More than 680% growth in 12 months. Our first interstate trade booth. Eight boxes to Darwin and three coming home. Founder Brodie George shares what's happening behind the scenes as Jalayimiya enters its next chapter.
There is a lot happening behind the scenes at Jalayimiya right now.
Over the past 12 months, this little First Nations fashion business has entered an entirely new stage of growth.
According to Shopify, Jalayimiya's sales have grown by more than 680% over the past 12 months.
In the past three months alone, that growth has been more than 2,100%.
Those numbers are incredible to see.
They're also forcing me to think differently about what Jalayimiya needs to become next.
Behind the brand is still a very small team
From the outside, I think it would be easy to assume there's a much bigger operation behind Jalayimiya.
The reality is very different.
For the most part, Jalayimiya is still run by me.
As Founder & Director, I design our collections, work with manufacturers, oversee production and inventory, manage the website, marketing, campaigns, content and launches, organise events and pack our online orders.
Kellie works very casually and remotely assisting with Customer Care.
During particularly busy periods, my husband Dillon also gets recruited on his R&R to help me pack orders.
That's essentially Jalayimiya HQ.
It has worked incredibly well to get the business here.
But we're now reaching the point where the business is beginning to outgrow the systems and tiny team that built it.
Then we took Jalayimiya to Darwin
In August 2026, we reached another milestone.
For the first time, we took a Jalayimiya trade booth interstate to the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair.
Getting there was a huge undertaking in itself.
We packed and freighted eight boxes of Jalayimiya stock from Perth to Darwin.
After four days of trading, only three boxes were coming home.
More than 200 Jalayimiya pieces found new homes during DAAF and the overwhelming majority of customers who shopped with us were completely new to the brand.
For a First Nations business based in Perth taking its first interstate trade booth to Darwin, the response was something I'll never forget.
Our remaining three boxes have now been freighted back to Perth and we're waiting for them to arrive at HQ so hundreds of pieces of inventory can be unpacked, counted and reconciled back into our online store.
DAAF showed us just how much opportunity exists for Jalayimiya outside the audience we've already built.
It also highlighted something else.
We need to start preparing Jalayimiya for its next stage.
Growth doesn't stop the everyday business
While I was physically in Darwin running our trade booth, the online side of Jalayimiya continued operating.
Orders continued coming in.
Customers continued shopping.
Emails continued arriving.
Our website kept running.
Then we returned to Perth and the everyday business was waiting for us alongside everything that needed to happen after DAAF.
During the same period, Kellie, who works very casually with us managing Customer Care remotely, was unfortunately unwell.
The result was a backlog.
Some customers waited significantly longer for an email response than I want anyone shopping with Jalayimiya to wait.
That's something I want to acknowledge.
Growth is exciting, but the customer experience needs to grow with it.
Building better systems
Long before DAAF, I'd already started identifying parts of Jalayimiya that needed to become more efficient.
One of our biggest recent changes has been the introduction of our new online Returns Portal.
Eligible customers can now lodge returns and exchanges themselves rather than waiting for Customer Care to manually process their request.
We've introduced FREE return shipping for eligible returns, new return mailers and automatic email communication throughout the returns process.
It means fewer emails, fewer manual steps and a much more seamless experience for our customers.
It also means our small team can spend more time helping customers whose enquiries genuinely need personal assistance.
This is the approach I'm beginning to take across the entire business.
If technology can make something simpler for our customers, I'm looking at it.
Not to remove the human element from Jalayimiya, but to protect it.
Keeping the pieces you love in stock
Inventory has been another major focus.
As Jalayimiya has grown, we've accumulated much better information about what our customers actually want.
We know our signature silhouettes.
We know our bestselling pieces.
We understand our size curves better.
And we're using that information to forecast demand and hold more inventory.
Customers may already have noticed that it's becoming increasingly rare for our core products to be completely sold out.
Unless a piece is intentionally limited edition, isn't being restocked or experiences unexpected demand, our goal is to keep Jalayimiya's signature pieces available across our size range.
Growing our audience means very little if women discover Jalayimiya only to find there's nothing available for them to buy.
Better inventory planning is one of the less glamorous parts of growing a fashion business.
It's also one of the most important.
The next version of Jalayimiya
We're now sitting at an important threshold.
The next stage may mean expanding our team and potentially moving our fulfilment to a third-party logistics provider, or 3PL.
A 3PL would receive and store Jalayimiya inventory, then professionally pick, pack and dispatch online orders on our behalf.
At the moment, that work still happens at Jalayimiya HQ.
Moving to a 3PL would give me back a significant amount of time to focus on the areas where I'm most valuable to the business: design, product development, creative direction, marketing and growing Jalayimiya.
But it's also a significant decision.
Growth of more than 2,100% in three months is extraordinary.
But three months is still three months.
Before committing Jalayimiya to significantly higher permanent staffing, warehousing and fulfilment costs, I want to see that this new level of demand is consistent and sustainable.
Scaling too slowly creates problems.
Scaling too quickly can create entirely different ones.
My job is to find the right point between the two.
Building something that lasts
September, October, summer and Black Friday are still ahead of us.
The next few months will tell me a lot about what Jalayimiya needs in 2027.
The goal has never been growth simply for the sake of being bigger.
I want to build a strong, sustainable First Nations fashion business that is still here in 10 years, 20 years and hopefully much longer.
I want our signature silhouettes to become recognisable.
I want First Nations wearable art sitting confidently within Australian fashion.
I want customers to have an incredible experience with us whether they're placing their first order or their twentieth.
And I want to build the infrastructure behind Jalayimiya that allows us to do all of that without losing the community and connection that got us here.
Right now, I'm still a mum, wife, designer, business owner, marketer, warehouse lady and occasional IT department.
Some days it's a lot.
But watching something I started grow into what Jalayimiya is becoming is incredibly special.
And none of this growth belongs to me alone.
Every customer who has placed an order, recommended Jalayimiya to a friend, shared a photo, written a review, tagged us or simply told another woman about the brand has helped build this.
So thank you.
We're still learning.
We're still growing.
And we're building what's next.
Brodie George
Founder & Director
Jalayimiya