Магазин Wuff Box запустил оплату в тринидадских долларах для местных клиентов

As forex limitations continue to plague online shoppers, one entrepreneur whose products and services is making a global reach, is giving her T&T customers the option of paying for their purchases from her website in local currency. Nirena Nobbee is the owner of the premium dog boutique, Wuff Box, and the online consultancy clinic, Wuff’s Canine Health Clinic. The boutique offers gift and BarkDay boxes containing allergen-free treats, toys, clothing and accessories, while the clinic offers consultancy services from a health and nutritional perspective. “I had opened the boutique in Trinidad in 2019, then I expanded to Toronto and then Jamaica … I opened the clinic on July 11 in Toronto, and what I’m planning to do by September is to open it up in Trinidad, giving clients the option to utilise TT$ instead of trying to access forex via their credit card,” Nobbee told Business Guardian. She said the T&T website will allow customers to pay in TT dollars, do cash on delivery or do online bank transfers. Nobbee was born in Canada, but both her parents are from T&T. She said when she decided to get into business, her grandfather, the late Haji Yacoob Ali, mentored her. Ali was the longest serving ASJA president general, an attorney and a pharmacist. “I’m just following in his footsteps as the eldest granddaughter, being a lawyer, and I just finished a BSc in health sciences to go into clinical research, which I’m piggybacking off for the canine nutrition clinic.” Nobbee said one year after she opened the online boutique, she opened the physical store in south Trinidad, during the pandemic. “I built this store up during Covid. I was stuck in Trinidad, so I said ‘Let me just have this store opened.’ I had no idea how to run a business but my grandfather guided me. I was my own boss and employee for the first three years. Then I opened in Toronto in 2023, then I expanded to Jamaica in 2025.” This venture afforded her the opportunity to be make it to the top five of the international Entrepreneur of Impact—an annual online competition and national fundraising campaign hosted by Colossal, in collaboration with Entrepreneur Magazine and business mogul Daymond John. She said she has no regrets of making that initial investment of an estimated CAN$10,000. “I utilised the fact that once the borders were shut, everything went on sale online. I had enough stock to last for about two years.” She said business especially picked up when she started doing the monthly themed boxes. “For example, January would be New Year’s so I started getting these champagne bottle squeaker toys. In February did Valentine’s Day boxes, April would be Easter, and then I started doing a summer theme with flamingos, unicorns pineapples, palm trees; things that would tie into Caribbean. I did Halloween for October, November would be Thanksgiving then Christmas in December.” And during the World Cup, her football-themed boxes quickly sold out. She said she did her master’s in medical law because she was interested in clinical research. “I always give myself a timeline. So I’m 35 now, so probably by 38 I plan to leave corporate law and want to practise medical law. But in the midst of all of that I still wanted to do something on the side.” She sadly recalled an unfortunate incident with her dogs, which turned out to be the inspiration for the canine clinic. “I was already doing my degree in health sciences and I always had interest in canine nutrition … I did the integrative canine naturopathy certification and then animal nutrition as well. I’m also accredited with international practitioners of holistic medicine in the UK.” So when her beloved dogs went through their traumatic experiences, she used her knowledge to help nurse them back to health. “The reason behind the clinic now is because of the dogs, because of my love for dogs and because I wanted to carry on the legacy of having Wuff as a name.” For now, the clinic remains virtual, but she is hopeful that by next year she will be opening the doors to a physical clinic. “I started promoting the clinic in February so I had a wait list. The first client that I had was from the Philippines. She reached out to me probably three months ago and I asked her to give me some time because it was a more severe case where the dog had oral cancer, and I was just finishing up my certification. I didn’t want to be that type of person where I do not have the actual certification to back up what I was saying.” The clinic, she emphasised, is not a veterinary clinic, but offers consultancy services after a vet visit. “You come to me with all your diagnosis, your scans, your blood work, everything that you have, and then we can work from there. If you don’t want to give your dog veterinary-prescribed medications, no problem, we will work from a nutritional perspective. “The entire concept of Wuff’s Canine Health Clinic is that it complements veterinary care.”