Growing up in the Philippines, half of my childhood friends were raised without parents.

Kids were left behind as parents moved overseas to earn enough income to provide for basic needs back home. This often stretched into years spent apart. Not because they wanted to, but because they had no choice.

This experience gave me a front row seat to the role that accessible education and sustainable work opportunities play in developing communities. Often, it spells the difference between families remaining in poverty, and being able to equip the next generation with the knowledge and resources for a better life.

At LUCI, we’re working to bridge the gap between an eager supply of remote workers, and the growing needs for digital commerce companies to remain competitive.

Annual eCommerce revenues are in the trillions, and have doubled over the last 3 years. This is driving brands to try and find new ways of standing out online. As a team of photo specialists, we help brands get quality product images online faster, differentiate in a crowded market, and optimize visual shopping experiences to drive sales.

But we’re more than your average image retouching company. Revenues from this rapidly growing market are providing the rocket fuel to reunite families and transform communities, one photo at a time.

Closing the wealth gap through the rise of eCommerce

In the Philippines, many mothers can count on one hand the number of times they’ve seen their teenage children.

Every year, 2 million Filipinos leave their families to work abroad, sending money back home to the tune of $33 billion annually. The majority are women. Many leave for decades, taking whatever job they can find as domestic workers or cleaners, just to earn enough to provide for relatives back home.

Staying put isn’t an option for many parents, since local wages don’t sustain daily needs. And saving extra money to send kids to school is often a pipe dream. The cost for quality education is simply prohibitive for many families. Sometimes one sibling gets to go. Others are not so lucky, and end up in the workforce at a young age, bypassing school altogether.

For many, the pursuit of creating a better life for your family comes at an enormous cost. Entire childhoods are missed in exchange for stability and future plans. We want to change this.

When we played with business ideas for what we could do to help, we set out to answer a few fundamental questions:

• What if we could equip people with the high-value skills needed to earn a living wage from anywhere?
  
• What if we could facilitate more accessible education to unlock work opportunities in a growing industry?
  
• What if we could empower more people to choose when and how they work, bringing that dream of a better life to their doorstep?

We knew we landed on the right idea when we realized there was a way to solve a clear problem in the eCommerce market, while empowering rural communities with the training to tap into these job opportunities.

As of 2023, there are more eCommerce companies selling online than ever before. Many retailers who were forced to move online in the wake of COVID-19 are faced with a growing set of challenges: making their store feel like an extension of their in-person retail experience, and successfully converting shoppers in a sea of rising competition. That’s where we come in.

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What we do

Our growing team of visual artists provides image editing services to help digital commerce brands carve out an engaging brand presence, and get new products to market faster. We edit images for high-volume product catalogs, editorials, look books and marketing campaigns, to help brands stand out.

Every new brand that we partner with provides the fuel for us to train more artists and create more remote work opportunities, enabling more families to remain intact and build towards a better future.

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What we believe

While we’re in early days, there are a few pillars we operate from that guide decision-making as we look ahead:
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• We are for profit.
  We are purpose driven and profit fuelled. We believe that fuelling impact through profits is the best way to drive sustainable change. We’re opening up work opportunities for underrepresented people by specifically equipping them with the skills to add value in the growing eCommerce market.

• We are customer centered.
  Our clients need to move fast to remain competitive. That’s why we’ve integrated AI into the heart of our process to pass along the benefits of speed and cost savings. While we’re excited for all that AI brings, we believe a layer of human oversight is key to ensure work quality, and to drive innovation for getting the most out of the technology.

• We believe in education.
  We see education as one of the most powerful tools for transforming communities. We’re committed to making education more accessible by training and developing our team with the creative and technical skills needed to add value in the growing eCommerce space. But that’s just the start.
  
  We’re excited to be exploring more opportunities to equip people with digital literacy skills needed to thrive in the digital age, so they take advantage of remote work opportunities. We’re looking forward to expanding our academy beyond creative image services as we grow.
• We are shifting cultural narratives.
  We want to be a voice that shifts the paradigm around working with minority talent. East-Asians continue to face discrimination and challenging stigmas while operating in the Western working culture. This has to change.
  
  Filipinos are more than janitorial staff, nannies, and nurses. The country is home to a rich history of entrepreneurs, artists, and creative thinkers. We are committed to fostering more of this homegrown talent starting with education, and facilitating opportunities for people to play a role in the mainstream economy with high-value skills.

Ways you can support

We are in the early days of this journey. If our mission and approach resonates with you, there are three ways that you can help support our growth:

For eCommerce businesses seeking image support, we’d love to help elevate your online presence. We’re actively growing our base of clientele, and would love to chat. The best way to reach out is through our website contact page.

For those who might benefit from the job opportunities we’ve described, we’re actively growing our team of visual artists. We’re open to getting in touch with those interested in quality remote work opportunities in the eCommerce space.

If you resonate with the mission, we’d appreciate you sharing this article so we can reach more people whom we can partner with and serve.

For those already playing a part in our journey, thank you for partnering with us in helping make the world a more connected, empowered, and inclusive place. We’re excited to have you with us.

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