This is a guest post written by PayFast.
Rain Africa products have probably graced more than a few South African homes with their presence. For good reason too. What started out as a soap-making hobby in founder Bev Missing’s garage, has now grown into an international business selling handmade bath and body products from sustainable, natural ingredients.
Bev Missing explains that she started the business in 1999 as a hobby and job creation project to alleviate poverty on the border of Lesotho in a small South African town called Ladybrand. Through this initiative, her hope was to better the lives of underprivileged women in the area by providing them with skills and jobs.
With this passion and drive, success was inevitable and the company grew to new heights. Now, nearing its 20th year of business, Rain offers employment to nearly 140 local people of Swellendam where the company is currently based. Of course, every entrepreneurial endeavour comes with its ups and downs, but Bev Missing describes that being able to create jobs for people who really need them and influencing their lives for the better made it all worth it.
The jump to selling online came when Rain Africa had successfully opened physical stores in all major metropoles in South Africa but found that many people who didn’t live near these cities still wanted to experience (and buy) their favourite Rain products. So followed the daunting task of building a website and choosing an online payment gateway.
As it turns out, Bev Missing didn’t find the task daunting at all. She chose to use Shopify for the Rain online store because of its ease of use and many different offerings available to merchants. The same went for PayFast, the easy and simple setup and different payment methods made it an easy choice. What’s more, the fact that both platforms offered a simple experience for Rain’s online buyers was the best aspect of using these services.
Since selling online Rain has expanded their client base to international markets and now have a store in USA and Ireland and plan to expand into England and the rest of Europe very soon. It’s quite something to be associated with a proudly South African business that has grown out of an intense passion and need to help those less fortunate and to make such a success of it.
To get your hands on some amazing Rain Africa products head over to their online store. Watch this space for more stories from some amazing South African merchants as PayFast celebrates 10 years of business partnerships.
