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!
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.
I couldn’t agree more with this article in the Herald Sun ‘Problem is service not their department’.
Despite frenetic claims that the growth of online retail is crippling traditional bricks and mortar stores, I don’t believe the rise of ecommerce will be the death of the traditional in-store shopping experience.
It’s undisputed the state of online retail is booming… PayPal Australia Research indicates online spending will surpass $37bn by 2013 and that online retail growth in Australia is tipped at 12% over the next year*. At Appliances Online we have enjoyed 100% year-on-year revenue growth since we launched six years ago.
Yet despite the extraordinary growth of our online company, Winning Appliances, a business started by my great-grandfather 106 years ago, remains hugely successful. We attribute this to the fact we provide after-sales service and go above and beyond for our customers. This respect for the customer has been one of the main reasons we have survived through depressions, several wars and recessionary periods. While the global financial crisis has also reduced spending – marginally – Winning Appliances is tipped to grow at 15% in the next 12 months despite the bearish market.
Bricks and mortar retailing has faced many challenges over the years, and the current lull is a tremendous opportunity for retailers to get back to basics. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for retailers to listen to what their customers want.
Appliances Online’s customers tell us they prefer shopping online because they can’t handle going into stores and being served by an incompetent sales person, probably working on commission. None of our staff work on commission, and sales men and women carry out thorough training on every product on the showroom floor so they are able to provide the customer with transparent and uncompromising advice.
Despite the extra cost retailers need to do everything within their power to make sure every person who either goes online, or walks into a store, is happy with his or her purchase long after the transaction has taken place.
Google+ launched pages for businesses last week and Appliances Online were quick to get on board with our own page.
Social media is hugely important to our business in allowing us to communicate individually and collectively with our customers, so we’re always interested in new channels. Currently we have over 180,000 Facebook fans, nearly 20,000 Twitter followers and we’re quickly growing our Youtube channel.
A handful of customers have already found us on Google+, but it’s pretty quiet compared to the other social media networks for now.
Google+ is being rolled out in the typical Google fashion of get it out there, fix it later – and it’s certainly received a lot of criticism because of it. It’s important to keep in mind though that it is still very much in ‘beta’ and is not a finished product yet. For example, there’s little integration with other products (Youtube or Blogger, for example), no vanity URLs and the function of the +1 button, for brands as well as users, is quite vague and not as complete an experience as it needs to be to dethrone Facebook, yet.
If Google had launched with a more-developed product, including access for Google Apps users, brand pages and full integration with Youtube channels the lukewarm initial reception could have been much different, but the platform still shows much promise.
From our point of view, we’d love to see it become another legitimate communication channel – particularly as it’ll allow us to connect with customers who prefer not to use Facebook. If you want to connect with Appliances Online on Google+ you can +1 the page or add us to a circle and learn with us as we see what Google does with the platform in the future.
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.
