Portsmouth entrepreneur Charlotte Carter from Carter Bags hits 500 sales in brand milestone

A MUM has seen her business, Carter Bags, go from strength to strength as she hits a sales milestone.

Charlotte Carter, from North End who launched her business Carter Bags in May 2020, has just hit 500 sales.

The 31-year-old mum-of-one set up the luxury laptop bag brand after being disappointed with the laptop bags that were already on the market.

She said: ‘When people think of laptop bags, they think of a boring old black bag with a fabric strap. There’s no design element to it, never mind any kind of style, especially for women.

Sign up to our daily newsletter

The i newsletter cut through the noise

‘But as a business owner myself, I know how often I have to travel places with a laptop, notebook, pens, etc. so I know it’s important to have a bag that fits all of it.’

She offers three styles of bags, varying in colour and size, from rucksacks to clutch bags, depending on how much or little people need to fit inside them.

Read More

Charlotte spent months designing the bags alongside her designer, Rebecca Stevenson, testing sample after sample to create the perfect end product.

As well as the bags, which are made with vegan leather made from recycled plastic, with a lining that is also recycled, Charlotte has since launched a collection of other sustainable products, such as recycled t-shirts and notebooks.

She said that social media has allowed her to grow the brand and hit the milestone, due to the increase in demand and interest in her products.

Charlotte said: ‘I’ve just been doing all of the marketing myself in the most organic way possible and social media has been a huge part of that. I had a viral post on LinkedIn a while ago which brought in a huge amount of sales and I think that by just being myself and showing people how passionate I am about the products, they’re growing to love them just as much.

‘I’m averaging around 60 sales per month across the store and I can’t wait to keep increasing this. I also really want to see more products like this for women, that are typically only designed with men in mind. Women make up 50 per cent of the workforce so it’s important that we’re represented in the corporate world too.’

Carter Bags has now been spotted on the shoulders of many online influencers and celebrities, such as TV personality Gail Porter and fashion influencer Astrid Zeegan.

You can follow Carter Bags on Instagram, Facebook and shop the collection at carterbags.com.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

Subscribe here for unlimited access to all our coverage, including Pompey, for just 26p a day.