In case you missed it, Vince Sorrenti and David Hasselhoff gave us an awesome wrap last week when we caught up with them.
They’re in town for reality TV show Celebrity Apprentice and were running a charity dog-washing service in the park. We’ve not really looked at celebrity endorsements before, but this was a laugh and all proceeds went to the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
The Hoff’s still got it!
The biggest asset of our business is our staff.
Great ideas come from all staff members and I am always open to hear anyone’s thoughts.
Part of this trust involves supporting staff in their interests outside work – this in turn enhances the job they do for us.
The following video of Warren Younan, one of our fantastic truck drivers, is an example of how encouraging and believing in your staff builds the foundations for a successful business.
This Christmas I’m working… 10 Appliances Online and Big Brown Box employees, along with their partners or friends, are spending Christmas Day manning the customer support centre. We also have some suppliers dropping in for the occasion.
Part of our commitment to customer service is that we are available 365 days a year, so we’re open from 7am to 11pm even on Christmas Day… There’s no rest for the wicked.
Sam, who’s in charge of all things fun in the office has put together a cooking roster and I’m looking forward to cooking a ‘mini turkey’* in our state-of-the-art kitchen in the office. We might even get our office keg working for the occasion.
It’s been a huge year for Appliances Online – and here are some of the highlights:
Merry Christmas everyone, look forward to catching up in the New Year.
* The mini turkey is actually a chicken. I don’t know how to cook turkey and am not willing to try my luck when cooking for 10.
This week, our team at Appliances Online volunteered at the Children’s Hospital in Randwick.
The day was an opportunity for staff to understand (and be inspired) by the work achieved by the Children’s Hospital Foundation Australia (CHFA), a charity we support, and to put a smile on the faces of children suffering from illness and disability. Here’s a video of the day.
Six years ago when I launched Appliances Online, online retail was a different place – none of our current competitors were online, the Harvey Norman-Kogan clash was still some years away and most people thought that selling appliances online was crazy.
A lot’s changed since then – traditional retailers like Myer are now selling online and lending a lot of authority to the space, while businesses like Coles Online, who have been operating since 1999, are continually putting more effort into the channel (even if they are still having some teething issues).
Along the way, the appliances industry has become busier and busier. A lot of our offline competitors launched online properties, including sites operated by 2nds World and Retravision, both of which bear uncanny similarities to our own site. And we’re not the only ones who notice, either.
A screenshot from 2nds World's new e-commerce site.
Appliances Online
Some sites go so far as to take our own images, while others try to impersonate us on the search results and trade off our brand name.
We don’t see this as too disheartening, however.
Competitors will always borrow images, layouts and content: but these elements of our business are not what sets us apart. In fact, there’s an advantage to online retailers adopting a similar site style as consumers know what to expect from one site to the next.
Old-fashioned service, a dedication to our customers and competitive pricing are, and will always, be key to the success of our business – and these things are hard to successfully copy.
We see no value in trying to claim ownership of a design: that sort of reaction only inhibits progress.
Take the bickering between Apple and Samsung, for example: the huge amounts of money they spend trying to bar each other’s products could otherwise be invested in delivering something genuinely unique.
Each time a competitor impersonates us, they’re missing an opportunity to create something entirely unique themselves – rather than trying to lead the market, they’re reacting to other players around them. We’re solely focused on the former: continually refining our site and service offering.
Brands that act this way are also distracting themselves from the main goal. Aus Appliances, for example, aren’t using their own brand name in their homepage title tag (where you would usually use your brand name and your top keywords) – they’re using ours. They’re only going to weaken their own brand and confuse their visitors – which can’t be healthy for sales.
So, my advice if you’re being copied: be flattered and continue innovating.
Every week I receive an enquiry from an investment bank wanting to meet with me to discuss the retail landscape in Australia.
While I welcome their emails – and always reply (sometimes hastily) – I have also decided to keep investment advice at arms length, for now.
This decision has not been made through arrogance… I get that talking about our figures might further legitimise our business, we will be able to learn more about our competitors from experts, and it might also help build credibility – but our decision not to talk about revenue is not a choice made on the fly, but one which has been carefully considered by all levels of management.
The day will come to talk about our figures, but we’re not quite there yet. Sorry.
This is because (in order of priority):
I will however tell you some figures we don’t mind talking about:
We have a bold vision for growth. It’s an exciting time, and we’ll tell you all more about it soon enough.
This blog is a blackboard for ideas about launching and running online, and now offline, businesses. I’ll canvas and test ideas, share experiences and videos relevant to those interested in the retail industry, e-commerce and business in general.
At 21 I took a punt by telling the management at my century-old family business, Winning Appliances, that I thought the future of retail was in selling products online. Management thought the idea was crazy but thankfully gave me three months out of my job as a salesperson to prove I could make a success of it. And so I employed my best mate Peter Harris and together we started building an e-commerce site.
After six years of pretty tough work Appliances Online has grown to be Australia’s largest online retailer of appliances – selling more brands than any other online, or offline, retail outlet. I’m not a computer nerd (we hire them), but have a solid understanding of business and the desire to impress every customer with off-the-charts customer service.
More than 150,000 customers have bought from us, and our revenue has doubled every year since we launched. Our staff numbers have grown too – from just me and some of my best mates, to over 80 employees – and growing quickly. We’ve also expanded our distribution network nationally with warehouses in every major city.
With the successful business model of Appliances Online behind me, I became aware that Thorn Group Limited was looking to find a buyer to their award-winning website Big Brown Box . I saw this as an opportunity to branch out into the AV market, which seemed complementary to the kitchen and laundry appliances space. Again, everyone warned me against buying the site and trying my hand at the AV market, and although I saw their reasoning, I decided to buy the digital assets regardless.
We re-launched the website in November 2011 to be exclusively focused on AV equipment and accessories, and while we still have a lot of work to do, we aim to double revenue and build closer relationships with suppliers over the next 12 months.
In November this year the board of Winning Appliances, the company which was founded by my great-grandfather R.W Winning in 1906, appointed me as the CEO. I’ll be the fourth generation of Winnings to lead this business. This decision was made after much-loved industry veteran John Murphy (who expanded the business and worked closely with my dad – also John Winning) decided to step back from his day-to-day management role to a less hands on but more strategic non-executive role.
John Murphy has been working for Winnings for the past 32 years – five years longer than I’ve been alive – and has been a great mentor to me (despite saying online retail would never take off!) It will be interesting to be much closer to a bricks and mortar retail outlet and with the company where it all started.
