Automating eCommerce Operations: A Case Study of Australian Woodwork

Australian Woodwork is a family-owned business that started as a stall at Sydney's Rocks Markets. The business was built from Sarah Davidson and Gregory White's mutual love of woodcraft. They later transitioned their business from a market stall to a physical store and eventually to an online store with the help of their son, Ben Davidson, the Head of Digital Sales & Marketing. Australian Woodwork works with skilled woodworkers from across Australia, providing a wide talent pool and diverse products. Each crafter at Australian Woodwork receives a percentage of the sale of their products.

Australian Woodwork, a family-owned business, started as a stall at Sydney's Rocks Markets and eventually transitioned into an online store. However, the transition to eCommerce brought along a set of challenges. The business found itself overwhelmed with the tedious tasks associated with eCommerce, such as manually adding new customers to their mailing lists and calculating the sales percentage for each of their contractors. These tasks were not only time-consuming but also diverted their attention from expanding their product line, working with new woodcrafters, and taking care of customers. The need for a solution that could automate these tasks and allow the business to focus on growth and customer service was evident.

The solution came in the form of Zapier, an app automation tool. Australian Woodwork used Zapier to automate the process of adding new customers and prospects to their mailing lists. They built a few Zaps—bridges between two or more apps—to sync their Shopify store, Jotform, and Olark with MailChimp. Whenever a customer made a purchase or filled out a form, their email was automatically added to a list in MailChimp. This eliminated the need for manual work and ensured that customers were integrated into their sales funnel instantly. Additionally, to track the sales of each contractor's products, they built a Zap to connect Shopify and Google Sheets. Whenever a new order was placed, specific order details were automatically sent to Google Sheets, eliminating the need for manual calculations.

• The automation of tedious tasks has allowed Australian Woodwork to focus more on their business growth. They now have more time to work on expanding their product line, working with new woodcrafters, and taking care of customers. The automation has also improved their sales funnel by ensuring that customers are integrated instantly, generating sales that they wouldn't have otherwise. Moreover, the automation of sales tracking has made the process of calculating the sales percentage for each contractor more efficient and accurate. Overall, the use of Zapier has enabled Australian Woodwork to work more 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.

• Cut out 90% of the time spent on manual work

• Instant integration of customers into the sales funnel

• Automated tracking of sales for each contractor's products