How Videopro Discovered Digital Disruption and Reaped Resounding Results

Birds of a feather flock together

Founded in Brisbane in 1980, Videopro started as a retailer of consumer electronics and home theater products. Quickly recognizing a demand for professional audio visual (AV) equipment, Videopro produced some of the first broadcast cameras and data projection systems in the country.

Fast forward to today, Videopro proudly boasts three bricks-and-mortar stores, and a significant ecommerce business alongside a service of professional AV integration across New South Wales and Queensland, covering anything from courtroom AV to lecture theatres.

Over the course of 42 years, Videopro attributes longevity to their innate customer sensitivity and effective receptivity. Their response took form in the way of digital modernization.

Knowing full well that adaptability is key to growth, the business recognized that constantly trying new things and changing traditional infrastructure, would be their chief lever to generate greater revenue and customer acquisition for years to come.

Videopro looked to BigCommerce to support them on this journey, coinciding in a very special partnership that continues to flourish. With a mutual enthusiasm toward testing the boundaries, both BigCommerce and Videopro together truly add emphasis to the phrase, fortune favors the brave.

CHALLENGE

Integrating their own way

Prior to BigCommerce, Videopro’s storefront was hosted on a ‘.net platform’. Chief Executive Officer, Cameron Douglas, whose astute avidity towards digital growth, recognized the need for Videopro to incorporate custom elements across its entire tech stack. They enlisted Matter Design & Digital to help orchestrate this custom cohesiveness.

A primary goal in realizing their ecommerce strategy was the facility to operate B2B and B2C concurrently. BigCommerce was able to support this need, culminating in a seamless account experience for customers with orders ranging from small incremental purchases to bigger bulk product needs. “We wanted to be able to give a customer a great experience, whether they were buying on behalf of their city council or whether they were just buying for themselves,” recalls Douglas.

As with many businesses, the need to modernize is often called for at pace. This need for speed played a large role in determining their journey toward a headless build and opting for BigCommerce to support this decision. “I would say a combination of speed mixed with a pretty high comfort level for custom integration…those two things led us toward BigCommerce,” maintains Douglas.

SOLUTION

Tuning to the same wavelength

What Douglas has discovered along the journey, has been how BigCommerce’s openness allows Videopro to champion the amazing capabilities of its partner ecosystem.

Leveraging technologies such as Klaviyo, Algolia and Akeneo, has propelled Videopro’s digital transformation and conditioned it into a store that boasts premium backend efficiency and a considered customer experience at every point in the user journey.

Douglas is motivated to constantly unlock value in the BigCommerce partner ecosystem. It’s BigCommerce’s sole focus and prioritization of its platform capabilities that has allowed Douglas to experiment with technology solutions that are the best at what they do. Notably, Douglas asserts that the Akeneo implementation has been a huge key to their success “It's really instrumental in data quality and its operational efficiency,” he explains.

Not only did BigCommerce serve as the right fit from a technical standpoint, Douglas found a desirable synergy on a cultural level with BigCommerce, which ultimately made the build experience and ongoing relationship, something he still cherishes. As a partner, Douglas found that BigCommerce and its support was accessible, and as a business, they shared a joint motivation for each other's success.

RESULTS

Metrics driving momentum

For Videopro, Douglas has shaped the digital business to be malleable and nimble to encourage future optimization and development. “Everything has an evergreen design, and a continual improvement approach to it,” he says. His goals at Videopro are to grow quite sharply, irrespective of what's going on economically and he is committed to this plan with the help of BigCommerce.

The results so far on BigCommerce have undoubtedly nurtured this confidence and determination for ongoing success. “Our business was up 40% in July. So far in August, it's up 48% and that's across the whole group, and we're a 42-year-old company,” Douglas remarks proudly.

LOOKING AHEAD

Amplifying the energy for growth

Douglas maintains that, ‘‘If you can just keep achieving the growth, then everybody wins, and that's really the way that we are approaching it.” It’s this growth mindset that really resonates with Nigel Poole, CEO at Matter Design, and equally with the team at BigCommerce who are all dedicated to realizing Videopro’s ongoing success.

The constant search for what’s next, is really what inspires Poole about Videopro’s future: “Step one is getting live. That's just day one. Now that you're open for business, it's about how you can get full value and how can you really push the system further?” It’s this joint aspiration for ongoing optimization which Poole asserts, “makes for a great relationship between agency and client.”

So what’s next for Videopro? A commitment to adding further benefit and service to their customers through new features and digital functionality. “We are looking at value-added services. We are a services business, not just a hardware business,” says Douglas. A big element of this serviceability will be demonstrated in developing the B2B arm of their business, allowing them to not only transact but to also provide dedicated management and call-out services to their customers.

With the full-force gale of their newfound digital headwind, Videopro found an enthusiasm and motivation that’s as admirable as it is electric. Douglas states, “Now that we've got the growth trajectory that we're on, it kind of helps motivate all of these things and helps Videopro, our 42-year-old company, feels more rejuvenated than ever before.”

Published: January 2023