Parlour’s mission statement is to “bring the Caribbean economy online, helping small and large businesses grow and empowering a new generation to build their lives and make their communities more good”.
It starts as a salon.
But unlike the corner stores that are prevalent in communities in T&T and throughout the Caribbean, this one is online.
At parlorcaribbean.com, local telco TSTT hopes to replicate the parlor model as an online hub for local goods – and not just for T&T and the region, but for the world.
His innovation is in the choice of a distinctive Caribbean name that signifies the community.
But Parlour’s concept—getting entrepreneurs online and selling in the digital space—isn’t new.
In T&T, there are Planting Seeds, Caribshopper and Quickbox among others.
What makes the Salon different is its scale and size.
And it’s built and supported by TSTT’s ecosystem, says Keino Cox, assistant general manager of Emerging Services at the state-owned majority telecommunications company.
Cox, 43, began his professional career at TSTT straight from the University of the West Indies (UWI).
After 22 years with the company, he has seen it go through many changes.
As Head of Emerging Services, his team is at the forefront of the direction being forged for TSTT’s future as a digital services company.
This, he said, is important to the life of the organization.
He said the plan approved by the board of directors will see TSTT offer more electronic services from fintech, a mobile wallet, telehealth and even content creation.
The salon has been working for over 18 months.
It is a digital hub where you can consume or sell your product.
As a seller, TSTT receives a percentage of sales. It has a commission structure that starts at 6.5 percent.
But if you are not digitally literate or have your own online business or even registered, Parlor University (the educational element of the project) will help you on board and get you your documents so that you can be a seller digital.
As a buyer, you can access the e-commerce platform via credit card, bank transfer or cash on delivery.
Cox acknowledged that while T&T remains a largely cash-based society, there is another solution in the works, Paypr, which will be an online solution for people with access to a phone.
“The mobile wallet solution will transform and change the way we do business. With this, no money, no credit, just people. We have ways in which we will help democratize this,” he teased.
So why did TSTT take so long to roll?
“We went back over 12 years ago when we developed our software service. And our focus then was on software development. We have a fantastic team. As an organization you must have the right staff, you must have the right focus. And it’s no secret that TSTT has gone through several stages of transformation – in 2018 and this year. Many of them would have taken and consumed some of the energy and time required,” Cox explained.
“We didn’t start yesterday, maybe five years ago, but the real focus of the last two years was to get things going. And here we are today. So it’s been a journey, and now it’s accelerating. It takes time to develop these greenfield projects,” he said.
For Cox, pushing forward with Parlor was deeply personal.
He recalled traveling to Haiti as part of a Caricom team and seeing the destruction of that economy and thinking about how it could be transformed.
“I felt a personal need for my legacy to build something that could certainly be transformative,” he said.
That is why, he said, the Salon is not just for T&T, but for the Caribbean.
He noted that since launch, TSTT has been inundated with requests on how to get on board.
Ambitious goals
At the launch on August 25, Sean Roach, chairman of TSTT, said TSTT aims to grow Parlor “into the Caribbean’s largest online platform for buying and selling local and regional products”.
“With Parlor, the objective is simple – to be the gateway to the Caribbean, the single and comprehensive online source for all products of Caribbean origin. To achieve this goal, Parlor aims to make transactions with and within the Caribbean more simpler and more effective.
“Today, we launch the first phase of this project, in partnership with Export Centers Company Ltd (ECCL), with the launch of a national digital craft store on our Parlor platform that will showcase our diverse range of crafts. talented artists and artisans,” he said.
“Parlor’s ambitious and achievable vision is, and I quote, ‘to be the number one e-commerce marketplace in the Caribbean, a brand synonymous with online and mobile shopping in its markets.'” Our long-term goal is to partner with 100,000 sellers and enable them to attract millions of consumers to their products,” said Roach.
“Parlor is our platform, designed and developed by our people, to introduce our products to the world… products designed and manufactured by our people in T&T and in the region. It has been named, modified and adapted to reflect our Caribbean flair and culture and to meet the unique needs of our Caribbean artisans and entrepreneurs. Our people. Our products. Our platform. This is what differentiates it from competing products on the market,” TSTT CEO Lisa Agard said at the launch event.
Agard said the plan to create a national digital ecosystem for the craft sector. Craft-based businesses globally have a lot of work to do in terms of incorporating technology into their operations and capturing the benefits it offers in terms of being more data-driven, efficient and responsive to customers.
“Bmobile has the products and services that can digitally transform and support our small artisans and entrepreneurs and provide them with the same access to communications technology as any large corporation. The sheer scale, reliability and logistics that TSTT’s size, strategic partnerships and brand equity bring to Parlor will make it bigger and more high-profile and push it further and faster than any of its competitors. This will translate into greater sales capacity. And then, of course, there are all the additional features built into the Salon to create an entire ecosystem designed to meet the needs and support the goals of our small and young artists, artisans and entrepreneurs,” she said.
