SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH | 4 minute read
Pinks Boutique founders Luke and Kirstie Sherriff have built their business’ success on three central tenets: honesty, transparency, and high-quality products.
In 2001, Kirstie Sherriff secured her dream job with British Airways as part of its graduate jobs program. A week before she was due to start, 9/11 happened and the airline shut down its graduate program temporarily – leaving Kirstie without a job.
Faced with an uncertain future, Kirstie decided to change course and found success training beauticians around the UK. During this stage of her career, she and her husband Luke (who was playing professional rugby at the time) began to eat organic foods and use organic products, and saw the opportunity to apply the same principles to the products Kirstie used professionally.
Nearly a decade ago, Luke and Kirstie launched Pinks Boutique – a range of natural, certified-organic skincare products designed for spas and salons, as well as retail customers through their eCommerce store.
From the very beginning, their focus was on selling the highest-quality certified-organic products and educating people on the benefits of going organic. Unlike most businesses, Luke says they found the early days to be the easiest.
The first few years were probably the easiest as our product range was just an extension to the beautician-training business. When it began to outgrow the training business is when it became more challenging.
With their business growing fast, Luke and Kirstie began to face stock management issues, cash flow challenges, and difficulty juggling multiple sales channels effectively. They had been getting by using a bespoke inventory management system built on a Windows system – but when they had a server blowout and had to decide whether to rebuild or start afresh, they chose the latter.
We decided to look at whether our system was fit for purpose and decided it wasn’t. We went to market and got some recommendations, and that’s how we found TradeGecko.
Unlike their previous offline inventory management solution, TradeGecko’s cloud-based software enabled Luke and Kirstie to manage their stock and sales orders from anywhere, at any time – a vast improvement on their previous system.
TradeGecko’s cloud-based system and mobile app are useful for us as a mobile business when we’re out on the road. It’s very modern in its usage and thinking.
Today, Luke and Kirstie – as well their team of four – use TradeGecko for inventory and sales order management alongside integrations with Shopify and Xero.
The integration with Shopify is brilliant. It allows us to manage everything in the one place. I’d recommend it to anyone.
On the wholesale front, Luke and Kirstie have been using TradeGecko’s B2B eCommerce platform since day one and say it saves them at least 20% of their time for each wholesale order.
The B2B eCommerce platform is a revelation. Ultimately, it reduces errors and makes the whole B2B sales process a lot more seamless. It’s probably the greatest feature ever invented.
Likewise, TradeGecko’s intelligence reports and TradeGecko Payments have been integral in running the business smoothly.
TradeGecko Payments is great because it allows customers to make payments quickly and helps our cash flow. We also use intelligence reports at least monthly to see where we’re at.
Above all, Luke says he’s most impressed with TradeGecko’s combination of smart technology and great customer service.
Not only is the product great but the customer service and response to feedback are a massive asset to us. With so much being promised and under-delivered elsewhere in the market, it’s nice being able to deal with a product that delivers above expectations.
Now that Luke, Kirstie, and the team at Pinks Boutique have found their inventory management groove, they have their sights set on the bigger picture. They’re looking at growing their B2C footprint in the UK and recently travelled to Italy and Dubai to scope out businesses opportunities abroad. We can’t wait to see them take the eCommerce and wholesale world by storm!
Find out more about Pinks Boutique.
