How It All Began: A Brand Built on a Love of Family Life

How a Kazakh Couple Turned a Small Franchise Into a Home Goods Empire

The first step for the Jaksylykovs, a married couple, was purchasing a franchise to sell tableware. This helped them analyze demand and refine their business processes. A year later, Nurgali and his wife traveled to China and Turkey to explore the range of home goods available. They realized that Kazakhstan had few stores specializing in this niche, so they decided to sell tableware and textiles. That was how they launched their own brand, Amelihome, named after their daughter, Ameli.

Today, the family runs an online store in Astana and sells through major marketplaces. The brand collaborates with a workshop that produces aprons, table runners, and serving napkins.

Responsibilities in the family business are divided as follows: Nurgali handles marketplace operations, analytics, sales, and customer relations, while Nazym oversees procurement, photography, and content creation alongside an SMM specialist. She also proposes ideas for new collections. Their employees process orders and package products, with support from the couple's parents.

"We don't want to lose our regular customers, so we focus on product quality and service. For us, these matter more than the number of clients. It's better to sell high-quality items that will last customers a long time," Nurgali explains.

Why the Family Decided to Expand to Marketplaces

Initially, Amelihome grew through social media. Nazym posted daily videos showcasing products and demonstrating their use in everyday life. The content quickly gained traction, with the account organically reaching 350,000 followers—no ads required.

During the pandemic, demand surged as people stayed home, cooked more, and sought stylish tableware and textiles for serving. This became a turning point. Some videos went viral, racking up millions of views, with most viewers from Russia, as well as audiences in Europe and India. The family's brand caught the attention of an international audience, which they then consolidated in a Telegram channel.

However, shipping from Kazakhstan to Russia via courier services proved expensive. Customers began asking the Jaksylykovs to list their products on marketplaces for faster, more affordable purchases. Responding to demand, Nurgali opened a store on Ozon at his audience's request.

"Registration was straightforward—I quickly set up an account and uploaded product listings. On the very first day, I shipped 10 to 15 orders," Nurgali recalls.

How the Brand Promotes Its Products

Staying Updated on the Platform

To keep up with Ozon's latest changes, Nurgali regularly checks the marketplace's knowledge base, which includes guidelines for sellers from the CIS, as well as built-in product promotion tools. For instance, he frequently uses elastic boosting—applying discounts to most of his inventory, which helps improve search rankings. For slower-selling items, he opts for maximum boosting, offering the deepest possible discounts.

Since expanding to online marketplaces, Amelihome has seen a significant surge in orders. Whenever a new product is listed, Nurgali immediately shares the link in his Telegram channel. Subscribers quickly follow it to the platform and place orders. The sudden influx forced the family to expand their team, hiring packers to meet shipping deadlines. They also scaled up their warehouse and opened a new retail outlet in Astana.

Handling Reviews and Customer Feedback

Amelihome mostly receives positive reviews, with negative feedback arising only when items break during shipping—an occasional issue, no matter how secure the packaging. In such cases, Nurgali personally addresses each complaint: instead of asking customers to return damaged goods, he simply refunds their money.

This approach proves especially useful for distant orders. For example, a shipment to Kolyma once had a color mix-up. Nurgali negotiated with the customer, allowing her to keep the item while partially reimbursing her. This was far more practical than returning the product all the way from Russia to Kazakhstan.

How Ozon's Local Offer in Kazakhstan Changed the Game

Initially, Amelihome operated through Ozon's Russian platform, facing commissions as high as 30% and delayed payouts to the seller's account.

After Ozon launched its localized service in Kazakhstan, the business made the switch—and the differences were striking:

• Commissions dropped to 12%—customers had previously complained about online prices being higher than in physical stores, but that markup is now gone.
• Payouts became regular and currency conversion was eliminated, allowing faster restocking and smoother supply chain operations on marketplaces.
• Logistics simplified significantly: Nurgali uses the FBS (Fulfillment by Seller) model, storing inventory in his own warehouse, managing orders independently, and delivering them to Ozon's pickup points. With the new local offer, he can now drop off products at the nearest collection center.