1. What’s the quick origin story of your brand, and what makes your product or positioning genuinely different from other options in your niche?

Simona Paganetto: I’m Plastic Free was born from a passion to genuinely make a difference to plastic pollution.

In 2013 I left a promising career in global MedTech to migrate to Australia. I was living in the Whitsundays and volunteering for beach clean-ups in 2014 when I witnessed first-hand the huge amount of plastic in our oceans and its impact on marine life. I decided to do something about it.

While designing and developing reusable stainless-steel straws, I realised how difficult and time-consuming it was to find ethical, low-waste, low-carbon products that provided viable solutions to plastic use.

Fast-forward to 2018 and I’m Plastic Free was born as a a solutions-first platform. It took a few pivots and iterations over the years. Today, I’m Plastic Free is a platform for non-toxic plastic alternatives, reaching half a million consumers/year.

What makes us genuinely different is that we don’t just focus on plastic waste, we focus also on microplastics, human health and long-term safety. Every product we feature is assessed through a “non-toxic lens”, not just whether it’s “eco” or looks sustainable on the surface. We have developed a framework for this purpose.

2. Since launch, what have been the 1–2 real turning points for your brand-specific decisions, pivots, or experiments that noticeably changed your growth or profitability-and what did you learn from them?

Simona Paganetto: Two turning points really stand out throughout I’m Plastic Free’s journey.

The first pivot was to leave the traditional e-commerce 3rd party vendor marketplace model. We launched in 2020, as there could not have been a worse moment to launch a plastic-free business: in the middle of a global pandemic! We didn’t have the capital and other resources to continue with that model.

We pivoted instead to a curated, education-led platform that earns trust first and monetises through long-term partnerships, and affiliate marketing. Growth was slower at the start, but through credibility, repeat users, and a lot of helpful content, organic traffic, and brand alignment increased significantly. One of the main lessons: if your content is genuine and helpful, search engines and now also LLMs reward you.

The second turning point was shifting our positioning from “plastic-free living” to plastic and microplastic exposure reduction. Once we started clearly connecting plastic to everyday health impacts, not fear-based, just evidence-based content, then engagement changed. People didn’t just read the content; they acted on it. Time on site increased, conversions improved, and brands aligned more deeply because the conversation moved from function and sustainability, to encompass also safety. The lesson there was simple: when you solve a real problem people feel in their bodies and homes, growth becomes much more natural.

Prior to funding I’m Plastic Free, Simona, spent ten years in the medical device industry and is, therefore, familiar with reading scientific studies. This has helped the site gain authority despite lacking funds and being bootstrapped.

3. Which 2-3 channels drive most of your revenue right now (for example SEO, paid social, email, marketplaces, influencers), and what have you learned about making those channels work in your category?

Simona Paganetto: SEO drives most of our revenue, because people search when they’re already questioning safety and plastic exposure, and are ready to buy. We save consumers hours and hours of research by vetting products in our deep, practical guides. We often purchase and test the products we recommend, as we love using them ourselves. This way we are able to truly share our expereience, the good and the bad. Search engines, and LLMs are often not correct when scouting truly non-toxic, plastic-free products.

The other channel we use is brand partnerships. These can be in form of promotions on social media, a feature in our articles, subscriptions in our database of plastic alternatives etc. Collaborating with genuinely aligned brands has helped us build credibility and drive meaningful engagement.

4. How are you thinking about search in 2025 – Google, AI assistants like ChatGPT, and other discovery platforms? What, if anything, have you changed in your content or site to stay visible as AI search grows?

Simona Paganetto: Search is evolving very fast. For 2026, we’re planning to build content to be AI-first, not just Google-first. More and more people are increasingly using LLMs for their search instead of scrolling through multiple sites. This doesn not mean that we are writing AI-based articles.

To stay visible, we’re structuring content for AI and voice search with clear questions and answers, step-by-step guides, and swap lists that are easy for AI to find. We’re also adding more data-backed insights, resources, first-hand experiences of products, personal anecdotes, and other references, so our content is recognized as authoritative and trustworthy.

The goal is to be the go-to source that both humans and AI confidently recommend for non-toxic plastic alternatives.

5. What do you do to turn first‑time buyers into repeat customers and advocates? Are there specific experiences, content, or community touches that work especially well for you?

Simona Paganetto: We focus on education and trust first, not just transactions. The transaction comes automatically when we’ve done our job first. In fact, some of our content has double-digit percentage conversion rates.

We turn first-time buyers into repeat customers by helping them feel confident and supported. How? Through practical guides, swap tips, social media, and follow-up emails.

We also foster community and shared values, celebrating small wins and connecting people around safer, plastic-free living. Plus, we invite happy customers to leave us Google reviews, which not only builds trust with our readers and supporters, but also encourages repeat engagement.

6. If you had to write a short playbook for an ecommerce founder one stage behind you, what would you double down on over the next 12 months – and what would you stop doing entirely?

Simona Paganetto: Double down: build trust first. Focus on SEO-optimised, educational content that is helpful, email that adds real value, and most importantly, partnerships with brands that share your values. Partnerships with other brands are the most underestimated way to grow a business nowadays. Last, make it easy for people to understand why your products matter and how they can make a difference by using them.

Stop doing: chasing short-term traffic with ads (these don’t help build a brand!), trends, or influencer campaigns. Anything that feels too “salesy” or too superficial undermines trust and engagement.