Innovation

The business displays the work of small entrepreneurs on a website for both their advertisement and further sale. It is a new business model that focuses primarily on Mexican fashion designers and other entrepreneurs who have just started their business, all of this with the hope of expanding their market base and helping them through the tough course of the first years after starting a business.

The company has contributed to exporting and selling multiple products to the USA and Canada. It gives the platform for other small companies to introduce their products into a vast market, and as Mr. Sepúlveda said, “Having the product listed on the web page is completely free, we just charge a certain percentage depending on the final price of the product.” This way small entrepreneurs won’t have to add further fixed costs that are, in many cases, the cause of death of young companies.

Inspiration

The Black Sox has a peculiar origin story, Mr. Sepúlveda found himself in Canada in 2011. While he was there, browsing through Facebook, he found a link of online courses to obtain a Google certification in web pages programming, but at first he was uninterested. A few hours passed by, and Mr. Sepúlveda was now enjoying some video games, FIFA to be precise; finishing game after game, he suddenly grew tired and the thought of that Facebook post he saw earlier struck his mind. Finally he gave in and decided to take the course. That seemingly unimportant decision probably changed his life and that of others.

This knowledge helped him develop the web platform for his first business idea that he would call Black Sox, but a few minor changes would be needed for it to become the firm that it is today.

The company had a totally different business model when it first started, it used to be a monthly subscription-based goods delivery service, sending to their subscribers men's beauty products such as razors, shaving cream, and even socks (hence the name). The Mexican market, as he commented, wasn’t ready for subscription-based products, maybe it was due to the lack of trust or other factors, but with this path, The Black Sox would have had a short story. This is when his former associate, Mr. Flores, intervened and opened Mr. Sepúlveda’s eyes to a non-exploited market.

Mr. Flores had multiple friends that had just started their own fashion brands, but they all lacked a way to promote their clothing lines. As explained by Mr. Sepúlveda, “He knew I was good at making Internet pages, so he told me about this opportunity and I took it.” Thus, The Black Sox changed purpose and focused on promoting Mexican brands to other countries. With his contacts in Canada, Mr. Sepúlveda managed to enter a foreign market more easily, and local products from small producers are displayed to people in Canada and the U.S.

His objective, someday, is to be able to sell to Europe and become a sort of Amazon that only promotes local small brands.

Overall impact

This business model is advantageous in many ways. It helps small or start-up companies that do not have the resources to have a platform where they can expose their products without any cost, which helps them considerably. It also helps make the economy of the business better, which in turn causes the country's economy to grow. And this also encourages the society to buy and consume local and support the work of Mexican companies.

Business benefit

This company is a tool that helps small or start-ups companies by giving them a platform to promote their products with no cost, until they have a sale, which in that case they usually will have a 13% commission, but it may vary depending on the price of the article.

It also helps the Mexican brands to expand their business and gain international recognition.

A great example of this is a brand of gourmet sauce called "Mariola" that is made in Tampiquito, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and it has sales in Canada and the U.S.

So companies that would normally struggle to promote their products locally, have the opportunity to exhibit their artisan merchandise internationally, without any further cost. This represents a huge opportunity, giving an enormous potential to small businesses, and thus fulfilling one of the U.N.’s objectives for sustainable development, regarding economic growth.

Social and environmental benefit

This innovative business provides a platform for emerging designers, artists, and entrepreneurs to not only sell their products but also to create and position their brands online and worldwide. This not only benefits the economy locally, preventing customers from buying from mass producers or imported goods, but also provides a good quality product to them. This supports the strategy of consuming local for improving the economy, and besides that it provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs to dare to go bigger and sell their products at a larger scale. The customers are benefited with a product of their liking.

Interview

Alejandro Sepúlveda, Mr.