Customer Profile : Cantik Swimwear
Who are you? What is your business and what do you do?
Catherine Heenan is designer/director of Cantik Swimwear.
Cantik Swimwear (Cantik pronounced ‘chun-tick’ meaning ‘beautiful’ in Bahasa Indonesian) is a swimwear label designed for bold and strong women all over the world.
Cantik specializes in one pieces and bikini separates with cuts inspired by classic vintage styles & contemporary fashion silhouettes known for its minimal coverage to celebrate the female form.
How long have you been around?
Cantik was founded in 2013 while designer and director Catherine Heenan was finishing her degree in Environmental Humanities and Development. Born out of a love of Brazilian swimwear and Catherine’s difficulty finding bold and minimal cuts, she decided to create her own.
What sort of products/services you provide?
Swimwear in luxury fabrics designed with refined femininity, quality detailing, daring cuts and unique prints. They are a luxury swimwear label specialising in Brazilian cuts and have customers in over 50 countries in both retail and wholesale.
How did you get started in eCommerce and what platforms do you sell on (ebay, magento etc)?
Cantik has always been sold online using Shopify as its e-tail platform, which allows a lot of customisation and has facilitated the brand’s rapid growth since 2013 until present, selling to over 50 countries around the world.
Why this business?
Cantik Swimwear believes in acting mindfully and responsibly with ethical consciousness at the heart of the label. Catherine focused her studies specifically on the rights and autonomy of workers in Indonesia during her degree, and strongly believes in empowering its manufacturers and employees to create swimwear that looks great, and consumer’s wear satisfactorily knowing its origins.
What sets you apart from others? What makes you unique?
Cantik means ‘beautiful’ in Indonesian and our brand really encompasses this notion. Our swimwear is feminine yet bold and daring.
How has the business grown and developed?
Cantik has had impressive growth from its conception, in large part due to its strong following on social media with customers sharing images of themselves wearing Cantik swimwear on beaches internationally. The accessibility of the online store and the reasonable price points contribute to the success and the product really sells itself.
What challenges has the business faced?
There have been many late nights and early mornings for Catherine and the team over the years. Producing any product overseas comes with many difficulties and delays, however the final result is always worth the wait and the extra time spent sampling and experimenting. Growing the Cantik team has allowed the brand to grow steadily and create some great processes and steps forward. As the business expands there are constantly new challenges to face but that’s what keeps it exciting!
Did you have any shipping system before ReadyToShip? What was it? Or was it all ‘manual’?
No, before Ready To Ship we shipped manually. When we started using Australia Post’s eParcel having a shipping system such as Ready To Ship was 110% necessary, Shopify cannot talk directly to eParcel. Setting up Ready To Ship was really seamless. The tutorials are easy to follow.
Ready To Ship is logical and sends our order data straight to eParcel. We were going to give up on eParcel as the the setting up was really difficult and Australia Post offers very little support. The team at Ready To Ship helped us figure everything out, even technical issues we were having with the eParcel system.
How did you find out about ReadyToShip?
Through Shopify. We generally go off app recommendations given by them.
We have now been able to reduce the amount we print, that’s been a definite plus. Everything is streamlined now.
The chat support is wonderful. The support team are always happy to help and do so quickly and thoroughly.
What are your best ecommerce tips for others?
Utilise the use of third party apps. It has saved us so much time in not having to figure out coding or hiring gurus.