What started as a hobby became a serious business in no time. Motivated by his enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, Tom Kapitein and his wife Wendy founded Glamour Your Hair, a webshop that sells hair extensions. “We thought it would be fun to have an online business,” Tom says. “My wife had experience with hair extensions, and I knew how to build a webshop and make it flourish. Research indicated it was easy to reach the top rank in Google with a good SEO strategy. So, we decided to go for it.”
And they were right, Glamour Your Hair quickly became the leader on Google. And that top position meant that the orders came flooding in. “At first we stored all our stock in the attic, but before long, we were having to store hair extensions in our bedroom. At one point, we hired premises to store our stock. When it got to this point, we realised this was more than a hobby.”
Quality builds customer loyalty
Our strong SEO strategy helped new customers find us, but our product quality and customer service are what kept them coming back for more. “We focused on high-quality products from day one. We were lucky to find a manufacturer that met our strict requirements. And we went the extra mile with our customer service. For example, we accept returns on our hair extensions, subject to conditions. Other online shops for hair extensions don’t offer this.”
Longer delivery times.
We had a well-run online shop, a great supplier and satisfied customers: things were going well for Glamour Your Hair. Until our delivery times become longer than normal. “In the past, an order took three to six weeks, suddenly deliveries were taking three months”, Tom recalls. “Meanwhile, we had to keep delivering the orders that were being placed. To bridge the extended delivery time, we bought hair extensions from another supplier. Sadly, the product quality was not adequate and we had to write it off.”
Growing with Mollie Capital
Mollie Capital was the solution we needed to restore the balance between supply and demand. Tom discovered the financing solution when it appeared as a test version in his Mollie Dashboard. “I immediately liked the way it looked: simple and transparent like we’re used to with Mollie. I decided to apply. The application process was so easy. All I had to do was answer a few questions and, instantly, they displayed the maximum amount of Capital Glamour Your Hair was eligible for. In mere days, we had €25,000 in our account.”
The financing from Mollie Capital made it possible for Glamour Your Hair to buy large quantities of stock in one go. “Now, we only need to restock periodically, and we have enough money to bridge longer delivery times. Thanks to Mollie Capital we can steadily deliver our goods, and that’s reflected in our sales figures. They’ve gone up by 30%!”
By transferring a fixed percentage of their daily turnover to Mollie, it was easy for Glamour Your Hair to repay their loan in just three months. “The repayments happen automatically, so we didn’t have to worry about it, which is exactly what you need as an entrepreneur. It gave us time to focus on other things.”
Time for round two
Since then, Glamour Your Hair applied for and received a second capital injection. “We want to use it to expand our stock a little more and tap into new markets. At the moment, we supply customers directly and focus on less expensive synthetic extensions. In future, we want to start partnering with salons that use human hair extensions and set even higher standards for quality. Many brands don’t meet those requirements. We do, but we need to buy enough stock to meet the demand that comes with selling to salons. Luckily, we have Mollie Capital for that.”
We asked Tom if he would recommend
Mollie Capital to other entrepreneurs? “Absolutely. It’s a simple and transparent solution that helps you get financing within a few days. And if you run into problems, there’s always someone at Mollie to help you out. Mollie Capital helped us get through a difficult phase and allowed us to grow even more. I’m certain other online shops would benefit from Mollie Capital the same way.”
Initially, Mollie Capital will only be offered to businesses in The Netherlands and Belgium. Eligible customers will be notified by email and in their Mollie Dashboard. We want to help all of our customers grow and plan to expand our Capital offering to all our customers.
Visit our
website or the
Mollie Dashboard and find out how much Capital you could qualify for.
