commerce. This meant that I had to pick up a lot of new skills really quickly, particularly around marketing and running a new business. What made this more challenging is that social media platforms, like Instagram, keep changing their algorithm and adding new features, so I’ve had to continuously learn how they work and how these channels would direct traffic to the store.
TA: Is there anything you’re particularly proud of since running the business?
FB: Yes. I’m really pleased with how we’ve evolved our brand and it’s look and feel since 2016.
At the start it was all quite basic, and now we’ve added a layer of sophistication. To the outside world, it doesn’t look like as much of a side project or bedroom business, it looks a little more polished and a little more professional. Small iterations take a lot of time and I’m really proud of how far we’ve come.
“There’s something intriguing and beautiful there with Mexican design, colour and art”
TA: How have you learned the new skills needed to run the business?
FB: I have a practical approach to skill development.
When it comes to learning how to use different tools and platforms, I make sure I take the time myself to have a play around, test out flows and ideas. From my experience so far, taking the time to dive in is key for maximising the utility I get from the tools we employ to help run our business. I really want to make MEXI.Clothing a success so I’m happy to take the time out to do this, I think it’s really important.
When it comes to fashion, Mexican clothing and brands, it’s really been about finding the right people. We’re fortunate to have mentorship from Fashion Angel, who are a company specialising in getting fashion businesses launched. We’ve tried to lean on people with that sort of industry knowledge and it’s been a tremendous help in our journey so far.
Also, what we really try to do is observe, from a strategy perspective, what other people in the space are doing. Off the back of that, we look at what tools and platforms they’re using. We also pay close attention to what connections they have and the partners they work with. I then find out out if there’s anyone in my network who’s similar and if there are people running similar businesses.
TA: What tools do you use to run your business?
FB: We don’t use anything that’s uncommon. MailChimp for marketing, Shopify for the website and PayPal for payments.
“If we had followed this advice from the beginning then perhaps we might be further up the road than we are today”
TA: What has been your biggest learning to date?
FB: Lessons in entrepreneurship, tech and startups have definitely been the biggest learning to date.
We’ve had to learn to start as small as possible, test and iterate. For example, I’ve bought a lot of stock in the past under the assumption that it would all sell. Instead, I should’ve bought a small amount and see how it performed first and then make decisions from there based on data and customer feedback.
My advice to anyone would be that buying the absolute minimum of any product, test it out as much as possible with the audience, whether it’s about getting feedback or seeing how people react to it then assess how much of it you can sell. That’s the best way to go - start small and test things before committing.
If we had followed this advice from the beginning then perhaps we might be further up the road than we are today. Committing to less inventory would’ve allowed us to have a bigger budget for things like marketing and bigger events.
TA: How do you process orders?
FB: The order process is quite simple for us.
Orders usually come in from the website (meaning that the customer has found us through Instagram or a Google search), or from Etsy.
We take their order details (name, item(s) and shipping address) to the Royal Mail click and drop centre, where we enter the details manually and create postage labels.
We’re lucky that our stock is kept at home so we don’t have to travel to a rented storage unit. We find the item, package it up in our MEXI.Clothing branding, put the label on and drop it off at the Post Office. Even luckier for us, the Post Office is right next to where we live.
Once this is done, we mark the item as dispatched and that’s it. Anyone who buys from the website gets the appropriate email communications. We use Shopify to manage our stock and inventory, which has worked quite well for us so far.
“From what we’ve seen, the more time you put into it, the better the results are.”
TA: Have you worked on your post-buying experience?
FB: In terms of post-buying experience, the customer gets an email after 7-10 days of purchase encouraging them to leave a Trustpilot review. Trustpilot reviews are something we’re keen to push forward as it adds credibility to the brand and showcases the great experience we strive to give our customers.
We also tried something a little different last year to improve our post-buying experience. We sent out MEXI.Clothing postcards to customers who’ve bought from us in the past in an effort to encourage them to buy again and share their positive experience with us. This test didn’t have the uptake we were hoping for so we decided not to continue it.
TA: Has your business been affected by the global pandemic?
FB: Certainly. We’ve been affected positively and negatively.
Firstly, we couldn’t do any pop up stands last year. This was a shame for us as it’s something we get really excited about. We actually had something planned in Camden last year where we sell things and make a buzz around it before and during the event. I love this kind of stuff, I love talking to potential customers about what MEXI.Clothing stands for and watching their reactions when browsing stock. I’m really looking forward to opportunities like this when things start to open up again.
