( ENSPIRE Man Code 101 ) Former MillerCoors Marketing Exec and High-Profile Influencer Launch eCommerce Marketplace FLOURYSH for the Black Brands
ENSPIRE Contributor: Liam Marks
FLOURYSH is changing the eCommerce space as we know it. Co-founders Steve Canal and Enitan Bereola are heavily invested in Black culture and have been for several years. FLOURYSH is an online market for Black businesses and founders to flourish. It is also the duo’s launching pad for cultivating Black brands. As a former MillerCoors executive and creator of Miller Lite’s “Tap the Future,” a competition that handed business owners the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of Daymond John from a panel of judges. As for Entian, his work as a best-selling author, culture and relationship commentator, and Black Enterprise Magazine “Young & Bold Business Leader,” demonstrates his love and appreciation for Black culture.
From music to movies to social media, black culture influences mainstream culture. In the eCommerce space, however, large brands with huge financial backings are at the top of that pyramid. FLOURYSH seeks to be the place that helps bridge the gap between Black-owned brands and founders to their consumers. So far, they have amassed over 1,500 available products with about 100 brand partners today and growing.
ENSPIRE spoke with Steve Canal and Enitan Bereola for more about FLOURYSH.
What makes your eCommerce site differently unique to others?
Steve Canal: What makes our FLOURYSH™️ Community e-commerce site so unique besides the 3,000+ premier black-owned products that are offered from vegan lip gloss and pancake mix, coffee beans farmed in Africa, pet products and so much more is the storytelling feature that we make available. We interview every brand that’s onboarded onto FLOURYSH™️ creating a platform allowing the founders to tell their story. Each interview is turned into a FLOURYSH 5 visual interview which is also transcribed for LinkedIn.
Enitan Bereola: http://FLOURYSH.com is bigger than eCommerce. We have a thriving community that invests in each other’s dreams. Our #CommunityCommerce arm brings businesses, storytellers, and potential customers together into one mutually beneficial online ecosystem. We have brand Family Meetings that every brand on the platform is invited to where we discuss growth strategies, and business opportunities, and share resources. FLOURYSH isn’t just a cute name — it’s our mission. FLOURYSH™ innovative technology makes it simple to shop diverse brands all in one place. All brands have access to the community to meet other brands and discover ways to grow their brand. They have access to discounts with Tech Partners, Managed Services, IRL events, and seller enablement opportunities. Behind the brands are real people. We’re committed to the founders and their families. [F] with FLOURYSH™, Get discovered, increase sales and own the data. We’re different.
Where did the idea to start this site come from originally?
Enitan Bereola: When supporting your people is a lifestyle! The idea to start FLOURYSH™ came from an ongoing desire and dilemma to buy Black. I say desire because we want to wake up in a home full of Black art, Black wellness, Black beauty, and Black Fashion. It’s not a lot to ask, but a lot to aggregate. The value of ideas birthed through our spirit, conceived by our minds, and co-created with our hands is incalculable. The dilemma was wanting something that didn’t previously exist. We appreciate the lists, links, and never-ending internet tabs, but now we’ve got everything Black in one place.
What has the growth been like for black business owners who use your site?
Steve Canal: FLOURSYH was created to be an extension for our brand partners providing an incremental lane of opportunities not only in sales but with media and experiential as well. Brands are lowering their customer acquisition costs by getting discovered on our platform, media interviews are taking place, sales are happening across the board and they aren’t category specific meaning the data is displaying diversity amongst our shoppers.
Why is it important to elevate black brands in the eCommerce space?
Enitan Bereola: Elevating Black brands is an essential element to the entrepreneurial explosion we’re experiencing. Too often we’re left out of the conversation, but there’s been a moratorium on impostor syndrome. We are no longer bringing the table to the room and asking for a seat. We are building our own stadium full of Black brands to play ball in. Providing a platform through our lens with technology that understands us gives visibility, viability, scalability, and sustainability to emerging and established brands.
Steve Canal: Year after year it’s getting more and more expensive as a new brand to cut through the clutter of the thousands of other campaigns and ads running and maintaining your storytelling to your target audience and lifers. By creating a community-based platform we can raise the tide becoming a benefit for all. Every new visit to the page is an opportunity for discovery and potential growth for each brand.
Can you explain the value of black businesses in commerce?
Enitan Bereola: Approximately 4.3% of the 22.2 million businesses in the U.S. are Black-owned, and less than 1% are generating a median profit margin greater than 20%. But statistics don’t tell the full story. Black-owned businesses fill gaps in the market closing the racial wealth gap to maintain a positive cycle of business growth all while serving as a celebration of Black culture with representation that encourages kids [the future] to own the game; don’t play the game.
Steve Canal: With black business in commerce comes culture and a deep, diverse way of presenting products to the world. Similar to music and how the black mindset molded and created Rock & Roll, Jazz, Country Music, and Hip Hop you get that with vegan goods, apparel, beauty, games, and many other creative products. It’s also an opportunity to create a legacy and generations that are now developing a business mindset with strategy. 100 years ago we weren’t afforded the opportunities we do today so now we not only get to create, we can now scale and own what’s being sold.
As the name suggests FLOURYSH has continued to flourish. They continue to grow their brand and movement for black culture and representation. Their work to elevate black voices and businesses’ has shown a continued desire to represent black entrepreneurs and sellers in a market where often they have been vastly kept out of. Their products range from clothes to beauty, to natural and organic foods and drinks and so much more. Be sure to check out FLOURYSH on their website, and Instagram.
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