How I expanded my online business internationally

The decision to use analytics is an interesting one – have you used it since then for new markets?

It’s just so much information readily available and it was a big factor in the decision making. To me, it just shows that there’s already proven demand in certain areas. The UK is definitely the most attractive market to enter outside of Australia, and because of this we know there are more markets out there with a demand.

It’s not just search demand, though. We also spend a lot of time looking at competitors and other factors.

And so how did you handle distribution?

We outsource anything we don’t specialise in. So we specialise in selling furniture, but warehousing and freight is something we don’t do. We have to find the right partners there, and we made sure we had a fantastic user experience for our customers.

We spent a lot of time on the ground there, with Ruslan Kogan, inspecting the warehouses and the providers.

How do you handle the local headquarters there?

Even though we’re in our head office here, the warehouse is just outside of London. We operationally control that warehouse daily. Our operations manager in Melbourne will speak to that warehouse multiple times a day, giving them instructions of what orders came in the night before so we’ll give them communication about what’s happening, or what needs to happen.

Customers are happy when they get their tracking number, right? Then they’re satisfied. So originally it was a matter of finding partners that could meet our KPIs, and deliver products quickly.

What proportion of your revenue is from the UK?

It’s significant. And our Europe business will eventually overtake our UK business because we’re getting a huge amount of sales from mainland Europe. And just today we doubled our online advertising for Europe because we’re getting such a good return on investment.

Were there any teething issues along the way?

We actually did have to move warehouses in the UK once. In regard to the first warehouse, they didn’t understand the strict importance that customers must receive that tracking number immediately after dispatch. They were sending it three days later, and then the stuff arrives a day or so later. It just didn’t make sense.

We had to go back there again and look for a new warehouse and we’ve been using the new one for 18 months. They’re fantastic. As I said, it’s all about communication online and making sure everything is running smoothly.

And so where do you think you’ll head next?

America is a super attractive market, and while online is not new the concept is.

We’ll just continue to launch in markets where there is proven demand. Asia is very attractive with a massive population, but online is new. So there is only room to grow and there’s good opportunity.