December Issue 2012

When Varah Musavvir, a textile design student in her third year at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, decided she wanted to turn her hobby of craft-making into a business, she turned to Facebook as a platform for facilitating it. She started by putting up photographs of her products — photo albums, personalised greeting cards, key chains and other knickknacks — on the Facebook page of her business, Firefly, and soon she started getting orders. It has now been two years since Firefly kicked off and according to Varah, business has never been better.

Using Facebook for commerce is quite the rage these days, so much so that social media specialists have coined a special term for the phenomenon: F-commerce. This new wave of online commerce includes mostly small businesses that exclusively use Facebook for their sales transactions. Varrah finds Facebook the most convenient way of reaching out to her market. “Because online ordering, especially two years back wasn’t as apt with credit cards, and PayPal still doesn’t work for Pakistan, I have kept the business to Facebook, which has worked out well for me,” Varah tells Newsline. An online business also had the advantage of eliminating overhead expenses, which was particularly necessary for her because, as a student, she did not have a big budget to invest into the business.

The process of ordering from Firefly is pretty simple. There is a complete list of all the products offered, and their photographs are categorised by theme. Once you’ve picked what you want, you place an order through email. Payment is made beforehand by cheques or money transfer. You can then pick up the product from Varah’s studio or have it delivered. Firefly offers two kinds of products: handcrafted (photo albums or greeting cards) or PVC products (which include key chains, refrigerator magnets and luggage tags). The handcrafted products are made entirely by Varah, while the production of the PVC items is outsourced. “I draw the designs on paper, which are then scanned and set on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. They are then emailed to the printer, who processes them for us,” Varah explains.

A big part of a business like Firefly is learning by trial and error. “The first printing place I tried did very unsatisfactory work, which was discouraging because I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my products. But eventually I found a reliable printer who has an eye for detail, and we’ve been working together ever since.” Experimentation with the materials used is also part of process. Since most of her items are printed on PVC, which is a type of plastic, Varah often tries different thicknesses and qualities of PVC to see which presents better results.

Having a passion for scrapbooking and craft-making, Varah attends to every order with enthusiasm. “All the products that I am asked to make have an interesting story behind them. I’ve made wall hangings for grannies, photo albums for newlyweds and other quirky presents,” she says. Given that her products have a personalised touch, it helps that her business is on Facebook, where she is able to interact with her customers and form relationships with them. She often dispenses tips and advice on craft-making on the Facebook page, as well as on her blog. Moreover, Firefly has also started conducting workshops in different cities to teach the basics of crafting. This gives her another platform on which to communicate with her customers. Earlier this year, Varah collaborated with other local businesses like hers to organize The Crafter’s Expo, an exhibition to showcase crafts. The exhibition proved to be a success, with over 50 stalls of arts and crafts.

One challenge of having as online business, according to Varah, is plagiarism. Other people often steal her designs from her Facebook page and claim them as their own. “There is nothing I can do to stop them, since Facebook pages are public. However, in such cases, my customers are ever ready to report infringement to the Facebook staff, so the photographs are soon taken down.” However, Varah’s experience with F-commerce is overall positive. “It is only through a social networking site like Facebook that awareness about Firefly could have spread as fast and inexpensively as it did.”

This article was originally published in the December 2012 issue as part of a larger story on online businesses.