NY Startup Interview: Melina Ash, Chief Merchandising Officer and Co-Founder, nomorerack
Today’s interview is with Melina Ash, co-founder of nomorerack.com.
Nomorerack is the place for every day value – At 12pm EST everyday a new set of product deals are introduced. We introduce over 200 skus on a daily basis ranging from fashion, jewelry, electronics, home items and more at discounts up to 90% off. We are disrupting the way retail works by connecting manufacturers directly to consumers. Building a brand synonymous with “extreme value” and “great service”. Think Target Brand + Walmart Scale without the brick & mortar overhead.
Q: Where did your vision/inspiration for this company come from?
I was always surprised by the big price discrepancy between the true manufactured cost of an item, and the selling price. The amount most retailers have to mark items up to cover their large overhead, always leads to a high price for customers. High quality bed sheets that cost $8 to manufacture were selling in retail stores for $100. We then said to ourselves, why can’t we change the way this works? By running a lean , technology (not man-power) efficient operation, why can’t we connect manufacturers directly to consumers and remove all the “fat” & all the “overhead” and pass on extreme savings to our consumers. Curate a selection of products daily that are at “unbelievable value” across all major categories.
Q: What problem are you solving, and why does the world need your product?
Retail today is broken. Both online retailers & brick/mortar stores have too much overhead, take on inventory risk, as a result substantially mark up items, there’s a lot of middle men & logistics between the manufacturer and the end consumer. Our goal is to remove all that “fat”, and bring high quality items at unbelievable value to every day mass market consumers. Our mission is to enable consumers to afford the things they typically couldn’t.
Q: What keeps you motivated?
Seeing the growth and evolution of nomorerack & our team is exciting and keeps me going. We’ve only begun and there is so much more to do and to perfect. It’s super exciting when you check stats in the middle of the day and see that we’ve sold over 8000 items it keeps us fired up!
Q: What keeps you up at night?
Making sure our customers are always happy no matter what. We take customer service very seriously & have an “always build raving fans” policy. Unfortunately, we can’t always control the experience if a manufacture makes a mistake and delivers the item. But what we can do is “make it right” & continue to put key processes in place to ensure we always deliver a perfect consumer experience. We’ve improved drastically since launch, about 70% of our revenue comes from repeat purchases!
Q: What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?
You will work a lot! You have to be prepared to give everything you have and then some to grow and nurture the business you want to see built. It’s all worth it in the end, successful or not you will learn more then you ever thought possible and be pushed to levels you never thought you could reach. It’s personal growth as well as career growth.
Q: What do you do for fun when not working on your company?
There’s nothing better then unwinding by watching a good movie, catching up on shows or reading a good book. Oh and add a glass of wine to that!
Visit nomorerack.com.
