Chapters

Summary

Chris Heppeler, Director of BLACKROLL Australia, has come to join us for an episode of Your Call to Action! He was our very first user at KeepSpace.

Chris was sure that BLACKROLL would succeed in Australia. He had to go through a long period of grinding and distributing. He and his team knew that it would be a long-term game.

The early stages of distribution were rough. It started by selling a few cartons from the back of Chris’s car. The biggest challenge at the time was gaining contact within Australia. Chris and his team decided to move online. They had to juggle tasks and priorities to achieve online penetration.

Now, BLACKROLL has grown into a widely-known brand in Australia. Simon asked what their strategy was. Chris answered that they connected with the right people in the market. For BLACKROLL, that was the experts. Physios, sports coaches, and people who were working with physical health. The products were heavily science-based, so it worked out well. They also talked with some national sports teams.

Chris agreed with Simon that customer education is crucial. He said it is great to have a product that solves problems. However, you have to educate people on how to utilise the product. If the product involves a specific usage (like BLACKROLL’s products), there will be a higher need for education.

Simon then asked Chris about COVID. BLACKROLL had to cancel a lot of events and conferences. They did what most other businesses had done. They went online and created resourceful content. It would lead the viewers to their ecommerce shop. Due to the pandemic, many people couldn’t go to the gym. BLACKROLL’s educational content and products fulfilled their physical health needs.

The two speakers briefly discussed the growth of ecommerce. Simon commented that ecommerce had skipped four years of expected growth during the pandemic. Chris had experienced that growth through BLACKROLL. He said that the team had carefully planned for their online sales over some time. It was unexpected that they would hit the goals in only a few months.

Simon then asked Chris about the future of ecommerce and gyms. Chris shared his opinion that ecommerce will likely stay. People found out how convenient it is to do shopping online. For gyms, online fitness programs are a possible solution. However, Chris does think there will be many challenges for gym businesses.

Lastly, Chris introduced us to some of his products. Most of them are self-massage tools. They come in various sizes and shapes to fit different body locations. At the time, they also introduced a pillow to help improve sleep. The name is “Recovery Pillow” because the body mainly recovers during sleep. Check them out from their online store here.