How The Online Pound Store Achieved 3 Keys to eCommerce Success

Online Pound Store Company Profile

• Selling on: The Online Pound Store Website, eBay, Amazon
• Annual sales: £1.5M
• Previous helpdesk: None
• Messages per month: Approximately 800, Seasonal
• Support team: 3

When it comes to eCommerce, it is crucial to provide great customer service, keep organized and save time. If you accomplish these 3 things simultaneously, you’ll set your company up for maximum growth and profitability. 

Few people know this better than the selling pros at The Online Pound Store (OPS). That’s why we were thrilled when we recently got the chance to interview The Online Pound Store’s Ben Almond and Ed Wenn. Keep reading to learn how their team achieved 3 keys to eCommerce success. 

About The Online Pound Store

The Online Pound Store specializes in selling all manner of toiletries and household goods, from disinfectants and cleaners to health and beauty items. While the eCommerce site was started in 2014, the wholesale business from which it originated (B&J Supplies) was founded back in 1979 by husband / wife team Brian and June Almond. 

The company has seen 3 generations of the Almond family, as it is now run by Brian and June’s sons Garry and Darren. In 2019, Ben, who is Garry’s son, also joined the family business and has since taken over the day to day management and marketing. Ben is responsible for creating a crucial link between customers and the warehouse to improve service for the customers as well as liaising with developers to improve accessibility. 

“The company has been going for many years as a family business, however the Online Pound Store was only established in 2014. The Owners are brothers, Garry and Darren, and the founders of the business were their parents, Brian and June. Online Pound Store was set up by Garry in 2014 as an affordable and accessible essentials online shop.”
– Ed Wenn, The Online Pound Store

Ed Wenn joined the company in September 2020 and works to add products, improve existing listings, perform customer service and work on the organizing of both the website and methods of work to improve service and company image. He brought with him over 7 years of eCommerce experience in various roles for other online companies. 

Today, The Online Pound Store makes approximately £1.5M in annual sales and has more than 6,000 products for sale, 1.1M website visitors and 60,000 active users. And the customer service team is most certainly busy, receiving around 800 customer messages per month, with seasonal fluctuations. 

Addressing Customer Service Challenges

Because The Online Pound Store sells a lot of essential items such as disinfectant and household cleaners, the recent pandemic caused an influx in customer orders and messages. Almond and Wenn both expressed how they knew it was important to level-up organizational protocols and save time on customer messaging while also keeping shoppers happy. Almond said: 

“Covid has been a big challenge recently. The products that we sell, such as disinfectants, all cleaning products, essentials, have really been in high demand.”
– Ben Almond, The Online Pound Store

That’s when they began researching ways to better accomplish their goals and discovered helpdesk software for eCommerce, which enables online sellers to consolidate customer messaging from all marketplaces and platforms into a single inbox. 

While there are a few different helpdesk softwares on the market today, Almond and Wenn say it was a comprehensive set of seamless integrations that really made Replyco stand out as the best choice for their needs. 

“It was the integration with Linnworks, but also the variety of integrations. Replyco covers everything that we utilize. And through actually using it, I’m also seeing a lot of updates and even more potential in the future for what we can do with the product.”
– Ed Wenn, The Online Pound Store

Replyco = Easy Onboarding + Excellent Support

Want to know what the onboarding process was like with Replyco? The Online Pound Store says getting set up was a breeze. Wenn shared that Replyco’s director of customer satisfaction, Alex, demoed the product and then walked them through setting up integrations and using the software’s many features and tools.

Wenn and Almond also say the Replyco help docs are extremely useful and the support team is always available when they need them. 

“The support is excellent.”
– Ben Almond, The Online Pound Store

“The support has been absolutely fantastic.”
– Ed Wenn, The Online Pound Store

Achieving the 3 Keys to eCommerce Success with Replyco

So how does The Online Pound Store use Replyco’s tools and features to achieve the 3 aforementioned keys to eCommerce success (better customer service, improved organization and saved time)? 

For starters, Almond and Wenn say they are able to respond much more quickly and effectively to inquiries, thus providing excellent customer service and keeping shoppers happy. This is thanks to features such as consolidated messaging, labels and advanced sorting options. 

“Obviously, on the customer service side, you guys have really helped us to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.”
– Ben Almond, The Online Pound Store

The team is also saving loads of time on frequently asked questions with Replyco’s message template capabilities. 

“Being able to set up templates has been a massive help. There are a lot of customer service inquiries that are very much the same thing over and over again. I also enjoy having the ability to set up templates that are specific to a certain platform, like Amazon, for instance. Having those separate templates with Replyco makes everything a lot easier.”
– Ed Wenn, The Online Pound Store

Almond agreed: 

“Replyco is truly saving us a lot of time.”
– Ben Almond, The Online Pound Store

Finally, Almond shares that The Online Pound Store has been able to improve organization (as well as save even more time) thanks to clickable order IDs, clickable tracking numbers, customer names and other information all in the same screen. 

“Particularly, with the Linnworks integration, you’ve got all the information in front of you. So, rather than having to click back and forth to different tabs, everything’s there. You’ve got the order number, the tracking number, all the IDs and the customer’s name as well.”
– Ben Almond, The Online Pound Store

The Online Pound Store’s Final Advice for eCommerce Sellers

Clearly, The Online Pound Store team has found a great system for providing amazing customer service while keeping organized and saving time on messaging. When asked what their final advice was to other eCommerce sellers, Almond and Wenn reiterated that organization is the name of the game. 

“Over the past 7 years, I’ve worked with several companies. From that, I’ve learned that the key when it comes to eCommerce is being organized. Setting up the right systems of work and following that system day by day. If you follow that system, you can make sure that everything gets done that needs to be done in a day. So the key is just: keep organized.”
– Ed Wenn, The Online Pound Store

Want to learn more about The Online Pound Store or browse their many top-quality products at great prices? Check them out online here. 

Ready to experience the Replyco difference and uplevel your own eCommerce customer service, organization and time-saving techniques? 

Get started today with your free trial or book a live demo to see our software in action!