Early on, Alia supplied Lookfantastic with around 3,000 specially made 10ml fragrances for its advent calendar — assuming it would influence the decisions of further retailers and consumers to buy into the brand. While the initiative put the product into thousands of consumers’ hands, it didn’t directly drive sales. “I was so excited, because it was right at the beginning of the journey. We were getting the product into the hands of around 3,000 people, which was really fun,” Nafousi says. “But it was also quite a big expense.”
There were exceptions. Violet Grey, the US beauty retailer known for its tightly curated selection, performed particularly well for Alia. Nafousi believes the retailer’s niche positioning and trusted relationship with its customers helped the brand connect with the right audience. The value of a retail partnership, therefore, depends not simply on the number of doors a brand enters, but on whether the retailer’s customer base and positioning align with the product.
5. Have the confidence to walk away
For founders, persistence is often celebrated, but knowing when to stop investing in a business can be just as important as having the conviction to start one.
Although production delays and packaging issues created friction in the early stages, Nafousi saw them as common setbacks. “At that point, I thought, ‘You know what? Every founder has these issues,’ so I wasn’t particularly worried about it,” she says. The bigger concern came when sales failed to gain traction. “I wanted to close it down when we launched. I think we made about two sales in the first week. The following week, there were no sales. Then, there was one sale. It was so deflating.”
Still, discovery sets were yet to launch and a forthcoming Space NK listing offered another opportunity to build momentum. Nafousi continued experimenting with sampling and brand activations, but soon realized that greater investment in advertising and awareness was needed. “I just thought, ‘God, I don’t know if I’m ready to invest even more money when I don’t know whether it’s going to work,’” she explains.
