Gold Coast app Adzurra launched by entrepreneur Sharine Duran to help consumers support local boutique fashion stores
A Gold Coast entrepreneur was wandering the streets of Paris in 2017 looking for bricks-and-mortar boutique fashion stores when the idea formed for her an innovative app.
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GOLD Coast entrepreneur Sharine Duran was wandering the streets of Paris in 2017 looking for bricks-and-mortar boutique fashion stores when the idea formed for her business Adzurra.
“I had just graduated from Bond University with a bachelor of laws and international relations,” she said.
“I went to Europe and while in Paris noticed it was hard to find small boutique fashion stores.
“I’ve always loved fashion and eCommerce. My first purchase was from (online fashion store) Showpo when I was 17.”
Ms Duran said her idea was for a marketplace that combined the convenience of an online marketplace for independent boutiques with tools to enable consumers to shop in store if they so desired. She said 57 per cent of Millennials still preferred to shop in store rather than online.
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She discussed the idea with her roommates upon returning home and, bolstered by their support, decided to set about designing an app.
“I designed it myself. I don’t have any design experience. I used (graphic design tool website) Canva a lot and I also sketched my ideas on a piece of paper.”
Initially she engaged a company that outsourced production to a firm in the Philippines for the prototype.
She said that prototype, while full of bugs and far from ideal, helped her to get accepted into the Landing Pads program run by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission last year.
“It served its purpose and got us to the next level. With that prototype, we moved to Tel Aviv and while there we started rebuilding the app.”
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In July this year Ms Duran flew to London with the support of Advance Queensland to attend London Tech Week with Queensland’s chief entrepreneur, Leanne Kemp.
The MVP (minimum viable product) was launched two weeks ago for IOS and android and, without any marketing, currently has 60 users and 50 boutique stores on board, mostly on the Gold Coast.
Gold Coast boutiques include Summer Addiction Swimwear, Isabelle Quinn and One Honey Boutique.
“We don’t hold any stock. What we do is aggregate these local fashion boutiques on to one platform by pulling from the inventory of the stores,” she said.
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“The shopper sees 3000-plus products. Once they choose a location, for example on the Gold Coast, they can find brick-and-mortar stores in their location.”
Adzurra has raised $285,000 from angel investors and recently embarked on a seed round to raise a further $800,000 to grow its number of users, sign up more boutiques, enhance the app, and grow the Adzurra team to five full-time employees.
Ms Duran is aiming for 200 boutique stores on the platform and 25,000 users in 12 months’ time. She said there were 120 more stores “lined up” and ready to come on to the platform.
She said perfecting and refining the app was an ongoing process.
“It is great for the boutiques. They just need to download our app, provide a few details, and we synch with their inventory,” she said.
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