"Hanadi’s Marken Welt" is what Hanadi Hammoud and Mohammed Chakroun call their Facebook group, through which they sell remnants on a grand scale – out of their garage in Wickede, Germany.
Wickede – Really luxurious the "Deluxe Outlet" does not look at all. If you go to the postal address, you will first think you have lost your way, because it is a large but from the outside rather inconspicuous residential building in Wickede in the district of Soest (NRW). But the address, which is important, is finally a completely different one. The "street" is www, the "house number" is Facebook. Part of the house is a really very large garage. Cars would nevertheless find room here at most as Matchbox models.
It is filled to the brim with remnants and boxes, which are stacked on heavy-duty shelves marked with customer numbers. You see clothes from Nike or Adidas, fragrances from Gucci or watches from Michael Kors, umpteen shishas, and somewhere piles of pans. Even in the living area everything is full of boxes, even in their sauna the residents only break a sweat when they drag boxes in there and out again.
"Deluxe Outlet" in Wickede – motto: sell a lot for little money
"Cluse watches like this one," says Hanadi Hammoud, pulling a small box from a shelf, "normally cost an average of 120 euros. We buy 10 of them.000 pieces and sell them for 20 euros each. Some buy ten pieces to give away as a gift. Our motto is: sell a lot for little money."
What has developed in these rooms is an unusual success story and a prime example of how to make a virtue out of a necessity. After he had to close his shisha lounge in Werl due to the pandemic, Mohammed Chakroun, a trained automotive mechatronics technician, initially toyed with the idea of setting up his own workshop in the garage of the house he bought three years ago. But the 31-year-old hadn’t reckoned with the creativity and sales talent of his partner Hanadi Hammoud, who built up her own little shopping empire within her own four walls.
"It all started with me simply selling old things from our three children on the Internet," says Hanadi Hammoud, amused by the twist of fate. Anyone else would have put the chunks on Ebay. Or flogged at a flea market. And would have been pleased with proceeds of one to two hundred euros. "The amount was somewhere between three and five thousand euros. My friend didn’t want to believe me at first."
"Hanadi’s Marken Welt" – store only virtually on Facebook
Because the attractive and thus highly telegenic young woman had streamed the sale in the style of teleshopping on Facebook – quasi QVC in small from a Wickede garage. "But teleshopping tends to be aimed at people well over 30," says Mohammed Chakroun. Via the Internet, however, they are targeting a younger audience, one that is less focused on linear television than on the Internet, social media and streaming providers.
The couple saw the potential and set up their own Facebook group, calling it "Hanadi’s Marken Welt," after two hours they already had 3,000 members. Currently there are 16 400 members, a quarter of which are considered regular customers. On Instagram, they have 16,100 followers. An app of their own is in development. "In the beginning, I benefited from the fact that I had often organized fundraising events and had thus built up a large circle of contacts," says Hanadi Hammoud.
The pair contacted wholesalers, began buying up remnants on a large scale. "We have invoices for everything we sell here," they stress that none of it has "fallen off the truck" and they are free to pass it all on to the end consumer."The goods are sold not only through the video livestreams, because not everyone can tune in at any time, but essentially through normal photo and text posts. The customers order by comment.
Hanadi Hammoud and Mohammed Chakroun: "Built the system themselves"
"I built the system myself, it didn’t exist in this form before," the young entrepreneur explains. "In fact, thousands of others have copied it by now, but don’t operate it in these dimensions like we do."They in turn sell to them what may be left over.
But the system also shows the extreme profit margins of manufacturers, when the couple sells a designer watch at one-sixth of its normal retail price and it still makes a whopping profit. And the revenue generated is very high, he said. But they also come at a price: "I usually sleep four hours," says the 28-year-old, "I start in the morning and finish at 5 o’clock." That’s all the time she has besides work and looking after her children – even though several family members and friends are already pitching in.
"We take turns sleeping," says her partner, in whose name the company is registered; he constantly commutes between Wickede and the Post’s logistics centers in Werl and Hagen: "If we have the parcels picked up from us, experience has shown that it takes a week for them to arrive. Then they go first to Wuppertal, from there to Hagen and only from there to the recipient. But customers will already have their goods the following day." If they want it. Because if you want to save postage, you can collect all your orders for a month, then everything is shipped in one go. Hence the many boxes on the shelves.
But the high workload is necessary to remain successful on the market, says Mohammed Chakroun: "We started with nothing, so anyone else can do it too. And there are enough people who have lost their livelihoods because of Corona and are looking for alternatives." Why the plans to raise the house are already ready, the building applications to the municipality have already been submitted. However, Wickede residents who aren’t as internet-savvy can check out the garage on site – there are no opening hours, but a phone call to make an appointment will suffice.