After noticing how vigilant new mothers are about staying at home and sticking to a routine with their newborns, granpreneur Roseanne Bertoncini decided to create an online business to make life easier for them.
Launched three years ago, Bubbalove.com.au is an online store offering a wide range of baby products for new mothers cautious about not causing any disturbance to their newborn’s sleeping patterns.
“Bubbalove started through me watching my daughters getting parcels delivered to their front door because they didn’t want to disturb their babies by going out shopping for supplies,” said Roseanne.
Based in Western Australia, Roseanne said she approached her daughter’s partner Fabio to join her business venture because she was wary of her limited knowledge in online media.
Her experience in managing a chain of supermarkets, combined with Fabio’s background in IT made for a perfect fit.
“I have experience in managing a business whereas my daughter, Louise, and her partner, Fabio, had the knowledge of how people their age are shopping,” said Roseanne.
“I came up with the business plan and they designed the website, so I think it’s a good combination, with me being older and them being younger.”
While the business has experienced solid growth over the years, even attracting international markets with the help of e-commerce platform, BigCommerce.com.au, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.
Roseanne explained that finding the right media channels to advertise through has been one of the biggest challenges.
“After spending a lot of money advertising in magazines and local newspapers, and we realised that print media wasn’t the right channel for us,” said Roseanne.
She believes the reason for this is that Western Australians are lagging behind other states in terms of embracing the benefits of online shopping.
“I’d say about 90 percent of my orders come from the eastern states – Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland – and this suggested to me that people in Western Australia aren’t interested in online shopping, so advertising through local print media was very ineffective,” said Roseanne.
From this experience, Roseanne learned how important it is for an online business owner to study their niche and find out the best way to communicate with target consumers.
Her advice to aspiring online business owners is to “go into business with your eyes open. Just because it’s online and you can do the work from home doesn’t mean the workload is any less. There’s a lot that goes into promoting a business online, so research is extremely important.”
For more information on the products offered by Bubbalove, visit the website.
