The online experience: Bokbo baby and kids' products
Are you thinking of heading into the world of online retail? If so, there are plenty of things to be aware of—from choosing your product, to building a website, and implementing a merchant service.
We sat down with Sonia Van Den Berg, owner of Bokbo kidswear. Having been through the entire process, Sonia has plenty of advice.
Sonia begins by introducing her business.
Here’s the pitch: Bokbo is a one-stop online store for parents and other people who want to purchase high-quality products for babies and kids. All our products have won awards for their design, or are known for their sustainability practices.
From the start, I needed to align the products I was selling with my own values—it’s really the only way I could feel confident to put my heart into the business and really believe in what we were doing.
Image: Lindi Heap
This is important: Sonia recognised the need to truly believe in what was being sold, and for the business to have integrity from Day One.
Kids are the future. If we can teach them environmental responsibility, then that’s great. Alternatively, they’re already being taught these values in school so if they can inform their parents of the importance of sustainability, then that’s also really great.
It was when my granddaughter arrived that I started really looking at what was available in the market. There were plenty of sites competing on price, but I knew there was a segment of the market that would happily pay a little extra in order to get a better quality product that has been ethically produced.
I was surprised how little was actually available—and what I could find was scattered across various online stores rather than being gathered in one place. All of a sudden the opportunity was right there in front of me.
For people that were time poor, they could save the hassle of having to source from various sites, and at the same time realise a saving on postage. It was win-win.
While that’s the essence of Bokbo, Sonia didn’t just jump straight in to baby and kids’ products because she had a new granddaughter.
This all started back in February 2015. The first thing I did, when I realised there was an opportunity was to pull back and have a really good look at my skill-set. What was I able to bring to the business? Where were the gaps? If I looked at my skills in isolation, would they align with what might be needed to launch and online store?
Most importantly: would I enjoy this?
As it turned out, everything looked pretty good.
One thing that many people forget when starting a business is to be very clear of the level and length of their commitment. While plenty of people get excited about starting a business, they forget to plan for leaving a business.
For me, it was important to consider my commitment. Would I want to spend 60, 40 or 20 hours on this? Do I still want to be involved in five years’ time? What would the business look like at the after two years? These were things I really needed to consider before committing my resources—financial and otherwise—to the project.
One of Bokbo’s growing markets is grandparents – a generation of Baby Boomers that might have financial security and the ability to spoil their children’s children. However, with a strong focus on sustainability, we were interested to know how this is promoted to the Baby Boomers.
We’ve looked carefully at that, and one of the great methods has been to introduce a range of wooden toys. They speak directly to that generation—these are the kind of toys they might have had fifty or sixty years ago. The versions we sell are all sourced from sustainable forests and produced by ethical labour, and those messages all come through the products.
For grandparents especially, the idea that they are buying products that might have a positive impact on the world their grandkids will inherit then becomes really important. Through targeted marketing and careful product selection, 50% of my customers are now in that demographic.
Image: Luzma H Photography
How does Bokbo hit that market?
In keeping with the rest of the business, it’s all digitally-based. Google Adwords has been great for the older demographic who are doing a quick search and looking for help, while targeted promotions through Facebook have been really successful in hitting the parents’ generation.
We’ve deliberately stayed away from print, because it’s easier for us to target people who are already online and can be quickly captured—rather than risking the gap in time that exists between reading a print ad and then getting online.
Another strategy was to look away from the traditional names that invoke a feeling of Enid Blyton or Peter Rabbit. The name ‘Bokbo’, while a nonsense word, is easy to say for people across all demographics and ethnicities.
This strategy has worked really well. The URL is really short, and we’ve had plenty of sales from outside Australia and, interestingly, from South East Asia. That’s really exciting, because as new Australians arrive and have their families and plant their roots, we want to be able to reach them and sell them great products.
We’ve also named a character ‘Bokbo’—which is a tree kangaroo. The plan—over time—is to develop the character through stories and colouring books that will also hint at our environmental values and teach kids about endangered species and the importance about protecting the world we live in.
Image: Luzma H Photography
So were there any important lessons from the last 18 months?
There were two things that held me back in the early stages. The first was trying to find the right website developer. The people we initially engaged took almost nine months to deliver the first stage of the website, and I wasn’t happy.
Given I had computer skills, I decided to take what I’d learned and develop the site myself. I ended up building it on Wordpress, and am really happy with the result The advantage of that process—despite the setback—is that I can now update or amend any part of the website and any time without having to call in a third party.
The other thing I wish I’d done was undertake more research. I thought at the time that my efforts were pretty thorough, but you quickly discover just how much you don’t know.
That said, at the end of the day you simply have to take the plunge at some point. While every day of running a business adds to your knowledge bank, I would still recommend people do as much research as they possibly can before diving in.
See more at Bokbo’s website or Facebook page
Lead image: Luzma H Photography