Meet Harriet Noy, CEO and Founder of Hazaar

Tell us about Hazaar

Hazaar is the UK’s first student-focused marketplace, transforming how brands connect with students. We’re more than just a shopping platform – we’re a community that cares about affordability, accessibility and conscious consumption. By giving archive and unsold stock a renewed purpose, we help brands connect with students while clearing inventory. For students, it means access to high-quality products at prices that fit their budgets through exclusive, themed drops.

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

I founded Hazaar during my second year at the University of Birmingham. The idea came from seeing students constantly buy cheap, single-use items – Halloween costumes and fancy-dress outfits – only to discard them after one night. It felt wasteful, and I wanted to offer a smarter alternative. We started as a simple student-to-student marketplace on Facebook, where students at ten universities could trade items directly on campus. It helped people save money, reduce waste and shop more responsibly. The response was overwhelming, and it revealed a much bigger opportunity: to make student shopping more ethical and affordable nationwide. Today, Hazaar connects verified UK students with brands that share our values, repurposing surplus stock into drops students genuinely want.

Tell us about your core product or service.

Hazaar is a curated ecommerce platform for UK students and recent graduates. Students sign up with their university email to access limited-time product drops featuring unsold or archive items from brands like Oh Polly, Kaiia the Label, Public Desire, Art of Football and Osprey. Each drop is themed around key student moments – moving into halls, Freshers’ Week, exam season, graduation – and offers new products at secondhand prices.

We only work with verified brands, meaning everything on Hazaar is authentic and high quality, removing the risks of peer-to-peer resale apps. For brands, Hazaar offers a sustainable way to monetise leftover stock, reach over 23,000 verified students and build early loyalty – all without undercutting full-price collections.

What excites you most about the retail industry?

What excites me most is how fast-paced and innovative the retail industry is – good ideas are adopted quickly, and there’s a real appetite for trying new things. I also love how well-connected it is; there are so many events and networking opportunities to share best practices and learn from others. It’s both competitive and collaborative, which makes it such a dynamic space to work in.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome along the way?

Getting people to know about us! Hazaar began as a campus marketplace for student-to-student trading. It wasn’t until brands started approaching us asking to sell on our marketplace in January that we moved into the retail space. From there, we faced the challenge of scaling the platform from a small local community to tens of thousands of students nationwide. This meant learning about the retail industry while building brand partnerships, all while staying true to our core values of affordability, quality and sustainability.

What is your number one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Surround yourself with experts. You don’t need to be an expert in everything – what matters is that you have the right people around you. In the early days, I worked with lots of freelancers, which gave us access to great expertise at a price we could afford. Build a strong team and advisory network, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. The right guidance can make the difference between surviving and thriving.

What can we hope to see from Hazaar in the future?

We’re building the go-to community for students – a space they want to be part of and contribute to. As part of that, we’re creating opportunities for students to get involved. For example, we’re about to launch an ambassador programme to help students develop skills, gain experience and shape the future of Hazaar from the inside.