Challenges in the job market, maternity and the struggle for the right to decide about one's own body: what defines today's woman? Whatever the answer, one thing is certain – it is necessary to break taboos. Breaking paradigms and deconstructing prejudices, a pelvic physiotherapist and a marketing specialist, both from Porto Alegre RS, uniram sex education and e-commerce to sell erotic and intimate self-care products exclusively for women with the online store VagiShop
The story of the business began with Ana Gehring's interest, one of the founders, for female sexuality. Graduated in Pelvic Physiotherapy from PUCRS, specialized in the area and began seeing women in private practice, teaching techniques like pumpkining – a type of pelvic gymnastics that strengthens vaginal muscles, providing benefits such as increased sexual pleasure and assistance in the treatment and prevention of urinary incontinence. Upon noticing her patients' recurring doubts, Anna decided to create an Instagram profile to educate and inform about female intimate health in a light and colloquial way. Thus, in 2016, the page was born@Vaginasemneura, which today totals 870 thousand followers
I have always been interested in female sexuality, primarily because it is a topic surrounded by taboos. At college, I already knew that was the path I wanted to follow. With the page, I was able to demystify the topic and bring knowledge to many women who would not have been able to attend a clinic. Prejudices are broken with knowledge, Ana says, that completes "Still today, we have many followers who view our content, but don't follow the profile out of shame or fear that they will see the name @Vaginasemneura in their profiles
E-commerce platform drives business
In 2019, the page's success led Ana to join with digital marketing specialist Nalu Dorscheid. Nalu, who already had experience with online commerce, saw the potential for monetization of Ana's initiatives, that accumulated.. The program revealed that our students also sought recommendations for complementary products. Then we launched our first product, o Vagifit. We never imagined we would have so much demand when launching, we had to organize for the demand, remembers
With the growth of sales, the entrepreneurs needed to seek technology to support the increase in website traffic. Then they adopted the e-commerce platformTray, belonging to LWSA, that allows creating online stores integrated with digital channels, in addition to facilitating marketing and sales actions, creating thus VagiShop, online store dedicated exclusively to intimate health and female pleasure, distinguishing itself from the traditional business of sex shops.
With the growth of digital commerce, anyone who ventures online needs to rely on solutions that offer secure and well-structured websites, including logistics services, payments and marketing, explainThiago Mazetto, director of Tray
The partnership with Tray allowed the entrepreneurs to review a sales strategy in another channel in time to achieve a record revenue on Black Friday 2023. We saw that the previous strategy didn't perform well, sales were very low in the monthly analysis. We created the store with Tray and, on the eve of Black Friday, and with the online store we broke our revenue record that year, highlights Nalu
Today's product portfolio which now includes intimate hygiene, cosmetics, pompousness and vibrators. Among the most sought-after items are soaps, intimate moisturizers and lubricants, in addition to other accessories
Facing taboos
From the beginning, The purpose of VagiShop was to unite education and service provision for female self-care. However, in a market still permeated by prejudices and its own challenges, Nalu highlights obstacles to business scalability.
Among the barriers are platform restrictions, that frequently classify content as inappropriate. In 2023, the Instagram profile was even deactivated under the claim of violation of platform guidelines. We had the same problem, in 2024, with YouTube. It was necessary to resort to legal action to recover our accounts, account from the marketing specialist
The taboo extends to partnership relationships, with the refusal of some influencers to collaborations with the brand, due to fear and shame of exposing oneself to such a sensitive topic. Consumers also seek discretion when acquiring the products. We use discreet packaging and, on the credit card statement, the store's name is an acronym. Secrecy is essential, customers feel intimidated,so much that most of the service calls are to know how discreet our shipping is.explain Nalu
Despite the challenges, entrepreneurs continue forging a path of success. Future plans include a proprietary line of intimate care products and an app, by signature, which will feature several health content specialists, sexual education and women's well-being
