From Being Designer to the CMO of Sociolla, Meet Chrisanti Indiana
Among e-commerces filling the Indonesian market, Sociolla is one of the pioneers in platforms that provide beauty products. Not only providing places for their consumers to shop for official products, but Sociolla also spread their wings in building media and community through lifestyle blogs, Beauty Journal, and SoCo, which provides user-generated reviews about beauty products. As a platform that has been around for more than five years, the creation of Sociolla itself was powered by the concern of Chrisanti Indiana, one of the co-founders, at how difficult it was for women to get their cosmetics online. Chrisanti sought the opportunity to turn the problem into a promising business focusing on beauty necessities.
Despite being one of the founders of the biggest beauty e-commerce in Indonesia, Chrisanti doesn’t come from a business or technology background. In fact, before building Sociolla, she was a designer in a branding agency in Sydney. Changing career path from being a designer to building e-commerce and now in charge as the CMO, Chrisanti faced various challenges. Back then, it had not been long since she started working, and there were many things she had yet to understand about business scenes. Her expectation toward herself could also be boomerang as it could bring down her motivation when something did not go according to her plan.
While some people might have some stigmas about millennials leading a company, she didn’t think her young age hindered her will to move forward. For Chrisanti, being young means she has more energy to move forward and make up for the lack of experience under her belt. It’s more important to work hard and let the result speak to everyone who doubts her.
As she faces countless challenges during the formation of Sociolla, one of the driving forces to move forward was believing that failure is not the end of her journey. In her interview with KumparanWOMAN, she also highlighted the importance of self-knowledge as a tip for women who wanted to thrive in e-commerce industries. Motivation could be different for everyone, as what drives Chrisanti to move forward might not work for other people. According to Chrisanti, it’s essential to have good self-knowledge to understand what we want, what our goal is, and find the motivation to move forward. It’s also just as important to have a growth mindset, so we would always seek for improvement and not get trapped in our comfort zone. Her neverending resilience drives Chrisanti to success, even getting acknowledged as one of thirty-under-thirty by Forbes under the category of retail and e-commerce.
After Sociolla is established, Chrisanti now focuses as the CMO of the company. She is in charge of making sure the marketing process of Sociolla is planned and executed correctly. Each business unit needs to have a well-thought marketing plan as the connector between the value Sociolla holds as a company and its targeted consumers, which vary in age range and locations. With the era of digital that makes marketing trends keep on changing, Chrisanti needs to be able to seek every opportunity, take risks when necessary, and open to any potential collaboration with everyone.
The core marketing strategy implemented by Sociolla is by prioritizing the connection between the company and beauty enthusiasts all over the country. They build engagements with their audiences through online platforms such as live beauty classes in social media, podcasts, Beauty Journal, and many others. Sociolla is also trying to get the trust of the Indonesian market by partnering up with over 150 official brands to convince the targeted consumers that they are trustworthy e-commerce in terms of buying legal and safe beauty products.
Leading the various marketing plans of Sociolla, Chrisanti thinks empathy also holds an essential key in keeping the balance of her team and company. She also considers it one of her strengths as a female leader, as she would be more sensitive toward the atmosphere of her team. During uncertain times like this, Chrisanti also thinks leaders must stay positive. While combined, empathy and positivity could help approach the team members and lift their spirit, as not everyone might understand what kind of obstacle they are facing. The comfortable atmosphere inside a team could bring out productivity and creative ideas, which allow her team to perform even better at work.
So, if you are looking forward to a career change or wanting to thrive in e-commerce industries, there is no need to be afraid of failure or wanting to be a leader. We are free to dream as high and achieve everything we want to in life. As we are still young, there is a lot of room for us to learn throughout the journey, as climbing up would not be a short process. It might be full of obstacles and challenges that would drain us. Just make sure to have good self-knowledge so we can use our strength to move forward. Remember that failure is not the end of the journey. It’s merely a stepping stone to make us rise even higher as we learn from our mistakes.
Written by Jasmine Raihana
References:
Kumparan Woman. Bincang Karier: CMO Sociolla Bicara Tantangan hingga Tips Berbisnis Kecantikan. https://kumparan.com/kumparanwoman/bincang-karier-cmo-sociolla-bicara-tantangan-hingga-tips-berbisnis-kecantikan-1v4Yh5sOQoc/full [Accessed June 28th, 2021]
Bisnis.com. Chrisanti Indiana Bagi Tips Menjalankan Bisnis E-Commerce Kecantikan di Indonesia. https://entrepreneur.bisnis.com/read/20200723/265/1270310/chrisanti-indiana-bagi-tips-menjalankan-bisnis-e-commerce-kecantikan-di-indonesia [Accessed June 28th, 2021]
MNews. Contek Kunci Sukses Chrisanti Indiana Pimpin Social Bella. https://mnews.co.id/read/inspirasi/contek-kunci-sukses-chrisanti-indiana-pimpin-social-bella/ [Accessed June 28th, 2021]
Youngster.id. Chrisanti Indiana : Bangun Bisnis Kecantikan Berbasis Teknologi. https://youngster.id/headline/chrisanti-indiana-bangun-bisnis-kecantikan-berbasis-teknologi/ [Accessed June 28th, 2021]
