How Sonya Gill’s Ecommerce Store THE LNK Is Bringing South Asian Retailers To Your Doorstep

Canadian serial entrepreneur Sonya Gill knew that it was time for the North American market to be able to get easy access to the robust world South Asian fashion. And that’s why she created her ecommerce site THE LNK which launched in November 2022. Her company is the first global fashion and beauty online marketplace to only represent ethnically diverse indie brands. Valued at $10 million CAD and currently in a $1 million CAD seed funding round, Gill’s ecommerce site is a global hub of independent South Asian retailers from across South Asia giving them the opportunity to able to connect with a growing South Asian consumer base here in Canada and the United States. I chat with Sonya about her journey in seed funding, the lessons she has learned as a woman entrepreneur and why this venture makes sense now. 

HPA: Sonya you come from solid marketing and brand building space. Tell me more about this journey?

SG: I’m an entrepreneur and marketing expert with over twelve years of executive experience building brands. I created and eventually exited my first company, a marketing agency named Youzus, in 2015. From there, I worked as a freelance marketing consultant and noticed many brands struggled with marketing online in an oversaturated market. On the other side, my family is Indian-Canadian and my mom and I always struggled to find authentic, high-quality clothes that reflected our heritage. There was a clear disconnect between brands overseas creating these products and consumers in North American where there was demand but no connection between the two. That’s how THE LNK was born – creating a “link” to bridge that gap.

HPA: How and when did you come up with the idea for THE LNK?

SG: Over the pandemic everyone shifted to online shopping, especially for quality products in fashion and beauty, enabling people to buy from sellers all over the world directly. With convoluted algorithms, the noise of social media, and advertising not as cheap as it used to be, few brands managed to cut through the noise to reach actual buyers. I knew there had to be a better way for people to find the items they wanted from indie sellers overseas, with demand in North America already high and rising.

HPA: What was your idea for THE LNK?

SG: It all started with my mom looking for Indian fashion on the internet. She’d send me screenshots of items on non-credible looking sites, or sometimes she’d connect with sellers on Facebook marketplace that frankly just didn’t look reputable. The whole experience of finding high-quality products from merchants overseas was so fraught with mistrust, or unexpected delays and import fees. I wanted to create a reliable, trustworthy marketplace where all these ethnically diverse brands could live in one place and use our innovative technology to sell to consumers in North America.

HPA: What was the reaction you received when you were floating this around to friends and family:

SG: As the idea started with my mom, everyone was super excited and supportive. I think something like THE LNK has been a long time coming so everyone was on board.

HPA: Tell me the process from idea to business plan to shopping it around for funding?

SG: I spent a lot of time discussing my business plan with friends and family, then asking questions to potential customers to get a sense of what the demand really looked like. I had a pretty clear idea of what challenges merchants were facing from my previous experience as a marketing executive, so when the technology was ready, we tested the marketplace with brands in India and THE LNK just lifted off – we immediately started seeing results, and that was really appealing to investors.

HPA: Did you have any hesitations or concerns during this process?

SG: Crucially, I wanted to work with sustainability at our core. Fast fashion has sadly become the norm, so we wanted to ensure everything we sold was created with integrity and longevity in mind. This challenged us to ensure we were solving for sustainability early on, and we only sell products that are the very best in quality, created to last, and usually made to order, meaning fabric is never wasted.

HPA: How did the seed funding process begin? With women led-businesses being one of the lowest funded by VCs,  when you entered the process did you have any concerns about that?

SG: It’s true VCs back a shockingly low number of female-led startups, plus venture capital investing as a whole slowed down during the pandemic. I for one feel a good startup can provide an excellent alternative investment vehicle for those who, in the down market, might be shying away from real estate or publicly traded stocks. We are already well on our way to fulfilling the $1 million seed round, and many of our initial investors have been women who really see the long-term potential of THE LNK.

HPA: How did you transfer your past experience to this specific project during production?

SG: I’ve built a business from the ground up before and as a marketing executive, I’ve helped scale some of the world’s most recognizable brands, coaching dozens of C-suite and executive teams on e-commerce and digital marketing. Understanding the pain points of global shipping and the lack of trust in online marketplace in North America and overseas really shaped my strategy and goals for THE LNK, something that gave us an edge during early stages.

HPA: You launched in November 2022, what was your reaction when the first orders started flowing in?

SG: The exact moment sales started coming in we were actually in a management meeting. We all started jumping and shouting at the same time – we were so excited. It was an amazing moment, one that made it clear we were on the right path and building something that could really revolutionize the marketplace for the better.

