Folders, the Kaitaia store selling appliances into Fiji

The family owners of appliance outlet Folders in Kaitaia have added seven new staff to their retail business since the start of Covid.

The company is now shipping hundreds of goods around NZ every day after it invested in its website and e-commerce, and has even opened a collection warehouse in west Auckland in December of 2022 to handle demand in New Zealand's biggest city.

The Folders business all started because Ian Walker says The Warehouse opened in central Kaitaia and he noticed many of the speciality stores were closing.

A dairy farmer at that time, Walker decided the family would go into business and ended up buying a struggling stationery shop (now called Marston Moor) and after requests from customers for laptops, an IT and computer business was born. From there, another store came up for sale but this time it was an appliance store, and Walker decided this was the natural next step.

But it’s more recently that the now-named Folders appliance store has seen sales rocket. 

The Folders website, Walker says, its now in its third iteration since the beginning of the pandemic.

"We sat down and really looked at the website. We worked out what we could automate, we looked at technologies and we started developing technology of our own. We did a lot of research on what we could do, and what we couldn't do. And the Folders website was a result of that ... and its just been crazy."

Walker says Folders has been selling thousands of coffee machines, washing machines, you name it, he says people will now buy it on the internet, from Folders. In Kaitaia.

In the first month of the lockdown with the physical store closed, Walker says the team achieved 50% of expected sales.

He says the following month, thanks to focusing on the website, it achieved 120% of sales and "the next month was even bigger again".

"We quickly went from not much maybe selling one or two things in a week online, to 100 a day. And people used to say to us, you can't sell a fridge or a washing machine online, everybody needs to touch and feel it. Certainly not. We sell $5,000 side-by-side real heavy fridges into Gore and we've sent appliances to Fiji."

Walker says the philosophy behind the website is the same philosophy Folders has in store; its a local independent retailer who wants to provide a service and a personal relationship to our customers.

So how did the Folders team do it?

The key to the Folders success is simple Ian Walker says: the product you want to buy, available, and will be delivered to you when Folders says it will. 

Folders does regular pricing checks against competitors and updates the Folders site with the best price each day.

Photos are quality, products are grouped together in a way that makes sense. The coffee machines are in prime position when you open the site for example, Walker says.

Customer reviews are also pride of place on the website. They are dynamic, and change frequently.  These give new customers comfort in the site, and Folders, he says. It has direct data feeds from suppliers, 

And if something goes wrong, Walker says Folders harks back to a retailer of yore for what to do. Like the former retail chain LV Martin, Walker says Folders will make it right if things do go wrong.

Walker says he is proud the business sees 24% of its customers return to make another purchase.

What's next for the business is expansion. Walker says it will add new lines, like furniture, and he says those are selling well online too. In fact, he says the first day furniture products were added, an online sale was made.

At present, there are about 30,000 goods for sale on the site, and Walker they intend to double or triple that number.

He says he was concerned business would fall away as things got back to normal, but that hasn't happened. 

"We've just gotten better at what we do. We have found in the last 12 months, we still ended up with double digit growth."

Ian Walker's two sons have now also joined the business, and because of the firm’s new found online flurry they’re setting up some other sites, like Teddy’s which is selling pet products.

More pick-up points are also on the cards after the success of the Auckland warehouse which lets shoppers collect what they buy rather than waiting for uncertain freight delivery. 

Next stop is likely Wellington, Walker says.