The Challenge

How Maropost Commerce Cloud helped Petzoo grow revenue by 500%

In 2004, Jon could see how retail was starting to change. Eager to embrace the growing ecommerce trend, he tried to get his parents to expand their bricks and mortar Pet Store online. Failing to convince them, Jon jumped at the opportunity himself launching an online Pet Store, Petzoo, and eventually expanding his business to take over his parent’s store.

Today, Jon, runs Petzoo with listings on multiple marketplaces, with customers all over Australia, and plans to acquire more physical stores.

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The Challenge: Petzoo’s Inability to Integrate Their Bricks and Mortar & Online Stores Using BigCommerce

Prior to Maropost Commerce Cloud, Jon was operating the eCommerce arm of the business on BigCommerce.

The primary problem Jon faced was the inability to integrate the management of their physical store with the online store. The key challenges were:

  • No stock visibility between the two systems
  • No ability to get a single view of his customer to improve the customer journey and personalised marketing
  • Low staff productivity across both businesses due to managing inventory manually between different systems
  • Inhibited business growth

The business was starting to experience issues for both its customers and staff and the total cost of ownership was escalating. Jon decided that it was time to find a better way.

Transforming the Way Petzoo Manages Their Stores and Order Fulfilment Using Maropost Commerce Cloud

Jon wanted a system that could integrate the ecommerce side of the business with the existing POS system in-store. He also wanted high-quality integrations with Australian shipping carriers. Comparing the impact this has had, Jon says “moving from BigCommerce to Maropost Commerce Cloud, we would now be processing 10x the amount of orders”

One of the key reasons Jon chose to go with Maropost Commerce Cloud was the openness of their API and its ability to integrate with the software he was using. Maropost Commerce Cloud also had strong integrations built with Australian shipping carriers and marketplaces.

While Petzoo’s online store revenue increased by 500% in 3.5 years of using Maropost Commerce Cloud, Jon is particularly excited about the back-office management efficiencies and cost-cutting that Maropost Commerce Cloud has enabled. This significantly increased the productivity and job satisfaction of his team.

“Maropost Commerce Cloud has saved us hours every day with being able to streamline the shipping process. It is also easy to train staff to use, which is one of those things that can make life a lot easier when bringing someone new onboard. We currently have a team of 5. When we look at revenue per staff member, we are about 50% more productive than the industry standard.”

Growing Petzoo Using Maropost Commerce Cloud’s Marketplace & Sales Channel Integrations

One of Jon’s primary reasons for switching to Maropost Commerce Cloud was the multi-channel ecommerce solution that allows for rapid experimentation and expansion with new sales channels & marketplaces.

Jon wanted to ensure that customers had the choice of multiple channels to access his 5000+ products saying “we sell everywhere because everyone has pets. Once you have one sales channel set up, it is easy to integrate others, so why not sell everywhere you can.”

Petzoo-Mydeal.jpg?mtime=20201126192519#asset:18947Today, Jon is selling on Catch, MyDeal, Kogan, and Amazon, with plans to expand to eBay.

“The ability to list on multiple sales channels has been huge. Because Maropost Commerce Cloud is Australian and it is focused on the Australian market, everything that is relevant to your eCommerce business here is set up with Maropost Commerce Cloud.”

Maropost Commerce Cloud as a Partner

Reflecting on the switch to Maropost Commerce Cloud, Jon says that the team at Maropost Commerce Cloud have been partners, committed to the success of his business and building a solution that to take his business to the next level.

“Maropost Commerce Cloud is a partner who you can tell wants to make the best eCommerce platform possible. Also, Maropost Commerce Cloud has a great community of sellers from different industries that you can bounce off. Either online or at the events, it is always great to see what other businesses are working on and sharing a common ground.” says Jon.

Why I love Maropost Commerce Cloud

“There is always something new you can be doing with Maropost Commerce Cloud. I feel like we are using a lot of features that Maropost Commerce Cloud has but there are hundreds of features/add-ons we aren’t using. Having the ability to make your business better every day is important”.

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Because Maropost Commerce Cloud is Australian and is focused on the Australian market, everything relevant to your eCommerce business here is set up with Maropost Commerce Cloud.

Jon Wakefield

PETZOO

Bucking the trend of selling in-store, Jon started his online pet store in 2004. Jon's strategy paid off but he was finding that he had to rely on multiple systems to understand how his customers purchased across his many channels, limiting his ability to scale and adding unnecessary costs.