Eco Child blossoms, thanks to connectivity
South Australia's Eco Child relies on services over the nbn™ network to run their connected business smoothly.
For South Australia-based e-commerce business Eco Child, connecting to the nbn™ network has been a game changer.
Run by husband and wife team Kimberley and Adam Fisher, Eco Child sells a range of organic and environmentally friendly products for babies and children.
Despite having its shopfront and headquarters in the small town of Victor Harbour, an hour out of Adelaide, Eco Child is able to sell to parents around Australia.
According to Adam, "[our service over] the nbn™ network allows us to upload photos and videos to our website a lot quicker than we could before.”*
But the benefits of being connected don’t stop there.
Better customer service
Access to fast internet over the nbn™ network helps the Fishers stay on top of their main priority - customer service.
"Our customers get notifications once their order has been picked up, once it’s packed and when it’s collected," says Kimberley.
"It’s quite an integrated system so the staff click a button at each step, then we get data from the couriers and are able to link in with our customers."
In the store itself, Kimberley stays connected with a point-of-sale iPad and has two computers running to help her manage the hundreds of emails that come in every day from customers and suppliers.
She uses the iPad to scan and find products and to show customers images, specs and videos from the website.
Kimberley and Adam Fisher with their kids.
Easier inventory management
Kimberley uses an iPad to scan and find products and to show customers images, specs and videos from the website.
One of the huge benefits of being connected, according to Kimberley , is to streamline inventory.
"Prior to having access to the nbn™ network, inventory was something that wasn’t working very well - we would be running out of stock or people would place an order online just as someone came into the store and purchased something. Because (our systems) weren’t syncing quickly enough, we didn’t know the item had already been sold.”
“We were running into lots of trouble, we were having to do stock-takes every fortnight to try and manage all the errors that had been happening.” says Kimberley.
However, after being fully connected to a service over the nbn™ network, Eco Child’s systems talk to each other “beautifully”, making everything easier.
Automated accounting
Before being nbn-connected, the Fishers noticed that there was a lot of doubling handling and old school data entry that would sometimes keep them up until 2 am in the morning. Now, explains Kimberley, All software and systems are linked up and we have the capacity to implement more processes. For example, if an invoice lands in store with a package, it can be scanned and uploaded to MYOB, then emailed straight to accounts, who get a notification and check it to make sure it has been paid correctly.”
“There are a lot of automated systems we can implement and utilise, giving us time to be more present with our children, which is why we went into business in the first place.”
Fast connectivity
Many Australians who are connecting their businesses to services over the nbn™ network say what a remarkable difference it has made to their efficiency. Eco Child is no different.
Kimberley describes connectivity as a huge change that has drastically reduced the time it takes to fulfil customer requests.
“It used to take the warehouse staff about an hour for each order… they’re no longer standing at computers waiting for things to print and download. I think they’re packing between 60 - 80 percent more quickly, which is really huge.”*
Fast connectivity is also helping Kimberley stay connected with suppliers. “Because we are wholesalers, we deal with overseas suppliers and do a lot of Skype calls. To be able to have a Skype call that’s not interrupted by lots of stops and starts and pauses, I think it’s helped us build better relationships with those suppliers.”*
“We’re really thrilled with how Eco Child is going and the lifestyle we’ve created. If it wasn’t for the NBN network, we wouldn’t be able to be in a regional area, living the lifestyle that we do, in the small community that we so desperately wanted to raise our children in.” says Kimberley.
* Your experience including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn™ network depends on the technology over which services are delivered to your premises and some factors outside our control like your equipment quality, software, broadband plans and how your service provider designs its network.