Challenges in the job market, motherhood, and the fight for the right to decide about one’s own body: what defines the woman of today? Whatever the answer, one thing is certain – it’s necessary to break taboos. Breaking paradigms and deconstructing prejudices, a pelvic physiotherapist and a marketing specialist, both from Porto Alegre (RS), combined sexual education and e-commerce to sell erotic and intimate self-care products exclusively for women through the online store VagiShop.
The business’s story began with Ana Gehring, one of the founders, and her interest in female sexuality. Graduated in Pelvic Physiotherapy from PUCRS, she specialized in the field and started treating women in her clinic, teaching techniques such as pompoirism – a type of pelvic exercise that strengthens the vaginal muscles, providing benefits like increased sexual pleasure and aid in the treatment and prevention of urinary incontinence. Noticing the recurring doubts of her patients, Ana decided to create an Instagram profile to educate and inform about female intimate health in a light and colloquial way. Thus, in 2016, the page@Vaginasemneurawas born, which today has 870 thousand followers.
‘I’ve always been interested in female sexuality, especially because it’s a topic surrounded by taboos. In college, I already knew this was the path I wanted to follow. With the page, I could demystify the topic and bring knowledge to many women who wouldn’t have the means to visit a clinic. Prejudices are only broken with knowledge,’ says Ana, who adds, ‘Even today, we have many followers who view our content but don’t follow the profile out of shame or fear of having the name @Vaginasemneura seen on their profiles.’
E-commerce platform boosts business
In 2019, the page’s success led Ana to join forces with digital marketing specialist Nalu Dorscheid. Nalu, who already had experience with online commerce, saw the monetization potential in Ana’s initiatives, who had been accumulating… ‘The program revealed that our students were also seeking recommendations for complementary products. So we launched our first product, VagiFit. We didn’t imagine we’d have so much demand upon launch; we had to organize ourselves for it,’ she recalls.
With the growth in sales, the entrepreneurs needed to seek technology to support the increase in website traffic. That’s when they adopted the e-commerce platformTray, owned by LWSA, which allows the creation of online stores integrated with digital channels, in addition to facilitating marketing and sales actions, thus creating VagiShop, an online store exclusively dedicated to intimate health and female pleasure, differentiating itself from the traditional sex shop business.
‘With the growth of digital commerce, online entrepreneurs need solutions that offer secure and well-structured websites, including logistics, payment, and marketing services,’ explainsThiago Mazetto, director of Tray.
The partnership with Tray allowed the entrepreneurs to revise their sales strategy in another channel in time to achieve record revenue on Black Friday 2023. ‘We saw that the previous strategy didn’t perform well; sales were very low in the monthly analysis. We created the store with Tray, and just before Black Friday, we broke our revenue record that year with the online store,’ highlights Nalu.
Today, the product portfolio includes intimate hygiene, cosmetics, pompoirism, and vibrators. Among the most sought-after items are soaps, moisturizers, intimate lubricants, and other accessories.
Facing taboos
From the beginning, VagiShop’s purpose was to unite education and services for female self-care. However, in a market still permeated by prejudices and its own 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 under the allegation of violating the platform’s guidelines. We had the same problem in 2024 with YouTube. We had to resort to legal action to recover our accounts,’ the marketing specialist explains.
The taboo extends to partnership relationships, with some influencers refusing collaborations with the brand out of fear and shame of exposing themselves to such a sensitive topic. Customers also seek discretion when purchasing the products. ‘We use discreet packaging, and on the credit card statement, the store’s name is an acronym. Secrecy is essential; customers feel intimidated, so much so that most customer service calls are to ask how discreet our shipping is,’ explains Nalu.
Despite the challenges, the entrepreneurs continue on a path of success. Future plans include their own line of intimate care products and a subscription-based app featuring various specialists in health, sexual education, and female well-being content.
