Carnival is the biggest national event for T&T attracting approximately 40,000 visitors each year.As foreigners and nationals plan for the Carnival action and revelling on the street, they may want to know about the best costumes, prices, fetes and even accessories.
An easy solution is just a click away.Fifteen months ago, local entrepreneur Angel Stewart developed an online portal that would allow Carnival participants to choose their bands and packages through a one stop shop.
MyCarnivalBands.com delivers the mas camp to computers, tablets or mobile devices.Masqueraders can browse costumes with large full colour pictures and choose their size and accessories.The portal and got six Carnival bands, including Tribe and Yuma, and support businesses to commit to use it. It went live online on November 7, 2013.Customers using the site can see all the costume options for the bands, the offerings for Monday-Wear and fete designs from other suppliers.
Carnival band leaders are also able to better target and track customer interest, manage their inventory, production and customer service.The associated Facebook area generated a lot of interest and had 11,000 followers within eight weeks of launching.The site comprises of costumes from major bands such as Tribe, Yuma, Legacy, Paparazzi, Utopia Mas, Titivate, Fantasies Jourvert, Caesar's Army and J Angelique just to name a few.
Visitors thave the option to buy costume outright or make a downpayment using MyCarnivalBands' easy to use shopping cart.Site users can also pay with credit cards backed by Scotia Internet security. It was a bold step and but in just over 15 months Angel Stewart and MyCarinvalBands.com has been able to penetrate a very viable market and close a gap that potentially drives the business of Carnival in T&T.
For Angel, it is about achieving which requires strong belief in your offer and yourself and requires a high degree of adaptability. Without these three things success is almost impossible.