On Point Fit | Peter Zakrzewski

eCommerce expert says A2X crucial part of growing his online store

Having worked as a digital and eCommerce consultant for a decade, last year Peter Zakrzewski purchased On Point Fit, an online activewear store – and he was quick to take advantage of how much time A2X for Shopify could save him with his accounting. Together with Xero, Gorias and Blend AI, A2X has streamlined and automated operations, so Peter can focus on improving the customer experience.

eCommerce consultant puts his money where his mouth is

Peter Zakrzewski lives in Sydney, Australia where he has worked as a digital and eCommerce consultant for over 10 years. Currently, he’s the digital and eCommerce director at Digital Mavens – a digital solutions and development agency helping online businesses achieve more out of their ecosystems and eCommerce stores.

Last year, he finally decided to “put my money where my mouth is and gain credibility with my clients”. He bought an existing Shopify store called On Point Fit, an online retailer that sells over 20 brands of activewear throughout Australia.

He launched during a challenging time, with COVID-19 closing gyms and fitness centres. However, restrictions gave online shopping a major boost, and with “people out and about walking and exercising locally”, On Point Fit was ready to meet the demand for high-quality activewear.

Streamlining for success

Despite Peter’s many years of experience in eCommerce, there’s always a risk that comes with running a business. As with most online sellers, he puts a lot of time and energy into growing his business venture – as a side hustle to his 9-5 job.

“Increasing brand awareness and driving traffic has been my greatest challenge and focus – activewear is a hot category here in Australia.”

That’s why using the best apps and software to make things as efficient as possible was imperative, he says.

“From the onset, I tried to automate as much as possible. Being small and only having so much time, anything that could be automated or streamlined had to be.”

Before: “bookkeeping and accounting can be a big time-suck”

Because On Point Fit is (at this stage) an add-on to Peter’s work life, his main concern is always time – making sure he has enough of it to focus on what’s most important – sales and market growth.

Having witnessed first-hand how much “bookkeeping and accounting can be a big time-suck”, he knew he needed an app that could help automate those time-consuming processes. He tried another app that did some of the work, but there was still too much manual reconciliation involved.

After some initial slogging through his transactions, Peter went to his accountants for help. They recommended A2X – and he was quick to take their advice.

“I think it’s probably halved the amount of time that needs to be spent on bookkeeping each month. With A2X, you get what you pay for."

After: 50% more time to focus on higher-value tasks

Peter understands that entrepreneurs starting businesses will be hesitant to spend money when there is a free option available. But when it comes to eCommerce accounting, A2X saves valuable time and money.

Through implementing A2X, Peter is now able to spend time focusing on what he believes will make him stand out from his competitors– exemplary service, great marketing and better products.

His advice for eCommerce start-ups is this:

“You can scale your business by either automating processes using software or hiring staff. In some instances, hiring staff is necessary. But you want to hire for the complex, interesting, high-value tasks. Anything repetitive and straightforward – there will be software out there that you can use. So, weigh up the cost of the software against how much you would have to pay someone to do that task.”

Choose your apps wisely

Peters’ philosophy on digital tools is “the fewer apps the better – only use what you need, especially with Shopify” – too many apps can slow down the online experience, he says. Because he’s currently a one-man band, Peter meticulously chose the crème de la crème of apps to work with.

For an all-in-one customer service app, Peter uses Gorgias. For help with online reviews, he highly recommends Okendo, which easily screens your reviews and sends you weekly reports. Blend AI is his favourite for managing his online ads. It uses artificial intelligence to optimise ad buying, bidding and placements.

Peter knows that a great tool for eCommerce accounting is essential for his success, and A2X meets his high standards.

“I definitely recommend A2X. It’s saved me a lot of time with my bookkeeping – something that’s not fun to do! It has freed me up to do the more interesting, high-value things. It’s been really helpful.”