Maggie Wilson-Consunji is creating yet another positive mark in society by promoting women entrepreneurs as one of the founders of her home interiors business, Casa Consunji. After launching her physical storefront in Acacia Estates, Taguig City, Maggie, in partnership with GoDaddy, launched her website www.CasaConsunji.com.
Built using GoDaddy Website Builder, including an online store, Maggie’s website is designed to reach more customers across the Philippines and beyond.
Half of the winning pair of AXN’s The Amazing Race Asia Season 5, Maggie has been pursuing her passion project as co-founder of Casa Consunji. She was recently appointed as a GoDaddy Brand Ambassador as part of AXN’s Asian partnership with GoDaddy. AXN also collaborated with GoDaddy to conceptualize and produce two beautifully styled GoDaddy branded vignettes featuring Maggie – “The Start Up” and “Power Your Passion” – which were filmed on location at Casa Consunji – to encourage more entrepreneurs to take the step forward to establish their online presence with GoDaddy.
Two months since the website’s launch, Maggie has already seen the impact of taking her business online. “Casa Consunji has experienced an increase of 30% in sales since we launched our online store with GoDaddy. We now receive customer orders from the Philippines, U.S., Singapore, U.A.E., and Canada,” shared Maggie.
“So far, our website has garnered over 500,000 page views and counting. For a startup company with minimal marketing, launching our website helped increase our brand awareness and reach more customers from the Philippines and in other countries,” Maggie added.
What started as a concept during her Bali trip in October 2017 gave birth to a collaboration with Maggie’s friends, Parul Shah and Janela Cuaton. “I told my husband Victor just how inspired I was with the beautiful architecture and interiors of hotels, shops, and restaurants in Bali. Around the same time, he had asked if I’d be interested in interior decorating four model units he was building for his new development. He suggested that I open up a store because I knew where to source and find unique pieces, and he could see this was becoming my passion. Casa Consunji was a natural progression. When I invited Parul and Janela on a sourcing trip, both of them instantly fell in love with the concept.”
By October 2018, Casa Consunji opened its doors with the unique concept of being a furniture shop café where design, retail and food meet, “a place where one can take their own time browsing furniture pieces while having a cup of coffee or a smoothie bowl at the same time.” A second store was born when they decided to create a website using GoDaddy’s easy to use and affordable integrated suite of online tools.
“Working with GoDaddy has been really great. Their Website Builder tool was easy to use to get started. My website looks professional, is easily viewable on mobile devices, and includes an online store. GoDaddy offers 24/7 customer care support, and that has been an amazing help for me along the way,” Maggie enthused.
As GoDaddy’s brand ambassador, Maggie has come to represent empowered women in business. To other aspiring businesswomen, she has this advice to give:
“There’s no other way to do it but to take that leap. Opening Casa Consunji was extremely daunting especially because I’m putting my family’s name and staking my reputation. But I’ve always been a YES kind of woman. I always say, if it scares you, do it. Business is all about taking calculated risks and doing your market research. Be open to critique and ideas especially from people with experience. Take a class if you need to. But always remember, you have to be the one to make the first move.”