Two years on Baaqah continues to grow

Investment worth $75K secured at the pre-seed round through support from government entities. Over 7,000 bouquets sold, 40+ partners onboard, year-to-year growth of 44% – that’s the Baaqah story. An e-commerce platform for flower-shops launched in 2020 by Emirati entrepreneur AlReem AlAmmari. The idea was to make it easier for end users to view the variety and for florists to do what they’re best at. And two years on Baaqah continues to grow.

In an exclusive interview with RetailME AlAmmari spoke about challenges and future growth outlook for Baaqah.

What kind of challenges have you navigated?

Operations was a nightmare. Getting flowers in the best quality to customers across different emirates every single day was almost impossible. We collected a database of refrigerated delivery companies on an excel sheet and built it as time passed. Until we thought why not turn that excel sheet to a business? And boom, Wasla was born! Today Wasla our delivery arm is valued at more than $10 million and we will open our office in Saudi Arabia very soon.

What are your future innovation plans?

Keeping it simple and straightforward at Baaqah. The end goal is to make it easier for customers to shop and our focus is completely on how we can make that an even easier process, every single day.

Please share three tips to build a resilient and sustainable business.

• Focus on what you do best. Don’t get lost in between.
• Listen to your team members, most of the time they know better.
• As clichéd as it sounds, only do something you love and would want to wake up for every day.

On a bad day, where do you seek inspiration from?

I re-read the first notebook where I wrote the Baaqah idea. I remind myself of my own passion and why I’m doing what I’m doing. I’m then reminded of self and business growth through the years, and it always inspires me to do better. Sometimes though, it may not be a bad idea to absorb your emotions and understand where they’re coming from.