Image via Publicist
When I think about the Latinx community, family comes to mind. We’re taught early on to look after one another and give back to our communities, supporting mom and pop shops that are run by Latin American immigrants. This thread that ties our vast community together fuels our motivation to create a better life for our families, and in turn, we’re progressing. As of 2020, the Hispanic buying power is at $1.9 trillion, according to the University of Georgia’s Multicultural Economy report. Companies are sitting on a gold mine, scrambling to tap into this nuanced demographic. But very few are approaching it with care and authenticity. Brittany Chavez, founder of e-commerce platform Shop Latinx, is taking the reins and investing into her own community by creating an online marketplace for small Latinx-owned businesses.
“Given that we’re the fastest growing demographic in the US, there are so many different companies that want to talk to this young woman, and are putting millions of dollars into trying to understand her and get her to trust their company,” says Chavez. “Here I am doing this authentically because I am her.” For Hispanic Heritage Month, we spoke with the Central American founder/CEO about launching the first-ever online marketplace for Latinx businesses and how she’s cultivating leadership within her team. Check out the conversation below.
Congrats on five years since launching Shop Latinx. Can you tell us about what’s been the most rewarding thing throughout this journey?
It’s helped me find community in identity, validity, and who I am when I think of my background and upbringing. I think a lot of us have endured identity crises or haven’t really felt like we belong because the way that we’ve been portrayed in mainstream media has been monolithic, or very stereotypical, when in reality, we’re very nuanced and multidimensional. We like Bad Bunny and Selena just as much as we like going sneaker shopping, or going on sites like Complex. There’s just this nuance that wasn’t really being spoken to so far.
Shop Latinx started as an Instagram account; I was really inspired by Humans of New York, and that storytelling component. I wanted to tell the stories of these incredible small businesses that I came across online through various hashtags. Latinidad is very vast. It’s an entire diaspora, and there’s so many people within that that identify as Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latinx, or Latine. Under those descriptors, there’s various personas and nuances. Someone who identifies as Hispanic might have a different character breakdown than someone who identifies as Latinx. During that time, that term [Latinx] was really new to me, but it resonated with me and my friends and the audience that I was attracting on our Instagram page.
I started to focus on this young, Gen-Z millennial Latina. Over time, I started to post products that I loved. I started to get a better sense of who she was and the type of content that she was looking for in terms of values, products, and brand stories. I started to then refine and curate the feed with the types of products I posted. It was a win-win situation. The brands were getting recognition, customers were finding new products and learning about the brands that they loved.
Given that we’re the fastest growing demographic in the US, there are so many different companies that want to talk to this young woman, and are putting millions of dollars into trying to understand her and get her to trust their company. Here I am doing this authentically because I am her. Over time, I saw this opportunity: What if Shop Latinx became a facilitator where this young woman can buy products and discover new products that she really loves? Our value proposition compared to a lot of online marketplaces is that we have this heart and soul that can’t be bought. We want to make sure that every brand that comes into our marketplace feels like we’re an addition, that we don’t take away from all the work and the branding that they put into their company, you know, so we need to make sure that that’s really tight.
The Latinx community is not a monolith. We all have different origins, from dialect to cuisine. How do you go about selecting the brands on your site and celebrating diversity within our community?
The way that we chose these brands that we currently feature is that we already got validation from our Instagram account when I used to post them back in the day; these were products that really resonated with the community. At the moment, we are looking for brands. We launched brand applications about a month ago and received over 300 submissions. Some are just starting out, and some are trying to find their niche. Right now, we’re looking for brands that have a compelling founder story, that are aligned with our mission and values, Latinx or BIPOC owned. On top of that, we don’t want to compromise on quality and branding. We want to make sure that there’s a product market fit within your community. We’re looking for brands that already have somewhat of a following. It doesn’t have to be big, but we want to make sure that your community loves your product. We’re also looking for people that really see us as partners because we’re still a very early stage company. We want people that can give us feedback on how we’re doing as a company. Right now, we’re in a period of gathering a lot of data to see how we can improve this experience for both the brand and the customers in our marketplace. We’re also focused on bulking up in beauty, fashion, and lifestyle, which also encompasses home goods.
Building a platform that is a first of its kind comes with a lot of excitement, and at times, pressure. Can you tell us what it was like to build an online marketplace for Latino-owned businesses that didn’t exist prior?
I come from a very unconventional background when it comes to founders overall, like the types of founders that are usually recognized in the space that I’m in, which is e-commerce or tech adjacent. I think that in itself was really hard. The biggest obstacle has been myself, overcoming what we all call imposter syndrome. But thankfully, I’ve surrounded myself with incredible, Black and brown mentors, investors and advisers. Other challenges are funding and keeping that hope I need to continue.
I love that you’re tapping into our community of creatives to not only help run Shop Latinx, but also designing and executing your line of merchandise. Can you speak on how you’re cultivating leadership and talent within your brand?
I think the best part of my job is that I get to wake up and work with such incredible Latinx creators. Our art director who designed the merch comes from Beautycon. Everyone in our team comes from amazing startups like Yumi or Bulletin, and it feels good to know that they can come to Shop Latinx and feel valued. The whole concept of our merch was about being seen, supported, and celebrated. I think that also comes from within the company culture. On a daily basis, we talk about how we’re feeling, if we’re green, yellow, red. That’s helped me leverage my empathy and be a good person and founder. I can tell someone’s having a bad day, so I’ll message them asking for a one on one. Even on Mondays, I’ve been pulling out tarot cards and ask, “What is the greatest lesson we’re going to have to work through this week?” I think keeping the team morale is good, not only for our mental health, but for the business as well. What’s so great about our mission is that the team is also tied to the community and its potential. We wouldn’t have gotten this experience, of working for a company that we love and that we’re really invested in, anywhere else.
Where do you see Shop Latinx in the next five years?
I feel like we’re just getting started in the US, and I want to make sure that we speak to this vast demographic in a way that’s authentic and won’t be compromised as we scale. We’ve yet to touch Latin America, so what does that look like? I think five years from now, there will be a global expansion of Shop Latinx. Latinx culture is becoming more and more mainstream, even with SZA collaborating with Kali Uchis singing a song in Spanish, Frank Ocean singing a song in Spanish, and I think that’s so beautiful. As Latinidad becomes more mainstream, Shop Latinx is going to grow exponentially from both an e-commerce standpoint, from a media standpoint. I think there’s a huge potential for us to tap into editorial and experiential events. What does a Complexcon for Shop Latinx look like? What does Shop Latinx having a tent at Coachella look like? How do we partner with these big brands that want to tap into this Latinx audience, but do it in a way that’s authentic? Same thing with these amazing creatives that are artists, singers. There are so many of us even within the Shop Latinx community. There’s a high concentration of incredible talent. So how can we still hit our monthly, yearly, quarterly goals, but also bring these incredible people within our community with us? And how can we highlight them? That’s kind of a high level of hope, and I think if I made it this far, it’ll happen.