Meet Jennifer and Grace – hailing from different states, speaking different languages, having different perspectives. But united by the most amazing common strand – Motherhood, nah we are kidding J Their love for SHOPPING is what brought them together and start AZ Tuckerbox, India’s first kids fashion subscription service.
Jennifer hails from God’s own country and is now settled in Chennai is a mother of lovely three year old Lil A (aka Alan). With 10 years of experience in sales and marketing Jen runs her own online clothing boutique “Myfaktory”. Whereas Grace is from Tuticorin, now settled in Chennai, is a mother of Lil Z (aka Zoe) is a digital marketer. She has completed her computer engineering and MBA from LIBA
AZ Tuckerbox is a unique concept. How you came up with the idea and then the name of the brand?
AZ TUCKERBOX is an all mom gang and being parents ourselves we aim at saving families time on shopping, while providing them a convenient (and fun) way to shop and share in the experience with their kids. Tuckerbox offers a unique, limited edition collection of comfortable fashion for kids. We curate a wide range of boxes which is available right from new-borns to pre-teens.
A box for every kid! A box for every theme! A box for every season or occasion!
Tuckerbox combines the luxury of personal styling with the convenience of home shopping; designed exclusively for the kids in your life and tailored to your budget. Apart from being India’s first kids fashion subscription service, Tuckerbox is evolving as a kids’ product discovery platform with many brands joining forces with us, to be what we call the Tuckerpals, our brand partners. Tuckerbox customers get special access to our partner products in the form of samples and discounts! It’s an exciting era for subscription economy!
When naming the brand, we were very clear that it had to be awesome and covering an umbrella of services that didn’t limit us to only kids fashion. 😉 We brainstormed and came up with a list of close to 50 potential names at least (no kidding), we both liked TUCKERBOX at first thought. Being from Chennai, “Tucker” (or should I say the Madrasi way TUCKERU) has a special place in our hearts as well. It is Tamil for ‘awesome’. It also is originally an occupational name for the English who traded in clothing.
Jen’s MyFaktory is a three year old business which has a great clientele and is pretty successful. So successful that one can even book tickets in IRCTC tatkal but not here. Yep everything gets sold out in 2 minutes flat (yep you heard us right, do check the group)
Looking to combat this problem Grace, one of the erstwhile admins there suggested we do pre-orders and also in keeping with the subscription economy trend we agreed it was a great idea to have curated fashion for kids!
Are Indian parents’ tastes changing when it comes to dressing up their little ones?
Preferences in children’s clothing have evolved over the decades and so should the shopping and delivery system. We are excited to be in the position to deliver personalized and budget-friendly fashion right at your doorstep. At TUCKERBOX, every item is curated in our Chennai studio specifically for the little ones in your life. Our virtual CRM brain (powered by Jen’s excellent client relationship skills aka power of interactions) and good taste in clothing 😉 remove all the difficulty, time and guesswork from your shopping experience.
Clothing like food is a necessity and especially when it comes to dressing up a tiny baby, as parents we always want the BEST, at the BEST price. This is the market we operate for. People who want the best brands at the jaw dropping prices. You get to buy clothes from us at price you cannot get elsewhere for Baby A to Baby Z, all included! J
There is a popular saying “Never do business with a friend”, yet you both are debunking this myth. So how you both came together? And how you maintain a balance between your friendship and the business?
Aah I’ve heard of that! Never mix up your roles and relationships. When it’s work we absolutely stick to our roles and otherwise we are friends or mothers of two Lil boys who are friends 🙂
What started as interactions between a helpful seller and an overenthusiastic client developed into a friendship that made us business partners. Now that we’ve been successfully ideating and executing AZTuckerbox for a while now, we love that our passions are shared and that’s what keeps us going. Being busy working mothers ourselves, our value our time, A LOT. Our work conversations are strictly work based. There is really never been a digression. We schedule our calls and stick to the timing. Fun note: We work while munching our breakfast, lunches and even in places normal people don’t work – 😉
You both are mothers yourself, how was your journey as a working mother and now mompreneurs? Filled with Guilt or not?
Well let’s just say Mom guilt is real. Sometimes it feels like being away from the kid for long and I miss them. On most days my partner doubles up and shares the load more than I have asked for, so that way I know don’t feel fully guilty. Anytime that I’m away from the baby I give the work I’m doing, my 100% and anytime I spend with my little, I give my 100% and that keeps me going – Grace
Having a balance can save the guilt trip. I have always been on a run and with a baby I was sure I wasn’t going to stop. When lil A was 3 months I started MyFaktory, a home based tiny store and over the years we have grown into a 6000 member store and when Tuckerbox was on the table I was worried whether I could manage it all. But thank god for supportive family and partner. We both ensure the Little ones get our 100% when we are home. – Jen
Any mommy wisdom you want to share with mothers out there?
Woman up! There’s literally NOTHING you can’t do. literally!