Estimated reading time: 8 Min
Ricardo Rehfeld was born in Germany but fell in love with Mexico. His trip to Latin America showed him up close and personal the world of entrepreneurship and helped him to understand what strengths LATAM has in terms of startups and business opportunities.
From one of these revelations, Cherish was born, a brand of sexual products that is committed to being the main platform for love life in Latin America. In Mexico, his talks, video conferencing and professional customer service are gaining the trust and affection of the public. This is their story!
Frank: Where did the idea of creating Cherish come from?
Ricardo: I am Alemán, my first contact with Mexico was ten years ago at a social service in Puebla, in a household. I loved the experience and went back to university for an internship, in a consultancy called Endeavour, which is well known in Mexico; it was my first contact with the world of entrepreneurship, of start-ups, and then I finished my career in Costa Rica.
I was always left with the idea of doing something with Mexico, something between Germany and Mexico, in which I could support SMEs, Start Ups. So at the end of my degree, I founded a consultancy where we did very basic things such as market research and analyzing if a product from Mexico had opportunities to be profitable in Germany and vice versa.
From there, several projects came out, we were able to grow our company and we achieved a joint venture with a biotechnology company in Guadalajara and not to make the story so long, one of the products we made in that company was a probiotic lubricant, that was my first approach to that world of love life.
Nowadays Cherish is a company dedicated to offering products for love life, we sell sex toys and we do a lot of sex education.
Frank: Have you found cultural and market-level differences between Europe and Mexico, or well, between all of Latin America and Europe, in terms of erotic products?
Ricardo: Yes. There are a lot of differences, they are two different worlds. At the social and cultural level, Europe has already accepted many things and has managed to conquer many things that in Latin America are still subject to many taboos and many stigmas. And this for a company that sells sex toys is something key that must be understood and mastered.
To understand that these differences exist is also to understand that there is enormous potential between both regions that we can take advantage of.
Frank: Were they born as a physical store or as an ecommerce?
Ricardo: We were born 100% digital. That was precisely the idea from the beginning, because especially in the sex toy industry, it's normal for the buyer to want some privacy, or at least little interaction with other humans and in traditional sex shops the environment is not as desired, people don't feel comfortable.
That's why we wanted to create an online space where people feel at ease, where you obviously have the toys but you also have a lot of information and you also have trained customer service. In fact, we have several sexologists who can explain the products and their uses to you online.
Frank: Before the pandemic?
Ricardo: Yes, in fact, with the pandemic, we already had an infrastructure to continue growing and I think it helped us that we were already working.
Education as a basis for trust
One of the keys to Cherish's success has been to establish a content strategy where the quality of information and educational and outreach efforts allow them to create a community formed among their target audience. A community that trusts the brand and therefore consumes it.
Frank: Has it been hard for them to enter the Mexican market? I understand that culturally in Latin America we are perhaps a little more closed to these issues than in Europe.
Ricardo: Yes. The truth is. And I also think that there are two themes here: the culture of entrepreneurship and the issue of sexual culture itself. On the entrepreneurial side, Mexicans are super affectionate, welcoming you with open arms, supporting you, recommending friends and business partners. That part of starting with the start-up structure was an excellent experience in Mexico.
And the other part is the cultural theme of the product we have. It is true that there is still a lot to educate, to talk, to understand about issues of sexuality in Mexico, but I think that having created Cherish at this time was ideal because Millennials, our generation, are already much more open to this type of topic.
Frank: What do you think is the most needed thing in terms of sexuality in Mexico? On a cultural level I mean.
Ricardo: Platforms with quality content and information. Authoritative and knowledgeable sites, with sexologists and professionals who generate quality content and help guide people. We there have struggled to position ourselves.
Frank: I understand that they have a team of sexology professionals at Cherish, right?
Ricardo: Yes, in fact our first full-time employee, Celeste, was our first sexologist. And she's our star sexologist. She studied psychology and then a master's degree in sexology.
And not only do we offer customer service, but we also generate content, with Celeste and with other sexologists that we have. This content is of high quality, produced by professionals in their field and I think that is very valuable to the consumer.
Also read: HoliHerb, bringing natural balance to all of Mexico
Frank: What kind of products does Cherish have?
