SME profile: Dinodrops customised greeting cards founder gets the message across

The English entrepreneur Nathalie Hall says she got the idea for her business, Dinodrops, while in a mall in Dubai searching for a greeting card a couple of years ago.

Milling from shop to shop, she was surprised at how difficult it was to find one and quickly realised there was a gap in the market for not only selling cards but also delivering them to customers.

“I went to buy a card for my friend in the mall and I left feeling frustrated as the card selection was very poor and so I assumed that Dubai must have something like Moonpig,” says Ms Hall, 28.

“When I went online and discovered this service wasn’t available [for the UAE] it was like a light bulb went off in my head and I couldn’t put it out.”

She said that the more research she did, the more she realised that there was a wellspring of frustration among greeting-card senders. This group of people, which is made up mostly of women, was not only unhappy about the difficulty in finding cards but also in the variety of cards on offer in shops as well the inability to customise them for things like birthday invitations. Sending cards in the UAE can also be a headache because one’s PO Box might not necessarily be the place of residence.

__________

Free ads

■ For SMEs who want to place an ad free of charge visit: www.thenational.ae/small-business-ads

__________

She also found that 80 per cent of those who buy greeting cards are women. Men may buy cards for their wives from time to time, but women tend to buy greeting cards on behalf of the whole family, such as Christmas cards.

Ms Hall, who has lived in Dubai since 2012, says that she had always wanted to start her own business before she came up with the idea for Dinodrops. Before setting up the business in March 2015, she had done a number of corporate administrative jobs with companies including the media group Thomson Reuters.

Ms Hall also found herself needing to master several design and photo software applications at breakneck speed, sacrificing her nights and weekends to do so and even going to Germany for a course.

The efforts have paid off, she says, in the degree of customisation available for her customers, from colours to font sizes. The cost of the cards start at Dh90 for a box of 10 that includes envelopes and next-day delivery anywhere in the UAE, if the order is made by noon, she says. For shipping to the rest of the Middle East and India, card senders are charged Dh40 extra.

Ms Hall has invested her savings of US$50,000 and collecting another $150,000 from silent partners, all English. Much of that money has been used on software, and while she hasn’t broken even yet, her sales have quadrupled over the past year. She also recently hired her first employee.

Ms Hall’s growing e-commerce business comes amid a broader push by a number of homegrown brands to develop the online shopping industry, including the recent launch of Noon.com, a $1 billion venture between Mohamed Alabbar, the chairman of Emaar Properties, and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

And like many small business owners who haven’t hit the big time yet, she nonetheless has ambitious expansion plans that include customised printing of more than just stationery – such as clothes, caps and mugs – for individual and corporate clients. Ms Hall also has a broader vision of expanding into other countries in the Middle East to enable speedier deliveries.

“The business is currently seeking new investment to take things to the next level,” she says. “I have plans to add on more complex items such as personalised photobooks and canvas prints. I am also launching a range of personalised gift items that I’m really excited about.”

mkassem@thenational.ae

We are on the lookout for SME success stories. If you want to have your business profiled, contact us at business@thenational.ae

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter