Freda Kunin is the founder and owner of FREDALA.com, an online store that sells dangly earrings and funky patent leather belts and all kinds of other inexpensive but super-cool items you may have seen in the pages of Us Magazine recently.  Her stock is “specialized, like you’d find in high-end boutiques,� and she showcases collections by many up-and-coming designers.  She also spearheads “Success Is in the Bag,� a fashion recycling program that benefits women in sponsored upward mobility programs.
Freda started her store in 1999, which makes her a veteran internet entrepreneur. She figured out e-commerce and HTML coding on her own, during a time when 90% of techies were male. Â And she built a successful business from scratch, without backers or partners.
Unsurprisingly, when you ask, “HOW?!� she’s more than likely to shrug and say, “I just figured it couldn’t be that hard.�  But when I explain that what seems “not that hard� to her might be downright impossible for, say, ME, she proves adept at articulating processes, and naming information sources. So here I am to pass all that good stuff along to you. (Except I still can’t help you with coding. You either get it or you don’t…and I don’t. Sorry.)
(Note: After you read this Q&A, check the post below to get Freda’s list of marketing resource sites and tips.)
Lena: What inspired you to plunge into the e-commerce world way back in ’99?
Freda:  It was very instinctual. I was working for Sony Pictures, and there was a lull one day, and I started reading a story about e-commerce. Since I was so busy, I didn’t ever have time to go shopping as a consumer, so I put two and two together. And everybody was always asking, “Where do you get this, where do you get that?� about what I was wearing. So I thought, Maybe I do have an eye.
L: How did you puzzle your way through the earliest e-commerce systems all on your own? I remember working in e-commerce in ’98—half the time, the software would ship with no manual, and even the techies couldn’t figure out how to use it.
F: I eventually went to Yahoo stores, but even so, you still had to figure out how to make your site look different. They provide a very basic template and a cart. I learned quickly, because I had to… There’s something special about putting your name on a company. Having my name on there, I couldn’t see doing things halfway.
L: Do you sell through eBay, Amazon, etc?
F: No. My only eBay sales were unique items. And I used the Yahoo interface, so I never used the Amazon site. I’m no longer using the Yahoo store interface because we’ve grown so much I need my own server.
L: That being the case, how do you market and advertise?
F: I use a combination of paid search and organic search. SEO optimization is a constant challenge. Every time you change your platform, it affects your position in search engines… I read a lot. That’s how you learn—what is this site, and what are its parameters? If you’re really concerned about your Alexa ranking, get into Alexa and read about it.
You have to get on a lot of merchant boards. Often, people will share what worked for them. Then you constantly tweak.
L: Can you recommend a good site for people who want to learn about SEO?
F: I would recommend, for example, the Monster Commerce boards. You’ll see what real merchants are going through. You also can find out about different shopping carts, gateways, and certain combinations.
L: Please explain.
F: Say you’re trying to join some large affiliate program. It’s important to find out in advance if the shopping cart system you’re hooked up with is compatible with that affiliate program. A lot of times the company representative will say, “Oh yeah, we are,� and then you find out later, they’re not. You really have to research before you take them at their word.
L: How do you balance the back-end nuts and bolts with the creative, fun side of your business?
F:  I’m lucky enough to have a staff, so I can delegate a lot of the nuts and bolts. My love of accessories, I think, is what drives me. I’m constantly shopping—not physically, but virtually. I do read the fashion blogs, I try to check out and see who the new up-and-coming designers, I go to the Mart. I constantly keep my ear to the ground. I just went to the hundred-year anniversary for Neiman Marcus, where they had only 20 clients.
L: What percentage of your browsing/buying takes place in “the real world,� and what percentage is virtual?
F: I’d say 75% is virtual. I can do it any time, from anywhere, wearing anything…
L: Ah, yes, and that’s the appeal of being an entrepreneur. People think you can work on a beach, under a palm tree…
F: No, no. I can’t work from under a palm tree. I have an actual warehouse, an actual staff—people working from 7AM to 8PM. As an owner, you have to be hands-on; you have to be watching. Also, people think because you’re self-employed you don’t have to follow the hours of the rest of the world. But more and more, you do. You still have to work within the parameters of the business world.
L: When did you know it was time to hire your first employee?
F: When I had to give my two-week notice to my day job.
L: So, you went directly from working a day job to having a staff?
F: Yes. When I quit my day job, that’s when I knew I was too busy. I’d say another error business owners often make is trying to do everything themselves, and not being realistic. You cannot do everything alone. You will have to farm out to other independent contractors…you’ll certainly need some kind of assistance.
L: How did you figure out what to delegate?
F:  I’m always tweaking that too. I think you have to. For example, right now we have an outside IT person.  I used to do all that stuff myself.
 L:  Let’s talk about the bag recycling program –
F: It’s called Success is in the Bag. Ladies from all over the country and Canada send us gently worn or new handbags. We issue them gift certificate codes that they can use to purchase products from our store. Then we donate the handbags to New Economics for Women, and they get distributed to teens, unmarried mothers… It’s a great program. These girls are going out, applying for jobs, and it helps them feel better about themselves—helps them look and feel more polished and professional.
L: When did you come up with it, and why?
F: I had been discussing a recycling program.  I wanted to do something that aligned with my business.  We’re now in our third year.
L: What’s next?
F: I’m launching another online store that’ll focus on handbags, and I also plan to start designing myself.
Ed note: Yes, and next year when you’re onstage accepting your CFDA award, you’ll be like, “I figured it couldn’t be that hard…”
Check out Freda’s resource and tip list in the post below. Also visit FREDALA.com for early Xmas shopping, or if you’d like to buy me a li’l something to show your appreciation.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 4:25 am and is filed under Nuts & Bolts, My Network. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.3 Responses to “Q&A with Freda Kunin — the Coding, SEOing Fashionista”
Leave a Reply
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
As an internet entrepreneur, also offering a luxury fashion brand, I respect what Freda’s been able to accomplish. The secret of all the $$ flowing to the web by large brands is that they view the web as a branding vehicle and much of the online efforts are driving offline sales. If you don’t have an offline presence and you have to be truly profitable on each sale as small businesses do, the web is becoming increasing difficult. Kudos to you Freda for sticking it out.
~Peter Belisi
December 12th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
The key to luxury brands is to start with a symbol that already signifies status. I had no idea when I began zypcodes how big it would get; mainly because I had no idea which rappers lived in those zips. But now it’s a little scary how out of control it got so fast.
Still, it’s living proof that any word, symbol or number that holds meaning is a brand-in-waiting. And unlike many luxury brands, I’m finding that overseas knock-offs are actually boosting sales.
IRTFW
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
jimsotonna
jimsotonna dropped by