Ricardo: We mainly sell sex toys, where we focus, especially on beginner products, products for people who are buying a sex toy for the first time. We attack that target because we precisely want to be the ally that guides you through the world of sex toys.
These products are simple and affordable and seek to create a good experience. There we have different products for couples, for women, for men and also then we have a catalog of wellness products such as lubricating and stimulating gels and a catalog of candles and gift products for dates such as Valentine's Day.
Frank: What do you think is your main lead generation channel?
Ricardo: I think, in general, the informative work we do. For example, the sexual is our blog where we generate content, videos, meetings and now we are starting with specialized appointments where you can talk directly with our sexologists.
This has all been done digital because of the pandemic, but we have a project that we are taking up again, which are the famous Cherish meetings, which look like the Tupperware Parties. These are events where the sexologist comes to your house for a bachelorette party or for a meeting, and does educational work in sexology.
In addition, we have returned to different bazaars in Mexico City and hopefully soon in other cities.
Frank: Do you have a lot of offline activities?
Ricardo: We are very limited by guidelines on social networks and Google. Because of the type of product, they don't usually let us run advertising campaigns and we have to resort to forms of promotion other than paid online marketing campaigns. We need to be more creative.
For example, those who live in Mexico City have probably already seen Cherish's van with a giant toy upstairs and we have copied the famous message from the old iron in Mexico City saying “Vibrators, dildos are sold, etc...” and I think it's a lot of fun and we've had very good results, because people get out of it to see that, in a positive way, and it generates laughter and good times. And that's what we want the Cherish brand to be: a happy experience.
Discreet, on-time and perfect deliveries
By the very nature of the product that Cherish sells, deliveries must be discreet, on time and with continuous communication with the customer. These elements define a perfect delivery and for Cherish this is not optional, but the norm: all deliveries must be like this. That's why they looked for Cubbo.
In fact, the possibility of counting on fulfillment in Mexico City has allowed Cherish to guarantee same-day shipping in the capital, maintaining the discretion and precision that its customers value in each order.
Frank: How do they get to Cubbo?
Ricardo: We came to Cubbo because it was recommended to us by our business angels, our investors. I had very good contact with Josu and Brian, who are the founders of Cubbo, and looking for them was the need to solve a happy problem: we had grown so much that we couldn't control the logistics issue well.
We needed an ally that could operate in the perfect way when it came to logistics. And I had the rapprochement with Cubbo when it began its operation last year, we evaluated and decided to wait a bit until our order volume was optimal and now if we changed the logistics operation and left it in the hands of Cubbo.
We want to offer the best customer service in delivery and in our case more. The issue of discretion has to be perfect. The customer must be well informed, the product must be delivered discreetly and on time. And we are seeing that Cubbo does this for us and we are achieving it.
Frank: Was Cubbo your first logistics operator?
Ricardo: No, we had another one before, but we decided to switch to Cubbo because of several issues: first, scaling. We have activations on dates such as Valentine's Day or the Hot Sale, where we have up to 500 orders in one day. These flash sale points used to take up to three or four days to process, now, with Cubbo, we pass the first flash sale point and get it out in 24 hours.
Then the interesting topic that Cubbo offers same-day delivery, which allows us to be competitive with Amazon and Mercado Libre, especially in Mexico City, which already offer it. And finally, the issue of cost and operation. Cubbo has a good price in terms of volume costs and is ideal in terms of operation. Before, it took a long time for our team to process logistics, now this is in the hands of Cubbo.
Frank: What are your future plans for Cherish?
Ricardo: We want Cherish to be the number 1 platform for love life in Latin America. And for that we need to expand to other countries. There I think that Cubbo will once again be fundamental because they are already creating that logistics network in different Latin American nations and we will continue to be allied with them, expanding as a team.
Are you looking for an ally that enhances your delivery process, compliance and customer satisfaction? Do not hesitate to contact us, we are the best Fulfillment center for ecommerce in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, just click Here.
During 2021 in Cubbo:
* Our customers registered savings of 21% in operating costs
* 97.1% of the products received, were processed and were ready to sell In 24 hours.
* We had a 99.7% shipping compliance
* We registered a precision in order preparation of 99.9875%, that is, 1 error for every 8,000 shipments.
* 60% of our deliveries in CDMX were made The same day
* We carry out nationwide deliveries in 1.3 days Average
