Fatima Said has been in the business of building online businesses since she was 16.

Growing up in Austria, Fatima and her two brothers built a subscription web hosting service in 1999.

She says, “This was before Amazon and the Cloud. By the time I finished university, we were in the top five web hosting companies in the US, had 120 employees and five offices around the world.”

Fatima completed a Masters of Business Systems (a combination of software engineering and business administration) and moved to the US to be closer to the customer base.

Fatima says that she came to Australia to ‘take a breather’. The decision to start eWave arose when she saw the opportunity here.

“I got to know a few people here and it soon became clear that there was a big gap in the market. The US was way ahead of Australia in eCommerce at that time [2009]. I had spent the past 10 years in the shoes of a business wanting to sell products online. Back then, we had no tools or technology to help us. I realised that I could save people 3 - 5 years of trial and error by helping them get set up.”

Today, eWave’s customers include Canon, Nestle, Nike, The Accent Group that owns shoe brands like Platypus and Hype DC, and the Sussan Group.

When it comes to the Be MPowered website review workshop, Fatima says that that the main thing to remember is that customers are expecting you to go to them, whether it’s on Instagram, Facebook or in real life.

“Millennials are the buying generation and they are not loyal to a brand - they are loyal to an experience. They want to understand the stories and the purpose behind the brand,” says Fatima.

“You need to understand who you are, why are doing whatever you are doing, and what value you are driving for the customer.

“Go really broad, to begin with, and then see where the traction is - where the sweet spot is. Get really good at one thing and make it your niche. Find your focus and your key differentiators, and then get your name out there for that,” says Fatima.

Don’t miss out

Fatima is the co-founder of eWave, an independent business transformation agency with commerce at its core. She is speaking on the website review panel at Be MPowered. Get your ticket to Be-MPowered here. This workshop is limited to 20 people and it's first in, best dressed.

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