Oz Hair & Beauty: From eBay store to $24m Aussie business in just 5 years

When brothers Guy and Anthony Nappa first set up Oz Hair & Beauty in 2012, they had no idea it would become a $24 million company in just five years.

After selling their parents’ hairdressing products on eBay, the brothers now run one of the most popular and profitable online retailers in Australia.

Their success is the result of a lot of hard work, trial and error, and choosing to partner with the right tools and software platforms. Early on, they realised that if the business was going to continue growing at the rate it was, they would quickly run out of capacity to meet orders. One of the biggest problems they encountered was speed of fulfilment: they just weren’t fast enough. The brothers tried to stay ahead of orders by hiring more people but that didn’t make things faster; it just increased their overheads.

The daily grind & fulfilment

“Fulfilment made our lives so uncomfortable,” says Guy, Oz Hair & Beauty’s Director of Operations. “I remember being so stressed to make sure all the orders got out to our customers as fast as possible. It was a lot of long days and nights and thinking about it now it was just so stressful. We’d print shipping labels then print packing slips and make sure they matched up, and sometimes they wouldn’t match up and we’d just look at it like, ‘What’s going on? What are we doing wrong?’”

“We finally had that light bulb moment to start finding better solutions – and Starshipit was it.”

Starshipit's fulfilment automation solution

The way Starshipit integrated with the online platforms Oz Hair & Beauty already used was a major appeal, but the way it sped up fulfilment was life changing.

“Our orders came out quicker and easier, and our pick and pack process became even faster. We’ve increased our pick and pack efficiency dramatically. We’re not making mistakes and the overall speed with a system where customer service doesn’t need monitoring makes it all very seamless.”

Guy says that Starshipit has changed his online life – and he tells anyone who’ll listen. “I recommend Starshipit to every person I meet that sells online. I tell everyone how well it works for me and I even let them come into the warehouse and see how it works. I know if I was given that chance, I would’ve picked Starshipit far sooner.”