The Nile’s journey: Stepping offshore with their best foot forward

The early years are always a challenge for any start-up or SME and getting all the help you need is vital in creating a thriving business.

At a Lunch-and-Learn session at Tank Stream Labs on 24 January 2018, Jethro Marks, co-founder and CEO of The Nile, Australia’s leading online department store, recounted how they were able to scale and optimise customer support to better serve new and existing markets. Despite the challenges, The Nile forged a quick path to success, finding that growth often takes root in the unlikeliest places, even away from familiar shores.

Off to a nimble start

Given their limited resources at the time and the realisation that operations needed to be optimised for their online retailing venture to thrive, The Nile decided it was time to take their first step offshore, tapping SHORE to set up an expert team of customer support representatives.

Their offshore journey began in January 2014, launching in Manila with only three customer service representatives, an on-site Operations Manager from New Zealand and a Senior Manager to help with the roll-out, with both offshore and onshore sites running in parallel. Team Leads were hired in within that period and the operation quickly grew to 20, including a country manager.

Going completely offshore

By June of that year, The Nile had completely moved their onshore operations centre including core functions like customer support and order management offshore. Specialists for data management, marketing and competitor analysis were hired and grew into small teams.

Business was brisk with their improved operations and by mid-2015, The Nile opened night-shift customer support roles—to help them service the global market. The following year, they expanded their night-shift to include non-CSR roles and by October, they began to push towards 24×7 customer support with a headcount now exceeding 50.

With their robust offshore operations centre and 24×7 customer support working under SHORE’s flexible set-up models, Jethro looks forward to an exciting 2018 for The Nile and they are keen to take on new challenges. SHORE’s Sales and Marketing VP, Bas Mawhin, gave free consultations for SMEs and start-ups excited to set-up their own offshore ops after the session.

Ready to take the jump offshore? Let’s talk about how we can get you started:
https://shoreoutsourcing.com/contact/