Introduction
Wahi Hawaii was founded in 2018 by a local Maui family after seeing a plastic straw lodged inside a turtle's nose during a beach cleaning project. Moved by what they saw, they searched for plastic alternative resources and landed on bamboo, such as disposable bamboo cutlery and bento boxes.
As of January 2024, Wahi has doubled in revenue and has 40+ wholesale accounts on Maui, including Hyatt Regency Maui, Andaz Maui At Wailea Resort, and Hawaiian Airlines.
Tools Used
- Jungle Scout for SEO
- Shopify for product sales
- Amazon Seller for product sales
- Canva for graphics
- Adobe Creative Suite for graphic creation (Id, Ai, Ps, Lr)
- Meta Business Suite for Facebook Ads, Pages, Event Manager, and Instagram Ads
- Quickbooks for bookkeeping
- Alibaba for supplier communication
Amazon FBA Launch (Q1 2024)
Wahi launched its disposable bamboo cutlery on Amazon late December 2023. The product amassed 28 reviews and 70 unit sales in its first month. Using Jungle Scout to improve SEO, the product appeared on the first page of search results for "disposable bamboo cutlery".
Shopfiy Refresh (Q4 2023)
Before
After
Leveraging my previous experience in software development, I refreshed the Wahi Shopify site to look modern. I improved navigation flow on the new website and streamlined the flow of our sales channel. Since publishing this website on November 2023, site visits on this sales channel increased 27% YoY.
Business Strategy, Sales, and Marketing (Q3 2023)
As CFO of Wahi Hawaii, I prepared financials and budget planning each Fiscal Year. As COO, I proposed business strategies and operation optimizations to 2-3x our revenue YoY. Despite the Maui Wildfires in August 2023, Wahi Hawaii grew 52% YoY.
Using Adobe Indesign, I also prepared sales and marketing pamphlets for our in-person visits.
Photo Gallery
Special thanks to Esther Lee Photography @eslee for the photos, taken in October 2023.
