“Brando Tabus”: entrepreneurs succeed with intimate self-care e-commerce exclusive to women

Challenges in the labor market, motherhood and the struggle for the right to decide on one's own body: what defines the woman of today? Whatever the answer, one thing is certain 2 it is necessary to break taboos. Breaking paradigms and deconstructing prejudices, a pelvic physiotherapist and a marketing specialist, both from Porto Alegre (RS), have united sex education and e-commerce to sell erotic products and intimate self-care exclusive for women with the virtual store VagiShop.

The history of the business began with the interest of Ana Gehring, one of the founders, for female sexuality. Graduated in Pelvic Physiotherapy from PUCRS, specialized in the area and began to serve women in the office, teaching techniques such as pompoarismo izo a type of pelvic gymnastics that strengthens the vaginal muscles, providing benefits such as increased sexual pleasure and assistance in the treatment and prevention of urinary incontinence. Upon realizing the recurring doubts of her patients, Ana decided to create a profile on Instagram to educate and inform about female intimate health in a light and colloquial way. Thus, in 2016, the page was born @Vaginasemneura, which today adds 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 theme and bring knowledge to many women who would not be able to attend an office. Prejudices are only broken with”, Ana says, who completes “Today, we have many followers who view our content, but do not follow the profile out of shame or fear that they will see the name @Vaginasemneura in their” profiles.

E-commerce platform boosts business

In 2019, the success of the page led Ana to join with digital marketing specialist Nalu Dorscheid. Nalu, who already had experience with online commerce, saw the potential for monetization of Ana's initiatives, which she accumulated. “The program revealed that our students also sought recommendations for complementary products. Then we launched our first product, VagiFit. We did not imagine that we would have so much demand when launching, we had to organize for the” demand, she recalls.

With the growth of sales, entrepreneurs needed to seek technology to support the increase in traffic on the site. It was then that they adopted the e-commerce platform Tray, belonging to LWSA, which allows creating online stores integrated with digital channels, in addition to facilitating marketing and sales actions, thus creating VagiShop, an online 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 undertake online need to have solutions that offer secure and well-structured websites, including logistics, payments and marketing services”, he explains Thiago Mazetto's, director of Tray.

The partnership with Tray allowed the entrepreneurs to review a sales strategy in another channel in time to get a record of 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, and with the online store beat our billing record that year”, highlights Nalu.

Today the product portfolio that today includes: intimate hygiene, cosmetics, pompoirismo and vibrators. Among the most sought after items are soaps, moisturizers and intimate lubricants, as well as other accessories.

Facing taboos

From the beginning, VagiShop's purpose was to unite education and service delivery for female self-care.However, in a market still permeated by its own prejudices and challenges, Nalu highlights the obstacles to business scalability. 

Among the barriers are the restrictions of platforms, which often classify content as inappropriate. “In 2023, the profile on Instagram was even disabled on the grounds of violation of the platform guidelines. We had the same problem in 2024 with YouTube. It was necessary to appeal in court to recover our accounts”, says the marketing expert.

The taboo extends to partnership relations, with the refusal of some influencers to collaborate with the brand, for fear and shame to expose themselves to such a sensitive subject. Consumers also seek discretion when purchasing the products. “We use discreet packaging and, on the card statement, the name of the store is an acronym.Security is essential, customers feel intimidated, so much so that most calls for services are to know how discreet our shipping.” explains Nalu.

Despite the challenges, the entrepreneurs continue to tread a path of success.The next plans include a line of products for intimate care and an application, by subscription, which will feature several experts in health content, sex education and women's well-being.