Telephones Online

Mike Rentz, Managing Director, Telephones Online: “Before we used Volo, once we received an order, from processing the payment, to picking the product, everything was done on a manual basis and there was very little scope for multichannel selling. We effectively had to have dedicated areas for holding stock to sell on our website, for holding stock to sell on eBay, and on Amazon. There was no one solution where we could pick stock and be able to distribute it to whichever channel those orders came in from.

“At the time we looked at two solutions and my team analysed both solutions and decided that for our business, Volo was the preferred solution. The benefit of finding a solution was that we could locate all of our stock in pallet racking and regardless of where the orders came in from, the Volo solution would tell us where that stock was. We didn't have to have designated areas for designated channels. It just made that process a lot easier to operate. We’ve also found that we can maximise our margins and maximise our profitability by focussing on those products that are in demand and which generate a higher margin than other products.”

“Prior to using Volo, we didn't have a clear idea as to which products were making us money and which weren’t. We had no robust system in place for being able to monitor our slow-moving stock. But since using Volo, we can run a report at whatever frequency we like, which will show us what slow-moving products we have and address that by running promotions to clear out those products.

“I will always have Volo Vision open. What it enables me to do is to pull up my favourite reports and analytical data, whether it be the detail around the seller fees I’m incurring on the eBay stores, seller fees on Amazon, what my delivery costs and postage costs are, which products are selling through at a higher velocity, which products are generating the best margin for me, and this also then allows me to decide which products need to be pushed through production. And when I’m on holiday, I touch Volo Vibe and it will give me a snapshot on the daily sales, I can see which products are selling through either by volume or by value, and it will also give me a pie chart which will show me where the sales are coming through, so I can see exactly how many sales I’m generating on our own websites, on eBay, Amazon and any other channels that are supported by Volo.”

“What particularly impressed me was the level of support that was available from Volo during the implementation process. We never have a problem getting support from them, either via the telephone or through Volo Hub. Our average monthly revenue on online sales was approximately £175K per month. We’ve seen incremental growth year-on-year and now our monthly average has doubled to £350K. Just as importantly, we’re also a hugely resilient business, with a good spread of business across Amazon, eBay and our website.

“From my own experiences, I wouldn’t have a problem recommending Volo. It's certainly been a solution that has worked well for our business. If you're looking at being able to sell your products in a multichannel environment, so on your own website and on other third party shopping channels, I would certainly recommend it.”