Leading Australian online retailer for premium hair, beauty and skincare products, Oz Hair & Beauty has seen turnover double to $4 million per month in 2020 alone, grown organically without external funding.
Founded by Sydney brothers, Anthony Nappa (pictured left) in 2012, who was later joined by brother Guy Nappa (pictured right), the online business was built on the family’s heritage in hairdressing salons, with parents Elio and Venessa having owned and operated the Oz Hair flagship location in Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building for the last 30 years.
In January 2020, Anthony and Guy launched a men’s grooming store, Above the Collar and expanded the range across both sites by an additional 232 brands and around 12,000 products in total. By September 2020, the two stores were turning over $4 million a month, and are on track to turn over $50 million for FY2021.
In September, Oz Hair & Beauty also launched an advanced virtual makeup sampling tool to help customers ‘try’ products from home.
The business has seen demand for self-care products soar as bricks-and-mortar retailers and salons around the country shut down or followed tight restrictions. Oz Hair & Beauty experienced a 200% increase in purchases in April 2020, compared with April 2019.
Since the shutdowns, Oz Hair & Beauty has grown its skincare division – bringing in major skincare brands including Murad, Payot, Medik8, Aspect, ASAP and Cosmedix. The platform now carries more than 400 brands across hair, skincare, and beauty.
Since April, monthly transaction volumes have averaged 39,500 across Oz Hair & Beauty and Above the Collar, with April the biggest month to date – 47,000 transactions across both sites. Additionally, Oz Hair & Beauty now averages 533,000 unique visitors each month.
To continue fulfilling orders quickly under limited capabilities and overcome delays with shipping, Anthony and Guy increased the size of warehouse team and doubled their customer service team. They now have warehouse staff working across two shifts – initially due to social distancing restrictions, but now, to meet the increase in sales. Further, the brothers refined their business processes to enhance picking and packing processes to be more efficient and optimised training policies and procedures.
Customer service live chat availability was extended on the websites to address customer queries promptly. There was also a greater focus on personalised marketing automation to deliver a tailored customer experience.
Anthony and Guy purchased two of their parent’s Oz Hair hairdressing salons in Sydney this year, which will relaunch at the end of the year as Oz Hair & Beauty-branded salons, offering an in-store experience, professional hair and skin treatments, as well as click-and-collect.