Secondly, MEXI.Clothing has definitely gotten a lot more love since I’ve been working from home. I currently have a full-time job as a Customer Success Lead at JoinJo.com / Savethehighstreet.org, so side projects used to have to wait until after the commute home. Now, working from home has given me more time back, which is time I’ve given to MEXI.Clothing. I use a significant proportion of my home leisure time to understand how we can get more sales and to test ways to improve the experience. As a result of this, December 2020 saw the highest sales we’ve had since launching in 2016.
Thirdly, we had the opportunity to participate in online Christmas markets last year, which weren’t really a concept before the pandemic. It was actually a pretty cool idea, there were different virtual rooms set up to sell different things from a variety of sellers, MEXI.Clothing being one of them. We managed to make a decent amount of sales from this, with the main demographic of customers being 45-50 year olds, which was surprising to us. I guess it comes down to having to go to a virtual space to mimic the experience you would get at a physical space. We found this really interesting because if we hadn’t been online and if physical spaces weren’t closed, we might not have sold so much to this demographic.
It begs the question to us, do people prefer buying in these online formats or is it about getting the right mix of being in a physical location and having access to an online space? It’ll be interesting to see how this develops and MEXI.Clothing will need to react accordingly. The mix will have different demands on the business as online spaces need a focus on product presentation and instagram presence.
“I love talking to potential customers about what MEXI.Clothing stands for and watching their reactions when browsing stock.”
TA: You have a full-time job, a podcast, and a small business. How do you manage your time?
FB: It’s just about being organised and disciplined really.
I have 3 calendars within my Google Calendar, one for my full-time job, one for MEXI.Clothing and one for personal events. I try to keep things separate and arrange things in their respective calendars. I fit small-to-medium tasks into the working week in the evenings, and I use Friday evenings and weekends for tasks that need concentration for hours on end, or on things like photoshoots, which can’t really be done during the working week. In addition to this, blocked out, uninterrupted time each week to look into projects in depth is really important, this learning time can really make your business or side project what you want it to be.
Working from home helps, too. Not commuting helps me switch from one thing to the next without too much friction.
We also use Notion as a CRM tool to configure any special tasks that need to be done and manage the workload accordingly. For us, Notion works a little better than Trello, but both platforms have a lot to offer small business owners in this space.
All in all, personally, it’s about putting in as much time as possible. From what we’ve seen, the more time you put into it, the better the results are.
TA: Is there a particular brand that inspires you?
FB: Yes, bombinate. Bombinate is a luxury European menswear marketplace that features high quality brands, some of whom are exclusively European manufacturers and brands.
What Bombinate do really well is, whilst having their own identity as a bombinate as a brand, is tell the story of the individual brands they showcase. This is a really difficult thing to master and is something we’re really trying to crack at MEXI.Clothing.
Aside from Bombinate, a lot of different brands have impressive instagram pages which are nicely designed with a clear target market.
“We had the opportunity to participant in online Christmas markets last year, which weren’t really a concept before the pandemic.”
TA: If you had 3 magic wishes for MEXI.Clothing, what would they be?
FB: Only 3!?
The first wish would be a healthy budget for Instagram. We’ve done a lot of experimenting with Instagram, in terms of Instagram lives, selling through Instagram and our general presence. With a bigger budget, we’d be able to test more rapidly and iterate on campaigns. Currently, we’re able to run a few tests and begin to see some results, but we don’t have the budget to see them the tests through or to optimise performance.
The second wish would be to set up cool collaborations. W tried this initially with giveaways and referrals, but it didn’t work the way we expected it to. Getting this up and working would be a top wish - it’ll drive a lot of engagement and awareness for the brand.
My third wish would be to crystallise MEXI.Clothing mission. This is front of mind for me at the moment. We want to work with Mexican brands that have a certain social impact. Our mission should represent the difference we want to make in the world by bringing these Mexican brands to the UK. If we can get this sorted, we can target a certain customer base and help make a social impact sooner.
Check out MEXI.Clothing at https://mexi.clothing/
Instagram: @mexi.clothing
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mexiclothing
Twitter: @MEXICLOTHING
Fraser and Natalia also have a podcast, the Avocado Social Club, where they discuss topics affecting the lives of those in their 20s during the 2020s. From politics to pop culture, their different points of view and backgrounds (Mexico and the UK) make for an interesting, in-depth discussion.
You can contact Fraser and Natalia directly on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/fraserdb/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-albin-a35852102/ or give them a follow on Clubhouse on @fraserbell and @nataliaalbin.