In less than 3 years, TheGofer.com has gone from a startup to an established business, quickly establishing itself as a significant player in the local stationery and office supplies market. Over this time, the business has managed to sign up over 1000 corporate customer accounts whilst attracting major international brands such as Brother, Nescafe’ and NOKI. TheGofer has managed to achieve this rapid growth by using the web as a shortcut to reaching its customers and bypassing traditional sales channels such as physical shops. Instead the company has invested heavily in software and technology to bring to market a different approach and to differentiate itself in a crowded market.
How Do They Do It?
TheGofer.com is today a brand that focuses entirely on customer satisfaction. Working online enables the business to operate very differently from other traditional vendors and be able to complete on a new playing field.
“This is the great thing about online shopping... we can use the virtual playground of the Internet to provide a service that no traditional supplier can. We can leverage our lower operating costs to provide great value, but we can also add value by providing 24 hour shopping, self service accounting, high quality product photography and so on.”
Marc Vella Bonanno, MD at TheGofer.com
Online customers often take the product for granted, however they respond to convenience, speed of delivery and features such as online billing and secure payment; in other words the customer experience. TheGofer, therefore spends a lot of time and energy tweaking and improving the online shop to improve and react to customer demands and trends. In the end, apparently tiny changes result in increased sales and higher customer loyalty.
Nobody Said It Would Be Easy!
Virtual or not, a business requires a real back-office to process and services orders as well as to respond to enquiries, handle finances, makes purchases and so on. The overall efficiency of these processes will determine the costs (such as salaries) and ultimately profit margins.
From day one, TheGofer.com was built with efficiency in mind and therefore demanded a software platform that could integrate (and automate) all the processes required to run the business into one solution. TheGofer.com chose Webcraft’s WorkSpace platform to be able to streamline all its day to day operations into one software system, capable of handling virtually all the aspects of the business. From product pricing to deliveries, from supplier purchasing to accounting, from customer enquiries to SMS text alerts, WorkSpace provides all the apps required to run the business, in use by all the staff. Evenmore, the apps can seamlessly share key data, such that staff and management have access to all the data they require, whilst ensuring no duplication of work occurs. The result is a truly smart system that can help the business stay focused and efficient.
“TheGofer.com is a showcase for us at Webcraft, whereby we have the opportunity to push the boundaries whilst competing with much bigger online shopping sites out there. The technology solutions we have delivered are cutting edge, such as a transactional mobile shopping site and full online accounting and inventory system.
We are proud of the achievements so far, but we are just getting warmed up. With online shopping ramping up all overEurope, we are seeing many traditional businesses switch their strategies to the digital channels, and this can only be good.”
Keith Gauci, Webcraft CEO
TheGofer.com has been developed and is powered by Webcraft and runs on Webcraft’s unique WorkSpace Cloud business platform.