Tobi.com Brings Eco-Chic to E-Tail Landscape
Tobi (www.tobi.com) is all about the shopping experience. Co-founders and partners Catherine Chow and Corina Nurimba felt a lack of personal experience when it came to online retail. “We wanted to focus on one-to-one service like going into a boutique and talking to a sales associate,” Chow said.
Named after the first customer to Azalea, Chow and Nurimba’s bricks-and-mortar store in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, Tobi has been offering customers the latest in contemporary fashion since its launch in June 2007.
The fellow Cornell University grads fused Chow’s hospitality and customer service background with Nurimba’s architectural design experience to create Tobi. “We always loved fashion and launched Tobi.com from a consumer’s point of view with easy-to-wear fashions that are also individual,” Chow said.
Tobi achieves an intimate, friendly setting by allowing customers to shop with a Tobi stylist. Stylists are readily available to answer customer questions or provide tips. “Our customers can talk to us and to a knowledgeable stylist in a fun and engaging way,” Chow said.
Chow and Nurimba are environmental advocates, as well as fashion enthusiasts. Eco-Tobi is a prominent aspect of the site and features profiles of companies, organic fabrics and sustainability guides in addition to eco-friendly fashions for men and women.
“We wanted to reach out to an audience who loved fashion and let them know that there is an alternative that isn’t considered crunchy or hippie,” Chow said. Eco-Tobi seeks brands that are committed to the environment. The lines carried are ensured to use certified organic cotton and eco-friendly processing methods and to be produced sweatshop-free, according to Chow.
Tobi also uses recycled materials for all shipment packaging and partners with Carbonfund.org to offset any carbon emissions from transport of the products sold.
Earth Day is “Earth Month” on Eco-Tobi, in which organic, eco-friendly and socially conscious fashions from brands such as Stewart +Brown, Loomstate, Toms shoes and Edun are highlighted.
A redesign of the site’s layout is in the works. The home page will feature Chow and Nurimba greeting and welcoming visitors to the site. (Tobi receives approximately 850,000 visitors a month, according to Chow.) There will also be photos of stylists walking visitors through the various products and answering questions regarding styling and sizing.
Tobi has an extensive editorial section, which includes a lookbook of outfits put together by the stylists, the Tobi blog, a style guide, a trend report and commentary from designers themselves. One of the latest posts is from David Lim, creative director of Los Angeles–based Kasil jeans, discussing his design team’s latest brainstorming session.
