Challenges in the job market, motherhood, and the fight for the right to decide about one’s own body: what defines today’s woman? Whatever the answer, one thing is certain – taboos must be broken. Breaking paradigms and deconstructing prejudices, a pelvic physiotherapist and a marketing specialist, both from Porto Alegre (RS), have combined sexual education and e-commerce to sell erotic products and exclusive intimate self-care products for women with the online store, VagiShop.
The business’s story began with Ana Gehring’s interest, one of the founders, in female sexuality. Graduating in Pelvic Physiotherapy from PUCRS, she specialized in the field and started serving women in her clinic, teaching techniques like pompoirism – a type of pelvic gymnastics that strengthens vaginal muscles, providing benefits such as increased sexual pleasure and aid in the treatment and prevention of urinary incontinence. Seeing the recurring doubts of her patients, Ana decided to create an Instagram profile to educate and inform about intimate female health in a light and colloquial manner. Thus, in 2016, the page @Vaginasemneura was born, which now has 870 thousand followers.
“I have always been interested in female sexuality, especially because it is a topic surrounded by taboos. In college, I already knew that this was the path I wanted to follow. With the page, I was able to demystify the subject and bring knowledge to many women who would not have the means to attend a clinic. Prejudices are only broken with knowledge,” says Ana, who adds, “Even today, we have many followers who view our content but do not follow the profile out of shame or fear of seeing the name @Vaginasemneura on their profiles.”
E-commerce platform drives business
In 2019, the success of the page led Ana to join forces with digital marketing expert Nalu Dorscheid. Nalu, who already had experience with online commerce, saw the monetization potential of Ana’s initiatives, which accumulated.. “The program revealed that our students were also looking for recommendations for complementary products. So we launched our first product, VagiFit. We did not imagine that we would have so much demand upon launching, we had to organize ourselves for the demand,” she recalls.
With the growth in sales, the entrepreneurs needed to seek technology to support the increase in website traffic. It was then that they adopted the e-commerce platform Tray, owned by LWSA, which allows for the creation of online stores integrated with digital channels, as well as facilitating marketing and sales actions, thus creating VagiShop, a virtual store dedicated exclusively to intimate health and female pleasure, differentiating itself from the traditional business of sex shops.
“With the growth of digital commerce, those who do business online need solutions that offer secure and well-structured websites, including logistics, payment, and marketing services,” explains Thiago Mazetto, director of Tray.
The partnership with Tray allowed the entrepreneurs to rethink a sales strategy on another channel in time to achieve a record revenue on Black Friday 2023. “We saw that the previous strategy did not perform well, sales were very low in the monthly analysis. We created the store with Tray and, on the eve of Black Friday, with the online store we achieved our record revenue that year,” highlights Nalu.
Today, the product portfolio includes: intimate hygiene, cosmetics, pompoirism, and vibrators. Among the most sought-after items are soaps, moisturizers, and intimate lubricants, as well as other accessories.
Facing Taboos
From the beginning, the purpose of VagiShop was to combine education and services for female self-care. However, in a market still permeated by prejudice and challenges, Nalu highlights the obstacles to business scalability.
Among the barriers are platform restrictions, which often classify the content as inappropriate. ‘In 2023, the Instagram profile was deactivated on the grounds of violating platform guidelines. We had the same problem in 2024 with YouTube. It was necessary to resort to legal action to recover our accounts,’ said the marketing specialist.
The taboo extends to partnership relations, with some influencers refusing collaborations with the brand out of fear and shame of exposing themselves to such a sensitive subject. Consumers also seek discretion when purchasing the products. ‘We use discreet packaging and, in the credit card statement, the store’s name is an acronym. Confidentiality is essential, customers feel intimidated, so much so that most of the customer service calls are to find out how discreet our shipping is,’ Nalu explains.
Despite the challenges, the entrepreneurs continue to forge a path to success. The next plans include a proprietary line of intimate care products and a subscription-based app that will feature various experts in health, sexual education, and female well-being content.
