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Feb 16, 2023 | 11 minute read
written by Abisola Adeyemo
Black History Month in the United States is a time to celebrate the contributions of Black individuals throughout history. Today, it has evolved to not only celebrate historical contributions, but to honor the achievements and cultural impact of the Black community in the present day. An American Express report found that Black women are the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the U.S. This growth trajectory is taking the commerce industry by storm.
At Elastic Path, we wanted to celebrate by featuring 10 innovative product experiences from Black-owned brands.
1. Albany Park
Albany Park is a furniture brand specializing in luxury sofas, sectionals, and ottomans. Their PDP features customizable product configurations so customers are able to see what the sofa would look like in different variations. In addition, their website features lifestyle videos for consumers to have a better understanding of what the couch could look like in their home. The PDP also includes tutorial videos demonstrating how to assemble the sofas.
2. Clare Clare is an online paint store that sells paint and paint supplies for the interior and exterior of homes and buildings. The brand focuses on creating a customized experience for their customers. Their website features a chatbox facilitated quiz called Clare Color Genius ™ to help you find the perfect paint shade for your home.
3. Oui The PeopleOui The People is a bodycare brand that sells products for various skincare needs from hyperpigmentation (dark spots) to keratosis pilaris (strawberry skin). They aim to curate personalized product recommendations for your specific skin care conditions. Their website features a Body Skin Care quiz, to help recommend products from their collections that will alleviate your personal skincare concerns.
4. Black Girl Sunscreen
Black Girl Sunscreen is a brand that gained popularity in the Black community for its ability to provide a high SPF sunscreen that did not leave a white cast on darker skin tones. The brand has since branched off into cosmetics and apparel in addition to the SPF products. The website’s navigation features product bundles. Some of the noteworthy components of the bundles is the ability to pick and choose products in the bundle, also known as “dynamic bundles.” For example, in their holiday bundle, customers can choose between a pine scent or vanilla scented candle. This merchandising strategy helps increase customer satisfaction and boost AOV.
5. The Honey PotThe Honey Pot is a feminine care product brand that focuses on natural, plant-based products for feminine needs. The products on their website are grouped both individually and bundled for specific concerns. For example, there is a “Nighttime Ritual” bundle and a “Soothe Ritual” bundle with products catered to those specific “rituals”. The Honey Pot is also following suit with other brands we’ve mentioned, offering a Quiz that aligns with your needs.
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6. NaturAll ClubNaturAll Club is a brand focusing on natural products for curly hair textures. One of the unique aspects of their PDP page is that each product shows both written directions for how to use the product and video tutorials showing you how to style your hair with the products. The PDP page also includes the specific curl patterns the products are catered to. In addition, you can curate your personal product list from a quiz that you take explaining your hair type.
7. BLK + GRNBLK+GRN is a marketplace for natural products created by Black artisans. Customers not only get a commerce marketplace, but their “Our Story” tab leads to a podcast with interviews from some of Black-owned brands they feature. The “Our Story” tab also details their Toxic Twenty pledge, which is a pledge to ensure that none of the products are made with 20 harmful chemicals they’ve listed out.
8. Bolé Road TextilesBolé Road Textiles is a home decor brand, specializing in items made from handwoven Ethiopian fabrics. Their website features a social commerce strategy, where customers can shop by lookbooks from the Bolé’s Instagram page.
9. lemlemLemlem is an artisan-based collection of women’s, men’s and children’s home goods made entirely in Africa. The brand is multi-geo spanning across the US and Europe. On their website, you can seamlessly toggle between their US site to their European site. You can also filter products from bestselling, feature and the date added “New to Old” and “Old to New”.
10. Beauty BakarieBeauty Bakarie is a cosmetics brand that focuses on natural cruelty-free products with clean ingredients. The brand has implemented a social commerce strategy with products you can buy “As Seen On TikTok”, which are the products they share on their TikTok page. They’ve also incorporated a Foundation Finder tool where you answer questions about your skin tone to help you find your correct color match for their foundation. Moreover, the brand merchandises by price categories such as “$40 and under” to “$20 and under”.
At Elastic Path, we empower merchandisers to create differentiated product experiences like these. You can learn more about how we power these experiences through Elastic Path Product Experience Manager (EP PXM).