Gift Shop Plus Spring 2021

Yes She May! By Debbie Eisele

Mei Xu, founder and CEO of Yes She May and also the founder and CEO of BlissLiving Home and Chesapeake Bay Candle, launched a consulting service in 2019 to help women grow their businesses around the globe.

When the pandemic arrived in 2020, Xu created Yes She May, an e-commerce platform to help assist women-owned businesses and address the retail challenges the virus created. “We’re on a mission to elevate women’s business by showcasing innovative, well-designed products made by women-owned brands from around the world,” said Xu. “Yes She May is a new online shopping site to discover fashion, beauty, wellness and home products designed by women for women.”

As factories shut-down and businesses were disrupted during the pandemic, Yes She May helped businesses by establishing this robust platform that allows Xu and her team to work remotely with the owners and introduce them to clients seeking women-owned brands. “We also provide each female-founded brand on our site with marketing, PR, professional photography, virtual events and branding,” she elaborated..

Yes She May is focused only on women-owned brands and it curates its collections in a manner that allows every brand to have “its own voice.” As of now, businesses from five continents and 12 countries are involved in the platform.

“Each brand gets front and center space on our site and we make it easy for our 6 female founders to speak about their journeys,” Xu shared. “We build closer connections between consumers and brands, making it possible for women to support other women.”

Xu explained that any brand on its e-commerce site must be at least 50% woman-owned, or more. To allow each brand to maintain “its own voice,” Xu emphasized that it only allows four brands each month onto the platform, which allows Yes She May to provide the time and focus each business deserves.

Yes She May’s strategy is to engage with consumers through all social media platforms, and it promotes the brands on its site through digital ads and email marketing.

“At the moment we are doing similar engagement with all brands and are testing all channels. We notice that Instagram and other social media channels are getting lower ROI and we need to monitor the true sustainability of the marketing strategy — it is a very dynamic world!”

Currently, Yes She May is strictly a consumer e-commerce site, and wholesale opportunities are not available. “We believe there is always more we can do, but the help we are giving our women is the most impactful now,” explained Xu.

When asked how other retailers can become involved or benefit from this platform, Xu said: “It is a good question, I think we can work together, instead of in silos! Our affiliate program allows for consumers to buy from us directly and we share profit with our affiliate partners.”

“Other retailers should know that we have not figured everything out,” she said. “We are seeing a lot of trends from consumers and retail e-commerce is a rapidly changing landscape, but let’s keep sharing and supporting one another!”

For more information on joining the Yes She May platform or becoming an affiliate, contact Allyson at aburkhardt @yesshemay.com, or visit www.yesshemay.com.