The entrepreneur said he was always likely to end up in the family business but wanted to bring his own ideas to the 100plus-year-old Winning brand.

Speaking at an Interactive Minds session in Brisbane, John said he was focused on bringing Appliances Online to market, as well as the AV site Big Brown Box, alongside the traditional bricks and mortar brand of Winning Appliances.

He said: “I had a bit of an ego and I didn’t want to be the kid who went into the family business, inherited the business, and took it from there and it was the easy path.

“I wanted to make my own path in life.

“I saw the online retail space growing, and started a discussion over why can’t we take what my family business does in terms of customer service and selling the products that we’ve got, and put that on the internet.”

To see more on his introduction to retail, click below:

He claimed sites like Facebook and Twitter work to engage with people who have used your service, and said people often want to talk about their experiences with the company.

Speaking at an Interactive Minds session in Brisbane, John said staff from Appliances Online and Big Brown Box were communicating with customers every day, but said it is not their role to instigate conversation.

He said customers feel comfortable raising discussion topics online, talking about their delivery and critiquing, positively or negatively, the service they have received.

John said: “When you’re talking about a business that has grown from word of mouth and you have got a new business that you’re trying to grow on the back of the same customer experience, social media is the best tool you could possibly use.”

To see his full thoughts on social media, click below:

Due to the success of the online retail sites Appliances Online and Big Brown Box, the number of people working for the Winning group in total has grown to more than 350.

And John says that by keeping each individual happy in their role, and by involving them in the company, it makes for a better working environment.

Speaking at an Interactive Minds session in Brisbane, he said: “Being a family business, it’s very important to us. Make it fun, involve staff in what you do.

“The benefit of doing something for your staff is they will work harder for you. They put in a greater amount of effort for us.”

To listen to more of John’s thoughts on how to best treat staff, click below:

And ensuring a website is user friendly is the modern day version of keeping the shop floor tidy, which is why Appliances Online founder and CEO John Winning believes it is imperative to maintaining people’s interest when buying online.

The design of a site, according to John, has to accommodate many factors including prominence of products, accessibility of information and the multimedia aspects, while ensuring it fits the needs of the customer.

And he believes any feedback, from competitions, analysis and questioning, from those who use the site to purchase, helps ensure it remains entirely fit for purpose.

Speaking at an Interactive Minds session in Brisbane, John said: “Do everything you can to try find and out what your customers are doing on the site.

“Use your analytics tools to find out where they are visiting the site, where they are dropping out of the site, where they’re entering the site, what pages they are spending the most time on.”

To watch more about John’s thoughts on website designs, and how Appliances Online has changed over time, click below:

From the beginnings of the 106-year-old Winning Appliances through to the launch of Appliances Online and most recently Big Brown Box, the standard of service provided to customers has been of paramount importance.

And John believes maintaining that level of service, quality, and information, is vital to anyone trying to operate in the online retail space.

Speaking at an Interactive Minds session, in Brisbane, John said: “From my family business, it’s built solely on word of mouth. Customer experience is at the heart of everything we do in all the business we do.

“Whenever anything goes wrong we take it upon us to fix the problem.”

To listen to more from John about the importance of providing the best customer experience, click below:

Of course, we’re very particular about who we work with as the customer experience is so crucial to the success of all our businesses and we are very cautious about how we are being represented on external sites.

Who we work with

At present we work very closely with the leading Australian CSEs (Comparison Shopping Engines) like Getprice.com.au and MyShopping.com.au as well as other product-focused sites like ProductReview.com.au. These sites allow consumers to compare prices across various suppliers, as well as collecting reviews about the different stores. As we have a high customer-satisfaction rate, a fantastic perception in the market and offer a best-price guarantee, these kinds of sites work well for us.

It’s also important to us that our customers are able to leave reviews on third-party sites like these: it allows us to refine our service, while the high ratings are great for our market perception!

The other sites we work with on affiliate relationships are niche-specific sites: content-driven portals sharing content about cooking, appliances, home renovation or anything else specific to us. These kinds of sites are more likely to use generic Appliances Online or Big Brown Box links or banners, rather than pricing and links to specific products.

Who we don’t work with

Recently we’ve been approached by several marketplace sites looking to partner with us. One that stands out is Zanui.com.au – an aggregator of products and suppliers with one key difference to other affiliates: they own the pre- and post-sale communications, the checkout/transaction process and the delivery of products. This means that we, as a merchant, would have little or no interaction with the customer.

Zanui’s site’s been launched by Rocket Internet, an aggressive German venture capital group that move into new markets and launch several products at once. They’ve grown rapidly in the last few months in Australia – launching four sites and hiring hundreds of new staff.

We’ve seen many startups like this before: they move heavily into the market and sell to merchants on the premise that if they don’t take up a property on their marketplace as a supplier, their competitors will. In this case, our competitors will undoubtedly start selling their products through Zanui, but we’re not concerned.

We believe that we’re large enough to stand-alone in the industry now, and don’t feel intimidated by considerable marketing budgets of other groups or new players for several reasons:

1. We will always own our pre- and post-sale communication, the transaction process and the delivery: it’s the only way we can continue to promise the highest levels of service possible.
2. Competitors that do take up opportunities on marketplace sites like this are most likely not as concerned about service and the customer experience as we are, so we don’t see them as a threat to our core business offering.
3. Selling through marketplace sites only dilutes our brand and confuses the customer: we’re confident about who we are as a company and as individuals, and we won’t risk altering how we’re perceived in the market.
4. Partner relationships like these have the potential to upset suppliers, who are just as important to us as our customers and staff.

More specific to Zanui: we’re a family business and a business going from 1 to hundreds of staff in a few months isn’t likely to maintain a strong work culture or ethic, which will undoubtedly carry-over to their service. That’s not what we’re about.

I wouldn’t usually name a specific company in this way, but after meeting with Zanui I thought it was appropriate to state why our businesses won’t be partnering with them or other marketplace sites, especially as they claim to be moving so heavily into the market. We wish them all the best and will be keeping a close eye on this space this year.

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!

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.

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:

• Growing our staff from 20 to almost 100 employees at Appliances Online,
• Winning the ORIA award for Best Customer service and Best Site Design,
• Re-launching Big Brown Box as an online destination for people in the market for TVs and AV equipment,
• Becoming CEO of Winning Appliances and being the 4th generation Winning to be in charge of the family business,
• Opening a warehouse in Perth to better service our friends in the West,
• Jumping on the Team Korea boat which was sailing in the America’s Cup World Series in San Diego with my good friend Troy Tindill.

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.

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.