Craving Yellow a young Kenyan creative innovator’s authentic soul-searching blog Will Inspire You To e-commerce success.

She’s articulated, smart and self-aware.”I think my journeys have matured me,” she says. “Sometimes I believe I’m 30 years older than I really am.”Tongoi needed to be independent from a young age as she moved away from home, to South Africa for education, at age 17. Then it was off to the US for additional studies in political science and then to Australia for her first job — where she changed direction into social network marketing and online community administration. She finds herself back in her home country of Kenya, occupied nurturing a growing company that began when her creative character sought an outlet on the journey of self-discovery she found herself undertaking.While in the US she struck pieces on the self-portraiture of women of color and what it meant to be embodied in the manner that they were.Today Craving Yellow is surely a success by any blogger’s standards

How can you turn a successful and authentic online presence into a profitable business venture? In Tongoi’s case: By diving head-first into the opportunity, without being quite fully prepared.”It has only been four months!” She chuckles as she shares the story. In her interactions with local businesses in this area she began gaining an awareness of the business and one of her mentors asked why she wasn’t producing her own merchandise to fulfill consumer needs.This was the birth of her Craving Yellow beauty box — a product which combines the ease of carefully chosen beauty products for natural hair care and information about the best way best to stick to the treatment regime.She spent about 750,000 Kenyan shillings (US$7,400) on the goods for its first consignment of boxes using an eight-week payment arrangement.

“It was a massive risk I took. I have done no market research. I took on these products on a verbal agreement, without a contract in place. I don’t consider myself a pro marketer. However, I did sell them in eight months,” she says.Observing that very first sales drive, a follower in the US commented on her blog asking if she could buy the beauty box. Her site platform was e-commerce allowed, but she had no agreements or plans for international delivery.”I started calling different providers for transport after the orders were ready, but then got a call from Vicky Wambui from DHL, inviting me to get a meeting,” Tongoi states.The DHL Express team were quite hands-on. They spoke Tongoi through all of the requirements and even physically helped pack the dispatch boxes at the same stage. A valuable negotiated shipping rate, provided because the organization believes in Tongoi’s vision, led to the present reality where one in every five boxes currently ordered is for international shipment.Considering that the item is a luxury high-end beauty box selling for 5,000 Kenyan shillings ($49), this has increased Craving Yellow’s potential market and made the company instantly more viable.

Tongoi admits that she’s not the stereotypical small business type. She is, at her heart, a creative person. For my organization, I think if I keep the human desire at the middle, the money will follow along with that the money is just like a thank you for the support provided and that really meets that a need has been there,” she says.In a really short space of time Craving Yellow has evolved from being a popular blog to becoming a new for organic beauty product customers — offering specially curated goods in the beauty shop or workshops on the subject from the Craving Yellow classes.Lately Tongoi added her first branded merchandise — the Craving Yellow shampoo pub and lace bonnets. This is a collaboration with well-known firms in Kenya that have a strength in particular goods and then produce these items for her.”I feel that as we get the delivery arrangements perfect and the goods on offer precisely right, the worldwide buyers would readily supersede my regional buyers — they do have the buying power,” Tongoi states of their future plans.

CRAVING YELLOW