HPA: THE LNK is all about bringing small South Asian-based products from South Asia. Can you tell me the list of countries that are on your platform?

SG: Currently brands on THE LNK are mostly based in India, but our plans for expansion are already way underway, moving into countries like Indonesia, Dubai, Turkey, Lithuania, Vietnam and countries in Africa.

HPA: As per the press release “It’s a smart marketplace, online aggregator, and lead generation platform that brings in brands through their previous websites (i.e. using headless commerce platforms); recommends relevant, high-quality, hidden gems from around the world to customers based on profile and shopping habits; and much more. Tell me more about this.

SG: We’re unique in that vendors run ad campaigns by just clicking a button that says “boost my profit or product” – our cost structures are simple and results-oriented. There is an opportunity here to really cater ads to a brand’s target demographic at the fraction of the cost of say Google or Facebook.

HPA: This is an online marketplace so any company can list their item?

SG: In theory, but we vet all our indie brands for quality and logistics. We have a page on our website where you can fill out an application, which is followed by a meeting to make introductions and vet the brand in terms of quality and reputation. We run checks on everything that goes into building a reputable brand. Once a brand is selected, we begin to integrate their products onto the backend of THE LNK platform.

HPA: You call this the “first global fashion and beauty online marketplace to only represent ethnically diverse indie brands”.  You are probably wondering why didn’t anyone think of this, right?

SG: I think that’s a fair question and others have tried before us. It comes down to a question of timing and technology. Marketplaces have tried to sell these types of products before, but never with the type of portal technology we’ve managed to create. In this regard, THE LNK is truly innovative in creating a tool that’s intelligent enough to be truly accessible. This was no easy feat. Once a brand is selected, we integrate their products seamlessly into THE LNK platform, something that’s hugely complicated to engineer, and took us a long time to figure out. But it was worth it as what we offer is very lucrative to our brands. Others may have seen the gap in the market before but THE LNK comes from this mutual value and building a truly innovative platform to make this happen.

HPA: The fact that there is free shipping, free returns, and the consumer doesn’t have to worry about additional duties such a great selling point. 

SG: I was keen to invest time in finding the right shipping partner who could handle shipping, returns, tax and handle duties on an international scale. Eventually we established a relationship with E-Shipper, a Canadian shipping company who’s warehouse infrastructure could easily handle these demands, providing customers with a 60-day money back guarantee return policy.

HPA: Taking into account the North American South Asian population which continues to grow, tell me the value of connecting smaller newer brands from South Asia to North American consumers?

SG: From the consumer standpoint, they can find beautiful pieces, completely authentic and unique, at great prices. For indie brands that don’t have large marketing budgets, they are able to connect with the right consumer on one platform.

HPA: When you hit a hurdle during this process how do you overcome it?

SG: Building a business is a journey fraught with challenges, but these hurdles are part of the journey – making you think and build differently is never a bad thing in terms of innovation. For me, and for the team, it’s about being proactive about research and identifying the right questions to ask, and the right answers or strategies to adopt. Often these kinds of innovations help shape the business, continually redirecting you to new solutions.

HPA: What was one of the biggest surprises to you while creating this platform? Was there anything that you experienced that dismayed you? And how did you move past that?

SG: Demand from buyers was high very quickly. We knew the market was rife for a solution like THE LNK, but the sheer volume of interest and orders was still something we hadn’t fully anticipated. This was a great surprise to have, and we’ve moved very quickly to fulfill demand.

HPA: Tell me the reaction from the businesses owners/designers who now have the opportunity to list their items here?

SG: We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from our brands. Recently a brand said THE LNK made them feel heard, that the technology nailed down what they needed “to heal the aches and pains” of their business.

HPA: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are jumping right into the deep starting a company?

SG: It might sound counterintuitive but the best time to build a company is while the economy is slower – so now is ideal. This will give you the opportunity to test the waters and get the logistics of your business going to work out any kinks while things are quieter.

HPA: What would you say to women-led businesses who are shopping around for seed funding?

SG: Firstly, making key relationships is crucial. Business can sometimes come down to who you know and your reputation, so fostering strong bonds is important in the early stages. Secondly, keep going. Be persistent and don’t take no for an answer. Remember that one ‘no’ doesn’t mean everyone will say no. If you have conviction and determination that’s half the battle, and if you’re confident in your direction and idea, funding will follow.

Main Image Photo Credit: THE LNK