Onyx Creative is an online shop for the modern age. People are tired of the same old recycled designs that can be found anywhere. We are an e-commerce destination where you can discover handmade goods made by emerging modern, unique and most importantly, high quality designers and artisans from all around the globe.
Our goal: become the one-stop, online boutique for high-quality, one-of-a-kind homemade goods from around the world.
Today’s conscientious shoppers spend countless hours online browsing for modern, high-quality, handmade, one-of-a-kind goods. Currently, the largest online destinations for handmade goods are marketplaces like Etsy.
The problem with marketplaces like this is that there is no quality control. This is because there is too wide of a spectrum of goods from DIY projects to high quality leather goods that consumers must dig through to find what they actually want. Consumers are left to wander aimlessly through the seemingly endless sub-par items in search of a diamond in the ruff.
Furthermore, those designers who actually do produce high-quality items are left to manage their brands by themselves and get lost in the clutter. Driving sales while also creating your product is no easy task.
To do that, we meticulously filter through online marketplaces and local boutiques in an effort to create a one-stop destination where conscientious shoppers can find high-quality handmade goods on a clutter-free platform.
On Onyx Creative, consumers can find one-of-a-kind clothing, jewelry, home decor, beauty and lifestyle products without having to rummage through piles of garbage to get to it. Our mission is to provide consumers with the largest selection of high-quality handmade goods.
Here’s a quick overview of how Onyx Creative is working to make online retail more personal, original and sustainable than ever before:
Onyx Creative scouts brands from all over the world, both in-person and through extensive online research. Designers are chosen on a very specific but simple aesthetic: high quality, mo interesting fabrics, stones and textures are what we look for. All beauty brands contain 100% natural ingredients.
Our process to accumulating talent is very personal. Only the best handpicked, high-quality, unique items make it to the site. We do a ton of research and vetting because we care — this is our passion.
Minimal stock is kept in-house. An order comes in, Onyx Creative relays that order to the manufacturer, manufacturer ships product. Simple. Clean. Agile.
Onyx Creative keeps an industry-standard 45% commission on each item sold. Prices on Onyx Creative range from smaller stationary items for $6 to larger furniture pieces for $1,600.
The entire world is our market. We have the potential to target consumers in every single country by constantly expanding our rolodex of brands from all over the world. Onyx Creative currently carries brands from the USA, UK, Canada, Israel, England, Poland, Romania, Russia, France, Netherlands, Finland, Taiwan, Chile among many more.
Onyx Creative launched on May 1st, 2015. Within the first week of launch, the website had up to 5,000 visitors. We currently have 85 brands on the platform with more being added daily — we’re growing quickly.
In the few short months since launch, we’ve gotten press love from the likes ofRacked LA, California Apparel News, The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), and Down to Stars.
We also have a potential partnership with Polyvore in the works. Their website showcases big brands and the hottest trends, but they want to expand to hand-made goods. They have a huge following which would help us build our customer base.
Up next for Onyx Creative: build our catalog of products and producers, expand and add categories and new brands, and continue our mission of changing the face of online retail once and for all.
2014 was a year around the world for Onyx Creative Founder, Angela Afifi. Her travels have been the biggest inspiration in starting Onyx Creative — she wished the beautiful products available in local boutiques worldwide we’re also available online. This, coupled with her love for modern design and simple aesthetics became the biggest driving forces in the birth of Onyx Creative.
Being an extremely picky shopper, she is always looking for a certain aesthetic that is extremely hard to find both, in-stores and online. Her goal is to fill in this void and give local artisans a voice.
While travel was her inspiration, trial and error were her teachers. During her freshman year at UC Irvine, she launched a website very similar to Onyx Creative as a way to make some side money. Called The Funky Skull, her online boutique was a collection of mobile accessories and home designs from artists she liked.
She learned the ins and outs of Shopify, dropshipping, and how to sell brands. Most importantly, she learned that all of this can be done at a very low cost.
While her inexperience at the time ultimately proved to be The Funky Skull’s downfall, the lessons she learned from that business, along with a completed degree and business experience, have helped propel Onyx Creative to the early success it has today.
Angela Afifi, Founder / CEO
Angela is intimately involved with all processes of Onyx Creative from scouting brands, keeping in contact with designers, and leading the creative direction. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in Social Ecology and Psychology. Before launching Onyx Creative, she worked in corporate and technology public relations for apps and gadgets at PMBC Group in Beverly Hills, CA.
Mayra Benitez, Director of Operations
Mayra has over 10 years of experience in administration within e-commerce environments. She coordinates and organizes all internal tasks and maintains monthly goals within marketing, social media, sales and website development departments.
Katherine Afifi, Assistant Buyer
Katherine is experienced in creating and scouting high quality goods from around the world. She has worked with fine leathers and jewelry for over 5 years.