INVENTORY MANAGEMENT | 4 minute read
Mal Badawi and Andrew H, co-founders of Australian-based eCommerce store ozdingo, know where success lies: with their customers.
In 2014, Mal decided to leave his career in investment banking behind with the aspiration of building an online store with his co-founder and fellow entrepreneur Andrew H, who started off selling mangos on the streets of Brisbane. Mal focuses on the operational side of the business, and Andrew H drives the business growth at ozdingo with new ideas and motivating everyone in the team.
With the likes of retail giants eBay and Amazon (US) infiltrating the Australian market, Mal and Andrew wanted ozdingo to be a place customers could feel like they were shopping at their local store. With that in mind, their focus from day one was to provide the kind of exceptional customer service that you’d expect from a mom-and-pop business, in an eCommerce setting.
In the early days, ozdingo’s range was limited. So limited, in fact, that the site was launched with just one product. In only four short years, that one product has grown to 1,800 items ranging from beauty and skincare products to pet supplies, farming supplies, hardware, and more.
But as is the case for many flourishing businesses, the road to success was paved with challenges. As ozdingo’s customer base grew and their product range expanded, Mal, Andrew and their team of three struggled to keep up with demand. Their lack of a centralized inventory management system meant they were running out of stock and struggling to fulfill orders on time.
With the business’ entire foundation built on customer experience, they knew something had to change. It was then that they started looking into various inventory management systems with the capability to handle their business’ specific requirements. Mal's pre-banking career as a computer engineer gave him the skills needed to interrogate multiple systems to determine which one was right for ozdingo’s needs.
One of the major draw-cards of TradeGecko for Mal is its ability to handle product bundles and inventory kitting. For example, they sell the NutriBullet as one product but also sell the blades, cups, and seals separately. By creating composite variants, ozdingo can accurately keep track of inventory, whether they're selling products together or as individual parts:
TradeGecko’s composite variant functionality makes life so much easier for us when it comes to managing inventory.”
As a multichannel seller (ozdingo has stores on eBay and Amazon), TradeGecko’s integrations with Shopify and Amazon enable the team to track and manage inventory across multiple channels from a single location. Mal also uses TradeGecko’s Intelligence reports to monitor sales and stock.
With the wholesale side of ozdingo growing steadily (such as wholesale demand for Himalayan salt lamps) Mal plans to start utilizing TradeGecko’s B2B eCommerce platform to create customized experiences for his wholesale customers. He says TradeGecko’s focus on customer service is one of its biggest advantages:
The whole experience has been great. TradeGecko does what we try to do as an online business: make sure customers stay happy.”
For Mal, Andrew H and the team at ozdingo, their motto of being a “local online store” with great customer service has paid off. The company has over 39,000 positive reviews on eBay alone, as well as countless other positive customer testimonials online. Looking forward, Mal says he plans to continue doing what he does best:
A lot of businesses claim to keep customers happy but don’t actually do it. Customer satisfaction has been our focus from day one, and will always be our focus.”
Find out more about ozdingo
