During one of their conversations, Cecilia mentioned she was considering opening for sales as a licensed company in the USA. On the spot, Martina offered her space in her warehouse in Hudson, New York. Martina owns a warehouse that handles all the shipping for Face Stockholm with the help of her warehouse manager, Joe Pizza. Cecilia soon moved into Martina's warehouse. Unfortunately, the Swedish company Cecilia was operating for encountered problems and was forced into bankruptcy.
However, a friendship had formed, and they enjoyed working together immensely.
"It felt like coming home when Martina welcomed me at the train station in Hudson Valley. It had been a tough period business-wise for the company I had invested in a year earlier. It was struggling after the pandemic, and when interest rates soared, it became an impossible equation. Starting in the USA was a last attempt to save the company, but instead, it became the beginning of a beautiful friendship and now a new journey with Martina and Joe," says Cecilia.
The new owners of the company wanted to continue the US expansion and asked if they could become their warehouse operator. They shared their thoughts spontaneously during meetings with other retailers, and soon the friends received more inquiries.
Now, they have made it official and have just completed the entire company registration for Scandinavian Marketplace.
The vision for their offering is simple - Scandinavian Marketplace aims to be "the Go-to-marketer" where Swedish retail companies can start selling directly from the USA in less than 30 days.
The company offers three different solutions. Through their marketplace, via their own website but with Scandinavian Marketplace as the legal entity, or via their own website operated through their own US company. In the first two solutions, customers do not need to have their own US company.
"The USA is a land of opportunities, and Scandinavian brands are extremely attractive. However, there is a fear among smaller companies to sell directly from the USA due to the administrative process and various rules and regulations. With Scandinavian Marketplace, we want to remove these barriers and make it possible for Swedish retailers to test their offerings before investing resources in establishing a company," says Martina.
The friends see the advantage of having a presence in Sweden where they can meet customers in their own language and time zone, and the American presence that is well-established in the USA. The division of responsibilities is simple: Cecilia handles customer contacts and their marketplace, Martina manages administration and finance for the American company, and Joe takes care of all warehousing for the customers.
They call the company a passion project. Both in helping customers realize their dreams and full potential for their businesses, and of course, in continuing to work together even though they have commitments in their other companies.
With the warm reception they have already received despite just forming the company, it seems passion project is the right name for Scandinavian Marketplace - the US go-to-marketer.
