Started by Melissa Lichocik in 2012 in Perth, Western Australia, The Baby Emporium sells modern and innovative baby products online.
Having her own children inspired Lichocik to stay home and start her own online business. An avid online shopper, Lichocik appreciated the variety of the baby products she was able to find online and decided to bring them all into one convenient online space.
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New research has shown that many of Australia’s new startup businesses — particularly online stores — favour the environment of their local coffee shop or other ‘third place’ (a place for doing business aside from the home or office).
The younger a business owner is, the more likely he or she is to do business in these so-called third places. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, 52% of Baby Boomers feel that doing business in a coffee shop is unprofessional while 45% of Gen X professionals agreed. Only 38% of Generation Y professionals shared this view.
But while the future of business seems to be going the way of working in cafes, there are some drawbacks, including:
Young entrepreneurs Mitchell Harper and Eddie Machaalani are making eCommerce easy for small businesses.
Founded in 2009 and with offices in Sydney and Texas, BigCommerce revealed last year that the company now powers more than 20,000 online stores for retailers, who have processed sales of more than $350,000,000.
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Google yesterday announced Australia’s most web-savvy towns with its second eTown Awards, celebrating cities and regions whose small businesses make the best use of the web to connect with customers and grow.
Australia’s winning eTowns by state and territory are:
Claire Hatton, Head of Local Business, Google Australia, told Dynamic Business that business operators who successfully integrate digital strategies are simply more competitive.
“We see through our research that small businesses that actually use digital are more successful — they grow revenue and employ more people,” Hatton said. “This web advantage also extends to towns and regions which need no longer rely on a single local resource or industry to prosper. A town’s real assets are now their small businesses owners and employees,” Hatton said.
The link between digital engagement and commercial success has been firmly established, and a recent report by Deloitte Access Economics published in April this year found that Australian small businesses with high digital engagement are twice as likely to be growing revenue, and earn twice as much revenue per employee. They are also four times more likely to be hiring additional staff.
“The location of your shop front or size of your workforce doesn’t matter online. Every business has the opportunity to engage customers and grow,” Hatton said. “Whether you’re a boutique hotel, beautician or surf school, if you’re not online you’re missing out on a direct line to thousands of potential customers.”
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The Winning Group’s online sales have notched $150 million in annual sales, meaning its combined sales is a record $350 million for the company, Australia’s leading kitchen and laundry appliance specialist.
The 25 per cent jump in sales was propelled by a massive 35 per cent year-on-year growth in the firm’s Appliances Online and Big Brown Box internet offerings, and 17 per cent rise in Winning Appliances’ bricks-and-mortar sales.
“The retail stores were just over $100 million probably five years ago and now it’s $150m. The websites this year reached just over $150m,” group chief executive John Winning told The Courier-Mail.
“The debate between online versus offline is over – Australian retailers must perfect their business formula across all platforms to earn the trust and repeat business from savvy shoppers,” Winning said.
“We think that if the market turns, our growth could increase significantly, even more than 25 per cent. We’ve ridden out a couple of pretty tough years very successfully and now we’re looking forward to the many customers that we have talking positively about their experience with us.”
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United Kingdom online betting giant William Hill has agreed to purchase Australian online betting firm Tom Waterhouse for at least A$34 million.
The online betting site has agreed to pay A$34 million up front and assume A$6 million in debt for tomwaterhouse.com.
It will pay up to A$70 million more on a sliding scale based on tomwaterhouse.com achieving earnings growth between A$10 million and A$30 million in 2015.
Tomwaterhouse.com was established in 2010 and is one of Australia’s fastest growing online racing and sports betting businesses.
It is a privately held company owned by managing director Tom Waterhouse and others and has around 80 employees based in Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin.
“We are pleased to have secured this acquisition,” Ralph Topping, CEO of William Hill. “International expansion is a key part of our growth strategy and making Australia our second home is a priority. Acquiring tomwaterhouse.com gives us a rapidly growing business that appeals to a complementary customer base.”
Australia has the world’s biggest gambling habit per capita.
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Established in 2013 by Leah Bridge and stationed in Central Coast, New South Wales, Navy Crockett is an online boutique to buy gifts for the hard-to-buy-for man in your life.
Navy Crockett is actually the second business for the busy Bridge. She also has a design studio that she operates. Thankfully she embraces the chaos and variety of running the two very different businesses.
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