Sheet Society gears up for global growth
Sheet Society was dreamt up by Hayley and Andy Worley in 2017, with a simple idea to create a memorable night’s sleep that is uncomplicated and stress free. From humble beginnings in a shared working space to their second warehouse expansion, the team has experienced a staggering increase in sales since COVID-19. The bedding mecca is now gearing up for launching into the US and UK.
Sheet Society helps you dress your bed as you would dress yourself
Hayley spent years in the fast-fashion industry with a passion for matching beautiful colours and fabrics. Over time, Hayley lost interest in fashion but still wanted to challenge her love for design and create something new. “One day, I walked into work and knew it was time for a change, so I decided bed sheets were for me”, shared Hayley.
Hayley decided to transform the way people dressed their beds, inspired by Koala’s story for the mattress industry. “Koala paved the way for customers to buy products online, that you previously needed to see and touch in person.”
Sheet Society has blown apart the industry norm of buying in ‘sets’ and overemphasis on thread counts. With Sheet Society, it’s simple to ‘mix and match’. Customers don’t need to worry about ‘matching sets’ anymore, with a timeless colour palette to choose from that compliments across all ranges.
Relentless focus on the customer, from product to the check-out
Since its inception, Sheet Society team continually challenge themselves to deliver better customer experiences.
As a digital-first business, the team knew exactly how customers navigated their site. When they saw customers dropping off in final moments of check out, it was a no brainer to invest in making payments seamless. Today, customers can choose from nine different ways to pay.
“Your customers' problems are our problems to solve. The improvements in our conversion rates have paid back our efforts to minimise this friction,” said Hayley.
Most recently, Sheet Society has launched Australia’s first augmented reality bed builder. Customers can experience Sheet Society’s range in their bedrooms and see how the bedspread matches everything else around it.
Managing a high-growth, global cash flow
Early on, the team knew it was important to partner with an accountant who specialised in digital-first, global eCommerce businesses. With the rapid growth trajectory Sheet Society was experiencing, they needed an advisor that could keep them anchored on the bigger picture.
“As a fully digital business, we couldn’t just look at the cost of the product, but also the cost of selling that product. We needed to factor in things like digital marketing spend, merchant fees and currency conversion fees on each sale.”
Their accountant saw the opportunity to improve profits by removing the expensive international conversion fees each time they paid their overseas suppliers and SaaS subscriptions. With Airwallex Borderless Virtual Cards, the team could reinvest their savings back into the business to keep up with the skyrocketing customer demand.
“These small percentages here and there add up over time with a real bottom line impact. When I see the rates are good, I’ll convert my AUD into USD [in Airwallex], knowing that I’ve saved money I can re-invest into the business in the long-run.”
What’s ahead for Sheet Society?
“We’re fortunate to be in the right product category during this time. We’re now set to turn over $15m in revenue this year which just blows my mind!”, said Andy.
With this accelerated growth, the team is going back to the drawing board to build the right foundations to scale the business. The future plans include moving into a 10x bigger warehouse to be able to keep up with the demand, as well as launching in the US and UK markets.
“One of the biggest challenges of going global is the logistics. We need to be able to ship our products fast, especially as these countries have a higher expectation on shipping times.”
One thing the team does not need to worry about is setting up foreign accounts. With Airwallex, the team can easily set up US and UK Foreign Currency Accounts, connect their global AfterPay account to collect in local currencies. Global expansion is now one step easier.
Build your business for global scale with Airwallex Borderless Visa cards. Save on your USD-priced Shopify fees with 0% international transaction fees and reinvest in growth.
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