How RiutBag is Helping Customers to Travel Safely and in Style with the Help of Wise Business

Backpacks are a common choice for travellers, including Sarah Giblin. However, while navigating crowded places like airports, train stations, or busy city streets, Sarah noticed how stressful it is when someone stands close behind you. Traditional backpacks, with their exposed zips and easy access points, make it simple for anyone to gain access to your belongings unnoticed. For frequent travellers like Sarah, this turns a carefree journey into one with concern about security.

“I thought I’d buy one of those bags with zips on the inside, but then I realised it didn’t exist.” Frustrated by the lack of secure options on the market, Sarah set out to solve the problem herself. In 2014 she founded RiutBag, a backpack created specifically to enhance security while travelling. With zips positioned against the user's back, RiutBag is designed to provide peace of mind in busy public spaces.

We spoke with Sarah about her approach to understanding user needs, the challenges she faced when paying overseas suppliers, and how Wise has helped her business save money on international transactions.

From a Kickstarter Campaign to a Decade of Business Growth

Sarah says in her first year as an entrepreneur she was clear about her goals: she was determined to save up, leave her job, and start working on her first prototype. But the reactions from her friends and family were mixed, with some doubtful as to whether the venture would pay off. “My dad thought it was a bad idea, but my friends were really supportive,” she recalls.

But 10 years on, Sarah has proved to herself that hard work and persistence pay off. And it's the creative design process that really spurs her on. Sarah says that when she 's designing, she's thinking of people she has never met before who are going to use this backpack: “It could be a woman in her 80s who is travelling to see her family in Australia. It could be a 20-year-old who has just started a job in London.”

“I wasn't adding zips; I was just taking them away and putting them in different places.”

Though the first RiutBag prototype wasn’t perfect, it worked. Sarah turned to Kickstarter to raise funds, raise funds from investors as a way of bypassing traditional loans. “Instead of going £60,000 in debt with no customers, I launched on Kickstarter,” she explains. Her campaign resonated with 1,000 backers, providing the funds to start production. The next step was to partner with a manufacturer in China and ship the first batch of backpacks worldwide.

Overcoming Challenges

Starting a business from scratch comes with inevitable challenges. For Sarah, one of the toughest lessons came with managing finances, particularly when dealing with international suppliers and payments. “I didn’t know VAT existed, and that was a tough surprise when I brought my first production back to the UK,” she admits. Learning about cash flow was another hurdle, as Sarah realised the importance of maintaining a balance between stock and liquidity.

Despite these early setbacks, Sarah views them as crucial learning experiences. “When it’s your own business, the pain of those mistakes ensures you don’t repeat them,” she says.

One of the defining features of RiutBag’s development has been Sarah’s commitment to user feedback. After delivering the first 1,000 RiutBags, she asked for detailed input from her customers, using it to improve future iterations of the product. Over the past decade, this feedback loop has shaped the ongoing development of RiutBag, ensuring that it continues to meet the needs of its users.

International Payments Made Easy with Wise Business

An essential part of RiutBag’s operations involves paying overseas manufacturers, primarily in China. Initially, Sarah relied on traditional banks to make these payments, but the process was costly and frustrating. “The first time I sent £20,000 to China, I was terrified that a small typo could mean the money would disappear. I wasn’t even thinking about the transaction fees or exchange rates - I just wanted the payment to go through,” she recalls. However, the uncertainty didn’t end there, as Sarah had no way to track when the money would arrive, leading to stressful delays and miscommunications with her supplier.

“If you are losing a little bit here or there, which can amount to hundreds on your payment, that is actually the difference between being able to do some marketing or not”.

Now, Sarah uses her Wise Business account to pay her manufacturer in China. “With Wise Business, I know exactly how much I’m paying in fees, and the exchange rate is transparent,” she explains. The ability to track payments in real time has also been a game changer: “I can see when the payment is processed, and my supplier gets a notification, too. It’s clear, fast, and reliable.”

“Nothing happens until I pay my suppliers, so knowing where the payment is is crucial for my business.”

Paying overseas suppliers with Wise Business

Wise Business not only simplifies the payment process but also saves Sarah significant amounts of money: “I did the maths and realised that for a £20,000 payment, I saved around £700* compared to my traditional bank. Over time, that adds up to thousands of pounds, which I can invest back into the business.”

She points out that when starting out a small business, every penny counts: “When I started my business, this was my life savings. If you are losing a little bit here or there, which can amount to hundreds on your payment, that is actually the difference between being able to do some marketing or not. It's the difference between getting good photos of your product or bad photos. It really makes a difference. So if you don't need to pay those higher costs, especially on international payments, it makes a real difference.”

Navigating Global Markets

RiutBag currently ships directly to the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, with Sarah continuously expanding her shipping routes to the EU in 2024 and adapting to the latest user feedback. By leveraging Wise's fast, transparent, and low-fee payments, Sarah has been able to streamline her international business operations without the burden of excessive fees.

*Savings may vary depending on individual circumstances, and are not guaranteed.