Melissa Burton on International Women’s Day

Category: Customer

Today, on International Women’s Day, we look back at the career of Melissa Burton, now an entrepreneur and boss of BraForMe, but with a previous career in the nuclear industry Melissa has faced challenges as a woman which quite frankly a man would not have had.

Even when Melissa transitioned into the lingerie industry, she still found it a male dominated world, although that has changed over the past decade, and Melissa has had to navigate the challenge of being a woman in addition to all the normal business challenges any leader will face.

In the video, Melissa Burton discusses:

  • 00:00 Her first role in nuclear processing and challenges for women
  • 01:17 Entering the male dominated lingerie business
  • 02:26 How her previous experience influenced her business
  • 03:48 How do marketplaces like eBay fit with her business values?
  • 04:35 How do you translate core values to customers online?
  • 05:36 Advice for women wanting to start a business

We founded BraForMe in 2021 and have seen our family business grow 2,000 per cent since its inception. Access to eBay’s global network of buyers was a catalyst for this.

Our mission is to empower women through choice. The brands we stock vary tremendously in their end customer and we believe that by harnessing each of their independent values and strengths, we’re able to provide a complete and inclusive shopping experience for all women.

A significant proportion of our success can be directly linked to our experience on eBay. During the pandemic, for example, a new wave of customers – who previously would have visited physical stores to find their lingerie – began to shop via our eBay store. Ensuring we had bra fitters available over the phone, an exhaustive list of fitting guides for the brands and additional educational content, allowed us to emulate that safe and trusted experience that women would traditionally only experience at a physical store.

That’s where we believe we have great synergy with eBay’s values as we’ve managed tobuild a real community, using technology that empowers our customers to feel comfortable shopping online.

I’ve been a business leader in the lingerie, nightwear, and swimwear sector for more than a decade and, in that time, it’s been encouraging to see the landscape evolve to become much more inclusive. With the assistance of eBay, we feel like we’re playing an important part in this journey.

Everyone, no matter their shape or size, deserves to have lingerie that looks beautiful and fits them perfectly. We’re proud to have built an online space that supports inclusivity, but there’s still so much that can be done to support women in the industry. It’s vital we build a community and share the lessons we learn along the way.

– Melissa Burton, director, BraForMe 

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