Meet the founder of eTHikel
Amerjit Briah is the founder and CEO of eTHikel, the environmentally conscious online retail destination. Amerjit Briah is an entrepreneur, a successful fintech lawyer and mother of two with a passion for sustainable living. eTHikel was directly inspired by Amerjit’s own journey with ethical living. Choosing the right lifestyle became a priority for her when she started a family, and the idea of eTHikel was born after seeing the result of plastic pollution first-hand during a trip to South Asia.
This experience awakened a desire to learn and help educate others about the impact of unethical trade and products, and the effect they have on individuals, flora and fauna and the environment - through physical and mental health issues, child labour, cruelty to animals, loss of habitat, and other environmental concerns.
I love the opportunity of an ethical and sustainable marketplace. When did it become clear to you that eTHikel would make a significant difference to the way we shop?
Over the years I was becoming more aware that, as a society, we needed to make changes in the way that we shop. eTHikel was driven by my desire to make a positive change to shopping habits – it was clear from the very beginning that we had to help customers in making the right decisions – becoming green and ethical is challenging and so I wanted to help customers to easily identify with the ethics that most resonate with them, for example, plastic free or ethically produced.
What’s the ethos and mission behind eTHikel?
eTHikel's mission and ethos is based around helping consumers shop in a way which helps us protect our planet. If everyone makes one little change – the positive impact it can have on the environment can be huge (look at the ozone layer for example – by banning CFCs we’ve managed to close the gap in the Antarctic). I was aware that environmentally friendly shopping could be challenging, there was also an incorrect perception that ethical goods were not of the same quality as items people had become accustomed to buying. I was confident that a site offering a wide variety of high quality ethical products would help change views.
I’m curious about the word play on eTHikel - where did the inspiration come from?
The ancient Greek word ethikos is related to the study of morality. I believed that shopping in a conscious way was related to my morals and my principles of right and wrong. Ethikos then developed into eTHikel for its association with ethical. In pronouncing ethikos there is weight on the TH and it was important to keep true to this – hence the capital TH in eTHikel. The capital TH is also an abbreviation for Tree Hugger, which in my opinion is a positive phrase for people who want to do the right thing for Planet Earth.
What’s your role within the business and what does a typical day look like?
My role is extremely varied and very hands on, from strategy and onboarding sellers to more admin tasks such as data input. I have teams working on development and marketing and part of my role is to have oversight of everything and to make all of the key decisions.
Each day varies but in most cases will involve speaking to teams working on website development, marketing, PR, ad campaigns and sellers. I find all of this fulfilling but I particularly enjoy speaking to sellers (entrepreneurs) and learning about their ethical journey.
Tell us about your experience prior to launching eTHikel?
I worked as a lawyer for 15+ years – the last 9 years (prior to working on eTHikel full time) – I worked as a fintech lawyer for PayPal where I was head of legal for PayPal’s payment acquiring services across EMEA. I also advised on marketplace payment solutions.... this experience led me to build my own marketplace.
How do you choose the brands you work with?
eTHIkel is a curated marketplace and the brands we work with are carefully vetted. They must align with our values as a business and each of their products must fit into one or more of the following ethics: Buy Once. Organic, Handmade, Non Animal Tested, UK Made, Vegan, Ethically Produced, Carbon Reduced, Plastic Free, Recycled, Upcycled, Refillable, Sustainably Resourced. As all of our sellers are on a journey to help make a difference - their products often fall under most of these ethics. We would never compromise on our values.
Outside of building an ecommerce marketplace for ethical and sustainable consumers. What ethical practices are being carried out behind the scenes at eTHikel?
Everything we do behind the scenes is based on best ethical practice. We ensure all of the service providers can prove their ethical credentials, we want to work with companies who care about the environment and the individuals within these companies that are assigned to the eTHikel team are those who are passionate about green causes. One of our shopping ethics is ‘ethically produced’ this looks at human rights and whether employees within the product manufacturing cycle have been fairly treated. At eTHikel we also want to ensure the wellbeing of not only our staff but everyone that we’re associated with. As we grow, wellbeing and positive mental health will be central to everything we do.
We also work remotely, reducing our carbon footprint and this will continue.
How are you navigating the ever changing pace of the entrepreneurial journey, whilst remaining positive and driven?
The entrepreneurial journey is exciting but also scary. Unexpected challenges come up daily. I’m fortunate to have a cool head on my shoulders and perhaps my legal experience has wired me in a way that I’m constantly looking for solutions. Also it’s hard not to be positive when you’re surrounded by such talent – the products that we sell on our site are exceptional – the companies behind them are doing so much to help the environment and this keeps me motivated and driven.
How would you break down the importance of branding to early-stage founders?
Branding is hugely important. Creating a positive brand identity is key to having a credible business. We spent a large amount of time on the eTHikel branding. The company logo, colours, icons, fonts were all looked at in detail. We have made sure the branding is consistent across the website, and marketing efforts and social media. However, branding goes beyond the logo and colours, it’s about telling the world who we are and what we stand for. The consistency of branding builds trust and ultimately loyal customers.
Why do you feel it’s important for us to make ethical and sustainable shopping the norm?
It is very easy to read about the environment or watch documentaries but then switch off and not think about it again. We need to make a change now, otherwise it will be too late. We are seeing the impact that humans are having on our planet on a daily basis. Buyers may think that a small ethical purchase won’t make much difference but every single thing you do counts, and the little changes add up. I have two young children and I want to make sure we preserve the planet for all the children across the world and future generations. Our intelligence made us the most dominant species on our planet however it’s leading to the destruction of our natural environment – we need to use our intelligence to turn that around and start our journey with making ethical and sustainable shopping the norm.
I want to help people to learn about the options they have to facilitate this change by developing ‘best ethical practises’ and buying products that have zero or low environmental impact.
What’s next at eTHikel?
eTHikel is still very new and so every day is exciting and full of new revelations. Our future plans are bold - we are presently establishing our position in the UK. However conscious shopping is a global movement and our plans are to expand into Europe and then worldwide.
